Archive for October 2015
Jaitley Sir Bas Karo
I am ever amused by Mr. Arun Jaitley, the over talkative lawyer and Senior Minister in current Govt. He has an opinion on everyone and everything. The only one he has no opinion is himself, his own deeds and his own party.
His recent blog touched upon how vandalism is not for civil society and there is no place for such acts blah…blah. He was undoubtedly referring to acts of aggression by Shiv Sena in Mumbai recently. Correct as he was, he forgot to introspect himself. Below are few incidents about which he continently chose to keep quite.
1. BJP MLA’s bashing up an independent MLA in J&K assembly: “BJP has never resorted to acts of such vandalism”, he proclaimed in his blog. At the same time his party MLA’s were bashing up an independent MLA inside J&K assembly. What a joke, his statement. He seems to have partial amnesia regarding this. Mr Jaitely bas karo please. Bahut Mama Bana chuke. (Mr Jaitely please stop. You have fooled us already).
2. His friend Srinivasan’s thuggery in BCCI: All through the Srini saga, Mr Jaitley who was the VP of BCCI and chief of Delhi Cricket Association, kept mum. It is very well known that Srini is his best of pals. It was due to Jaitley’s blessings that Srini kept blemishing the game of cricket. It is due to his blessing that Srini is heading ICC. Had Jaitley wanted, Srini would have been out of BCCI long back and out of ICC right away. But Jaitley Sir, why would you speak on this. App hosiyaar, hum sab paagal (You are smart, we all are idiots).
3. Babri Demolition: When taking the high moral ground about vandalism, that his party never resorts to such practices, he forgets that his party’s resurgence is rooted in Babri demolition. He is reaping the rewards of on one of the topmost vandalism unleashed on this country ever. It not only paved way to Mumbai blasts, Mumbai riots, Godhra riots but a generation of deep rooted hatred and animosity between communities.
These are just from top of my mind. There are multiple issues on which he plays amnesia. It’s high time Sir, wake up and smell the air. Your arrogance and smugness hurt your party more than you realize.
Fast-Track Talwar Case Campaign: A case of Rotten Journalism by Times of India
As if “Times of India” group was not content of unleashing that shouting headache on us, now they want to sway public opinion to achieve social injustice. Their latest gimmick is “Campaign to Fast-Track The Talwar Trial”. They are asking people to Join Times Campaign.
What a load! Do they even know what fast-tracking means? If these pretentious and arrogant people don’t know, let me explain in simplest of words. Fast-Tracking this case means, delaying justice to someone else. Someone else who might be as eagerly waiting for justice to be delivered. Maybe more. Someone else who was waiting so eagerly for his hearing date, but would be delayed. Someone else who do not have money to such fanciful and expensive lawyers.
Just because ToI thinks, we should delay justice to some unknown, poor man, whose case hasn’t got traction to get ToI readership and TRP’s, and fast track the case for Talwar’s why? So that their shouting headache should go on air and ride on his high horse of righteousness.
I mean media get a grip. It’s okay raising issues. It’s okay reporting news. It’s okay highlighting corruption and demanding justice. But to delay justice to some poor man that hasn’t graced your newsroom or been a part of the mainstream news is not good.
I am not against Talwar’s right to justice. They are entitled to it. But it should be equitable. Media has no right to make some case more important than others. I understand in crimes of rape, it is necessary to get justice faster than others, and hence we as a society support jumping the queue. But latest ToI campaign smacks of rotten journalism. Not unlike their cheap news on Deepika Padukone not long ago.
Fight for more courts, speedier justice for all. But if you start to cherry pick readership and TRP worthy cases and start campaigns in their support. You tend to lose public confidence. Already a number of surveys have cited media as the main reason behind all that ails our society.
We don’t want good media to fall prey to the deeds of such bad media. People from good media stand up, be counted and raise their voice against such bad media.
Stop Religious Intolerance, Stop Congress from making comeback
To the incidents of religious intolerance across the country, Central Govt’s argument is, “Law and Order is a state subject and states are to be blamed”. On the surface this argument seems sound. But is it really?
If we dig deep, this argument feels shallow. What then is the duty of the Central Govt? If they feel state is not doing its duty, should they keep silent? They could have easily shot of stern warnings to states that strict action will be taken if law and order situation does not improve. But Centre has chosen to play dumb.
As to the sympathizers argument that such incidents have also taken in the past without this much hue and cry. They are right to an extent. But given the history and stigma attached to the party in power, it’s their duty to quell the notions. They should be extra careful and vigilant. Playing silent is no answer.
Agree that these incidents occur in states. Agree that they are not being initiated by their party and workers. Agree that states should perform their duty. But I do not agree with the helplessness cited by the Central Govt. Deal with states with iron hand which do not curb these incidents.
Else all those advts, about “Desh nahin mitne doonga” would end up being just election jumlas. I urge the PM, not to be like helpless Manmohan. We are behind you. Take the religious intolerants to task. Last thing we want is Congress and its pathetic dynasty, death of ideology and through the roof corruption making a comeback.
Talvar: A movie which should not have been made
Talvar. The case fascinated us all, didn’t it? It hijacked airwaves like no other. The mere mystery of it! It was like a crime thriller unfolding live television. It became a real world Bigg Boss which provided entertainment like no other.
Movie based on the case was the most apt culmination for this sordid saga. The movie is so intriguing, so heart wrenching, that it’s hard not like it. Add to it Irrfan’s acting and we have got a gem. But does it really portray the case or is mere art of fiction?
The crux of the movie is that Parents were innocents, servants were culprits and what happened was a travesty of justice. Title Talvar refers to the sword in the hands of Lady of Justice, a sword that has become rusted of late and more so due to this judgment.
Director/Writer claimed to have taken an unbiased view and presented all three viewpoints. Of local police (which blamed parents), first enquiry by CBI (which blamed servants) and 2nd enquiry by CBI (which blamed parents). But the fact is first and third enquiries are shown as shoddy. The 2nd CBI investigation is shown as proper. No wonder 2nd investigation was headed by our protagonist Irrfan.
Although the film makers are entitled to their expression. For their part they have changed the name of the characters to remove any direct reference to the real incident. But still, when you claim to be unbiased, you need to be unbiased.
The movie takes an open stand for the parents who are portrayed as victims (maybe they are for all we know), and demonizes the servants. They disregard the human rights of the servants who might be victimized by society post this movie. They too might be innocent. But not for the filmmakers!
It’s not too hard to realize why the storyline? A movie becomes emotional and heart wrenching if the parents are shown as victims of the system. If movie would have conformed to the courts judgement, it would have become a demonic thriller, where parents slaughter their daughter.
The only issue with such movies based on real incidents (when the matter is still in court) is, they tend to sway opinion of common public. I felt the mood in the theater after the movie was somber and everyone felt for the parents. Guilty servants went scot free!
I cannot pinpoint but I feel something was not right and this movie ought not to have been made. Not until the case was in court. It felt like an appeal on parents behalf under guise of a movie.
Mumbai to J&K: Fantastic Irony of Goondaism
Shiv Sena activists roughed up and smeared ink on a person for organizing book launch of a Pakistani in Mumbai. Whole of BJP Govt took a high moral ground terming it uncivilized and uncouth behavior and no way to protest. During the same time BJP MLA’s roughed up an independent MLA inside J&K assembly for organizing beef party. A touch of irony is not lost here.
It pains me that a party I believed in is playing two faced. How can they shame what happened in Mumbai and glorify what happened in J&K? Just how can they?
Let’s look into the similarities of both incidents. The junior party in the coalition (Shiv Sena in Mumbai and BJP in J&K), fighting for supremacy, resorted to such cheap gimmicks. It is evident that such acts are not done due to ideology or good of public at heart. They are done for instant publicity hoping to gain public support.
I feel public these days have become more aware than our leaders feel. In the digital age we are not confined to local incidents. The hypocrisy and dual behavior cannot be kept hidden anymore. It’s time for BJP to take stock and rectify, lest they too are in the stupor of arrogance which led to demise of Congress.
Sahitya Akademi: Political slavery of the worst kind
An interesting drama has been unfolding at Sahitya Akademi, a Govt. organization founded in 1954. More than dozen writers have returned Sahitya Akademi awards to protest against the intolerance engulfing the society. Most of these writers accuse the central Govt. of vitiating the atmosphere and fanning communal fires.
From the media reports I gather Kalburgi and Dadri cited as two primary reasons for this sudden move by the awardees. I find it amusing and sad at the same time to see a literary organization going political. But then when was it otherwise?
It’s their right to protest and no one can argue with that. But what I argue with is the hypocrisy.
Not much people would have heard the name of this organization. It’s due to the fact that it has done nothing worthwhile all these years. Their awards always have been under the scanner to be politically backed. Current episode seals that argument.
No one returned awards when there were allegations of corruption and wrongdoings against Akademi. No one returned awards after Sikh riots, Muzaffarpur riots. No one returned the awards when India witnessed most shameful corruption all around. No, they were fine with that. I am not here defending the current Govt. Maybe they are vitiating the atmosphere for all we know.
But to cite this as a reason for such cheap stunts, sounds fishy. My take is most of the awardees have been political. Akademi was criticized by none other than Khushwant Singh for awarding below-par and sub-standard writers. So for people who got awards due to their political alignment to previous Govt’s, it’s time to return the favors. Their action does nothing but malign the current Govt and in my opinion it is politically motivated.
It’s high time these people are not given any audience. If we look back last 60 years, India has achieved nothing much in literary space anyways. All thanks to such people who rose up the ranks and got awarded owing to their political alignments.
What we need is a new breed of writers who can take India to literary heights which we lost out on all these years.
The Martian: Entertaining Flick with nothing new to offer
At the onset would like to mention that I liked the movie. However it suffered a bit due to the Interstellar and Gravity hangover which never let the movie standout and carve a niche for its own.
All through the drama I had this feeling of déjà vu. Like I have seen this all before. Space travel and spaceship gave me a feel of Interstellar. Space survival drama a bit like Gravity.
As I said overall the movie is good. Science is top notch. The hexadecimal communication is brilliant. So are other survival solutions. Movie has its heart and mind at the right place. What is missing is the novelty. Maybe if had come a bit later, when we were over the recent sci-fi’s, it would have made more impact. The fact that Matt Demon was himself stranded on a planet in Interstellar didn’t help either.
I found it more on the side of a pop corn thriller. The CNSA part looked artificially induced plot to score big in China (not unlike Transformers 4). A helpful but helpless aid of the in-charge sending encoded message to the Ares 3 crew also seemed borrowed. Tom Hanks has already done the stranded drama not once but twice. So when Matt is all alone on Mars, again it felt nothing to sit up and notice.
As I said apart from the science, which also at times is not explained to common people properly and I bet will go over the head for most, there is not much originality in the movie.
All in all, The Martian is a feel good pop-corn sci-fi with nothing new to offer. At the same time, whatever it offers has been made with a good heart. I wanted the movie not to end as I was enjoying it a lot. My feelings are kind of mixed. Not path breaking but entertaining. Much like Armageddon.
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