Archive for the ‘General/Society’ Category
IndianExpress and the Mockery of News
Just looking at the headlines in Newpapers these days makes me cringe. The sheer shamelessness and biasness leaves me aghast. These ‘relics of the past’ as I always call them, still have ideological hold over a lot of news that circulates in regular media and it worries me. Read the below two headlines from Indian Express website on the same day,
Rohith Vemula is not alone, this is happening in every university, says Rahul Gandhi
V/S
Muzaffarnagar: Rape video goes public, BJP leader jumps in
My simple question to the editor of the “self certified awesome” paper is, why not approach it the other way round.
Hyderabad: Student commits suicide, Rahul Gandhi jumps in
V/S
BJP leader calls for justice to Hindu women who committed suicide post rape video going public
I have no love lost for BJP, Congress of for that matter any of these thugs who wants votes just to make merry. But reading such headlines appalls me. Why couldn’t it simply have been below? Or some other headline without bias to either issue.
Rohith Vemula suicide case: Rahul Gandhi alleges casteism happening in every university
V/S
Muzaffarnagar rape and suicide case: Justice for the Hindu women, demands Virendra Singh.
We have no respect for our politicians but these newspaper editors still hold some respect in society and I wish they are stripped of this respect. Social media is breaking their citadel brick by brick. Hope it happens sooner than later.
Casteism: Does it really happen in Colleges in India?
With the sad demise of a PhD scholar coming in from Hyderabad, a debate has been raging if the monster of casteism is still alive in the temples of education? That it used to be rampant in the past is a documented fact which no one denies. But since the days of Mandal, have things changed or are they the same.
I can tell from my college experience that I didn’t notice any such incident. And mind you, I was very vocal on such issues and Editor of College Newspaper. But then my campus was not at the center of politics. It was a laid back campus just concerned about studies. That I was one of the most political guy in the campus won’t be an smug statement.
I am not overtly qualified in passing judgements for other colleges. But based on what I have observed, I am not too positive that it takes place in other colleges too. But again the dead students’ family and friends will be the best people to comment on this particular case. It might have happened or it might not have.
What I don’t like is the politicization of college campuses. It’s fine during times of uprising and revolutions; It really hurts during peace time. I have been an advocate of ending student body elections and political groups. It hampers academics. I know there are arguments for it also, but cons are too glaring. Students will be able to contribute more if they stick to studies.
If students need to do politics, it should out of the campus. Same goes for ministers and college administration. Keep your politics out of it. Hence my open dislike for recently organized talk on Temple formation in a college in Delhi. Also my open dislike for the students/faculties of that very college for they are the ones who have relegated their campus to political playground for a long time now.
Until politics is taken out of college campuses, our nation will continue to lose the sons of the soil.
Aamir Khan Issue: Let’s look it from Brand Point of View
So Aamir Khan is no longer a face of Incredible India Brand Building Campaign. Media debates and public discourse followed. Diverse views of vendetta and course correction were put forward. Let’s look at this decision from the brand point of view.
Aamir is promoting India as a tourist friendly country to get more and more people to visit India. And when he discusses how his wife wanted to leave India due to intolerance and he too feels despondency in the air, what it does to the brand India? Tourists would be like, “Dude the brand ambassador of India himself does not feel safe in India, to hell with going there. Let’s party in Ibiza”.
Won’t a responsible CEO pull up the ads and replace the brand ambassador to save the brand? This is what exactly Indian Govt. has done. When Aamir did the movie PK, and if he went on air and said, “I felt I should not have done PK. is the most pathetic movie ever made. Waste of time, don’t watch it”, wouldn’t it had affected the movie? Of course it would have. Wouldn’t the producer pull away Aamir from movie promotions?
What if Aamir had said, Coco Cola is a pesticide disguised as a soft drink, wouldn’t he have been replaced and contract scrapped. He might also have been sued by the company. If tomorrow I publicly badmouth the firm I work at, would I not be pulled up and subjected to disciplinary action. Does it really infringe my freedom of speech? Those who sympathize with Aamir and berate the Govt, try badmouthing your employer. Scared? You should be.
Aamir Khan is doing Incredible India for free. And here lies the problem. When you do something for free, you don’t have anything to lose. Had it been a 10cr/year contract, he would have thought 10 times before damaging the brand. He would fear losing the contract. I don’t blame him, we all are like that.
I would suggest Govt whoever they choose as the brand ambassador, either pay him/she well or if they refuse to be paid, ask them to sign a contract which mentions that their actions in any way should not demean the brand India.
Delhi Management Quota Abolished: Is it really happening?
All of us berate the management quota in schools/colleges. We know how seats are openly sold under management quota. What do we do? Nothing! Make provision for money so that we can buy seat for our child. Actually we common people can do nothing else.
But now things are changing at least in Delhi. Management Quota has been abolished by Delhi Govt. And what a feel of fresh air it is. I sometimes wonder who let such blatant corruption tool function in the first place. And it is not even a clandestine thing. It happens openly in all schools and colleges by private players.
It might not be good news for the rich, but it sure is good news for common people of Delhi. Hope we create more schools so that need of such corruption ends entirely. Hope other states emulate this too. Next is strengthening Govt. schools to give us a true RTE.
Siddharth Dhar proves why Terrorist Sympathizers in India should be put behind bars
We have seen a lot of people in India who come across as Terrorist sympathizers. They find reasons to justify jihadi terrorism. They come on TV and deny to condemn Terrorists. They are regarded as intellectuals by their like. Siddharth Dhar aka ‘Jihadi John 2’ was one such British citizen.
He is a classic example of terrorism apologists. Many a times he justified terrorism as revenge attacks by the oppressed. He openly wrote and participated in TV debates. Just like our own shameless media, British media too gave him audience. Many admired him as a balanced intellectual.
Look what happened. This Islam convert has become Jihadi John 2. Given an opportunity all these Terrorism apologists will not blink an eye before killing alongside Terrorists.
I urge people to shame such people openly and strip them off their moral high ground. I urge media to have some shame and not provide such people an audience. I urge Govt to put any such people behind bars. Stemming the spread of propaganda is a potent way to nip terrorism in its bud.
बच्चा पहले ही मर गया था
मेरा बचपन आगरा शहर में बीता है। दिल्ली की कड़ाके की सर्दी क्या होती है, मैंने महसूस करी है। रूह कंपा देती है। जल्द से जल्द घर पहुंचकर रजाई में दुपक जाता था। बेघर लोगो बेचारे ऐसी सर्दी में क्या करते होंगे, बचपन में यह ख़याल कभी नहीं आया। बड़ा होकर पाया की उनमें से काफी लोग, सर्दी में दम तोड़ देते हैं।
जो दिल्ली में हुआ, ऐसा नहीं है की यह पहली बार हुआ है हमारे देश में। ऐसी तोड़फोड़ पहले भी होती रही है जगह खाली कराने के लिए। अतिक्रमण हटाना। मुझे कभी इसका मतलब समझ नहीं आया। यहाँ से भागो, कहीं और जाके मारो। मुझे बस इतना ही समझ आता है।
मुझे दुःख इसलिए ज्यादा है, कि मुझे लगा था की मोदीजी सबसे आगे खड़े होंगे, इन गरीबों को बचाने के लिए। भारत सरकार ने बोला, “बच्चा पहले ही मर गया था”, तोड़फोड़ बाद में हुई। मान लो २ मिनट की बच्चा पहले मर गया था। तो इससे ज्यादा भीषण रूप कुछ और नहीं हो सकता, कि जिसके घर में मौत हुई, उसका घर उजाड़ा गया।
मैं शर्मसार हूँ, ऐसे तंत्र का हिस्सा होने पे। जमीन तो भगवान ने बनायी थी, कबसे रेलवे की जागीर हो गयी। कौनसे वो बेचारे शौक से झुग्गी में रहते थे? विकास के नाम पे सबको रौंदते चलो।
An Open Letter to Judiciary
Dear Judiciary,
A lot has been discussed, said, written, re-discussed, re-said, re-written about powerful people getting scot free for alleged crimes. From wealthy, to notorious, to politicians to film personalities. There are ample examples of people getting let go by police or judiciary over the years. There have been few cases of-late which were able to stem this. But they were a rarity rather than being the norm. Nitish Katara case and Sanjay Dutt case are the only ones that come to mind.
From Lalu to Jayalalita to Salman to Sonia to Rahul to Advani to Modi to Pawar. All are running free. Either freed from jail or out on bail. With a battery of expensive lawyers, they are all out of jails.
And I have no issues with them being out per say. They are rich and influential people and as term suggest they can buy and influence. What I have is the issue with the charade we go through for 15-20 years to finally come to the conclusion to let them free. Poor people meanwhile languish in jails without trail and never even get bail.
I feel we should better devise a formula which takes into account money a person has, what is his/her social/political standing and how popular he/she is. We can have separate courts for that. Based on the result of this formula, if a person fares well, he is acquitted then and there. Else he is put in jail without trail or bail.
It would save everyone a lot of time.
Fly with wings or Fly in plane
What would you choose if given an option to fly high with own wings or fly in a plane? It is figurative question of course. What would you?
Let me explain what I mean by wings or plane. Its just an analogy to be free or be caged. To do what you what naturally or live an artificial life. I have always led life from the chin and have been fairly successful at that. But few things of late have made me question myself. Maybe wings are for those who can’t afford to fly in a plane? Maybe such lies are spread by a bunch of unsuccessful people, who could never make it to a plane. Why I say this is, since wings are invisible. No one will have wings in real. The abstract.
I know I sound a bit shallow. But that’s how I feel right now. I have been cribbing a lot of late, which I never used to. Cribbing about things that never mattered to me ever. But now I just can’t escape the same damn things. I lose my temper now and then, which was never a part of my trait. It’s like I suck the happiness from the air I breath. I make the land on which I walk, barren. I take life out of the being I come in contact with. A demento perhaps. Or am demented?
Whatever be the case, I feel it’s all related to wings or plane. I am nauseating in the artificiality of the plane. Maybe it’s just acclimatization. Will require some time. Or maybe I am dead and everything is just a passing memory. Or maybe I am asleep and all this is just a dream. Or maybe I am schizophrenic and all this is just another hallucination.
Whatever it be, somethings missing. And tough part is, I don’t know what. Maybe it’s that time in my life already when I am looking for the answer, “Why am I here?”. A question I never thought I would look an answer for. But here I am. Inquisitive like never before.
Like all other times in my life, I hope to pass this phase as less damagingly as I can. Hopefully unscathed. Maybe it’s not a choice for me to make. What if I let plane grow it’s own wings or just fly with my wings to catch a plane?
To Aamir: Terror has no Religion & Intolerants have no Nation
Aamir Sir, when some people started lambasting you for the intolerance remarks, I stood up for you. You, whose movies I have loved, laughed and cried with. I would have stood up for all my childhood superstars be it Akshay, Shahrukh or Salman. I also stood up as your fellow citizen. We follow our heroes closely Sir and I know you as a person who only likes to express himself via your movies; a person who does not like to pursue any political agenda.
But the statement you issued post the incident, has saddened me. When you said, “To all the people shouting obscenities at me for speaking my heart out, it saddens me to say you are only proving my point”, I didn’t like it. I will tell you why.
People shouting obscenities at you are not the poll bearers of our nation. They are pathetic people who insult our nation. Why I am sad is coz, during the same interview you said, “People who kill citing Kuran are not Muslims. They are terrorists. Terror has no religion.” I couldn’t have agreed more.
Why then you consider people who threw obscenities at you ‘the face of intolerant India’. They are just bad people who like to badmouth other people. They got nothing to do with tolerance or intolerance or nation. If we go by your logic then Islamophobia will also be a ‘proven point’, which it is not.
You might have been hurt. I also feel hurt at times, but if we start generalizing for “proving my point”, something is wrong.
Just as you said, a person killing in the name of Allah is not a Muslim, he is just a terrorist. I request you Sir to consider the people who threw obscenities at you as just bad people. They have nothing to do with tolerance or intolerance or nation.
Why Elections in India will not be won on Social media, Not Yet
When Modi won elections in 2014, we noticed something new. Modi was miles ahead of his counterparts when it came to social media. We attributed the spread of huge Modi wave to social media. Some even thought that elections henceforth will be decided on social media. Bihar elections demolished it all. Social media was hinting at NDA victory. The results were upside down. What went wrong?
My take is, elections in India will not be won on social media anytime soon. The depth and diversity of internet is still languishing at the bottom. Apathy and social ostracization is still rampant in our country.
Let me explain by relating what happened in my home state UP. When Mayawati won historic 2008 elections, people were stumped the same. All surveys went haywire. Even the pan shop talks betrayed the results. Why? Analysis revealed that Mayawati voters came more from backward castes. Given the non-inclusive growth in India, these people lie at the bottom of social and income levels. At pan shop talks, they hesitate speaking their minds for fear of social ostracization by affluents of the society. Even in surveys, wary by years of apathy, they don’t openly support Mayawati, a Dalit. This ends up in wrong calculations. I call it the ‘Vocal Effect’.
Supporters of lower caste parties/leaders are less vocal. Supporters of forward caste parties/leaders are more vocal. Same behavior has moved to social media. Neither the spread of internet is across castes, nor are all of us vocal. Hence we always find Modi and AAP supporters more vocal on social media. Recently Congress people have also joined in, but are again not that vocal due to fear of being trolled for past scams.
Imagine what will happen if you comment on facebook that you support Lalu Yadav or for that matter Congress. You will face nasty comments, will be lambasted. Now imagine if you were a Dalit and posted status, “I support Mayawati”. We all know what humiliation will be meted out in comments section. So people choose to remain silent. I would have chosen silence too.
Hence I feel it’s still a long way to go when social media discourse could give clear directions. It would require equal penetration of internet. It would happen when backward castes are no longer made to feel backward. It would happen when social ostracization and social media trolling ends. Not anytime soon.
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