World Whirl: When Left turned Right, the Right turned Left!

I do strongly believe, "Change is the only constant thing in the World". However, the recent competition for ‘best turncoats’ dazed me like never before: People from two extremely polarized societies, at least on books, contested to perfectly suit into each other’s shoes. It all happened in West Bengal, when Communists try to play Capitalists, capitalists came running into communists’ lap.

The raison d’ainte for communism is:

1. Equality for all

2. Prevent exploitation of poor by rich and powerful

3. Social Justice.

The same West Bengal government that proclaimed to stand for these values came to power 34 years ago and what values they currently hold is just a laughing-stock. They neither care for these party’s values nor their individual morals. The same government that led the nation in land reforms and landless farmers rights’ decades before, is now stealing the poor farmer’s bread and butter so that wealthy can live more lavishly. The affluent can drive a cheap luxury car, subsidized by the blood of the poor farmers; Prosperous entrepreneurs can live in BIG mansions while poor can dwell in slums of the city. So much to their Communism and Equality!

Worse of all, the way they went about achieving their evil-plans. Nandigram is a historic place for peasant revolts, dating way back to pre-independence. Farmers of Nandigram are natural revolutionaries, who have it in their blood to fight injustice and discrimination stood against the tyranny of the WB communists. Its no wonder they were ready to die to protect their land from the treacherous nexus of capitalists-communists. What mother to an infant is what land to a farmer – both can’t survive without their roots. It is treachery that communists act as goons for the capitalists and push farmers out of their sustenance. So much to their Social Justice and Savior-of-the-poor morals!

WB communists are following the footpaths of Chinese, both of whom, enchanted by the word - ‘development’ are in mad-rush towards capitalism and in the progress stepping over the weak and leaving behind a BIG society of poor, who are again left to defend themselves. No wonder, farmers took up the battle unleashed on them and shed their blood to protect their livelihood. So much to their loyalty for their leaders – Marx, Che and Mao!

They are everything but what their leaders stood for – egalitarianism and justice. Marx and Che must be turning in their graves.

Struggle, shed blood and WIN!

When the reality of Nandigram sinks in, even the most intellectual of the country will wonder whether we are living under democracy or authoritarian rule.

People protesting for their ‘Right to live’ were shot at brutally by the so-called pro-poor, communist government. Even though these kinds of atrocities evoke nationwide protest, people tend to forget these over time and move on. If not, Kalinganagar shooting at innocent tribals, fighting for a similar cause should have prevented Nandigram. We will see more of this unless government starts designing policies for people instead of companies.

When alien terrorist attacks our netas in parliament, politicians’ rhetoric on people’s safety goes sky high but they have the power to unleash terror on their own people. How hypocritical?

Tomorrow is a whole new day for our netas, who happily put behind these tragedies, and go happy-hunting for more lives. After all, life of poor in India is so cheap to be rue over for long time.

Why won't the poor and defenseless people take up Naxalism when person who are suppose-to-be protecting them, sets out to kill them in hordes? Do we expect them to protest in silence when the blood of their dearest ones is still wet in their hands? Will we do the same when it comes to us?

When Government stops working for the people, people will take up their own struggle, will fight and shed blood, but will finally WIN!

Real culprits are those who don't speak up!

In the game of Powerful Vs powerless in the society, we all know that powerful wins hands-down but there are increasing number of instances, which appalls to an extent of thinking whether all honesty and justice have died and decayed long ago.

Recent news on the case of Jessica Lal will only make one wonder where is our country heading too. Everyone knows who the culprit is and with numerous eye-witness, our judiciary cannot punish the guilty for more than 10 years.

This is certainly not a one-off case as the list extends for miles to stun us completely. While Media could pick-up high profile cases like Jessica Lal, Priyadarshini Matto and Nitish Katara, hundreds of thousands of similar cases, with clear evidences, yet blatant negligance of truth, are languishing in court rooms for decades.

The small satisfaction got by looking at the small percentage of cases where speedy justice delivered, washes away quickly once we see the background of most of the convicts - People subjected to abjunct poverty,under-previlaged and tribals, who can neither hire a lawyer nor defend themselves; Police system hastily speedens the process of trail and judiciary is quick in nailing them down without giving the powerless, a chance. However, high-profile men, be it Navjot Singh Sidhu getting conviction after 18 years for murder trail, while all these years, he was hitting beaches from Sidney to Carribean, and contesting & winning Parliamentary election even after conviction, or be it Sanjay Dutt romancing with his heroines, and getting multiple bails even after conviction. This makes one wonder whether our judiciary can be trusted anymore? Should the mechanical scale on the hands of justice-angel be replaced with a Digital one?

Finally, after done with complaining the system, its time again to look at citizen's roles and their colossal failures. Are we not part of anything happening around? Is not securing justice for victims, at least for ones in our vicinity, our responsibility? Can what happened to him today, not happen to us tomorrow? Will we cry & act only if it happens to us, not to our neighbours? Are we not more culpubale to remain mute spectator at atrocities than the criminal himself?

As the famous German Peom "First they came" describes the inactivity of citizens:

First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left
to speak up for me.


To sustain in this game of life and death between powerful and powerless, powerless and under-served people have to unite to survive and fight against the evils who always unite easily among themselves. Comradeship should be build among poor communities and culture of people standing up for each other should be developed as against turning blind-eye towards atrocities happening to your brethern living next door.

If we choose to continue to live the way we are, we should not cry for help later as there will be none left to save us.

Is Pawar incident a "national insult"?

It is very saddening to hear the news of Mr. Sharad Pawar insulted by Aussie players; not because an Aussie pushed him off the dais but by the way the whole issue is viewed by many and how it is blown out of proportion.

It is totally disgusting to even discuss this issue as a national insult when the supposedly Union Agriculture minister, with the BIGGEST responsibility in the country to revive our fast vanishing Agriculture system and help the farmers who are drowning in debts, is grinning and posing in the dais with the Champions trophy.

It is all happening on a day, when a debt-ridden poor farmer in Vidarbha is committing suicide for every 6 hours, unable to repay a debt of mere thousands rupees. But, does his life matter at all?

Media is interested in making Pawar incident a headline as "national insult" but not the national crisis gripping our country – farmer's suicide. It is heart drenching to even think of the victims and their families' plight with the so-called relief package of 3000 Cr from PM is nowhere in the vicinity to most of these families.

Having turned down by their only source of livelihood -- their land and the cultivation -- for years, having lost the head of their family, often the sole breadwinner, and with soaring interests of the neck-deep debts, what future does the victim's family have?

Is it not a bigger 'insult' that we could not prevent this humungous tragedy staring at our faces, when the whole nation is boasting of skyrocketing growth and economy?

Is it not a bigger 'shame' on Mr. Pawar and his men in the ministry than an insolent behavior of a foreigner to his larger-than-life image?

Yes, it is of course a national insult to have a union Agriculture minister who focuses more on fighting and winning against injustices in BCCI, who considers it to be the most urging national issue, than the petty issues of farmers' suicides.

Reservation: Where do you stand?

Reservation issue is topping the chart of ‘hot news’ category, in all the media, for last 6 months. Campaigns, protests, both pro and anti, and riots, have become an everyday activity and tempers are flying high on both sides. Government must be wishing for magic wand, which will fix all the issues but unfortunately there is none. While one part of the student body and intellectuals are taking stand against reservation and other section of students and activists supporting the reservations, common man is certainly left out without a clue.

To add to his woes, there are various campaigns happening simultaneously on this issue. Campaigns happening at various levels like: One, protesting any kind of reservations in the country and urging the country to be ‘reservation-free’; second, encouraging the reservation as it is seen as a way to leverage the oppressed people higher up in the society; and third, is a moderate, in between these two, group, which supports reservation but question the basis of reservation.

Campaigners in the first category consider reservation system as backward development of a nation, which is aiming to become an economic powerhouse and possibly, a super power within next decade. A nation boasting of 8% GDP growth, sky-rocketing stock markets, IT and BPO booms and finally, with Oxford and Harvard-trained economists as PM and FM and a hi-tech President speaking volumes of scientific innovations and space missions, of course, reservation system is a faulty and ugly system to be considered. But are we covering the entire populace?

According to them, a student from the general category is deprived of his right to compete for the educational seat, which he deserves based on his mark. The students for the so-called ‘Equality in admissions’ formed various forums and started lobbying for the cause, duly supported by various intellectuals in town. Unity of the students to come together and fight for a common national cause must certainly be appreciated.

However, the irony here is, that the students groups advocating the ‘equality’ have sprung up only now. Had they been two decades back, we may not be fighting today against these reservation policies in the first place – especially, during when poor tribals and dalits were harassed and beleaguered, Dalit woman suffering from the triple oppressions of poverty, being female and being female Dalits and the recent massacre of innocent tribals in Kalinganaga, Orissa, who were protesting for their right to live, a similar protest to the current one. These suppressed voices, with government ignoring their plight, needed some helping hands.

Where have you been all?

When current students can feel for the future generation affected by Reservation, why not feel for these under-served people too?

Dalits who have contested political office in village councils and municipalities through seats that have been constitutionally “reserved” for them have been threatened with physical abuse and even death in order to get them to withdraw from the campaign. In the four ‘reserved’ village bodies of Tamil Nadu - Pappapatti, Keeripatti, Nattarmangalam and Kottakatchiyendal - attempts to conduct elections have failed for last 10 years due to strong opposition from upper caste groups. This is one of the tens of thousand of examples happening in our country today. To those who claim, castism is not a malady of our country anymore, welcome to the real land.

Guest writer Rajat Narang in his latest article in rediff.com, Time to make India a no reservation country, quoted: “I do not know why the government is reserving seats for higher education where 8 out of 10 Dalit children drop out of school before Class X -- which means the drop-out rate is approximately 80 per cent.” I was shell-shocked to read this from an educated person like him. His above comment and his comparison of reservation to Indian cricket team are obnoxious – it is similar to making fun of a disabled person. Since 8 out of 10 child is a dropout, is author implying to ignore these community rather then working to bring more of them up in the society? Their dropout rate is only because of their social-economic system over past 5 decades and we, you and me, are partly responsible for this worst situation. All we can do now is, try to support reservation and lift them up rather than letting them down further.

It is very saddening to realize that current anti-reservation protest is just a knee-jerk reaction by the general community, including me, when deprived of something. Why is that we react only when it affects ourselves/neighbors? Isn’t our reaction is fully circumstantial and shortsighted? When the youths of today are ready to sacrifice their lives for their country, can we not see this issue as a remedy to our country’s ailment from caste? Can we not take one for the team India?

People who answers “yes” to the above questions belong to the second group of protestors – “pro” reservations. Looking into the larger picture of the country’s growth, they realize and support the need for reservation. However, some political groups, for their benefits, are exploiting this issue by demanding inclusion of creamy layers in the reservations. Whole point of reservation is to bring up the poor and subjugated people up and when even one of these two conditions is not valid, in this case for creamy layers, reservation should not be encouraged as it can help people who are needier than them.

Finally, third group of people, who understand and support the issue of reservation, but question the basis of the reservation system. Some argue for economy based reservations, there by including economically under-privileged general category students and others support exclusion of creamy layer and a process, which exactly identifies the deserved students of reservation.

I strongly support their argument and feel India should move in this direction. We, as a nation, are not ready to overlook caste-based reservation as of now; let’s first work on removing the prejudice in the society by creating an atmosphere where all feel equal by birth, then move on to economy based reservation before considering no reservation. Let us create a fair playing ground before expecting fair play. Yes, it will be ideal to make India, a ‘no-reservation country’ but we have to move towards it in phases and cannot jump overnight.

Let us realize India is a socialistic country and Affirmative action, or positive discrimination, is brought in only to help the oppressed people and not to oppress people.

Now, where do you stand?

Be a Rebel!

Lot is said about India being poor, under developed and corrupt state. Of course, it is unfortunate that a land of such large human resource is not prospering as this asset is not properly utilized. Even though India as a nation has attained the objective of food self-sufficiency in the macro-level, there is no food security at the house-hold level. Currently more than 800 million people, out of whom 300 million are children, go to bed hungry and on an average over 50 percent of the children in the country are malnourished. What is more depressing is the fact that all these problems exist in spite of the food grains rotting in the warehouse.

All said who is to be blamed for all these chronicle problems of the country? Is it politicians alone or the entire society to be blamed?

We cannot simply point to government as we, the people, are integral part of the Government. Had we voted correctly, or for the matter voted at least, these corrupt politicians will not be here. Let’s be honest and fair and take a just amount of responsibility for this mistake and vow not to repeat the same again. That said however we don’t have much options and the voting pattern in India has always been for the ‘better devil’ of all.

Questioning ourselves: Is this because of not many honest politicians exist now or not many honest people are entering politics? I guess this is more to do with the second one. How can we change a system without entering it? Do we expect a miracle/ messiah to deliver us from eva?

We need to realize that the onus is on us to change the system. We will be fighting a big enemy but not who is invincible.

“Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai
dekhna hai zor kitna bazuen qatil mein hai”

[We have the zeal of valor in our heart.
Let us see how strong the rival is!]

What we can do:

- Bring on the revolution that will change the face of politics
- Question Authority
- Take matter in your hands
- Face social problems as you would do to your personal problems

and finally,

Be a Rebel!!!

Does real Democracy prevails in India?

India is a democratic, secular, socialist, republic. This I remember studying in my third grade history class. When I think today how true it actually was/is, I am not sure.

A democracy does not mean merely having periodical elections where everybody has a right to vote. Democracy means people really participating in various public affairs and being the important part of the system but in today’s world, common people are the only ones who are left out of the system. They have no voice in the rule, cannot express their rights fully and let alone, them deciding on governmental policies. With microscopic lenses, I am trying to figure out where democracy applies in India but to vein.

When people are suppressed by the corrupt administrators, or should be called economic blackholes, who should the people turn up to? When everyone in the hierarchy is either corrupt or turned into one by the top command, and when good people who don’t fit in this structure are thrown out, what options do we have? We are left out with options but to take matter in our own hands.

when government fails, we begin. There is an imminent need for the thoughtful and honest youngsters to start a bloodless, or if needed bloody, revolution to stamp out the evil dictators out of power and lead a clean, envisioned and pro-poor government.

Yes, Revolution is the key.

My Greatest Hero: 2

Che Guevara

Though communism may have lost its fire, he remains the potent symbol of rebellion and the alluring zeal of revolution. Ernesto Guevara, famously known as Che Guevara, was a famous leader and a communist who wanted to eradicate poverty from this earth. His struggle against oppression and tyranny gave him the larger image as the savior of poor.

The story of the obscure Argentine doctor who abandoned his profession and his native land to pursue the emancipation of the poor of the earth is an epic, at least to me. Che, along with his good friend and confidante Fidel Castro and other comrades entered Havana and launched what was to become the first and only victorious socialist revolution in the Americas.

It is true, as Che said, that in a revolution one wins or dies. Many comrades fell along the way to victory but they are the steps to the path of victory, the glorious path of revolution to establish a society of equality and justice.

Che described the revolution as the feeling of fulfilling the most sacred of duties: to fight against imperialism wherever it may be. This is a source of strength, and more than heals the deepest of wounds.

Che, on his letter to his leader Castro said: “I am not sorry that I leave nothing material to my wife and children; I am happy it is that way. I ask nothing for them, as the state will provide them with enough to live on and receive an education”. Soldiers don’t believe in living for themselves or their family but for everyone. They live and die for people who they don’t know or will ever see. How can we describe these great men’s ferocious love for others? Che is a great soldier, an inspirational leader and a famous revolutionist who still lives in many people’s heart as their love for poor.

Che’s valiant words, when he was shot by the imperialists, still echo in all brave men’s heart: "Shoot, coward, you're only going to kill a man".

How many of us are ready to die for what we believe in?