Parliament 'united' in ditching common man's interests

The 15th Loksabha gets dissolved in a few weeks and along with it , a number of bills too bite the dust, some of which were very important under present circumstances and which had wide consensus on several fronts including major political parties. But, somehow they couldn't see the light of the day, thanks to the union cabinet's decision not to pursue the ordinance route. And that makes for the least productive Loksabha ever with most ever number of lapsing bills(68, to be exact) while 2200 crores were spent on it for the 5 years of its time.

All excuses of technicalities, complexities, apprehensions, differences and disruptions which never arose while passing the bills that were benefiting political interests or politicians's personal interests, came in the way of passing anti graft bills(grievance redressals bill ,etc.), women reservations bill, judicial accountability bill ,etc(detailed report here and archive of 15th loksabha here). How come? Did all parties which publicly supported all these bills really committed to their word? Or did they just said it for face value and are letting them lapse, while blaming each other on camera and shaking hands behind?

It was said that the Union Government rejected to go with the ordinance route on anti graft bills as the President let his displeasure known about the same. But, however they did approve the ordinance on an amendment regarding the recently passed AP Reorganization Bill. Obviously, they want us to believe that they are two different issues.How different are they really? Similar to the Telangana issue, there was consensus on the other bills too. With this decision, all the effort, time and money that was spent on these bills for the last 5 years gets trashed along with the hope to fight against corruption.

And at last, the view that passing an ordinance now would be subverting the democratic system as General Elections are near, seems to be just a rhetoric that suits the detractors when there is no other way of opposing a move that is clearly pro-people. When whole nation is crying foul on corruption and women's issues, aren't lapsing anti graft bills and women's reservations bill, etc., eligible for ordinance route? Especially when it ultimately needs the approval of the new Parliament, during which the bill can be amended/disapproved?

But, the parties play tricks around these lines, Rahul claims the credit for trying to bring in those ordinances, BJP claims Congress is trying to do all things in a hurry at the last minute and they can play this ball back and forth, long, while the real issues take back seat, as they did for years now. After all, what purpose does the constitution, laws, and technicalities serve, when they are ultimately doing disservice to people.

Unfortunately, it still takes time for a majority of us to see through these multiple disguises that parties and politicians wear, at times, and rise above petty issues of region, religion, caste, sops, liquor and money while voting. Voting for common good, not just for oneself or one group is unlike us for now. Hope we get through this phase soon enough.

For a 'change', Politics for good?

The Kejriwal's exit from governance had been a predicted one, as he was hinting at it every now and then. But, he did it almost perfectly it seems, even though there are some apprehensions from a minority of observers.

This exit may also answer, why Mr.Kejriwal took his time(48 days, to be exact) in bringing Jan Lokpal Bill(New Lokayuktha Bill for Delhi), on which he and his team were working over years even before the AAP(Aam Aadmi Party) was launched. Instead of trying to pass it as early as possible, Mr.Kejriwal concentrated more on some of the other core issues of their manifesto and ensured that at least some part of them got executed. 

He knew that he didn't had enough time to fulfill all the promises in the manifesto, since his main aim, rightly, is whole nation, not just Delhi. And he doesn't want to wait till 2019, as it is difficult to sustain the fire in the hearts of  the people against corruption till then. So, he gave a glimpse of uncompromising governance to reassure the Delhi-ites(Which seems to have worked acc. to some surveys after AAP's exit), before taking up the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Assembly, which was the main reason for his existence itself in the politics. He did say that they were working on the bill from time to time, though.

He also knew that a strong Jan Lokpal Bill providing independent investigating powers to an autonomous body may not get the approval of both the major national parties in the Assembly. But to ensure that they do reject it in someway, a day before the assembly, he showed that he is going to pursue the corruption cases by launching a FIR(First Information Report) against the biggest name and highest authorities in the country. He acted upon the complaints made to him by TSR Subramaniam, a former Cabinet Secretary and co., by using the CrPC's principal of territorial Jurisdiction, which seems to allow ACB, along with the CBI to exercise concurrent jurisdiction over corruption crimes committed by Central public servants in Delhi. And The technicality that both Congress and BJP argued missing(which wasn't a problem for them in earlier assembly bills) couldn't really be the reason for their rejection to the bill. And thus Kejriwal not only achieved his safe exit but also succeeded in demonstrating that both Congress and BJP do come together when it comes to,a strong law against corruption or big corporates.

It is a safe exit for Mr.Kejriwal and AAP on two counts. One, because he can't tour the country, campaigning for Loksabha elections, without getting slammed for leaving the governance of Delhi after mere two months, unlike Mr.Modi, who has the luxury of having governed Gujarat for 2+ terms. There could have been a divided opinion inside and outside, on whether he should stay in Delhi and govern or should he go for campaign. Two, now,they can go to the masses without the unconditional support of congress to their government in Delhi, which was considered as a compromise between AAP and Congress by a sizable citizens of India. Also, not being power hungry tag can be used when there is a need.

There is no doubt that all AAP trying to do is expose that Congress, BJP and other parties are not serious when it comes to eradicating corruption. And they are in a hurry to change it quickly, as agreed by their leaders on various occasions. As several analysts, intellectuals always say, it takes time to bring out a sustainable change. But, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to do it as fast as you could. AAP is a young party, and synonymous with the current youth, they want to do it quick. They should target for a sustainable change, but not a change that can be changed back.

After all this Drama or Dharna(protest) or whatever one can assume it, all AAP may get is a single digit in General Elections, 2014. But, surely the 16th Loksabha is going to have a far less number of criminals in attendance than the last 2 or may be 3 Loksabhas, thanks to AAP!!

A for Apathy, B for Business

It is testing time for an average parent in our country, as basic quality education is fast becoming the norm of private institutions only. The minimum economics involved in studying a child from KG to PG is going well out of bounds for an average indian citizen.

This heavy burden not only limits the parents' own dreams in life, but also makes them, set or even dictate the goals for their children. In some cases, It is also constraining their vision in making a career choice by opting only for the popular streams like engineering, medicine which can ensure quick job opportunities  rather than the relatively more passionate streams like arts, literature, etc.

The government's apathy towards the Gen-Next's education is highly condemnable. There has been a systematic ignorance towards government schools making the student enrollments tilt towards the private institutions. The underprepared teachers, infrastructural problems are almost part of any government school these days. There are also serious concerns over the existing underdeveloped teaching methodologies and curriculum.

Exactly This apathy is what raising doubts over a possible nexus between the political and bureaucratic heads and big corporate owners(sometimes themselves politicians) of educational institutions calling themselves as educationalists, making way for more privatization of education, which is happening all over the country at all levels from Kinder Garden to Management Schools, quietly under the mat.

It is bizarre to see the different public persons in high posts from The President of India to CMs of states among others, mentioning Takshasila's, Nalanda's and Vikramsila's, as great educational fronts and none of the contemporary institutes, which only making it clear, where our current educational system is at.

All developed nations have already learnt that it is in education that they need to focus more and spend more on. Most vibrant, creative and intellectual young minds are the real assets and engines for any nation that can help its progress. India needs to follow the suit.

The gloriously named Right-To-Education Act must be implemented in its true spirit not only by providing free education to all in government schools, but also by providing an education on par with the international standards of quality education. 

It is very important to a parent, to see his/her child get quality education. And if the state takes that burden off him/her by providing proper schooling in government institutions, (s)he can concentrate more on her/his own ambitions, building a rather vibrant and passionate indian society.

Let them fly!

Do you know how people manage to make pets out of birds like doves, parrots, etc., without keeping them inside a cage? They clip the wings of the birds to keep them on ground. When they think that the birds are accustomed to them, they let them fly and the birds mostly do come back to them, keeping their faith. Well, it has been the same case with the children in our (largely middle-class) society who are blindfolded till they land in an engineering or medicine college. Their wings of freedom to think on their own to choose a course are clipped early in the current education system.

An education system is intended to guide the constantly evolving new breed of children. But I am afraid, all the education in current form doing is narrowing down their thinking abilities. There is no imagination going into the aspect of teaching. The skills of teachers as well as the practicality of the curriculum had been constantly under scrutiny. No emphasis has been made on moral, democratic values or gender-sensitization. Various committee reports on the reforms that are needed in the same are yet to see the light of the day.  Surely, why should the children need, what we ourselves know nothing of! 

Besides, the disregard of the state towards the education in government schools has forced the parents to move to private organizations, which do demand hefty sums of money. When there are hefty sums involved, everything comes down to demand and supply. These hefty sums put a lot of pressure on the teachers, who will apply the same on to the children in order to supply the demanded marks and ranks. And generally, It doesn't matter what genuine skill a particular kid, possesses or is passionate about.

The anxiety of parents in making sure that their child is in a trusted path, which assures a settled job and career, has also become an obstacle in producing honest and sensuous citizens. The parents(most probably the father) set the goal for the young one, as early as (s)he borns. Any deviation from that goal gets discouraged at the faintest hint of it. Most of the children's dreams remain as dreams under the safeguard of their parents until its too late.

Also today's schools, colleges and universities have limited the education to a small group of popular courses with little or no real research, producing politically immature and only-job oriented professionals. The quality of education in highest institutions like IITs is also getting diluted due to various reasons. A lot of graduates have been switching over to careers that are irrelevant to the course that they actually graduated in.

Its already time for the Indian State to seriously consider a revamp of education policies in order to ensure that every child gets quality education in government institutions at each level along with an exposure to various fields of arts and sciences early in their life. And its high time the parents stop rubbing their dreams on to the children and start helping them chase their own dreams. Let them fly, I say...

Honesty: the new 'cool'

The amalgamation of corruption, favoritism, misgovernance, especially in the recent years has resulted in a plague that is spreading to various organs of our nation. This plague is spreading fast, transforming into a vicious cycle of dis-functioning systems that compliment each other resulting in the shrinking of basic human values of our society. It has already consumed most of the systems in place: political, police, bureaucratic, business, broadcasting, publishing and judicial systems.

According to some of these reports, the corruption in judiciary is not a new phenomena. But, the practice of judiciary saving its own is certainly on the rise with the recent developments of not one case, but number of cases. This is a dangerous phenomena as it effects number of other judgements by those involved in such cases. Even the post of Attorney General of India(AGI) seems to have compromised. Certainly the current AGI proved it more than once. And all other highest government offices and organizations like CBI, CAG , etc., are following the suit like mad.

As there wasn't any credible alternative political establishment, the people had been effectively left out of the Cycle of Democracy, turning it into the above mentioned vicious cycle. This cycle formed out of the corrupt systems has already started kicking(or killing) out the honest(who don't keep their silence about the fraudulent deals), and rewarding the corrupt and bystanders(who keep their silence on the deals). 

When one of their corrupt collaborators gets into trouble(latest example), all other mates in different systems of this unscrupulous cycle collude and try to bail him out at different levels starting from registering  of a complaint and through various levels like FIR registration, Investigation, formation of charges, court trial, re-trials, appeals, etc. In case if he somehow crosses all these barricades and gets a jail sentence(after 20-30 years), even then, there are processes that makes him feel like at home with special cells in the jail and with paroles almost whenever he wants.

Its very hard to break this cycle now, which seems to have reached its full spin. The key to break this cycle, lies with the political system, which is the at the core of this cycle, and in the hands of voters when an honest alternative do present. To stop this cycle, there's the need for a constant force to act against the spin, involving both honest political leaders and honest voters. This combination is the basic working principle for a democracy to progress, which can even make the existing corrupt political outfits gets renovated or replaced to good enough proportions for the cycle of democracy to start functioning again.

The recent Delhi elections prove that the people are ready to back a credible alternative at least for once. But, can this trigger a national political revolution that we are desperately in need of? There is no doubt that, to an extent, the political awareness among the general public is gradually increasing, especially among the young citizens, most of whom had been keeping their distance from politics and there by from voting. Some heated debates among the youth is always promising, but honest, unselfish, sensitive and dynamic youth represent the real progress of a nation.

As Chetan Bhagat said in a recent animated discussion on NDTV, goodness, or rather Integrity, must become the new cool (style statement).

Mango Politics

"Who are these people who won? 

Rakhi Birla, a small time woman journalist, whom no one knows, defeated the cabinet minister Rajkumar Chauhan, 

Ashok Chauhan, whom no one know either, defeated Chaudhary Prem Singh, who has been winning for the last 40 years,

and I defeated Sheila Dikshit by a margin of 25000 votes,

Who are we? 

We are common people, we can't stand against them in any way,

But, these vote margins aren't our victory, they show the anger of people against the corrupt system," (translated from hindi to english)

says AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal in his first interview after the sensational Delhi Assembly Elections, 2013.

The historical white gandhian caps of freedom movement were back in politics, hardly a year back. They even called it as the second freedom movement, but against corruption and misgovernance, this time. The aam aadmi of the Aam Aadmi Party are all set to put their first steps into the Delhi assembly in an unprecedented manner, wiping out the Congress and keeping the BJP at a safe enough distance from getting the simple majority. How did it happen? What made the people of Delhi trust the AAP more than BJP?

One can observe that the dynamic chief of AAP, Arvind Kejriwal, his past and his unminced words, impressed upon the different sections of the people of Delhi. He and AAP never left any stone unturned to expose the similarities between BJP and Congress, when it comes to corruption. Especially, the fact that both the youth and the old from various parts of the country and NRIs from various other countries, donated their time and money, put their careers on hold, shows, how desperate they were for a change in the existing political system. 

They became volunteers, went door to door and covered most of Delhi in teams as part of the AAP campaign, sharing their genuine concerns with the voters of Delhi. Also with the youth came some innovative and economic ways of reaching out to people. They held posters manually on flyovers for hours daily. The supporters who can't reach Delhi were asked to call people of Delhi, or reach out to people on Delhi bound trains.

The genuineness is amazing thing. The people who had been disgusted with dispassionate speeches, promises and apathy of the existing politicians have found solace in the genuineness of the AAP leaders, candidates and volunteers. This leaves not only the Congress, but also the BJP with a need to re-examine their strategies for the General Elections, 2014.

There is still uncertainty over who'll form the government in Delhi, with BJP, restraining themselves from trying out any gimmicks, eyeing the General Elections, and AAP sticking to its stand of not aligning with any of the traditional parties. Meanwhile, AAP is conducting classes to its brand new MLAs on how to dispense their duties.

Respect your Child, India

When I saw the above picture in 'The Hindu' today, I instantly looked around it to see if I can find any comments condemning the act. And it's not at all surprising that I found nothing of that kind. The comment under the picture, as you can see, says, "… Activists staging a demonstration…, etc.". Who are the activists? And who are demonstrating by sitting on road? Are the children, activists? 

The next thought I had, was what would I do, if I was asked to do the same, i.e., sit on a road without any perception of my own on whats going on and why, similar(in the aspect of perception) to those pupils in the picture. But, they might not had a say in what happened there, except sitting where they were told to sit and bending their head down when they were told to do so, in order to get a better picture like the one above.

During my last visit to my home town some months back in the summer season, I saw various rallies comprising of school children under the hot sun in support of the United Andhra agitation, but what stood out in my mind was the Visual of an open top auto trolly in a rally, carrying some school children in costumes of 'Bharath Maatha'(Mother India), who were agonisingly sweating and getting burnt under the scorching noon sun.

It's not the first time school children were made to rally around the town and won't be the last time either, if nothing is done about it. We can safely assume that this kind of attitude towards children prevails all over India, which evidently has least respect for its youngest. We demand respect from the children and never reciprocate an iota of it back. Thats how it has been.

This attitude is part of the child abuse that most of us familiarly identify in the form of respect that was demanded by the elders in a family or by the teachers in a school, etc. Putting the most condemnable sexual abuse aside, both the physical and emotional abuses that the children are made to face in India are widespread as found by the "Study Of Child Abuse: India 2007" carried out by the Ministry of Woman and Child Development, GOI. You can see the astonishing figures above.

India is also at a staggering 149th position in the world, in the aspect of Respect for Children's rights with an index of 5.42 out of 10 and under 'Difficult Situation' category, as determined by the RCRI (Realisation of Children's Rights Index) that was carried out by Humanium, an international Children's Rights NGO.

What can child abuse lead to? It can lead to all kind of atrocities that we are currently facing day after day. Once the mental balance of a child is disturbed, the damage that he/she can cause may not be demarcated. With the increasing number of cases of gang-rapes or other forms of violences that were being carried out by normal people, I wonder, if the roots for this behaviour, may well be found in the abuse that they might have faced during their earlier stages of life.

Childhood is the purest form of life as some of us quote at times. But with our acts, we are narrowing down or constraining their minds with our already made out opinions or delusional views. We need to try and respect them and their thoughts as much as we respect any other, at homes, schools or any where else. We should remember that a pure mind can be moulded into innumerable ways that can enhance humanity, but a small abuse is all that is needed to rip it off.

Confronting the culture of violence against women

Is capital punishment, a real deterrent for gang rapes? There had been many discussions on this and still going on after the Supreme court's decision to give death penalty to all the remaining four accused in the Delhi gang rape case, suggesting that this case falls under the rarest of rare category.

      But, can we expect this judgement to reduce gang rapes in India? 

     Do these criminal minds fear the law in that moment of lechery?

     And if they fear, does that make them stop from doing it? Or does that make them do the more evil thing, so that no one knows a thing about what they had done? 

    These are the questions, to which, we can never be sure of the answers, no matter who give them. The thing that we can be sure of is that the death penalty alone can't deter this horrendous crime. 

    The recent Hyderabad episode is an other example that reveals that this problem is more complex to be solved by a law. What will we do if some products of a company are faulty? We surely throw the product into trash, but the top priority would be to make sure that the company makes them right from then on.

      These culprits are exactly the same faulty products that were manufactured by our faulty system. For this, more than thinking about the kind of trash box we want to put in the faulty products, we need to think about the repair works that are quickly needed to stop this faulty manufacturing. Thats what exactly the Justice Varma panel suggested. Repair the damn manufacturing system.

It has been a habit for the government to constitute committees on pressing issues, but only implementing the politically suitable sections of the report, rather than the important ones. The Justice JS Verma committee's report was no exception(government did bring some changes in the rape law) 

      Its true that the report is far reaching, and it should be, as it gives the whole picture of women's problems in the society, at various levels. But, it only shows the poor state of affairs relating to gender bias that are still prevailing in our nation in implementing what our constitution assures women, in particular.

     As the report clearly asserts, We are in urgent need of electoral, educational and police reforms, which are the causes of more social evils. with special emphasis on how to gender-sensitize the children and adults to reach a matured state.

Bargaining Death

              How many of us took/gave(or going to take/give) dowry and think that it harms no one as the givers are quite capable of giving and takers are not going to ask for more?

Do you know that one woman dies every hour due to dowry related reasons on an average in India? And the death rate had even been raising in the last 12 years? National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures state that 8,233 dowry deaths were reported in 2012.

Who are really responsible for these deaths? No. Not just the husband, or in-laws, or even the parents, It's a collective failure of every one of us, the society, that is still encouraging the dowry arrangement, despite the progress we made in various fields over the years.

  Why dowry is still being taken as a prestige issue, or a status symbol? By taking/giving dowry you are only encouraging a whole bunch of people around you, who can be a lot greedier than they seem to be. And greedy enough to the extent of causing death in one or the other way.

If you think its just the uneducated or rural people that are victims of this social evil, you are completely wrong(please watch the video below). These deaths include a number of working women in urban areas like Delhi in this case.

The only remedy is collective banishment of the dowry system from the society. You can't be irresponsible towards these social evils and get away with it all the time. It can eventually harm any one of your dear ones at a later time.

So, my modest appeal to each one of you, take the first step towards breaking the walls of this Gender-bias, say no to dowry, both givers and takers.

Common Nonsense - Gender Bias

"Common Nonsense" is the phrase that came to my mind, when i was pondering about most of the common practices we are still following in our long running patriarchal society. Like an average netizen I instantly googled the phrase "Common Non-sense," to know whether its used commonly or not. It came out that there is a book by that phrase about some guy's biography and a website, but otherwise not common.

I have only recently started putting my thoughts on paper or rather on a digital screen. I can't say whether I got any better or worse in anyway(may be you can). But I am not going to stop with all these thoughts circling in my head. This seems to be at the least a small temporary relief.

We are in modern era, equal opportunities for men and women. Women have already reached the most powerful posts in the country.We have women CEOs, Women entrepreneurs and even women Chief Ministers. We hear these comments daily about the all-round progress that was brought up in the lifestyle of women.

But, after reading this piece from NewsLaundry, which has no surprises for any body living in our self-inflicted society, about the common practices of discriminating women, each one of us will definitely be relating to our own part in this humiliation, knowingly or unknowingly. And they qualify to be termed as common non-sense.

As a society, are we i.e., both men and women, treating our women equal to men? Are we treating a baby boy same as a baby girl at birth? Or during their childhood? Adolescence? Or even after being an adult? During marriage? After marriage? No. Never. We show discrimination at each and every step.

We show discrimination in celebrating their birth, in buying them toys during childhood. We make girls accustomed to do household things while leaving boys to themselves during their teenage. There is an example of a grandmother who reacts contrastingly, when she sees her grand-son shaking his legs sitting in a chair and when her grand-daughter does the same. It's only a small example of how inferior women feel of themselves.  Bluntly put, it's a systematic brain wash that's still going on from generation to generation.

And we all know about the traditional act of male chauvinism that takes place during the marriage. Man tying a 'Mangal Sutra,' a supposedly sacred thread around the woman's neck, as a process of taking responsibility of her as in what? Is marriage still being seen as transferring responsibility of a woman to a man? If not, Why are we still going through this process? Will any man ever be comfortable with it, if the same is done to him?, including the acts like touching wife's feet, etc.

Isn't this kind of unequal treatment of society is what making women feel inferior to men and men, superior to women, causing the horrific crimes that are under scanner nationwide in the present times. Are we developing our social norms along with our development in other fields? Is it too early to expect such change? Do we need to wait till generations after generations to see that change? Can it be done in one generation if young people won't bow down to pressures to follow this common non-sense? I have nothing but hope.