Archive for the ‘General/Society’ Category
Freedom of Expression, Hate Speech: India is Too Young
The point that I want to address today is Freedom of Expression in India. Under the raging debate lately, this expression has been mixed with Freedom to Hate Speech. People wanting right to hate speech put forward the argument that it is a non violent protest and they have every right to do it. I agree with argument but it not in sync with the stage which it is set in. Let me explain.
Is hate speech non-violent? Yes. Is hate speech allowed in other democracies? Yes. In developed countries it is much worse. So why the issue in India? The issue is, India is not yet ready for this. “Not ready in what sense”, would be the next question. Well in the sense of law enforcement. We are a country still way back in policing and enforcement of the law. Security personnel to population ratio is way too low. Arrest rates, Conviction rates are very less. We as a country are working towards betterment but when compared with developed countries, we have a long way to go.
What happens is, due to shortcomings in law enforcement, people feel free to take matters in their own hands which leads to mob justice and mob violence. It cannot be justified and neither am I trying to do that. But we have accept the sad reality. Thus for the age our country is in, Hate Speech can’t be clubbed with Freedom of Speech. It has and it would lead to friction among groups and eventual violence. Onus is on all of us to keep the fragile peace going.
As the law enforcement, conviction rates and fear of law improves, Freedom of Speech automatically will expand to allow Hate Speech. Just because we are born in globalized age, we should not forget the reality of our Geography. Till then don’t blame the nation for any aggressive reaction against hate speech. You are yourself to be blamed for that.
AOL: In India money buys you everything, Even Environment
I just read that after a few days of hullabaloo, NGT has given clearance to Art of Living (AOL) World Culture Festival. Only after imposing 5 crore in fine. This for me is akin to the pollution tax. What NGT is saying to AOL is, please go ahead polluting and breaking environmental norms, just pay us 5 crore in fines.
In essence, if you have money, you are free to pollute. 1000 acres on the bank of Yamuna has been converted into a village. AOL contented it is temporary structure which NGT questioned. Understand the issue here; it is about damage to the Yamuna and the environment.
I understand there are hardcore fans of AOL who want this to happen. But this cannot be the reason alone. There can be fans of ‘N’ number of people. Would we start allowing everyone such privileges? The ‘Guru’ tag associated with Sri Sri, fears the Govt. Sri Sri has always supported BJP and hence this softness on Govt’s part.
I don’t question AOL and its leader. You might be doing well for yourself and your followers. It’s not any of my concern. I won’t come and question you in your ashram. What you do is your individual right.
But such things leave bad taste. NGT has imposed a fine of 5 crore. So if you didn’t have this money, you wouldn’t be allowed this event. Right? Thus it’s all about money. You have bought the Environment. I don’t like it one bit.
What I don’t like is any common citizen of this country wouldn’t be allowed such a privilege. Why should any organization? It’s not about AOL, it’s about cronyism.
No one shouted anti-India slogans at JNU?
I have nothing against politicians who are siding with JNU people. They will do where they see votes. In essence they are performing what is expected in ‘electoral democracy’. It saddens me to see that they indeed gain votes by siding with such people who shout anti-India slogans. It means there is something wrong with the concept of nation that is India.
If politicians support anti-India sloganeers and they get votes by doing so, it seems to me that it is will of the people. Should we not abolish the nation then? Absurd isn’t it? What else can we do?
First ‘No one killed Jessica’, then ‘No one was driving’ and now it is, ‘No one shouted anti-India slogans’. That’s what Delhi Govt report says. More absurdness. Was I there when slogans were shouted? No. But those who know JNU politics know that it is a norm than an aberration. JNU students (guided by teachers) have prided themselves in shouting anti-India slogans. For the first time the Govt has acted and these people are hiding around. “We have not shouted”, is the defense.
With such a response from students now, I think that Govt did the right thing with the police action. This will prevent any further sloganeering. Students need to study. At JNU, FTII, they are well fed, subsidized bunch of folks. Since they have to not pay for education they don’t feel like spending their time studying.
This circus will continue under the ‘electoral democracy’ and till then we live with, ‘No one shouted ant-India slogans’. Either we have the nation or we don’t.
Gandhi: To be or not to be
Let’s go back to Circa of Aug 1947, when India got Independence. A new republic was born. And there was one man, Mahatma Gandhi around whom the freedom struggle was fought. There has been a debate over the years about Gandhi, what he did and his legacy.
Fortunately I have been brought up with both sides of the spectrum. My Maternal Grandfather (Nanaji) was a freedom fighter who fought alongside Gandhi. My Paternal Grandfather (Dadaji) was a businessman. Both had differing views when it came to Gandhi. Nanaji was a Gandhian in spirit and in practice. He had a big framed photo of Gandhi in his room. He praised Gandhi a lot for what he did for the freedom of the country. “Desh ko ajaadi dilwayi Gandhiji ne”, he often said proudly. He also related me stories as to how the freedom fighters were tortured in jails during British time.
Dadaji had a family business. According to him, life pre and post 1947 was poles apart. He was no fan of Gandhi. No so much for his role in freedom struggle. But what happened post that. Nehru was the damnation which led to destruction of the nation. Steep inflation and rise in crime rate were two things that he saw soon after Independence. “Son, there was a leadership deficit. He made Nehru PM, who had no plan at all. No plan at all”, he told me. Dadaji was not a political person, just a common man. “Ghee, Dal, Atta ka bhaav aasman choo gaya. Chori chakari, aam baat ho gayi. Angrezon ke jamaane mein yeh sab nahin tha. Kya faida hua?”, he often lamented.
They both were good and honorable man who never tried to impress these views on other people. This is what they thought and told to people who came to have a chat. I think both were true in their own regard. Gandhi was a unifier who brought a fractured nation together against British. At the same time, we all know how that freedom withered away with rampant poverty, corruption and breakdown of law of order.
Disclaimer: These are from my childhood memories to the best of my recollection.
How PC culture has destroyed our Culture
Over the years I have struggled with the PC Culture of being Politically Correct in what you say. When I saw politicians doing rampant corruption on the one hand but being praised in media for being PC, I was left puzzled. Discussions were more on what people said, than what they have done. And I never really was comfortable with this.
We have almost become a nation where media and elite hypnotize common people into believing this too. It’s like if you say, “We should not throw trash on roads”, you are a good man. It doesn’t matter if in reality you do throw trash on roads. Just say what is PC.
I think PC culture has destroyed our Culture completely. What PC does is to take you away from reality and not admit that there is a problem. If you don’t admit to a problem, you cannot address it ever. And that is what is happening.
The biggest of the PC was not addressing the rise of extremism. We have become an extremist country in how we think; there is a lot of anger simmering within. For last 20 years, we were too PC to admit to the rise of Islamic extremism. This led to the resentment and have exploded as Hindu fanaticism.
Our being PC has led to what we are saying today. We ignored the rise of extremism in our colleges, in our society; we let in illegal immigrants and were too afraid to admit it was even happening. One thing is very important here, it is mostly the affluent of the society who tends to be PC. And they are ones who are driving the policies.
There is a lot of resentment among common man against PC culture and has led to the regime change in 2014. People want food, jobs, security. PC culture prevents it from happening. Todays corrupt are too PC. They never say a bad thing. They only do bad things. Hence Modi/Kejriwal are berated for using bad words. But people who do bad deeds are celebrated for being PC.
As they say, you cannot fool all the people, all the time. Time for the demise of PC is here.
Good to have the right Enemies
I recently read an article as to how Donald Trump’s rise has been aided by “the right set of enemies” he has. Sounds a bid weird right? Enemies are meant to take a person down, how come they aid in taking him up. Let’s explore.
I would also make a reference to Indian PM Narendra Modi who I feel too attribute his rise to “the right set of enemies” he had. Both are considered strongman right wing personalities. Because of these traits, they have been labeled by their enemies as dictators, anti-minority and what not.
They both have been known to be against radical islamic terrorism, something that people including media don’t want to talk about. They both bad mouthed media at every given opportunity. They promised jobs and development to the nation. They both talked about things which are not part of main stream discourse anymore.
Their enemies were busy berating them on what they say, how they say, their speeches, tone of their sound etc. When a person talks about helping common man and an increasing set of well off people say bad things about him, common man tends to sympathize. This is what has happened with Trump and Modi.
When enemies themselves don’t have public credibility, their words backfire. There is a lot of class resentment with an increasing income inequality. The enemies are part of top tier of wealthy people. Whatever they say people despise. It is like, “This well off person is against someone who is promising us job and security. Sure, he will have some vested interests”. And as always media, which itself is part of top 1%, was called out on hypocrisy.
It’s always good to have right enemies than no having enemies at all.
Population Explosion: Root cause for intolerance
This is a clear case of looking at the wrong place. Right wing extremist ideology was blamed for intolerance by self proclaimed liberals and leftists. Then these liberals and leftists themselves went overboard and came out as more intolerant. People kept hurling abuses at each other amidst a polarized atmosphere. But what is the real reason?
Well, the reason behind such confrontations is the population explosion. The root cause! Imagine if India had population of say 2-3 crore. Everyone was wealthy with lots of food, good education and what not. Would we have seen such issues? I think No!
People want more attention and larger piece of the pie. Hardly anyone wants to do social service. Everyone has an agenda. There is no other fight other than the fight for more resources.
The biggest act of intolerance people commit is denying food/house/respect to the poor. But since poor have no voice, there is no talk about these intolerance’s. Instead we see people with full stomach crying from their rooftops that no one respects them anymore, no one likes them anymore. People evoking controversial issues on facebook/twitter and then crying wolf when trolled by equally useless full-stomach people.
We are sick and tired of all this. If you want to help, give all your money to poor. And then we can talk. But I know you will not as I for one will not. I am too selfish. I might cry intolerance to get more attention and bigger piece of the pie. And I will be a hypocrite and not admit it. Even the trolls opposing these cry babies are the same. They hate to see others trying to hog limelight and thus berate them.
Mind you they also do nothing for the problems that ails our country. Just sit in an AC room, eating popcorn, on their macbook and tweet tweet tweet, as I am doing right now. And I can tell you why they like it.
Best way to tackle Ban on Woman in Religious places
Ban on woman at a number of places of worship has been in the discussion lately. Women have come out both for and against the practice. When one group of women wants it to be abolished right away, other group wants not to tinker with the tradition.
Both have their arguments. Pro-abolition cites right to equality enshrined in the constitution. Pro-tradition says it has nothing to do with gender discrimination, just a part of tradition like Karwachauth (where women fast for their husband’s long life).
What is the best way to tackle this? I think long lasting traditions (albeit wrong ones), take time to go away. And we should give them this time. It will eventually vanish. If we try and change it forcefully in an instant, it will cause more problems.
Slow reform would be best to junk such traditions. Spread awareness about it. Not forcefully. Women should take lead and make their families aware about these injustices. They can teach their children to junk such traditions. Till will make them go away smoothly.
Another option can be to boycott. Women can persuade their families to boycott such places altogether. Slowly law of economics will catch up and gates will be thrown open to all.
There are a lot of ways we can do it. Traditions should be handled carefully. They have grown up slowly over centuries. They will take some time to go away. And we should give them this time.
Right to Religion: Wrong to Religion
When I was born, my religion was pre-decided. I never asked for a religious identity, yet it was bestowed upon me. Society expected me to show solidarity with the people of my religion. Society expected me to marry within my religion. Society expected me to make friends inside my religion.
As I grew up, I came to know more about my religion via books. I was enlightened about the long running feud between my religion and some other religion. I was expected to join that feud. When I reached college, I was expected to speak up for/against my religion. ‘No opinion’ was laughed at.
When some one spoke against my religion, I was expected to defend it and go ballistic against the other religion. By that time I was conditioned to do it. I saw merit in my religion and called it the best. Other religions were cause of historical bloodsheds.
Then they told me, I have a right to practice any religion. Yet I will be called a ‘convert’ if I choose some other religion. I will be called ‘agnostic’ if I opt for no religion. I will be someone different. An alien!
I wonder what is natural, practicing a religion or ‘not practicing’. Man is not born with a religion, yet ironically he has a religion by birth. Too complex.
I find myself reacting when someone speaks against my religion. And then I end up asking why? I find myself praising my religion. And then I end up asking why? I find myself friends with people of my religion only. And then I end up asking why? I find myself marrying within my religion. And then I end up asking why? I will for sure bestow my religion to my offspring. Just keep on asking why?
The Frustrated Indian, India Against Presstitutes etc: You are Blocked
Facebook was such a sweet place where I could see updates/pics from my friends and stay in touch with people I met sometime in my life. Then came the surge of paid Profiles/Pages, with propaganda to sell.
AAP and BJP supporters were the ones that destroyed the utopia that facebook used to be for their election marketing. And then people in my friend list started liking such posts/sharing them, which then started showing up on my page. Mudslinging, name calling and what not. Newsfeed was getting hogged by such alien posts that I never wished for.
I have started unfollowing such accounts/pages one by one. Below are the few Pages that I have unfollowed (unfollowed would be a wrong word as I never followed them, they just started appearing whenever any of my friends liked/shared them).
- The Frustrated Indian: Dude you are seriously frustrated. Time to get laid. You spread negativity and in a bid to defend him, you end up damaging our PM’s reputation and make him look intolerant.
- India Against Presstitutes: Was nice when it began. Press reporters are anyways pathetic. But you have gone overboard and more and more negative. Time to buzz off my facebook.
- AAP is No More for Aam Aadmi: Again the same dumbshi*. Modi don’t need you guys. He just doesn’t need you to defend him. Period.
- Indian Youth Congress: Never knew such a thing existed. Budding cronies, buzz off.
- OpIndia: Right wing extremism to its best. Negative, negative, more negative.
- A lady whose name I forgot, who suddenly became messiah for pro-Government.
- A lot of them I forgot
Main reason is not for what they post, but for how they post. Insulting, crass and cringe-worthy. Sometimes I feel these accounts are managed by another insulting, crass, loud, negative media men, Mr. Goswami.
I can use internet. I am relatively well off. I am not a frustrated elite. I don’t need such leeches to feed off me. Not the least on facebook.
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