Shilpa Shetty saga continues ........

What a career Shilpa Shetty had; from cheated love character of Baazigar to doctorate degree from Leeds University. I appreciate her for achieving that, carefully orchestrated by her mother, the things which all parent would love to do if they can. Well, Shilpa and her mother used the newly achieved fame to the fullest extent and painted Dr. Shilpa Shetty as ambassador for all South Asian community, basically people from India and Pakistan, around the World (well, if I could put that way) including the largest population in Britain. Top of that they have appointed media publicity Guru Max Clifford from London to bag western media programme opportunities in Europe and US which would fetch large fortune. I’m sure she is riding a high horse of achievement and enjoying the breeze of success at the moment. Obviously it is an evidently envious career any second grade actress of Bollywood would like to have at any point of time in life. I think, she as a business woman got an opportunity to make lots of fortune and she grabbed it at right moment and in right way, for which I’m happy for her and we all should be with lots of appreciation.

Shilpa Shetty had done a wonderful job in Big Brother reality show to hide her emotion when few members of the house had erupted on her which was more a cultural thing than racist. I would think, racism was either to very less extent or not at all there in the slur she had received in the house. I also thought Shilpa didn’t deserve that kind of treatment from fellow house mates while she has been very good to everyone in the house with more tolerance displayed in her attitude. Of course it was part of character displayed by most of the Indians to ignore or being non-confrontational which helped her a lot in this case. She was mentioning in the Big Brother house that she is in front of the camera, so I think, she was quite conscious of the image she was showing public which means she was still acting in that house while others trying to win the contest by being themselves.

I was not surprised when she won Big Brother contest and there were too many things involved. (1) The problems faced by Shilpa had taken in the context of racism by large South Asian community in Britain and complaints had been lodged on Big Brother show organizers based on the Human Rights. I was not surprised again as large part of the South Asian community face at some point of time an attitude of ignorance or an attitude of separation from British. Although large proportion of British are tolerant to have a mixed culture, British, well at least from my point of view, have a large reservation and skepticism towards other culture and do not like changes in society which I call “conservatism”; shows proud of being British, carrying on the British culture and preserve the British social ways. Obviously that create some kind of protection wall in society separating the main British from migrants which is well hidden in business and work. It is bit too difficult to predict what British would like to see the future society as; but I can see the social changes happening before even they start taking a particular stand on it and it will happen again and again around the world as there are no set rules for metamorphosis of society. As general rule of thumb immigration happens towards the financial centers i.e. where there is work and more money. So the question of social division takes more prominence in those regions (2) British had seen history of racist Nazi violence resulted in World War 2 in which it had suffered a lot (this comment is from the European point of view and of course it changes when we think from the Indian point of view where British were acting Imperialist at the same time). And the opposition they had put up for Nazi agenda racial inequality made them to take a same stand in the case of “portrayed” racial attack on Shilpa. (3) Political leaders took a stand in favor of Shilpa for the same reason as former, but it gave a very good publicity due to the media tracking them at all points (4) Sympathy of public on Shilpa who seem to have battered for no important reason was high and good enough consideration as well (5) Shilpa played her card right by saying “If this is what current British society is, then I’m too afraid and fearful” which took lot of attention of the public who are against the usual racism. (6) Obviously, last but not least, beautiful Bollywood item girl has put her cast on many youngsters who opted to vote for her.

At the time we shower all that name, fame and fortune for Shilpa, I don’t quite agree with awarding her doctorate in any case. To be honest with you, I’m against the award for any young Bollywood film actors / actresses as their achievement in the field of cinema is not outstanding. It is obviously shameful for other worth doctorate awardees who has put in tremendous effort and deserved it throughout. My thoughts are definitely bitter against current Bollywood cinema actors / actresses / directors / story writers etc who really do very little for betterment of society in terms not really trying to show the issues of society in the more knowledgeable and in humorous way. All Bollywood cinema is about the glorifying the evil and a show of superman hero who can do and know all; along with women being used as sex symbols which has deteriorated the quality of cinemas as well as sending the wrong message to the society. Bollywood, well other than very few, isn’t making any effort to bring the social issues, family issues, national issues etc in humorous way to create a memorable and high impact subject. To me, Bollywood has lost the path and it is trying to put new wine in old bottle (If you are not a wine taster, more older the wine better is the taste) and is effecting the young individuals to follow wrong path by showing something which is very far from reality. I do not think, Shilpa has achieved anything yet in cinema; as I think, she has been reduced from acting icon of Bollywood to item girl dancing with very less clothes before getting the Big Brother opportunity. The handful of cinemas she has acted on, as she admits in Big Brother prize ceremony, hasn’t got her any awards which means she hasn’t been noted by any selectors in any section of cinema for better work. Now suddenly a university thinks she has achieved a great deal knowledge and has done considerable service to the cinema field and award her a degree; which not only dent the credibility of that university; it will do a great harm to the public not to go on the quest of doctorate.

Well, end of the day, she is Dr. Shilpa Shetty now, I think she will have to put herself in the level of the doctorate to honor the qualification given to her. She must start addressing issues like race relation between South Asian community and European community; also helping the society back in Mumbai where she has come from. I’m sure there will be many organization who would like to help her to extend her social service rather taking input from me ;-). But, I would be very disappointed if she continue act as a real business woman for her own benefits and go on enjoying the name, fame and fortune she has attained and she would be back in to the Bollywood item number in no time with failure in achieving the expectations of people to whom she claim as ambassador in the western society and back in home. I hope she has the heart and wit to win over public by honoring the doctorate which was achieved without any significant effort. Can she win the public over outside the Big Brother house?

Letter of (Mahatma) Gandhi

I read in BBC about a significant letter allegedly written by Mr. M.K. Gandhi (Mahatma) before his death, has been put up for sale in an auction. I felt, well, worth a piece for any wealthy to hold it as a monument and boast about all the richness he can show the public. I definitely thought for a moment it must be very significant because of its time proximity being close to the cruel assassination. I wondered, what the news would be in Indian media and government reaction attached to it. Well, I expected there will be some out roar in parliament zero hour to discuss about the letter and formulate a diplomatic mission to acquire it through request to British government.

I was pretty surprised again when BBC reported that the auction has been called off and a deal has been settled between Indian authorities (Nehru memorial museum) and seller (auctioner) for an undisclosed amount. I thought at the moment the amount will be disclosed in Indian media anyway. My assumption was proven completely wrong and the “undisclosed amount” was completely left to anybody’s guess work. Hmm…. Why secrecy though. Why Government acted on this letter hiding transaction details? I surely don’t know …….. but I wonder why.

Argument sake, was it a letter owned by Government of India? Surely not. If it is, it would have been with the Government long before it was disclosed in an auction house. It could have been owned by any one close to Mr. Gandhi and for making big bucks kept it for long time and sold to westerner. Considering the letter was kept at an opening value of £12,000; a good amount of money has been taken by the original owner. But why Government of India thought that a letter with no important details should be bought by a western seller using tax payers money. It could be for the reason of preserving Mahatma’s legacy on Indian soil. But the question is; has all Mahatma legacy been preserved by Government of India considering volume of information is already available. If we look at the following link from National Gandhi Museum there is lot of manuscripts already available in there.

http://www.gandhimuseum.org/papers.html

Most of the documents are related to freedom struggle of India which makes sense to keep them for future generations. So, what extent would these authorities go to collect all papers related to Freedom struggle ……. Well, at some point it should be stopped as these heritage building process is not profit making. Moreover, the letter of Gandhi obtained recently has nothing to do with freedom struggle of India. I think, such documents should be targeted by biography authors rather Government bodies. Again, why government secretly acted upon to acquire this letter.

Hmm …my wild guess is to preserve the legacy of ruling Congress government and its policy of minority appeasement. The letter’s content involve a appeal to Muslim friends to support the Urdu edition of his publication Harijan, after realizing the it has to cease due to dwindling demand. Refer to the link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6262288.stm

So Government thought it is an important document to preserve the Muslim votes and didn’t think a lot to spend any amount of money from tax payers pockets.

Congress is one of largest party in India but it hangs so much on Gandhi legacy for propaganda and do exactly opposite in its actions in terms of not promoting the equality by appeasing the minority. Protecting Indian Muslims at the time of partition was necessity and elite witty politician like Mr. Gandhi had realized it well. But in this time, Indian muslims, well any Indian for that matter, do not need protection rather need equal opportunities than social division based on the religion. I think, Indian can feel Nationalism when promoted at highest level by showing equality and uniform identity. I think what we need is feeling as Indian rather Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian; faith can provide an identity in spiritual level of realization but not at the level of national unity. Would this be sensed by any mainstream political parties of India? Sooner the better, Hope makes life more interesting isn’t it?

Nandigram and Communist Government

Communists showed their true colour in West Bengal by ordering a firing on protesting farmers who were against the ‘land grabbing procedure’ (SEZ) of the state government. Communists made friendship with landlords to kill poor farmers fighting for their rights to own the land on which they work. East of the country has always been influenced by the Communism supported by major communist forces like Soviet Union and China to enhance communism in the world. The pseudo-communists of India never became the ‘real’ communists neither did they showed tendency to call themselves democrats even though principles of democracy adopted by each of them to come under the constituency of Republic of India. The communism according to me is just ‘name sake’ in India to garner support of the trade unions, labours, farmers and so called oppressed, by using the communism definitions to their advantage and dancing to the tunes of industrialists in the name of providing Special Economic Zone to the public.

At the same time, I do think that democracy works only in the root level and once the elected government start functioning, it solely works on the points based on the principles and agendas of party leaders or the committee of leaders trying to push the needs of the party. Now, wait a minute, is it not a main building block working structure of communist state where policies are owned by the committee sitting at the top rank. So where do we find the difference in democratic governments and communists in India. Well, that is the million dollar question we are trying to find answers to understand whether public work for the betterment of a state or state work for betterment of a public. To my understanding, we the Indian people see a government whose policies are not controlled by the people themselves i.e. irrespective of whether people support the policy or not, the elected government can bring on the legislatures it think is right. Wow, pretty interesting isn’t it? India work on a semi-authoritarian rule by the political parties irrespective of the principles of the formation of party and all a political party want is a term of 5 years from people.

Now back to Nadigram, the elected government in West Bengal has been ‘bought’ by the industrialists to grab a land to develop a manufacturing factory at a key zone where access to sea for delivery of the goods is easy. Now, what it may come it is totally determined to get the land from farmers by paying them sub standard cost of the land. These industrialists could have taken a waste land to develop the zone which shall help in spreading the population from city and also can produce developments across the state to distribute evenly the benefits of booming economy. But all they wanted is easy and key zone of Nandigram and determined to get it by all means possible on this earth. And the communist government was ready to provide all that help to oppress the backbone of the party, the farmers. The farmers in India consider their land as a life insurance to be used for the future of the family. Farmers may suffer from not getting the rain but cannot suffer from the degradation that may bring by not owning the land. So some farmers were determined to fight until death and that was what rewarded by the government.

Some political parties seizing the opportunity to support the farmers just because they stay in opposition and I wouldn’t expect them to behave differently if they were in power. However, the consolation is there is some one for the farmers to keep their hopes of winning against the cruel leaders. There is another group supporting the farmers, those are Maoists, I think they are more dangerous than anyone else considering their back ground, principle and the way they fought in Nepal which is almost similar way Mao seized the power from nationalists in China. Indians do not want that kind of armed and class struggle which may bring mayhem to own countrymen irrespective of the political leanings they have and the class they belong to.

Now what could be done to help the farmers of Nandigram. To be honest with you there is no way out. I can see central government come in as a saviour and make life much worse for the farmers. Central Congress government is supported by the communists and hold key positions in the central government. It is all up to the morality of industrialists who can learn by mistakes and transform themselves from being imperialists to the true industrialists where they take responsibility of developing land that provided them the profit and people who worked towards it. At the same time farmers are in desperate situation and not in position to do anything other than sacrificing themselves. Is that the future holds for the poorest amongst us?

Ugly face (phase?) of terror

I was actually working on another blog and I couldn’t resist myself writing on terror attack stuck on the innocent people of Mumbai at the busy hour of evening 11/7/06. It is not only inhuman and barbaric characters of terrorists made me wicked, but also the attitude of Government, opposition, Home minister, Defence minister, State Chief minister and authorities dealing aftermath. I, by publishing a small piece of article in my blog page, show condolences to all those who lost the loved ones in the blast and show solidarity in their will to live the spirit of Mumbai. I salute all those heroes lost their lives for the national calamity in the form of ugly terrorism who are no less than any soldier serving motherland. I take this opportunity to pay my tribute to all those people directly and indirectly affected by the ugly phase of the terrorism for nearly two decades.

I was shocked by the attitude portrayed by the Prime minister, Home minister, Defence minister and State Chief minister’s press release which was as if to show “Oh God not again” and trying their best to escape the gruelling questions of media reporters. It was horrible to see Railway minister trying to conceal the situation by announcing compensation for the dead and injured straight away as if some money can bring back the loss. Those I mentioned must come out of their black cat security and think for couple of seconds and I’m sure they are not same again. I think, the Governments so far have been very soft, inactive and to the utter shame only reactive towards terrorists for ‘unknown’ reasons. It is a complete failure from point of Government, intelligence agencies, police and all the administration responsible for running the Mumbai trains. Ofcourse, much to blame on the Government and their rolled dice security advising committees existing just for the sake of profession and for the functioning body of administration. Definitely Government lack the brave ministers of calibre Mr. Lal Bahadur Shastry and Mrs. Indira Gandhi who could drive the nation to the last resort solution such as war for the dignity of the country and for the sake of suffering countrymen. On the other hand opposition trying their best to utilise the situation to get more support and again blaming on Pakistan and International Governments for not doing its bit in completely removing the terrorism and putting pressure on Pakistan to remove it. Military and intelligence agencies have clear indication of ISI support, training and logistics to terrorists and aware of the positions of the camps and other training infrastructures across the border in Pakistan. However it is difficult to understand why Government believe on Pakistan to do its bit for the saving our country from the havoc created by terrorists. I do think it is safe for Government to do so to pass on responsibilities to another Government (in this case Pakistan, nucleus of global terrorism) shedding crocodile tears for the loss and laugh at the stupidity of our Government behind. We and we alone can help ourselves to solve the problems of our country and no one else anywhere. If we public understand that why not Governments; can they take this blast to highest ever priority and behave for the sake of public.

Pakistan as usual expressed condolences and condemned the bomb blast by deeply denying the involvement. Well, not new isn’t it, we all have heard it before. Pakistan doesn’t consider Kashmir as an issue, it is a guarantee for their territorial sovereignty. Nothing in this world can satisfy Pakistan like CBM, trade, support during national disaster other than having Kashmir as complete state in their country. It is better India understand that as quickly as it can and do whatever required quickly as it can to safeguard the security of citizen from the ugly face of terror. Pakistan has supported the Kashmiri youth militia which herself has created to fight India within, morally and supplied everything possible like military equipments, training, explosives etc to terrorise innocent people. Various terror organisations have supported these youth militia by various means though the agenda of former has nothing to do with the latter. So the current phase of the terrorism in India may not be the Kashmiri youth fighting for the separate land but can be drawn comparison to the train bombings happened in Madrid and London. The communal riots occurring in India is also not helping as all terror organisations use it for recruiting many innocent people, brainwash and train them to kill innocent people. All the communities in India have suffered from the communal riots which must be understood by the public and should be aware of those recruiters who do not have any regard for the life of innocent people of any country.

Indian public obviously understand the weak governance at New Delhi and seek answers from them for such attitude and demand to be tough against the terrorists and all those support them. Being tough in my opinion is not only trying to transfer responsibility to another country for fight against the terrorism we facing, it is our military need to take the proper action and bring all those responsible for the terror to justice. We, the Indian citizens need to have soldier like attitude to fight the unknown enemy and be alert at all the time. For that we must have compulsory military training for a year or so during our education, in order to get trained to tackle the situations like blasts in future. I’m sure military training could bring the discipline every individual need and more importantly it eradicates the social class to bring multi ethnic groups together. We have seen during the blasts it was only people helping each other and we couldn’t see any paramedics, ambulance, police or any other authorities trying to control the situation. Having military training can atleast solve that problem I think, where people are trained enough to handle tough situation like those. But I’m very surprised that our authorities and administration had no clue what so ever to deal with it which is definitely not acceptable and must be trained to do so immediately. Another phenomenon took my interest where Hindi Cinema actors and actresses trying their best to steal the lime light by travelling on trains very next day of the blast. I think we expect them to be more sensible and helpful to the society by which they are in the position where they are now. It is just not entertainment (is it really?) we expect from them where they make thick money and leave the poor alone at the needy time to the fate of weak governance. I’m sure we all do expect lot from them for the life they are leading in the very city which gave them such status. To be honest with you, these are things which make me feel the worthiness of matinee idol worship we have been doing for few decades.

India must show strong response to the terrorists by having foreign ministry to be more and more tougher towards the countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh for their involvement in supporting the terror organisations. The foreign ministry must be very selective in the Confident Building Measurements and if need be, stopped altogether until terrorism is completely eradicated. There is no point in “confidence building” if there is no trust on other party’s honesty in application of those measurements, Also, Indian Government at once must deploy and mobilise the troops for the war needs to be ready for action at times like these. I’m sure that should stop most of the infiltration attempts and logistical support from Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan are nuclear capable but at the same time we are better off having the sufferings without the enemy than enemy killing us bit by bit.

Jammu and Kashmir: Proxy war and ethnic cleansing

I have been thinking since long time to write about the place once being recognised as paradise of India, its strategic importance in Indian foreign policies and brief study on political issues plaguing the region. The subject has multi dimensional facets with never ending complexity to create tallest hurdles in the path of peace for the people who most of the time felt betrayed by very entity controlling the situation including Government of India. Out of many critical issues surrounding the problem two occupy most important positions are proxy war started in early 90s and ethnic cleansing just after some time when proxy war proved ineffective in attaining the goal. However as you see in any of the war torn areas of the world, Jammu and Kashmir without any exception, had people suffering as never before to struggle and earn the daily bread than it used to be. The youth found themselves in the door steps of unemployment just as the same time state couldn’t attract any investments from public and private sectors. The children and teens couldn’t get any education from crippled education system resulting in people unable to understand the situation they are in thus being victim of “brainwashers” and losing the pace with self development compared to rest of the country. Well, as expected, condition of such a State, none other than a total halt in political, economical, social and industrial development resulting in overall failure. Let us try to analyse the situations under which a renowned and most familiar paradise on tip of India became a living hell not only for the people of Jammu and Kashmir also for whole India. I shall, in below explanation, try unfolding the history and trail of errors and political reasons responsible for the problem whole of South Asian region facing today as I understand and put forward a analytical study in best of my knowledge.

Jammu and Kashmir as gifted by Mother Nature lies on foothills of Himalaya Mountains giving it a most beautiful landscapes and picturesque natural land surrounded by web of canals. The cold weather in the region with abundant rain created a bed of green pasture covered with beautiful flowers of all kinds in the valley as well as other region. People in Jammu and Kashmir had a blend of mixed religion with Muslims more concentrated in Kashmir valley, Hindus and Sikhs in Jammu region, were living harmoniously just as other parts of secular India. There were minority Kashmiri Pandits and Sikhs living among majority Muslims in the valley though the culture was totally different from each other including the religious practice. As usual the cold Jammu and Kashmir region was considered as Hill station relaxation centre for the rest of India where temperature in summer could sore up to 40 degree Celsius. So the region became the perfect tourist place and tourism has become the main industry for people for earning daily bread. Different service sectors sprung up to provide satisfactory requisites to the tourists creating thousands of jobs in tourism sector for the locals. House boats and Shikaras became the unique and famous part of Jammu and Kashmir culture thus creating an identity across various tourist spots. The point is; people of Jammu and Kashmir were proud of the geographical location they were living in, which is tip of India and had learnt to serve the needs of tourists from all over India and abroad of various religion and culture creating a peaceful and secular society thus building unique Paradise on earth.

Let us look back at the time before the independence of India during the Maharaja reins and British ruling India with iron fists with less power to the common man. Traditionally the people of Jammu and Kashmir were very hard working predominantly in farming, peace loving and religious in nature whatever the faiths being followed by them. As I described earlier people were living very harmoniously under the Hindu Maharaja ruling the Jammu and Kashmir. However when major political movement was started in North West of India lead by Mr. Mohammed Ali Jinnah for the so called Muslim cause, there were few strains showed by majority Muslims of the state. Initially the problems were related mainly to financial issues which didn’t take long time to get the religious colour with the biased questions raised on a Hindu Maharaja ruling a Muslim majority state. However Maharaja was resourceful enough to tackle the problems with the help of British forces guarding the security of Maharaja and his people. The reason behind the security provided by the British forces to any Princes in India is of very interesting but not in the scope of this article. The agitation of majority Muslims continued until British left India leaving the new land ‘Pakistan’ issue to solve between Congress and Muslim league. Congress leaders took the stand of separate land for Muslims though the policy of secularism is high in the agenda of it in newly independent country. The events like ‘Direct action day’ call of Mr. Jinnah gave people a reason for securing the land for Muslims in the North West of India and in east in the name of East Pakistan. I think that was the biggest mistake ever committed by the Congress and Muslim league leaders who should bear the responsibility for problems in Jammu and Kashmir in years to come. The idea of division itself was an unwise and hasty thought considering the minority problems in both the parts. It would be impossible task to migrate the minority communities from both the countries considering the imprudent idea of Pakistan for Muslims and India for Hindus as well as other religious communities. However, number of ‘Direct Action Day(s)’, a kind of civil war managed to create carnage in both sides of country leaving behind the problems to solve for next many generations in both the countries. However, Indian administration decided to create a secular country which made sense, asked all Muslims staying in Indian region to live as they are. The partition obviously had a tremendous effect in the Muslim majority regions of Jammu and Kashmir as well. Maharaja tried his best to contain the problem but when the miscreants created havoc in the region, he helplessly asked Indian military for a help. Indian administration mainly lead by Congress leaders (handled by home mister Mr. Vallabh Bhai Patel) took the opportunity and tried an intelligent pact with Maharaja that if he is willing to join his hands with Indian administration by joining his region with the Republic of India the military will be sent to save his public and himself. Maharaja having no choice in front of him took the help of Indian army to push back the attackers trying to occupy the region from North West Frontier Province. But it was too late and one third of hilly region was already occupied by the miscreants in the name of Pakistan. But military had the ability to regain the region occupied but the first Prime Minster of Republic of India Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru took the decision of handing over the case to United Nations which I think mainly because of gaining the support of all nations in the world for newly created, democratic and secular ‘NEW’ India which was another mistake of typical Congress leader.

Islamic state of Pakistan on the other hand failed to produce secular and democratic society and came under the rule of army generals for most of her tenure after independence from British. The army generals just for the sake of gaining the public popularity kept the fire of hatred burning between two countries and state of Jammu and Kashmir became the pawn in the hands of generals who were in true sense gamblers in disguise. There were enough communal violence between Muslims and Hindus, Sikhs in the region of North West India created a permanent scar in the minds of people not only in that region but all over the countries of India and Pakistan. Some one had to pay the price for the game being played by army generals and of course did public of Pakistan and citizens of Jammu & Kashmir, former waiting for the never lasting democratic rule. The paradise state was not the first target of Pakistan until late 80’s till then there were already two wars fought between India and Pakistan where, in one of the war India managed to separate East Pakistan to be renamed as BanglaDesh. Losing East Pakistan was painful blow for Pakistan’s will to keep the separate regions as single state which made them more determined to occupy the land of Jammu and Kashmir by any means. However, in appropriate time Pakistan had realised the ground realities to clearly identify the capabilities of its forces which could never be better than the mighty Indian army. Army generals of Pakistan wanted to keep hatred alive at any conditions made use of its intelligence wing ISI to produce an army within the Indian region. It was not very difficult for ISI to create militia hating Indian Government in Jammu and Kashmir by brainwashing the agitated youth against the Indian administration. The youth easily fell prey for the game played by ISI and started to create mayhem in the paradise by terrorising the people and Indian army. The youth militia continued the war game started and funded by ISI and other terror organisations that had their own vested interest in keeping the fire of hatred burning against the Indian administration. Thus Pakistan successfully started the proxy war against India in its own territory by raising her own citizens against. Proxy war is a fight involving visibility of single party fighting against the group of guerrilla cells backed secretly by another party for its own interest. In this context visible party is Government of India and secret party is the army of Pakistan governing the troubled state ruled most of the years by army except few years of democratically elected representatives. India, standing tall on the secular grounds, never bent against the demands of militia who wanted a separate country for Kashmir with majority Muslims in the region thinking Pakistan would donate the azad Kashmir to create a unified Kashmir. Indian military never allowed terror militia to succeed completely by curbing their strength at opportune moments and hence maintained the authority of the Jammu and Kashmir with Indian administration thus destroying the intention of Pakistan army and its intelligence agency ISI. However the state of Pakistan continued its support for the terror militia in the desire that one day an army within India shall separate the paradise from India.

It was matter of time, terror organisations were about to change the geo political situations of the world where in governments of all countries would fight against the global terror and people following Islamic faith were put under tremendous pressure to choose between the loyalty towards Islam and tolerance amongst the people following various faiths to create a secular society. It was not late before global terror organisation took complete control of the terror militia in Kashmir in the name of complete autonomy for Kashmiris for those following the Islamic faith to create an Islamic state. ISI started coordinating its supply of weapons, ammunitions and intelligence through terror organisations as well as youth militia of Kashmir thus forming an unbreakable bonding between itself, terror organisations and youth militia of Kashmir. Lack of leadership in youth militia made them slowly converting the terror style from freedom fighting guerrilla warfare to Islamic Jehad through the supporting global terror organisations; making Kashmiri youth just puppets in the hands of those master minds creating terror all over the world, in the name of Islam, hence slowly but steadily changing the phase of war in paradise altogether making life more dangerous in the valley.

As expected Proxy war though a nuisance to administration, couldn’t create required effect in attaining the aim; hence with the help of Islamic militants more effective method for gaining the land was put in practice. Through previous experience of forced migration of minorities during the partition which created a total Islamic state and also with the fundamental intolerance practiced by Jehadi elements, Youth militia were forced to go again for the similar tactics in valley as a next stage of terror. Idea seems to make Kashmir total Islamic region as a first step before trying the creation of independent state of Kashmir or inclusion of Kashmir region with the neighbouring Pakistan. Influenced by Jehadis from Pakistan and Afghanistan, youth militia in Kashmir started organised massacre of Sikh and Pandit communities just to make minorities flee the region; thus starting a unbelievable and terrible process of ethnic cleansing. Tens and thousands of minority public had to leave everything behind in their motherland and went in to camps set up by the Government of India to save themselves and their family from cruel militia. These camps bulged with more and more people in time, deteriorating the conditions inside the camp and made that atmosphere hazardous for the health of children, already facing malnutrition, and aged. Men and women faced all kinds of problems like work, food, health and what not, which made them losing all hope for the future. Nothing was worst for those people than forcing into a condition where they had to leave the home, land and wealth and live in a condition of hell without a promising future for themselves and their future generations. That was the cruelty showed by ethnic cleansing in the region which continued for quite some time before Government opened the eyes and allotted more troops to contain the situation. At this point of time BSF (border security force) guarding the minorities to make sure ethnic cleansing completely removed from the roots and they are quite successful in doing so. That step was important from the Government point of view as it has maintained the secular status since the beginning which doesn’t allow division of society based on the religion at first instance. It secured the high ground stance for Indian foreign ministry in the United Nations where most of the powerful countries are democratic and secular in nature thus weaving a web of suspicion around the Pakistan for not doing enough to secure peace in the region of Jammu and Kashmir. Most of the terrorists found and took part in global terrorism were either originated from Pakistan or at some point stayed there for religious study made its denial of being a nucleus of global terror difficult for United Nations to brush off making secular India more favourable than the neighbouring Pakistan. India, in my view, flourished economically, socially, geologically, and scientifically declaring herself secular though having troubled and divided religious people spread around the country who may not be in millions but neither in countable sums. But I must admit the administration in India does put more effort in securing the policy of unity in diversity, accepting universal policy of “United we stand, divided we fall”.

Would peace return to Jammu and Kashmir ever? Would people of Jammu and Kashmir have a normal life? More importantly would it be paradise again? Answer lies in the hands of Governments of India and Pakistan. Both being the nuclear capable nation it is more important to sort the problems before it gets out of hand; also that is one of the very important reason why developed countries show interest in solving the problem. In my opinion there is no straight forward answer to the solution, however it is important to note that the solution would be decided neither by the Jehadi elements nor by the youth militia. To be honest, I’m not resourced enough to suggest the solution at this point of time. But it is important to have a total, complete Kashmir as a single entity for any solution to be considered. Along with that, proxy war, terrorism and trouble for the public must be totally stopped and removed to make people of all religions to live peacefully as before. In that regard, all responsible parties must put their act together with single intention of making lives easier for public living in that region. Not to forget, what ever the ethnic cleansing happened must be restored in terms of returning the land, job, wealth and future for victims at first instance which is far most important than securing the peace in Jammu and Kashmir to regain the credibility of Government’s stance of secularism in India.

Reservation: Future of India

I was deeply hurt by seeing the plight of youth agitating against the proposed reservation or quota system tabled by Arjun Singh, HRD minister for Govt of India. I, aged 30+ consider myself as one of the representative of Indian youth frustrated seeing same old vote bank politics of Congress and the government formed by that party since the time I started understanding the legislations / policies. The question I ask myself, what good this reservation doing to India in political, financial, social and administrational fronts without any solid answers to satisfy myself. Has the reservation system proved itself to be a boon improving the down trodden, oppressed, financially backward and so called deprived as it claims to be? Let us try to be find answers for all those questions while trying to understand whether future of India (as some times called the youth of India, just to make the similarity or an irony) lies in providing the reservation to section of people.

If I have understood the part of Indian history where British were trying their best to divide India by any means possible, I can say with complete confidence that we have had tremendously bad experience on prioritisation of section of society, which is probably the time 1925 - 1947. British understood clearly that they need support from some section of the people when time comes for them to answer the question if at all they have done any good for Indian sub continent. Who did they find initially, it was non other than those who ruled India considering themselves as Raj of the people for people’s good, the Indian Princes. Why would British make a policy of giving away the Raj they had to Princes when they wanted to have whole subcontinent under their rule. It was a cruel tactic of British to divide Indian mass and their opinion between the Congress and Raj. Also, they wanted Princes to speak for British in all occasion leave alone the appropriate time. But it wasn’t enough for them to create a division which makes easier for them to have control over fighting faction than the unified one. They indeed started finding the alternatives which were abundantly available in the society for uncanny British. Next one was religion, a pretty sensitive subject in India even today. They started taking the sides of minority Muslims of North West Indian subcontinent and East Bengal. We all know what happened by that British tactic which left whole South East Asian sub continent sensitive than ever before considering the geo political situation. As a next move British found the deprived classes within the Hindu religion itself and that created some opportunity for them to divide the masses and create more warring factions within the same community. And it went on and on until British participated in 2^nd world war and until 1947 leaving India for good.

It is not completely wrong that history give us opportunity to learn lessons and some light in the dark tides of unawareness. However it is up to people to consider history to be the lighthouse for their decision particularly for those who make decision for people for their future. Unfortunately it didn’t happen for the people of India when British left India leaving the future of India with Congress leaders who were representing the large section of Indian masses. Rather unifying India abolishing the prioritisation, Congress leaders thought of continuing it for 10 more years and then to make decision based on the facts and figures available later. I think this is a huge mistake on the part of politicians on whom largely the future of nation resides, thus building a platform which has been completely exploited by the next generation of Congress politicians in years to come. It is not hidden truth that Congress leaders at the time of independence didn’t bother much about the media which was short reaching and popular in the city areas. It continued until recently when electronic media took over and made the world smaller. Everything discussed in parliament is being broadcasted now educating people and creating awareness about the legislative process. Public do understand how well their representative in Parliament and can put forward queries through various means. Unfortunately it wasn’t case before 30 – 40 years where a legislation passed / rejected would never reach a common man, giving complete autonomy to legislative body to underestimate the power of people. If that is what was called democracy, then it was complete mockery.

The Government thought that by giving compulsory opportunity to few tribes and castes that are deprived of facilities available to people in improved villages, towns and cities a major change in terms of development is possible in the society. On a peripheral view it looks as a great thought making anyone impossible to deny, however there may be few shortfalls given a more insight to the policy. Firstly, it makes one to have opportunity forcing migration where the facility exists rather making facility available to the geological area where people in need of facility or opportunity. Secondly, there can never be a proper line to divide any community to make them have a facility for improvement. Let us take an example of a region where categorised castes and tribes reside along with the other people. I can confidently say that the plight of other people not belonging to categorised castes and tribes are too indifferent. In such cases, the line of division to be drawn is impossible for any administration to be fair. Thirdly it creates rift and tension between ‘facility reaper’ and common citizens thus creating a permanent damage in the social harmony. Fourthly, the vital ingredient of democracy, the ‘equal opportunity’ takes tumble in the path of realisation and implementation, making it difficult to believe democracy even work that way. Fifthly, the provision for constitution to consider all civilians equally under unequal circumstances (difference in the available opportunity and facility) remain totally false. Sixthly, it kills the drive for success in those people who think we shall get the facility irrespective of whether it was better utilised or under utilised, thus wasting the vital resource of government in terms of tax payers money. Lastly, the most important one is, Indian leadership took such an idea from British government whose main aim is to divide and rule. That is what we saw in next generation leaders, who created a kind of secure vote bank by kept on extending the 10 year provision for prioritisation till today. Long gone British from our land but the policy of ‘divide and rule’ still haunts the Indian public in the mask of selfish, power hungry, greedy and untrustworthy politicians.

Has the section of people receiving facility has improved tremendously, that is question I would like asking the administration hell bent on prioritisation policy. We have an answer in the form of proof to show the area, villages, tribes and castes receiving facility still in the same state as it was before apart from really few exceptions. Where has it gone wrong? The answer is, it has gone wrong in exactly seven points I mentioned in previous paragraph. Added on to those seven points, the resulting corruption took its toll and ruined the plan. There were several implications due to seven points in administrational level resulting in total failure of the policy. Do we still need that policy in place? I would be very tempted to say NO, but the truth is we do need such policies in different form as we shall discuss later. But such policies unfortunately shall stay around until the vote bank politics keep taking the prominence in political front of India. I would hate to leave it on the fate of Indian public who care little understanding the difference between power hunger politics and social service. Politics is all about clinging on to a highest post to reap the benefits of it by any means, is the new meaning of it and never to service the public for the good of society. A good society is sign of healthy development resulting in strong and unified nation, unlike the division which leaves common goal straying all over the place achieving little and causing problems in various sections.

Now back to current reservation proposal by Government which is last nail in coffin. It has reached the peak of it’s unreasoning by allowing scheduled castes and tribes along with other backward castes (OBC) to get more priorities. The OBC has been created by another vote bank idealist to get the continuous support from section of the community. Since our childhood we have seen the reservation for few people in our schools and I’m sure everyone wondered why they are being treated separately. The issue was never a forefront in school because of educational pressures, not understanding the actual reason behind such reservation and lack of unity, information exchange between student unions. Also, all political parties thinking in the similar way of creating their own vote banks never actually put forward formal protest against such bill neither in parliament nor in another platform. That leaves students themselves to handle the complete legislation procedure which they are not experienced of. Unless students form a country wide union inter-related to demonstrate the one voice of protest, the law of land doesn’t allow them to get what they are protesting for; curbing any of the protests using force of police. The problem itself is two fold, firstly the reservation for categorised community in the education and secondly reservation for categorised community in job. It makes extremely difficult for one to understand the real logic behind it stating either benefit should be given during the phase of shaping future (education) or at the job level providing the prioritised selection. Again the job level reservation proves to be catastrophic as it makes the best one not to get the suitable post and the post itself shall be governed by unsuitable person. As I previously explained there must be some form of reservation needed for the country like ours, I guess, it should be more practical to award reservation only during the education and not during the job selection. The current proposal is to award the reservation for higher education institutes like post graduation, IIT and IIM. Again, I try to convince myself really hard to believe that is what the categorised community want in future. Those premier institutes really depend on the skill of pupil who is level higher than the average pupils. It is not difficult to understand in that case whether any one needs reservation at that level tainting the dignity of such institutions. I strongly believe in the opinion that post level graduation must be earned by a particular student who is in best position to decide what exactly needed, than receiving a kind of award for person for being part of categorised community. Is it not a curse on those privileged pupils naturally going to earn that place in premier institutions by a selection procedure? By eliminating privileged pupil from the place he/she really deserve, government is not doing any good to the education system as a whole.

I appreciate the concern expressed by some of the private sector chiefs like Mr. Narayana Murthy, founder member of Infosys technology, Mr. Azim Premji, CEO of Wipro technologies (not very sure about the position at this point of time) and Ratan Tata, owner of Tata group of companies. The concern is about the ability of an individual to manage the task in an organisation to which he is responsible for. Those organisational positions meant to be for right individuals and it cannot be awarded by some kind of set rules as I explained earlier about the problem in such scenarios. The right individual is the perfect match for the responsible position generating revenues for the company and human resources wouldn’t like to jeopardise that by recruiting some one who gets the merit due to categorical distinction based on caste. Also there were objections from various heads of premier institutions like IIM and IIT. Those are welcome move as well, considering the government’s alternate solution of increasing the seats in the premier institutes in order for facilitating the reservation in premier institutes. This Congress government as I said earlier hell bent upon getting the reservation passed as legislation trying all possible methods of getting through just like ‘Everything possible in Love and War’. But it is not practical again, as the head of premier institutions put forward, the dignity and value of those institutions doesn’t remain the same by increasing the number of seats. We must respect the specific views at this point of time including premier educational heads as they stand firm in the best position to understand the situation considering the future of such post graduation. On the other hand, there are some political leaders mainly keep trading the minority, categorised caste cards like Laloo Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan, VP Singh, Mulayam Singh and communists who never think of unified nation, rather try their best for power they want to have in their own state by luring the categorised community for votes. Also all those numerous intermediate associations trying to gather support for the government policy on reservation have their vested interests of various sorts including financial support in getting this policy as legislation.

At this point of time only doctors across the country are protesting against the reservation even though there are numerous incidents of violence against them. Police are acting on peaceful demonstrators violently avoiding any possible way for doctors to execute their civilian right for justice. One end up asking, Is it right for doctors to act while patients being denied of their treatment, a fair argument. However doctors think about the future role in years to come and very well understand the concept of ‘precaution is always better than cure’. They put government in a position to take responsibility for making patients not getting the required treatment thus trying to get the support of public in their fight. Also, if firm protests were not made then there will not remain any chance of negotiations from government considering government reaction for simple vociferous protests. I’m quite convinced that doctors are doing absolutely right in protesting the reservation to protect the future of themselves and next generation post graduates. All they lack is support from various other fronts. To be honest, all major post graduate people must join their hands to make government realise what the mistake they are committing in the name of prioritisation. I would think, people from all profession mainly representing the middle class society must join the hands in protest to protect the rights of themselves and their children in future India. There must be a movement to consider non-payment of taxes to government by the same society from whom all the support for categorised section comes from. Unless there a threat from people in terms of non payment of taxes, disobedience one cannot expect government to act. People should have right to deny the service from government if it proved inefficient in providing the good governance. Just the way a consumer asks for fair trading a civilian must have the right for fair governance. If not, civilian must act to get the good governance by non payment of taxes and civil disobedience.

India has been gaining pivotal importance in the world trade in terms of providing the human resources of very good quality. America and Europe is looking towards India for intellectual service which is financially beneficial considering the world economical state. But India on the other hand is not able to capitalise on it due to the policy of categorised reservation as one of the important issue. What exactly India needs for the overall uniform growth within the nation for bright future of India? Firstly, a uniform civil rights must be put into practice abolishing all types of prioritisation based on caste and tribe. But that, I do not believe shall solve the issues of uniform social growth. I think, planned industrial sectors must be spread across to regions of the deprived society in order for avoiding the concentration of wealth in few regions in the country. An education quota must be available until graduate level to provide education for ONLY poor section of the people irrespective of the caste and tribes they belong to. This shall avoid exploitation of quota and reservation by those categorised castes and tribes who have been taking the benefits even tough they can afford to get those benefits. Secondly, a board must be set up to look at the government policies if at all it is harmful in terms of unity in the society. Any such act of government must be immediately prevented. Election commission too should have a say on such post electoral activity of government as well as pre election promises. Thirdly, post graduate level education must be exempted from reservation for the reasons I explained earlier. Fourthly job allotment must be completely based on merit. Fifthly there must be unions in the field of education, labour, trade, services and any other arena where anything directly related to public, so as to counter the government more effectively than what could be achieved today. At this point of time, the doctors and students protesting the reservation have no good platform to take the protest to a level where government could be counter attacked. Recently there was a request from government to find the minority head count in army, navy and air force which was outright rejected by respective chiefs resulting in complete shame on the government. The future of India shall be very bright provided politicians in government make policies to unite people in the society to develop a sense of nationalism among every section of public. A policy of government must uphold the interest of nation rather than the interests of party, individual or administration.

Considering the present political situation surrounding reservations, I do not believe that Arjun Singh have acted alone to propose the new quota plans as few of the magazine depict for his own gains and benefits. Looking at the the Pranab Roy, the Defence minister making requests to military chiefs for the head count of minority population, it is more than obvious that it is the decision making body within the Congress trying to get these things on board including the reservations. So the Congress working committee must take the complete responsibility of the situations resulted aftermath of the quota proposals. It has to bare the complete responsibility of creating fighters out of youth, majority of them students, whose aim is to have right for justice and not justice itself at this point of time. The youth fighting now at the least wish that the right achieved will result in continuation of the fight for social equality, is the justice must be achieved for the sake of bright future of the nation.