To the critics and to the supporters of Anna

I,along with thousands of others, was present at India gate in Delhi on 17^th August as we heeded the call of Anna Hazare and marched to Jantar mantar sweating under the merciless sun to show solidarity with fight against corruption and discontent with the leaders. 

We were the same people who had elected these very parliamentarians and now we were marching to express our resentment against them. There were Congress supporters and there were the Saffron sympathizers and all were walking in unison.

There were youths, small children and aged people. And almost all of them had one thing in common; no one was there for Rs.150 or a piece of samosa  as it generally happens in a political rally. Nor they belonged to a particular stratum of the society or caste and class.

Equally true was that majority of them who were present there were not aware of the nuances of the Jan Lok pal bill. The only underlying sentiment that had brought them together was the common feeling of helplessness against Corruption. Period.

If it was not Anna Hazare and if it was Abdul Kalam, the former Indian president, then too people would have come out in the same numbers. It’s not about the individual as much it’s for the cause.

Anna Hazare in this 'movement' which is an expression of sentiments that resonates across crores of hearts, has emerged as someone whom the common mass can look up to in their struggle against corruption, a struggle that was always there in their life, but was not vocal enough, as it has become now under Hazare.

Why I 'hate' India

A long list of people will come up if I start thinking of people who are Anti-Indian. (And what may be anti-Indian to me may be a patriotic individual to you, but that’s a subjective matter.)

But maybe then that list will appear peanuts if I start thinking about those who glorify such people who like to dislike India.

I pose this question to myself and search for answers that why we glorify those who de-glorify India? And for the starters I will make a disclaimer that No I am not a saffronwadi nor a Swaymsevak nor a BJP supporter.

The moment someone starts talking about people who propagate anti India feelings they are attached to an invisible tag of a fundamentalist, a dogmatic and an unsecular intellectual.

You blurt words against the professional dissenters like Arundhati Roy and you are called someone who is in cahoots with the people who perpetrated the terrible riots in Gujarat. The moment you call Geelani , both the Kashmiri and the Professor , anti Indian, you find yourself being measured on the scale of a Saffron promoter.

Why are we such a great nation

Socho yaar kitna mast desh hai apna,not taunting,but think.

We are spending crores of rupees daily on Kashmir. So many people have given their life and its repercussions are felt all over India. Majority of us know that India is trying to thwart attempts of Pakistan to win over Kashmir yet we have no complaints when an author openly shouts in Delhi that India should free Kashmir. The same lady once wrote an eye watering piece on Naxalism and she famously said that one should not cry over the CRPF personnel killed in the anti-naxal operation as they are getting killed because they are killing the naxalites. Tit for tat. Simple.

We have kept alive Ajmal Kasab so that he can spit on the judiciary. Remember we have also kept a guy called Afzal Guru? He should have been hanged long back. Why? Don't quip that judiciary will take its own course. It will only work as it should if we don't ask it to go slow. But sadly that’s exactly what’s happening. Accepted that terrorist attacks are common in India but even a diehard secularist will say that it’s not daily that you have attack on Parliament or it’s not every third morning that you wake up to find five gun totting men consigning everything that falls in their sight to flames. Parliament attack and Mumbai attack were, are and will remain "a remarkable, out of the blue" incident. And it requires action of the same kind; an action that will be remembered and will serve as a precedent.

Why it is that one leader or author speaks for the whole Muslim community. Who asked them? Who told them that Indian Muslims will feel insecure if the parliament accused is hanged and they will feel anger if Kasab is sent to the gallows? None of my Muslim friends told me so. And I never felt that I should ask them this question because I know they too feel the same like every Indian feels.

Why do these intellectuals say that Kashmir is not a part of India, it never was? Just because they are intellectuals? Didn't we had intellectuals before? Or is Roy the epitome of the Intellectual culture of India? And why shouldn't we condemn her statements? And why is that whoever speaks anything that’s against Roy and her intellectual coterie termed as a Fundamentalist? Why is it that we have adapted ourselves to such double standards? And adapted so well that we don't even realize that we have reached the zenith of hypocrisy and the nadir of having respect for India, which I am sure many of us still regard it as our Country.

Yeah, I am done for now.

I sleep to rise again

People say that I am past my days of glory. They say that my days are numbered now. They feel that I have nothing to give, nothing to take and nothing to smile about.

They say that the last time I shined was years back when some politicians decided that I was shining and they came out with the "India Shining" slogan. And when the truth dawned, everyone lost, including those very leaders who had banked on me to make sure that they enter the revered house, affectionately called Parliament. I was not shining, I was still sleeping on the street, hungry and I was still nakedly poor. And nothing has changed much even now.

But that doesn't mean that I cannot and don't fight back.

They thought that I was a bride without golden ornaments when I had to pledge myself at the World back in the early 90s.

More than a decade later its me who helps out the World Bank when it needs financial assistance. I have bounced back.

One day my neighbour Pakistan thought that I would go down without a fight and Kargil happened. Young boys then turned into men as they fought with courage to reclaim whatever was lost to the enemy. And I bounced back.

Years back I was struck by the pains of Bhopal Gas tragedy. Then recently a fallacious judicial pronouncement that exonerated the accused increased the pain and with that came a rude insult to those who died on that fateful day. Everyone thought that, me, India had lost this time. But it was not to be, as people took to street and announced that enough was enough and this time they will not go down. And I bounced back.

When some insane mind attacked Mumbai, it was not just a part of me that stood tall, rather, it was the whole India who stood as one. Martyrs from many a different state died that day , fighting the terrorist and successfully ending the terrible crisis.

Yet there are times when I myself feel that its better to bid a final goodbye rather than to bounce back again and again. I felt such emotions when incidents like Godhra and post Godhra happened. I felt bad when I see a helpless person being brutally beaten just because he is from a different region. And I feel bad when I see thousands of hungry stomach going to sleep when thousands of tonnes of grains in rotting away.

I am India, and I am full of stories of happiness and Sadness. Of hope and despair. And When it looks that I have fallen never to rise again I do bounce back.

Every end that happens here is a new beginning. Just like every night signifies arrival of a new morning. I am India.

The myth of a tolerant civilized India

We regularly talk and discuss about how we are moving away from a "tolerant civil society’' that has been termed as the ‘hallmark’ of Indian society.

Are we really moving away? An honest introspection would give us the answer. To move away we should have first achieved it completely. Its been more than 60 years since India achieved independence and during these 60 years there have been numerous incident that if looked into honestly enough would give us the answer that we have never been ‘ a civilized tolerant society’. Albeit the converse is more true.

We were intolerant when Kandhmal happened, we were uncivilized when MNS activist beat poor and weak people in full public view and we were brutal when Gujarat riots occurred.

The above incidents are just three of the many numerous pages of a book that is based on our society. A book whose theme is violence.

Look around you and we will find many such instances which will suggest that how far we are from being civilized. Road rage, mob violence, quarrels over sharing of seats in trains, violent incidents in educational organizations and not to forget the state assemblies paint a very painful picture. Even issues of religion are decided after scores of lives are lost.

The notion that we are a civilized and tolerant society is too sweeping and general in nature too be true, infact it’s an exception.

The country with the most religions and even more practitioners of these religions, we are always on look out for issues to show our inflated ego and might. The truth that religion preaches peace, not violence is conveniently forgotten as and when the situation arises.

A word of insult, sign of dissent and even a slight raise in voice invite violent repercussions. ‘Might is right’ continues to grow day by day- hour by hour.

As we become more independent psychologically and materialistically, the need for friends and allies is steadily disappearing. This has resulted is a thought process that forces us to acquire more of everything; power and wealth to counter the aggressive world. A world that owes its aggressiveness to us, the individuals , its we who constitute it.

What is needed from each individual is a small participation of not more than one minute. Politeness, compassion is words that should not just be written or preached but practiced in spirit. Letting go off ego, once if not twice will make huge difference. Taking initiatives to build new ties and strengthen old will make us more human if not humane.

Perhaps the dream of being a 'just' society is not that difficult to attain. Only if we could be just a little bit more humane...

A question of dignity

“Bharat Mata-an art of work: SC” screamed today’s The Times of India. A Supreme Court bench yesterday refused to entertain a petition in which the petitioners had pleaded the Supreme Court to initiate proceedings against M F Hussain for depicting a nude woman as Mother India.

Supporters of the artist have time and again evoked the freedom available under the right of freedom of expression as enshrined under Article 19 of the Indian Constitution to justify the works of Hussain. Is this the purpose of right to freedom of expression? To offer immunity to work of art that shows a woman who is in nude as Mother India? If yes, then for me this is nothing but a gross violation of the reasons for which the above said article was added into the constitution.

MF Hussain while commenting on the Supreme Court judgment applauded the decision and said ‘At last they (Supreme Court) have understood the ‘dignity’ of contemporary Indian art. Dignity? Whose dignity? Does the dignity of Indian art is upheld by depicting India in nudes? I don’t know how many of us would like to practice this definition of dignity as stated by the artist in our personal life. Will the artist himself practice what he preaches? I doubt it.

Imagine a scenario where an artist from European country paints a picture in which he depicts Indian without clothes and in tatters. How would we react? More specifically how would the ‘liberal intelligentsia’ which till date have not condemned Hussian’s work of art, react?

Nationalism, love for ones country, is not defined anywhere nor can it be forced on anyone. But I am sure that the definition doesn’t say that not getting offended by paintings that depicts the nation in nude is one of the essences of showing respect towards your motherland. Have I stated something that is too lowly or rural for the ‘intellectuals’ to understand?

Ancient temples that have been for long used to justify any work of offensive art have been reduced to just mere examples. The sculptures of nude king and queens are frequently equated with religious sculptures. How much is this justified is a question that needs to be dwelt on much.

Earlier the same artist had depicted Hindu goddess in forms that are undignified by even the farthest stretch of imagination.

Those who raised their voice against it were called ‘Right wing individuals’. Agreed that the violent way in which they protested was condemnable but what about the work of Hussain that incited the reaction? Is that not condemnable? The price of being the majority population cannot be so much.

If the same artist had painted religious pictures of other religion, he would have been running from one county to another for asylum, but for Hinduism. For Hinduism embraces everyone and ‘everything’ with open arms. Some section of the ‘learned’ feel that it’s imperative for this religion to not be offended and to smilingly embrace the dignity stated by Hussain. Is the Hindu god-goddess and mother India ‘children of the lesser gods’?

The more I force myself for searching reasons to look at Hussian’s work rationally, the more I feel that our Constitution has been taken for a ride. The fact that the Constitution also prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion has been conveniently forgotten.

Majority, like the minority, too value their religion. Just being numerically strong doesn’t mean that a particular religion cannot get offended by offensive things. We cannot have a double standard for deciding the dignity of the majority and the minority.

Where are the classes of the intellectuals that throng the street on the slightest pretext? Do they only represent those who are less in number? What about those who are humiliated because they are more? Who will speak for them? Artist like Hussain or the activists like Babu Bajrangis? Both of them are the extremes and sadly the middle path has been hijacked by the ‘Liberal –intelligent-class’, who not only believe but also practice double standards.

The time has come to follow secularism not just in the minority spirit but also in a spirit that was the force behind drafting the word 'secular' in our constitution.

A nation of hypocrites we are speaking only when the situation is favorable, let’s stop our tread for a minute and question ourselves. Questions which are not that hard to answer.