RAPE:WHEN and HOW RAPE WILL STOP IN INDIA

The recent rape and brutality on a 5 year old girl in Delhi is extremely shocking to hear for any sensitive person.  Feel of her immense pain, her cry without properly shouting for help from someone, not having the energy to push them off and run, and the way she was thrown like garbage is spine- chilling.

The rapists left and locked the spot thinking her as dead. But the Almighty has sown life in her again and now she is recovering. May God give her all strength and energy to lead her life like other kids. May God erase this part of her memory from the rest of her life.

Most of us say that this is not the first time it had happened and not the last.When we say that our culture holds the dignity and respect of woman above all then the incidents like this let others mock on us with the comment that we Indians are the biggest hypocrites. What has gone wrong in our DNA and blood? What is that which has percolated in our society which made us so numb and insensible to even the pain and cry of a five year old baby?

This type of insensitive feeling does not come in a day, month or year. This indicates the failure of our family values, our education system, our ethics and culture. It’s the failure of vision where we are trying to lead our beloved country. Our society has gone weaker and people are behaving like loose cannons.

After the incident, so many discussions and debates had happened on almost all the news channels. Some says westernization is the root cause while others blame existing Indian culture. Some says the law and punishment is not strict enough to protect women from such atrocities, some said that our current government is very much insensitive towards normal people. Some blamed the mentality and attitude of the men while others blame the girls are only who invite such heinous act on them.

Some pointed out that the easy availability of porn materials including the child pornography is one of the biggest cause as in this case also it’s revealed that they watched the porn and then to release the sexual energy they very easily and conveniently lured a 5 year old baby. Almost everyone agrees that the current porn materials are not about love making and sexual education. It’s about atrocities, perverted and distorted display of love making. They show the use of unwanted and unimaginable materials in the women body and unfortunately this is getting followed in our society and even on the Children. This is alarming to all of us.

 Like other industries, the competition is growing here also, so don’t know what type and what different forms of sexual display and use of women body will be projected by porn industry to compete with others. Everyone agrees that sex education and sexual awareness is the need but not in the form of such porn materials which leads in exploitation of women’s and children body in such a brutal form.

Due to the latest revolt and demand of the people in Delhi, the government of India had passed a strong anti rape law. I wish this law should help in preventing such atrocities rapidly. At the same time our history tell us that the other evils which were prevalent in our Indian society were eradicated from our society not merely by law but by the involvement of the common people on root level. Each and every generation in their life time contribute in the abolishment of evils and uplift of the society towards the betterment. Today we are here and so it’s our time to contribute to the society to reduce and abolish the existence of such atrocities and to pass a clean and civilized society to our coming generations.

Now the question in front of us is how we as individual can contribute in creating an emotional and sensitive society which should not give birth to such cruel and insensible human beings and no child, girls or women should become victim of such ghastly atrocities.There can be so many ways which can be decided based on the fabric of society where we live. Some of the prominent and common solution which I can think of is as below:

We have to go for both immediate and long term solution. Under the immediate solution situational awareness is required against the already existing rogue, depraved, deplorable and perverted elements of our society.

All should encourage their sisters, daughters, friends to definitely carry some sort of defence weapons with them. It may be in the form of chilli spray, small knifes and they should have at least basic knowledge in judo and karate or any martial arts. Each and every family should teach their female family members to biting, scratching, hitting, screaming, yelling, fleeing, struggling or any other physical self defence techniques. All different resistance strategies in risky situations should be taught very well to our female members of the society.

These are the only short term strategies I can think of now to protect ourselves from the rowdy element of the society but at the same time it is our responsibility only to make our society free from such troubles permanently. When such incidents happen, it gives a very bad name to our country and makes our head down with shame. So we should also take steps to eradicate this completely from our own society.

One of the biggest drawbacks of our society is when a girl is harassed, then family members are not disclosing due to the feeling how society will treat and see them. We have to be supportive of such family and people. It is not their problem rather it is someone who is making them suffer. Those perverted people should get the message that society and family is not going to hide but defame and will not accept them in their society and home whoever will try to think of doing such heinous acts.

We all see the portrayal of women body in advertisement of products to lure the customers. Now a day’s almost none of the movies are complete without so called item songs. We all understand the double meaning of those songs and how the movement of cameras happens on the women body. Here I mean to say that all these are making our society sexually charged and impact is there mainly among the teenagers who in the process of releasing their energy lead in doing heinous activities may be due to sudden feelings or outbursts. We all have to think what we need to boycott from entering our society and what we need to accept.

 Some people say that it is our attitude and our mentality only that someone is utilising for commercial purpose.  They say, in silence we want the characters like Sunny Leone and that’s why someone gives her opportunity in India. We demand such things and hence someone comes to supply. We all have to think where we are leading and what will be end of this as the impact have already started to knock on our doors.

 We have to prove what and how we want to see the society. We don’t need to learn such type sexual education and love making techniques from the perverted porn stars. Our ancestors and forefathers have taught the whole world the pure way of love making in the form of KamaSutra and these industries can never stand in parallel to the knowledge our own ancestors have accumulated for us . They are more pure and pious than porn materials.

In the case of the rape of Delhi medical student, six persons were there but the alarming to us is none of them got any bit of pity feelings towards her. So through the educational institutions our society should encourage for the building of emotional feelings and bonds right from the childhood not only within the family but with the society also. Our education system is creating self centric individuals and money earning professional human machines only. We must have life-building, man-making, character making, sensible and emotional human beings from our education system.

I will end my typing here with the word that today the medical student who got raped in Delhi moving bus  or the five year old girl may not be personally related to me and you but there is no guarantee for tomorrow if we will not introspect ourselves and stop the percolation of impious stuffs in our society.

Commercialisation of Education – The Hindrance for Superpower India

Let New India arise out of the peasants’ cottage, grasping the plough; out of the huts of the fishermen, the cobbler, and the sweeper. Let her spring from the grocer’s shop, from beside the oven of the fritter-seller. Let her emanate from the factory, from marts, and from markets. Let her emerge from groves and forests, from hills and mountains.

                                                                                        --- Swami Vivekananda

Once I was reading an article and there I found some exciting data on India “Today over 35% of the population is below the age of 20. By 2020 it is expected that around 32.5 crores (325 million) of people will reach the working age which will be the largest in the world and this will come at a time when rest of the developed world will be faced with the ageing population. It is estimated that by 2020, US will be short of 17 million of working age, China by 10 million, Japan by 9 million and Russia by 6 million. At the same time India will have surplus of 47 million working age.” To check the accuracy of this, I started to Google in different ways and found similar data from other different sources.

Next day I was casually turning over the pages of the quotation book of Swami Vivekananda and I read the above words of him on how the India should arise including all sections of the society. For some time I kept on thinking between the Swamiji’s words and India’s population structure by age. My analysis led me to conclude that this is the apt time for India to become a superpower and the most developed nation of the world before we breathe our last and we can very well become part of this transformation.

I thought that education can play an essential role here but at the same time I think that the current situation of education can also become a big hindrance for us.

Education plays the most fundamental role for the growth of a nation. It is only the quality education which leads to a civilised family, society and a prosperous country with a booming economy.

Currently, the higher education in India is becoming a distant dream for most of the economically middle and poor class families. A huge part of the savings is spent on the tuition fee of the universities and colleges of India. Most of the students pursuing higher education are already on the pre burden of educational loans. In metro cities, the primary and secondary educations are also extremely expensive. If this trend continues then we cannot hope and expect that all the sections of the society can get proper access to education.

When our government was not able to take care of the education from the government’s expenses, they brought private players in to the picture. Now many Colleges and Universities are run by private institutions or individuals and this has made the educational sector as a commercial sector of India. Here the main focus is not to provide quality education but to extract maximum money. Even the government’s contribution of funds is not sufficient to run government colleges and eventually the monetary burden comes on the students and their parents.

As India is still coming out from poverty and backwardness, the main expectation from higher education is mainly a medium which can provide good salaried job to them and can help them in getting rid of economical problems. When a child gets admission call from so many colleges after the entrance result, they and their parents first inquire about the placements which college can provide to them. Rarely any one inquires about the quality of faculties and education provided. It may take 2 or 3 generations when Indian students will go for higher education mainly to show their creativity and innovation or to fulfil their real dreams. Almost 99% of the Indian students pursuing higher education have the main aim of getting good salaried jobs. Understanding this mindset of the people, private institutions approach the corporate world, for the job placements, and then charges huge amount of fees. There is no need to work hard to clear the semester examination as most of the questions will be out and the evaluation of the papers will happen internally.

There are many young students who are ready to work hard and study but they cannot go beyond secondary education as they are not having economical support. They cannot get the loans from the bank as the bank demands some guarantor and financial securities. The percentages of such people are not less as some of the survey tells that around 70% of the educated youth do not go to colleges.  There are good percentages of people who cannot even afford the secondary education. They end up in doing small jobs and their hard work and earnings never come and counted in the growth of India’s economy.

Under these conditions we cannot see India emerging as developed and superpower nation. Providing quality education to all is more the responsibility of government than each parent. But I will say that we should not wait and watch to see some nice policies from our government on the educational reforms. Already there are lot of policies but the impact is not visible on the ground. Here I will not discuss what the our government can do in this direction but yes how we as an individual can contribute more and more in this direction.

We can make our contributions in various ways like

• We can contribute through NGO in spreading education; can contribute in the  construction of schools and colleges on one’s own level.
• We can take the financial responsibility of at least one orphanage student from any NGO.
• We can make regular visits to some schools and colleges to take some classes for free of cost. We can take the computer classes for free for which they are charged in huge amount.
• Helping the needy children with books, notebooks etc. We should take moral responsibility that from my own village each and every kid is enrolled for the school. If not, we can make the parents aware and help them for the same.

There can be many more other ways we can make big or small impact in this direction.

India is known as young country because around 50% of the India’s current population is below the age of 25 and around 65% is below the age of 35 and so India will remain as youth country for another 30-50 years. The work forces in other countries are declining sharply and their government’s expenditure is increasing on providing healthcare facilities. More and more people are coming under the category of pensioners. For us, this is the best time to channelize the energy of youth, kids and children in the proper directions.

In case the energy of youths and children are not channelized in the proper direction to get the economic stability then the unemployment and frustrations may lead to criminalization, loot, robbery, gang war and so many. If this time is not utilised, then there is a chance that India can go back to 20-30 or 50 years ago in terms of development. If such a strong and huge youth force is left starving on their own when some will be leading a luxurious life in front of them, then it will increase all illegal and criminal activities. More and more will become part of Maoism and Naxalism or any other such groups.

Once again I will say that we need to awaken the sleeping India from each and every corner of our society and I can say with confidence that “If this India wakes up, the world will tremble.” 

I would like to conclude here with the words of Swami Vivekananda on the responsibilities which lie on us.

“Arise, awake, for your country needs this tremendous sacrifice. It is the young men that will do it. The Young, the energetic, the strong, the well-built, the intellectual for them is the task.”

“So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who have been educated at their expenses, pays not the least heed to them!”

“Get up, and put your shoulders to the wheel-how long is this life for? As you have come in to this world, leave some mark behind. Otherwise, where is the difference between you and the trees and stones? They too come in to existence, decay and die.”

“Let us all work hard, my brethren; this is no time for sleep. On our work depends the coming of the India of the future. She is there ready waiting. She is only sleeping. Arise and awake, and see her seated here, on her eternal throne, rejuvenated, more glorious than she ever was-this Motherland of ours.”

DOWRY SYSTEM and its EVIL IMPACT

Mamta was asked to call up her parents and tell them that they should send her Rs 20,000 as was promised earlier. The villagers said that since this demand was not met, her sister-in-law, husband, father-in-law, mother-in-law and two brothers-in-law gathered and harassed her throughout the night and in the early hours of next day; they allegedly tied her to a nearby tree and set her on fire. (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-11-20/nagpur/30421508_1_villagers-goregaon-tehsil-sadak-arjuni)

Kalpana (26), hanged herself to death in her flat. A double graduate with a bright future was driven to the extreme step after persistent harassment by her husband.Even though the couple had been married for two years, the husband agreed to keep Kalpana in his house in Bangalore only when the family agreed to pay the money as was agreed earlier. (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/article2844350.ece)

These stories are not from any movie or TV Serial but a real incident and such atrocious incidents are increasing in our Indian society with the end results of bride burning, mental tortures, physical violence and suicide. The cause is one of the accepted evil of our society called Dowry System.

If we go in to the history of this system, it started when the bride’s family used to give their daughter a part of land or other gift items at the time of her marriage as the daughter was not considered inheritor of parent’s property. With time the greed of individuals enlarged and now the boy’s family select only such type of family who along with his daughter can give large sum of cash, gold, clothes, vehicles or any other consumer durables.  Earlier it was due to the affection of the parents towards their daughter but today it has taken the shape of such an evil spirit that this is directly demanded from the boy’s side and has become a big liability to the parents of all daughters where the planning starts right from the time when a daughter is born.

 It should be very clear that this system is prevailing not due to the unemployment or illiteracy of the society. This is flourishing very well in almost every part of the society. They may be Engineers, Doctors, Lawyers, IAS, Managers or any respectable profession we can think of. There are strict laws against the dowry but like corruption this has also become an integral part of Indian society. Everyone knows and everyone discusses openly. On mutual agreement the law against the dowry is violated by everyone and everywhere.

The big and perplex question is can our Indian society ever be free from this evil. Could this ever go into one of the dark and grave histories of India like Child Marriage or Sati Pratha. If yes, then who can and from where it can start. It is said that education is the solution of almost all the ills of the society. But in this case education is of not that much use because more education and good job means eligibility for more and more dowry.

Before going further let’s see how this system impacts the individual’s life and retards the growth of women in India.

The existence of dowry system creates a sense of economic fear among the parents of girl child. If it is the story of middle class then they prefer to have only basic higher education for their daughter and save the money so that with the saved money they can get excellent earning and qualified partner for their daughter’s marriage. Some sensitive parents listen to their daughter’s wish and let her go for higher education but now parents always remain in anxiety to get the money arranged for the marriage.  Most of the time due to lack of money for dowry, it ends up in having unsuitable partner for the daughter and this brings sense of guilt to parents.

 In some cases daughter’s love make father go to any extent to arrange money for the dowry so that his daughter can have good qualified life partner for the rest of her life. They may sell their lands and can keep their home on mortgage and this makes their rest of life economically liable to someone.

In economically poor family, the terror of dowry leads to sex identification of foetus and then to abortion.  The sex identification through ultrasound is illegal in our country but in small cities and towns, the identification of sex in pregnancy is not a hard job.  If you want to know from the main doctor, you have to pay more otherwise just keep some money in the hands of doctor’s assistant, who takes care of ultrasound during the pregnancy check, and they will tell verbally. From the context of Indian society there are many reasons for abortion and dislike towards the girl child but there is no doubt that existing dowry system is a predominant one.

In most of the poor and middle class families, only the boys are given preference to get the education from a good school and college and not the girls. If you go and ask the reason they will say if girl is educated then they cannot get an educated partner for her marriage as they are poor. The daughter listens and bears for being a girl. She can’t fly and can’t dream like her brother. She only restricts herself in cooking, painting, and tailoring or any other household decoration things so that at least her parents can boast of these things and can get some what good life partner for her.

The existence of dowry makes people corrupt. Most of the time the cash paid as a dowry is generally through corrupt route and the money disappears without having any legal documents or without the knowledge of income tax office.

In the schooldays everyone would have written notes on the topic of Dowry. At that time everyone keeps the feeling of hatred against the dowry. But once grown up and time for action comes then forget what they have written. Even the parents do not give any lecture to their kids on dowry because they cannot present themselves as role model to their kids in the fight against the dowry. Even mothers demand dowry for their son. She forgets how her father has struggled to arrange the money to get her married through dowry. It seems no one is sensitive towards others. Everyone thinks about themselves and for that instant only. Everyone one says that when the actual time comes, one must be practical instead of becoming emotional and sensitive towards others.

 I really can’t think of effective solutions to bring down the dowry from our society. In the current system of education, more educated and qualified means eligible for more dowries and so no hope from literate section.  The existing law against the dowry is openly violated with the mutual consents. The law is brought in use only when the marriage is not successful even after the dowry.

I want to end typing here. But before closing this I just want to say to all the bachelors and their parents that when they are discussing about the dowry or offering the dowry, it creates fear in the society and somewhere this act of yours leads to abortion of baby girls, somewhere some girls will get devoid of higher education with their dreams devastated, people will be forced to follow the corrupt route for money and again somewhere someone like Mamta will be burnt alive and someone like Kalpana will decide for suicide.

GOOD BYE FOREVER - 2011

Hi All,

I am 2011 and now for me time has come to say you good bye.

On the eve of my arrival, you celebrated by sending sms, emails, greeting cards, wished your near and dear ones that I should bring all happiness and good luck for them. The moment I arrived on your doorstep, I saw you were singing, dancing and watching music and dance shows of your favorite celebrities on your Television Set. I saw you have written my name everywhere in colors and lights on the roads, buildings, clubs etc. It was “Welcome to 2011” or “Happy New Year 2011”.

I also saw some of you drinking, smoking, shouting and dancing in front of loud speakers and was cheering for me.

The next morning was very silent and slowly I entered in your life. I became part of your life. You mentioned me in almost every formal, legal or informal document. I was part of your past and future references.

Though I became part of your life, but I was trying to find the same enthusiasm and energy which I saw among you on the first day of my arrival. Many times I got disappointed seeing you always running with a sad and tensed face and always cursing your life and luck. From my first impression I understood that you all are very jolly, incredible and lively persons.

I saw you gathered with your friends and near and dear ones on some occasions. I came to know that such days are very rare in your life and you wait eagerly for those days to have relief from your normal repetitive routine. This led me to think whether my arrival was also an occasion or opportunity for your celebration or the intention was really to welcome me..?

I have spent 365 days with you and I saw almost everyone of you are doing the same activities everyday from the moment you leave your bed to the time you again go to your bed. I tried to understand and to some extent what I understood is that your life is centered on money. This is playing a very pivotal in your life and that is why you are repeating same boring activities every day. You stay up too late and get up too tired.

I also saw some pain and sorrow among you. Believe me I am not your culprit, I do not bring any happiness or sorrow. Yesterday was same as today and tomorrow will be same as today. It was only due to your own actions or deeds.

Now, I am going out from your life. As you know I am part of time. So, I do not stop or wait for anyone and never come again. Hence this was my first and last stay with you.

Based on my experience of 365 days with you, I can very well understand that you are again eagerly looking for my last day to have some break in your daily routine. Before leaving I also want you all to see in the same jolly and energetic mood which I saw when I met you for the first time. Finally I wish each of the 365 days of the New Year should bring more and more happiness for you all.

May the Almighty fulfill all your dreams and desires and make each day of 2012 a wonderful and memorable day.

GOOD BYE FOREVER,

2011

Does Love Really Happens, The Way it is told !

LOVE is a four letter word, but discussions on it occupy significant time among us. But is love so easy to happen? Does it really carry its meaning whenever it is uttered?

We talk about Love among relations like mother-daughter-son, siblings etc. Here I want you to read further keeping in mind the love which is talked between couples, among the teens and among matured boys and girls.

I am not an expert in this subject and if any of the mentioned point hurts you, I am sorry for that but facts cannot be denied or cannot be always kept under blanket. Many times it becomes hard to digest the words like Love marriage; I am in love, love at 1^st sight etc.

The questions which pulls for different thoughts:

•       Why people fall in love only with good looking and beautiful girls. A highly talented, intelligent and qualified girl never becomes topic of discussion among the youth if she lacks good look. (Sania Mirza appears in Computer Wallpaper’s, Wall Calendars, posters etc but pics of  P.T Usha is rarely found).
•  -    How can a person fall in love with someone at first sight? This can only be lust and attractions. Attractions towards look, personality etc.
•            People say that trend of love marriage is on increase and arrange marriage is on decline. When this is looked closely, here the only difference is that in arranged marriage the partners are selected by parents and the final decision is left on their son or  daughter but in other case the individual only select their partners and parents is left with only decision to approve them. Before going further I want to take you in one of the scene of the movie 3 idiots (assuming everyone has watched this movie) where Aamir Khan tells karina kapoor “Your fiancé is a man of profit and loss. He did B.Tech and then MBA and now working in banking sector. If he were to work in Bank, then for what he did B.Tech. He does not love you; he wants to marry you because he sees profit in you in becoming his life partner”. Aamir proves by hiding the costly gifted watch and telling her fiancé that she lost the watch”. Likewise individuals select their partners based on their suitability, attitudes, look, personality, similarity in each other, likelihood of surviving with each other, likes, dislikes etc. But this is termed as love marriage though this is also arranged but in other way. Even when the partners are selected through matrimonial sites, then also it is named as love marriage. I do not understand what people want to show off by calling self arranged marriage as Love marriage.

-           

If you deny the above facts, then again I would like to pose few questions:

1. How many matured, highly educated boy will chose an illiterate lady as his life partner with so called love marriage..?
2. How many urban girls with good salary will chose a village farmer boy as life partner and will go for love marriage…?
3. Ask from a good looking girl the numbers of Love and marriage proposals she would have got starting from school, college to work life and compare this who lacks physical beauty. Once I dared to ask and the reply was that she does not remember the count. She does not even remember the faces.

There is a general attitude that people tries to cover up even the wrong acts with positive and good words. Once I was watching a debate on the News Channel on the topic “Living in Relationship”. The Person against the motion said that girls are courted and are treated as modern keep in such type of relationship and ultimately the girl becomes the sufferer. Immediately the persons who were in support pounced on him, saying the word ‘modern keep’ degrades the womanhood. The person against the motion asked what to say then. The reply was she should be said as Living partner or Love Bird.

Likewise people cover up their lust, attraction, attachment and likings with love.

 Now you may be thinking that I am against Love and as per me Love is a fabricated word and in reality it does not exist. If you are really thinking so then you are wrong.

Love is not an instant effect. It grows and grows with time with the components like loyalty, devotion, responsibility, human emotions, attitude, humbleness, modesty, and respect for each other, self respect and feelings for each other.

Once in my village, I saw an old couple where the husband was seriously ill and the talk among people was that he was near to death. His son was taking care of him and his old wife was sitting in front of him. She was silent and not uttering any word. The wife was not moving from her position though her son asked two to three times to have some food and take rest.  The old lady was not having the energy to cry and say anything. I am sure I was not mistaken to see a titanic love between them. The love, whose foundation stone, was laid probably some 50 years ago.  They would have shared good and bad moments together. I do not know actually what was going in her mind. May be she was praying to God silently and asking her God “Why are you separating us? Why do not you take my life first instead of him? Where will I go and what will be my life without him? She was silent but she was crying. She was not boasting and loudly saying “I Love you..I Love you” but the tremendous love between them was very much visible.

Can anyone compare this trustful, deep and devotional Love with the love at first sight or the casually spoken love marriage?

When marriage happens, partners are selected based on their likes, dislikes, family background, educational qualifications etc. Initially there is no love between them and they start to know each other. They live together, share the happiness and sorrows and the seed of love sprouts between them. With time it grows from sprout and keeps on growing with strong and deep root as its base.

It’s not only the time spent together which favours the growth of love. It also requires humanity, loyalty, commitment, dedication, emotion and humbleness. If the individuals are not emotional, then there is very rare chance for the Love to blossom. After marriage, the initial days are mainly occupied with lust and attractions but as its human behavior that individuals get fed up with anything they repeatedly use and see. If the lustful desire is not immediately replaced with friendship and commitment towards each other then the relationship will just be heavy burden throughout the remaining life.

       If there is no emotion or commitment, then if the beautiful body is deformed suddenly, the relationship would not be the same. So, humanity, inner attachment and sacred feeling for others are equally required for the love to grow towards infinity. In western countries it is seen that people fall in love, get married, stay together for some time and then again they will move for some other partners. In rare case the first marriage lasts forever. In India due to the family and social obligations, the relationships move even when the partners get discomfort with each other. Many times obligations give the chance and it avoids breaking up of the relationship on small issues or disagreements.

Yes, the love exists and it’s only the love which moves the world. But it should not be mistaken with the self arranged marriage, friendship with opposite sex, lust and attraction for good look and physical personality. When the seed of love sprouts, it branches into responsibility, loyalty, inner bond, sacrifice and many more. Again, Love is not an excitement. It does not boast and it’s not proud.  Love never fades nor wanes. It always remains young in heart.

TORNADO OF ANNA's GANDHIGIRI

  

Before, writing anything I would like to salute Anna Hazare and his all Team Members for sprouting the dormant energy, nationalism and a sense of belief among all of us. The belief that we can see a corruption free India if we all stand united.

 I am really thinking what to write and how to start. Already so many distinguished personalities have appreciated the spirit of Anna for bringing optimism to see a corruption free India. So many writers and authors have appreciated the way Anna has inculcated the lessons of Satyagrah among the youth of India.

I registered for India Against Corruption (www.indiaagainstcorruption.org) just one week before begin of Anna’s fast. Here in Bangalore, during Anna’s fast, with some of friends I made couple of visits in the Freedom Park. One of my friends got involved in traffic and crowd management there; we heard the speech of, Santosh Hedge, one of the core members of Anna’s Team. We distributed the pamphlet having the differences between the Jan Lokpal and Government Lokpal bill. We mingled with almost each group there and recited slogans with them. It was from all age group and from all different profession. All were having one relationship and i.e. all are Indians and gathered there to see a scam and corruption free India. 

It was decided that human chain will be formed in Bangalore. (From ITPL to Sarjapur –aross the IT corridor)We formed the human chain in front of the main gate of our company. We were reciting slogans, shaking and waiving hands with unknown Indians passing by. Santosh Hegde started to encourage the crowd from ITPL to Sarjapur in an open jeep. When he reached near to our organisation, the crowd gathered their got extreme energy and enthusiasm and the area got echoed with slogans of Corruption Down Down!.. Bharat Mata Ki Jay!.. Vande Matram!... We want Jan Lokpal!... etc. He waived hand on us and moved further.

 This was the only small physical contribution from my side on the call of Anna Hazare against corruption.

Finally, our parliamentarians felt the power of the people who came on the streets and agreed to consider Anna’s demands in forming the LokPal Bill.

There are some intellectuals and writers who keep cynical view on Anna and his movement. They have the same points of cynicism on which most of our parliamentarians are also trying to avoid the version of Jan Lokpall Bill which Anna and his team wants.

----They say Parliament is supreme and so only those who are there in the parliament are certified to discuss on the bill and have the right to pass or reject the bill.

-----Many say that it will set a wrong precedent and accepting any demands on the street is against our democratic set up. Some MPs and leaders argued that listening to Anna’s demands is against the constitution.

-----Then some section of intellectuals opined that this is not the way to eradicate corruption. We all are corrupt and corruption should stop at its root.

Yes, I agree that our parliament and constitution are supreme. The Parliament is the prime temple of our democracy. This is a sacred place but no one will deny the fact that the sacredness of parliament is being raped by the character of most of the MPs present there. I know here some intellectuals will say that if I raise the question on the character and integrity of any MP, then I am insulting the people of his constituency. (heard this logic from some of MPs and intellectuals while they debated on Anna’s movement on news channel). To answer this question I only want to say that in this article I do not want to talk who wins the election, how they win, how much is spent by each representative in their constituency and what is the final purpose of their investment and how much percentage of people vote in India.          

I know the next question will be why honest people do not contest elections. The answer is fear from torture, insult and may be death. No one knows whether they will be shot in the front or back if they contest election against any criminal politicians. Good numbers of RTI activists have been murdered whenever they tried to expose the corruption and corrupt.  We can see what happened to Baba Ramdev, his aid Balkrishna, Anna Hazare, Prashant and Shanti Bhushan and the latest is Arvind Kejriwal and Kumar Bishwas. They are also not ready to leave OM Puri and Kiran Bedi for the remarks or gestures they made against the politicians. This is a clear cut indication that government is spreading fear among those who will try to go against any criminal, politicians or MPs. The Individuals mentioned in the above example are known personalities across India and they have more a social than an individual life. The government can’t touch them directly but if a person is of low profile and very little known dares to take action against any criminal or politician, no one knows how and where he will be disappeared. Sometimes I assume that there must be some saintly power behind Anna which made him survive, as he is fighting with hardcore criminals, politicians, street goons, alcohol and drugs mafias and so on from last 25-30 years.

I would like to tell my dear cynical writers or intellectuals that you are right theoretically and on book but the story is different on the ground. Our most intelligent political strategist of all the time, Acharya Vishnugupta (also Known as Chanakya or Kautilya) who moved the reign of Alexander and his forces out of India and united the nation which was split in to so many kingdoms, all were obsessed with their selfishness and false pride. In the process of throwing out the selfish kings, Chanakya was discussing an unusual plan with a dismissed Senapti (Boss of soldiers). The soldier argues with Chanakya that if the way followed is wrong, it can impact the destination. Chankya replied to him “The way for good intention can be wrong for the time being. Whatever is wrong today, can be seen as a correct step if today is seen as history considering tomorrow as future.” The point is “What is wrong or right is time dependent. The step which looks doubtful today can have different view when tomorrow will look in to today as history.

I doubt that such intellectuals would have surely raised the question mark on Leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabh Patel, Lal Bahadur Shastri etc if they would have been asked to give their opinion. I would again like to say that you are correct in your point of view. But another point is that the hold and influence of criminals, goons and insensitive politicians is so big that the voice of honesty is immediately lost.  I would like to know the intellectuals view on the Kakori Cospiracy, throwing of bomb by Bhagat Singh and his friends in the assembly, Civil disobedience movement by Gandhi, Quit India Movement, the way of revenge for the murder of Lala Lajpat Roy, formation of INA by Subhash Chandra Bose, the way Saradar Vallabh Patel combined about 600 small kingdoms in to India.  

                          

Some of the intellectuals have also pointed out that we should hit on the root cause i.e. we should not accept and give bribe. With respect I completely agree on these words. I have already written in my previous article with the subject “Who is corrupt me or You..? Here the conclusion is either I am corrupt or you are corrupt which in turn makes India a corrupt Nation.

Here I would like to quote one sentence from Chanakya’s Niti “A kingdom or country cannot flourish well, if there is no provision of strict punishment for wrong doers, if there is not any sense of fear among the individuals before doing anything wrong”.

 There will be many who listens and talks about morality and honesty but the same is not reflected in their deeds. With time, power and chance, greed and intense personal selfishness can also overtake in human’s life. Such traits of human character cannot be ignored and hence there should be provision of punishment to bring fear for wrong act to be done out of evil desires. Talking about today, the influence of greed and individualism is very huge, the person who makes laws does not think for a second in bending the law. The politicians, hardcore criminals, person with power and political influence do not have fear of the law of land and do not think even for a second also in taking law in to their hand. They do not have any fear if they want to kidnap, murder or to threat someone. We can see when policemen go to arrest a person from economically poor background; they will enter in his house without permission and will drag him out and push them in their jeep. But when the same policemen go to arrest a rich person, he will go with arrest warrant and with respect he will be put on the vehicle. There are about thousand of laws in India but still all Indians are not equal before law. Many in this revolution were shouting that we need change in the system not in the government. A system where everyone should be treated equal.

Vishnugupta was the greatest diplomat, a great laureate of economics and a great social planner. He was born in India and united the nation politically and economically. He made India free from selfish rulers and made Chandragupta as only one king of India. Some even say that the American defence system follow the Chanakya’s strategy in the organization of their army. They also learn the war technique given by Chanakya. But today the birth place and land of Chanakya is devoid of good system where there will be uniformity of laws for all.

Now I want to conclude with the hope that pessimistic intellectuals should get a sense of ground realities of India.  This is not the time to point out the fingers and unnecessarily creating controversies and in delaying what India need to be a happy and prosperous country. We all should stand and provide our contributions in whatever form we can to see a happy, developed, shining and corruption free India.

JAI HIND                                                                                                            JAI BHARAT                                 

                                                                

RAMLILA MAIDAN: Witness of Shameful act against Black Money

It was just about 3’o’ clock in the morning of 5^th June, 2011; I was about to shut down my laptop and go to bed. As I started closing each of the open windows on my system, I noticed that the page of Times of India was flashing the news on the top as “Police in huge numbers entered Ramlila Maidan to evacuate the Ramdev’s followers from the ground.” I shut down the system and right away opened the TV set. Each news channel was doing the live coverage of how the policemen were removing our fellow countrymen who went there in the optimism that their huge presence will force government to bring some of the black money to India. I saw the people struggled a lot to prevent the police to catch Baba, when police were coming near to them they gathered their energy reciting Vande Matram and Bharat Mata Ki Jai.

I saw their eyes were indicative of being woken up suddenly in the middle of sleep. When policemen tried to touch women, some of them pushed them back and some pointed fingers to the police and shouted “Don’t touch us (hath mat lagao). But when men replied in the same way, they got the blows of sticks (lathi). People were moving here and there shivering and sweating terrifically, some sat silent without talking to police. When some followers became aggressive, Baba tried to control them. Baba was asking the followers to sit quietly wherever they are standing. He was asking them not to rush. People were drinking water in sip and passing the bottles to their unknown countrymen. After some time Baba was arrested and followers started to move out from the ground. Some ladies and gentleman who remained adamant not to move out from the ground were forcefully moved out.

After watching all this I went to sleep around 6’o’ clock in the morning, but on the bed also same pictures were coming in front of me.  I thought what if I were also one among them; sleeping in the midnight after fasting for the whole day and someone comes and awakes me rudely in midnight with stick and foot, I would have surely retaliated with whatever I would have got in my hand. How the Police Commissioner took this foolish decision? How he thought that everyone present in the crowd will behave in a Ghandian manner? How he assumed that none from the crowd will retaliate and no one will do any sort of mischief? There were chances of big stampede. May be the Commissioner was acting on the orders from the government i.e. the order to evacuate the ground fully before the sunrise at any cost.

Almost all Indians are ashamed and fed up with the widespread corruption in our country. All know that behind every corruption and corrupt people, there is direct or indirect back up from mighty people of our system. No one dares to fight against the powerful corrupt system, we all whisper with each other only. But Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare turned this whisper in to a loud voice and dared to fight against the powerful corrupt system and people. Sensing the impact and finding people on the streets against the anti graft crusade, the mighty government decided to crush the movement and to stop more people to have their physical presence against the corruption and black money. Our government found that Ramdev has taken the permission to hold Yoga Camp only and not to gather people on one platform against the anti corruption movement. Using this loop hole in the process, they crushed the movement ruthlessly and sent a sense of fear among those who are thinking to raise their voice against Corruption and Black Money.

On the same day, I woke up around 10’o’clock and found that all the news channels have made this as their first breaking news (Out of every news as breaking news). For couple of days this was the hottest topic of discussion on the all the news channels. But the strange thing is that immediately media and people started to point out the mistakes in the Ramdev’s agitation. The followings are the main points which were discussed on the news channels against the Baba’s movements:

1.  Baba fled away wearing woman dress and leaving his followers to face the police atrocities.

2.The wealth built by Baba Ramdev in short span of time.

3.The stage shared by some leaders who are supposed to involve in communal activities in some period of time 

           4. A Guru should be confined to his own area of interest i.e. Sanyas  and teachings.

      5. Wearing saffron colour and sitting on Dharna.

We indeed have the attitude to find out only the mistakes and drawbacks as a first thing instead of appreciating the efforts taken and sacrifices done. When a person earns name and fame, then we try to pull out by finding some of his mistakes and misdeeds done either intentionally or happened by mistake. There is a common example, we all would have heard that when a white cloth is pasted on a wall with a small black dot in the centre, then people will mainly discuss about the black spot, forgetting that the area under black colour is far smaller than the area under white colour. The individual making such comments forget or does not know that Baba Ramdev travelled all over India for more than 1 year to make people aware about corruption and black money.

 

I am not a big fan or devotee of Baba Ramdev but I really like the way he brought up the Indian Yoga and ancient Ayurvedic treatment to the forefront of the world. He dreamt to make people rid of all the disease without spending huge money in hospitals. Hospitals and doctors can be visited only on fractures and accidents. He dreams India should rely more on indigenous (Swadeshi) techniques. He proved that aerated soft drinks are similar to toilet cleaner like Harpic. He encourages all to go for fruit juices, milk, curd etc instead of the cold drinks like Pepsi and Coke.  He tells that one day people will move towards Indian values.

 

Coming to his criticism which people make against him are:

           1. Baba ran away disguised in woman’s dress: The common approach to squash any revolution is to crush the main leader associated with it. U.S.A spent in billions to kill Osama Bin Laden, Sri Lanka claimed its win on LTTE only when they found the body of the leader Prabhakran. The death of Jay Prakash Narayan, and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose brought a sudden end to the revolution associated with them. Hence, the strategy to save the spirit of revolution is to save the leader from the oppressor at any cost. This is supreme expectations from followers to make their leader safe at any cost without bothering for their own life first. Hence, any form of disguise is fully acceptable to save the leader from atrocities.   

      2.The wealth built by Ramdev in small span of time: No one will deny the fact that Baba became famous in a very small span of time as so many people got the benefits from his Yoga and Ayurvedic treatment. Baba started to manage the spread of Yoga and Ayurvedic products all over the world without any advertisement cost. The ease and quickness with which he reached to the people led to the quick emergence of his yogic and Ayurvedic Empire. This does not seem strange at all, there are instances where numerous MNC companies entered in India and built huge wealth in a very small width of time. Depending on how fast, they reached to the large consumer base of India, they built their wealth quickly. Today the government has ordered CBI to inquire the criminal records, Income Tax department to find out missing tax and other departments for other purposes in the Baba’s empire. Definitely they will get some loop holes to knock down this man from the heart of his followers. Even if the government goes against India’s big companies like Reliance, Infosys, Wipro; they can surely get the loopholes their also to prosecute them, if the intention is to find out the loop holes.

     

            3.Baba Ramdev’s crusade against corruption is political and communal:  Many journalist and news channels pointed the presence of Sadhavi Pitambhra as a communal face in this crusade as she is supposed to be involved in Babri Masjid Demolition case. Some even suggested that Baba should have come in white dress instead of Saffron one.  Sometimes I do not understand why all the group like RSS, ABVP, Vivekananda Trust, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal, VHP etc which have Hindu ideology and culture are always attacked as communal organization by our government. If Hindus and organizations with Hindu ideology are really having communal motive, then India would not have been a secular country for so long since independence. India is a secular country and it’s not because of Indian law and constitution but because Hindus are in majority here. Anyway, here I want to say that what if I am a criminal or murderer. I may have my own personal motive behind my personal involvement towards any unwanted incident.

Does all this make me out of the involvement in any process which is for the betterment of India? Does this snatch my right or duty to make India free of corruption?

 4.  A Guru should be restricted to his Sanyas or teaching only: We all are taught that for us the prestige of country stands first and then our religion or any personal duties or desires. If our country is in shambles, none of our job is better or bigger than working for the nation. Those who say that only the politicians have the duty to think about the betterment of nation and rest of the Indians should make themselves confined in their work should go back in to the history of India and find out who made India free of the Britishers. I remember the dialogue of Sunny Deol from a Hindi Movie Indian in which he loudly says that I am an Indian first, when his colleagues remind him that he is on his duty and taking such action is against his uniform or duty.

There were Sathi Pratha, Prada System , Child Marriage, Untouchablity etc as major threats of the society like corruption in modern India. These evils also retarded the growth of the some section of the society as the corruption does today. Reformers like Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayananda, Rajaram Mohan Roy, Vidyasagar and many others came forward and they travelled deep down the villages and almost eradicated the evils from the society. Though there were government laws, no one can forget the contributions of those swamis and reformers which proved more fruitful than the legal action of the government.

There is no point in saying that Baba should remain limited to his particular job only and just to see the degradation of the country as a mere spectator even though he can do something at his level. If the country is under threat, the first and foremost duty of every Indian is to save the country from threat and then only the individual want comes.

Whatever I said above may not be ample and digestible for some of the readers. I know you would have concluded that I am biased and have leaning towards Baba Ramdev. I would like to agree that I really like this sanyasi from other sanyasis or spiritual gurus who merely talks on their subjects only and avoid commenting on controversial topics. Baba gives clear opinion on whatever he believes right or wrong instead of just giving a diplomatic answer and avoiding the controversial topic.

Even if someone is against Baba Ramdev, thinking some of his actions are questionable and he is not the fit person to lead India against such a movement, then one should know that he is not asking for the support of his personal motive. This fight is against the corruption and Black Money. A fight in which all will be benefitted if won. A fight in which India and Indians will gain if won. Better not to divert the issue by unnecessary calling it a political and communal. This is the time someone dared to fight against the mighty corruption and corrupt people. We all need to support and the support should not be only in the form of sending sms, giving miscalls, clicking the like button on facebook, simply registering on the particular website to show our support. Sitting in the home and doing these activities will hardly make an impact. Our physical presence is required. We need to show up on the streets, the way people have shown their presence on the fast of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev.

There is a proverb that evil will not go easily, they will fight back. We should not lose our patience and think that our countrymen who are in power have crushed our movement and we are no more in position to fight with the powerful corrupt people of the government. May be we are only one step behind the success. Aim should not be lost; we need to fight with more vigor and strength.

We all have to fight this war. This is the same issue which we have discussed in our school and college days and felt ashamed for our country. This is the same issue on which we have got several sms and chain mails with the conclusion that India is low and inferior in comparison to other countries. This is the same issue on which several cartoonists have drawn their cartoons and several students would have written the essays. Several IAS Aspirants would have given their opinion and would have written in long.

This is the same issue which has been highlighted in almost 30% of our Bollywood movies.

Let’s not stop. Let’s not discuss who is right Annaji or Ramdevji. Let’s not think of their integrity and history. Let’s provide them energy by our support, mostly physical. As they are demanding strict action against the corrupt and culprits, so they will also fall on the same axe if they are also the culprit and their intention is different than what they are saying.