Death for rape?

25 December, 2012

The first casualty of the mad hysteria and senseless frenzy, 45 year old Police Constable Subhash Tomar, a father of three, DIES due to injuries sustained at India Gate.
The eight people who have been booked for repeatedly injuring/running over the now dead policeman after he had been thrown down to the ground by the crowds belong to Kejriwal's AAP and the bail has been posted for all these men by Manish Sisodia.
Has the bloodlust been satisfied now??
Did someone say, "DEATH FOR RAPE"?
Well, you have got your death. Unfortunately, the wrong man has been killed!!

Shooting soft targets.

20 November, 2012

I appreciate the letter writing skills of Justice Katju but object to him badgering the Maha CM by shooting letters to him on a daily basis.
What answers does he want from him? How can he hold him personally responsible for the incorrect interpretation and implementation of a contentious but necessary law? How is he being made personally responsible for the fear/fright of some poor policemen who were probably harassed and threatened by an agitated and out of control mob of hooligans who may have threatened to burn down the police station(and them with it) or worse, harm their families and destroy their homes? Why doesn't Justice Katju ask questions of the people who lodged such a frivolous complaint at the police station and later went and vandalised a doctor's clinic just because he happened to be the uncle of the poor girl who was trying to exercise her freedom of expression/speech? Why doesn't the Justice ask questions of that fascist political party which advocates and promotes hatred and violence? Why doesn't Justice Katju ask the law makers of this country to amend the law if he finds it so draconian and abominable? Why??
If the Justice is looking for an apology and immediate action, I am sure he will get it from the capable CM but if he is seeking instant stardom by badgering the already beleaguered man and leaking the letters to the press then he should try and get his priorities correct and not pander to the needs of being politically correct.
Recognise the Devil, man. Don't shoot your bullets at soft targets.

Whipping boys.

20 October, 2012

Isn't it strange when the smug, Mr. Know-All-Kejriwal says, "I wasn't aware about Anjali Damania's land dealings"? Why, sir, you seem to know everything about everyone but are not aware about the dealings of a person who's sitting next to you on the dais hurling accusations at others at your behest?
Isn't it strange that most of the original team members of IAC have vanished from the scene? Why, sir, do you use and discard people at your whims and fancies or do you lack the ability to take people along with you?
Isn't it strange that a man who has no faith in India's established pillars of democracy (including the judiciary) wants us to have faith in his self appointed internal lokpal? Why, sir, what if the other pol. parties were to appoint similar 'internal lokpals' to counter your own allegations against them?
Isn't it strange that he is still posing as an activist after having publicly declared that he is now a politician? Why, sir, are you fooling gullible Indians who, in their simplicity, expect deliverance from you?
Isn't it strange that he exposes, accuses all other political parties and urges people to take to the streets, tear up electricity bills, take illegal connections, disregard rules, gherao people, become anarchists and leads the country into chaos without actually telling us how HE plans to take us, 'mango people', towards the proverbial light and towards a better future? Why, sir, where is your manifesto and how do you plan to protect Indian democracy when you yourself have no faith in it?
And, isn't it strange that even educated, ostensibly intelligent Indians get taken in by this man's sophistry, falsehoods and do not see through his mechanisations? Why, sirs and madams, don't you see that this man is a harbinger of doom rather than hope as many gullible Indians, in a hurry to vent their anger and frustrations against the country's favourite whipping boys, would like to believe?

Why Anna, why?

3 August, 2012

Over the last one and a half years I have been perceived as cynically and critically anti Anna Hazare.

Well, to tell the truth, last April, when this diminutive old man came and sat down at Jantar Mantar and quietly began his protest fast against corruption, I admired him but then the crowds swelled and the 'power' went to his head. He and his team became sanctimonious, dogmatic and abusive. In the process, they committed the blunder of biting the hand that reached out to them. The govt listened to them, instituted a special committee, introduced an anti corruption legislation in the Parliament and had it passed in the Lok Sabha. Instead of appreciating this effort the team took a stance of confrontation. Drunk on people’s power and a misplaced self righteous attitude it abused the very people who for the first time in the history of India actually seemed serious about bringing in a law to curb corruption. 85% of Team Anna's demands had been met and the balance 15% could have been worked out through negotiations and amendments brought in at a suitable time in the future but Anna and his cronies were unbending and unrelenting. It was a case of ' my way or the highway' and 'with us(in totality) or against us' with them and this madness led them to over reach. This 'overload' tripped and destroyed the entire movement. It is a tragedy.

All in all, it is a golden opportunity squandered. The loser, as always, is the common man.

Madness!!

2 July, 2012

Is India becoming a mad, crazy country!!
CRPF jawans can be massacred and blown to bits by Maoists/naxals and no body sheds a tear but the moment there is a counter insurgency operation and a few Maoists are killed, activists like Agnivesh, etc and some scum politicians start crying murder and call the operation a fake encounter, blah, blah, blah !!!
It is this psyche of the Indians that has led to a policy paralysis in the country wherein good officers are now scared to lift their pens and sign on important policy papers/files for fear of allegations of corruption, etc.
I guess now even our soldiers and para miltary forces will be scared to lift their guns to fire on the naxals, Maoists, terrorists and the enemies of the state for fear of allegations of fake encounter.
Total madness !!!

Bade Baba's Haj.

15 October, 2011

An anecdote relating to the Haj...

This was around the late 60s or very early 70s, but I remember this one pretty well.

Our family carpenter- a tall, bent old man with a flowing, soft white beard & a white skull cap, known to the world as 'Bade Mian' but to us kids as 'Bade Baba' came over to the house looking sad and elated at the same time.

When asked why, he said that he'd decided to go on the Haj to 'Arab' (as they called Saudi Arabia then)  by ship and while he was elated at that prospect; he was sad as it may take him over a year to come back, if at all, as he was old and the journey difficult.

He said he'd come to say his goodbyes to us and if he did not return, we should consider that as his 'aakhri salaam' (last greeting/goodbye)

I remember my father asking him if he required any money, etc, and my mother forcing him to have some tea & bread (double roti) before he left. I remember myself hugging him and crying and begging him not to go to these places called Mecca and Medina in 'Arab' if it entailed his never coming back.

He just smiled, patted me on my head and gave a ' Gulli' (the worse half of the Danda) which he had specially made for me and left, saying,
" Dua kariyega. Inshallah, phir milenge agar zinda rahe toh" (Pray for me, we shall meet again if I live, god willing)

He came back about a year and a half later but was never the same man again. His back had bent further and his complexion had darkened. He had grown thinner and there was this tiredness in his eyes. He was not the same jolly old man whom we had lovingly called Bade baba all our lives but more a man who was now waiting to meet his maker and rest in peace forever.

He died about a year later.

I was too young to understand then what had happened to him, but now as I look back, I feel that maybe it was the arduous journey by ship and walking in the hot desert which had exhausted him and literally sapped him of all his energy.

Or maybe, it was the fact that he'd experienced God and life held no meaning for him after that.

I will never know.

But I will always remember Bade baba and his Haj.

Can anyone show me the light at the end of the tunnel ??

Though not a pessimist, cynic (at least, not yet) or a doomsayer(god forbid), I sometimes despair at the condition of the NCR. Dug up roads, traffic mismanagement, long snarls,virtually no parking spaces, a fine Metro network already down on it's knees due to overcrowding, abysmal lack of manners,civic sense & good behaviour of the public. With over 5000 people reaching Delhi from other states in search of a livelihood and over 1000 vehicles being added on the roads just in Delhi, we are soon reaching a 'bursting at the seams' situation here.

But does anyone care?

I long for the 'long drives' we used to go for (even till the late nineties). People of my generation will understand the joy of 'hanging out at Jumbo Point watching jetliners fly over our heads and the wide open spaces of the capital, vis-a-vis other metros in India, we used to brag & feel proud about. Alas!

The economic upturn has bought in more money and a most inappropriate & misplaced bravado for many misguided souls who think money is a cure for everything. They break traffic rules with impunity (and teach the little child sitting next to them the same set of rules & ethics), drive drunken, pick up fights & misbehave on the roads at the slightest pretexts and provocation, etc.

And what to talk of the uneducated? Spitting on the roads and peeing in public is 'normal' for these pathetic excuses for mankind! Sigh!

Yesterday, a friend had posted a positive piece on the RTE and I agreed with him wholeheartedly but I sometimes wonder whether that's going to be enough.

Who will teach people good manners and civic sense? Surely, a lot needs to be done! I talk about the NCR because this is where I stay but I am sure this is a universal problem all over the country. Is this 'disorder' going to be the new order of the day? Will we witness 'Pedestrian traffic jams' in the near future or is there any hope?

Did someone say, "wait till the CWG are over"?

I don't know.....I really don't know!

Can anyone show me the light at the end of the tunnel?