Unity in Diversity

Textbooks in schools still sermonize to the young citizens about “Unity in Diversity” as one of India’s pinnacle achievement after independence. Indian minds have to be united first in order for India to become a developed nation. It requires a great valor and more sacrifice for us to make ours a developed nation.

Our president should not be the only person to dream and we should at least share a portion of such dream. We need a melee much stronger than the Independence struggle for such unification. But we have quite a few obstacles during such voyage. Languages we speak, religions we believe, traditions and customs we follow, all result in a diverse and well-developed civilization and it deserves to be preserved.

But we should be bound to a set of common integrated assertions, theories and aims that constitute a socio political scenario. This requires fewer leaders, which means handful of political parties. In reality almost all of the developed nations have fewer political parties with whom the prime responsibility of providing “Checks and Balances” to the democracy is vested with. This system makes the politicians to be ”people centric” and makes them accountable for the acts they commit.

If India’s vision is to become a Developed Nation by 2020 then unifying the socio political scenario should be reached by 2010. Otherwise, the term “Unity in Diversity” has no meaning.

MP Government and Surya Namaskar

The MP government is restrained by its high court to allow only voluntary participation to organize "surya namaskar" and "pranayam" program in schools. The remote idea of voluntary participation is against the secularist spirit and is an admission of an official religion. And how many students know their right to voluntary participation when they go to school and are expected to obey their teachers. How many of the students can say “No”, even if they wanted to? Those who say no will be promptly expelled or reprimanded for doing what it right.

"Right to freedom of religion & worship” is again misused by the society. Most schools and colleges in our country still conduct a "prayer" session which violates the right to worship for a specific set of students, who does not belong to the religion to which the prayer session is being held. These institutions not only force the students to attend a prayer session, while they don't even have the basic right to "initiate" a prayer session in an educational environment.

Certain schools in our country even enforce a religious dress code to its students. And some schools have in-built prayer halls, temples, churches and mosques within its campus. Contrary to this, in TamilNadu there are certain educational institutions that are affiliated to self-respect groups who do not believe in god and religion, force its students not to perform or enjoy any religious activity by not providing holidays that are gazetted.

Religious activities should be left alone to the religious institutions and educational institutions should do what they are intended to do which is to provide education.

Extremism

The violence in Bangalore reminds me of what Salman Rushdie said that the extremism will die a natural death. Political turmoil, government inaction, hyperbolic ideas and unwarranted actions will provide means for extremism to have a natural birth. Unless and until the world becomes more moderate, I feel only the extremists will die a natural death but not extremism.

Indian Hypocrisy

India is becoming very narrow-minded where we recognize the talent of foreigners by naming our satellites in their honor, giving prestigious Gandhi peace & Bharath Ratna awards to them and now a foreigner will command the army during the republic day parade. Indian government suddenly wakes up after a magasasay award for Dr.Shanta of the Adyar Cancer Institute, Chennai and awards her the Padma Shree. Be it Sivaji Ganesan, Arvind Kejriwal, Satyajit Ray, the ladies of Bhopal disaster and many more, who I could not remember are in this list. The Indian government approves the noble work of an Indian, based on the appreciation from a foreign affiliation. We fail to recognize those, whose work has helped the poorest of the poor but still decorate those who have done nothing for our country.

Infrastructure - India Vs China

China started building the Tibet railroad during 2001 across the roof of the world which is thrown open to public a year ahead of schedule. An engineering marvel is built on a year long frozen terrain, spanning 710 miles, reaching 16500 feet, run using sealed rail cars that supply continuous oxygen and speeds up to 60mph. It is a difficult job but was completed with utmost professionalism.

Modern Indian history in this respect is worrisome; Chennai MRTS is a fine example of a relatively simple railroad which is still incomplete even after 30 years of its conception.

With Golden quadrilateral running approximately 3 years behind schedule, India needs to give a tremendous push to its infrastructure projects and catch up.

Mr.PC, Think Fast

Instead of blaming the soaring oil prices for robbing the GDP growth, the finance minister has to take a fresh look at Brazil’s success in oil independence. Oil producing countries are not for a charity and hence there is no question of “great injustice” to the developing countries. It is simple economics, they squeeze the market and tighter supplies tend to drive up prices which escalate their profits. Fossil fuel is a limited resource and we are raiding earth’s assets in such a way that we are all robbing off each other in a big way.

The finance minister needs to give his criticism a second thought and introduce more sops for alternative energy production in his next budget and thus make Oil independence as the prime topic.

Give Me a Break!!

The land that gave Kamasutra to the world is banning AXN channel till March 15 for indecent content. TV sets and the remote control have an off button for a specific purpose and it is the viewer's prerogative to choose. This is a serious government overreach and a blatant violation of freedom of expression. It is arbitrary for a fact that the government did not hear from the channel to explain its position. What I want to watch in a television channel should be decided by me and not by a bunch of bureaucrats. It is disgusting to note that talking about sex in India is a taboo even during one’s adulthood.

Porn or No Porn

Porn or no porn should be decided by a common man and not by a bunch of bureaucrats. Adolescence goes downhill when obsessed items are restricted and in such case, sex education becomes a must. The reason why cinemas show the so called “bits” is because of an overwhelming demand. So, why is the censor board not allowing the requisite supply?

Is the Central censor board promoting an abstinence movement from sex? When such movies are made with an “A” certificate, how many cinemas ask for an age proof from the movie-goers? While virginity isn't exactly igniting most of the high schools and college campuses, it is better for such adolescents to watch these “bits” rather than indulging themselves in any other risky behaviors.

Meanwhile, international surveys suggest that the majority of parents favor broader sex education. Contrary to common wisdom, our conservative society places restrictions on important things that direct our day-to-day life. It is ironical that the Indians who are proud about the origin of “Kamasutra” are under a bunch of bureaucrats who promote a standard of abstinence from sex. Pornography is the best sex educator of all times while it is also the lousy sex educator. The society should be vigilant of sexually transmitted diseases than being sloppy over sex education.

IC 814

First Maniappan Raman Kutty was murdered and then the death of Surya Narayana at the hands of Taliban. The state and central governments were magnanimous in offering assistance and so did the other fellow citizens. The Indian government’s commitment to rebuild Afghanistan can not be faulted but the government also has the responsibility to decapitate the terrorist activity that affects its citizens.

More than six years have elapsed since the gruesome murder of Rupen Katyal during IC814 hijack and even now there is no ray of hope in the horizon to bring the culprits to book. If the murder of Maniappan and Surya Narayana should not just become additions to a list; then the Indian government has to act fast.

Are we worth the game?

A poor woman lost her life due to water intoxication ,( not that kind of water). A medical term knows as "hyper hydration" that took her life for a mere $250 worth Wii game console sponsored by a radio station, which she did not win eventually. She came second in the game while death came first. Water being the life source for this planet also kills, not just during Tsunamis. Allavukku Meerinal Amirthamum Nanju... Yes it is true.

India's language problem

India is the only country where the citizens visiting a neighboring state become foreigners in their own land. Indian currency is the only currency in the world to be inscribed with multiple languages. Besides religion and caste, its languages divide India. Divide and rule was once used by British to rule India and it is still used by many politicians.

Besides the infrastructure, we are obliged to the British for providing us with a new language. India has an edge over countries like Japan and China for not having an English translating service in major industries. English language is helping information technology, medicine, engineering and various other sectors to prosper. Otherwise, we would have installed decades ago, a translation mechanism for our numerous languages.

The beauty of our democracy is that everyone has rights to learn and speak any language of their choice. It is an infringement of our civil rights when we are forced to boycott English. It is time to boycott such calls.

Corporal Punishment

Abolishment of corporal punishment surely is a welcome sign that relieves a child’s psychological and physiological stress in our schools. My memory is still fresh, it was my elementary school and I was in my second standard. I was scared of a teacher whose tone inside the class room gave me chills.

The entire class could tell that she is approaching our class room, from her “metti oli”. When she takes a day off, the entire class or probably the entire school would rejoice. This is when I was being introduced to a paper and pencil, and her response to a messy handwriting is a serious slap on the face. One can imagine what the punishment would be for missing homework. I was petrified to be in her class, had night mares and refused to go to school. Contrarily, I feel she made me who I am today and till date I have huge respect for her. I took extra care and worked hard at school so that I will not be punished by her ever.

Jallikkattu & Rekla race

Indian cowboy sport is getting more controversial every year. Be it the injury to the men or to the bull , no body seems to care about the fact that it is not a sport. Taming an animal for personal pleasure is just disgusting and the idea is filled with filth.

Indian Army Weaponry

Being a secular country why should majority of the India's armories, army bases, Weaponry and warships have Hindu names. All of these just do not represent one set of people but the whole of India. Right from Trishul, then Bishma and the latest Arjun, the names always harks back to Hindu ideology. Even Air India aircrafts are not an exception. One can not escape by saying that these are just Sanskrit names. If the question is, what is there in a name? I ask the same, why just Hindu names? India should not be a secularist in its constitution, it should also be practiced. Secularism should not be used as a cosmetic but as a composite element in our country. It reminds me about the Supreme Court’s dictate that “Justice should not just be done but appear to be done”. It holds good for secularism too.

Taxpayer’s Money

Ex-president K.R. Narayanan was clinging for his life in India, at the same time the ex-prime minister Chandrasekhar was undergoing medical treatment in the US. Why is it so? Indian political culture has an unwritten rule. Be it the 1980s or the present, a politician’s life is significantly important than that of an average citizen. They get elite security, government housing, foreign cure for their illness, an honorary doctorate from a university and the list goes on. The best of these are provided in-house and an average citizen finds no time to analyze it. In the past & at present, chief ministers of a state, central ministers, Prime ministers and ex-presidents, are treated in foreign hospitals for their ailment. The government spends thousands and thousands of rupees from the Taxpayer’s money for their trip, treatment and temporary housing. It undermines the quality of our medical infrastructure. Ironically, India has better public hospitals, which had never treated any ailing politicians recently, but is the place to go for an average citizen. Private hospitals on the other hand are for people with monetary muscle.

In a grand scheme, a politician’s health becomes more important and the government makes it a fit case for an offshore medical treatment. We have never seen any normal citizen of India, given an offshore medical treatment. Aren’t there people who are so frail and deserve an offshore medical treatment? To be pragmatic, India has numerous patients with heart disease and arthritis who are dependent on the Indian doctors. We have been witnessing in the media that such ailing citizens are given a specific sum of rupees from the Chief Minister’s relief fund or from the Prime Minister’s relief fund. And what takes to receive it is a different story. And we have never seen an ailing politician receiving such a grant. And most of our politicians who had/having an offshore medical treatment can afford such treatment, why does the taxpayer swallow that expense? If this is the case, one may conclude that ailing politicians in India are medically unfit to serve the society!

Indian Universities

Shanghai institute’s research on ranking top universities is arbitrary and imprecise. The research and development done by the Western Universities are backed up by the Industrial sector with strong financial support. Indian universities do not get such patronage from the manufacturing sector, nor does the government try to boost such scientific research. The last (probably the first) time, I heard of any university doing some scientific research is the Anna University, which is trying to build a satellite with support from ISRO. It is not the universities fault for not doing enough R&D, the problem lies with the manufacturing sector for not believing in the Indian universities. For example, the automobile industry in India is doing its business based on the blue prints supplied from the western countries. They have chosen India only for low labor than anything else.

Having Nobel laureates should not be a criterion for ranking any university. Our universities are by and large better than most of the western universities in terms of the curriculum offered and encapsulation of various branches of advanced studies under one roof. The top four universities mentioned in the report has more Indians and Chinese, in terms of the faculty members and students. It states that these universities lure brilliant brains for their R&D work.

Passport Application and Police verification

Abolishing address verification for passport application is a blessing in disguise. At least two policemen visit the application’s residence in order to verify the address, which results in unwanted questioning, delaying tactics and harassment if the applicant is hesitant to pay them for performing their duty. This proposal is a severe blow to the corruptive practices instigated by such police personnel.

George Fernandes Ordeal in the USA

USA is a victim of a major terrorist attack. It is trying hard to prevent itself from another attack. It is not “strip-search” when a person is asked to remove their coat and shoes. I have frequently traveled in and out of the US after 9-11 and every time it is professional. Certainly the Queue is longer but it is effective. Probably, he being a diplomat, Mr. Fernandes did not stand in that queue but “Be a roman in Rome” is the motto for this scenario. Mr. Fernandes may be the defense minister of India, but he is a traveler to the US and needs to go thru’ the security check others go through. By-passing airport security (recent incidents where members of the ruling party easily entered the sterile zone in a major airport) may be easier in India but with the present environment, it is not the USA’s cup of tea. We should take this as a learning rather than thinking about a specific person’s ordeal.

Chennai MTC

MTC should be renamed as “Metropolitan’s Terrible Corporation”. The MTC has pathetic buses, never on-time, provides horrible service, the bus crew never respects its passengers, sometimes use awful words a civilized society does not want to hear, irrational to the traffic & road safety norms and to cap it all a potential assassin on Chennai’s roads. The proposals of private participation will not only bring etiquette to metro transport but will also put the MTC workforce in a pickle.

Indian media

Though the media is one of the brawny pillars of democracy, most of the media in the country and especially in TamilNadu does not expend it in a civilized manner. The media I am referring to, shows pictures of blood stained dead people and they even publish that on their Internet website, without bothering the privacy of the dead people and their constitutional rights. E.g., a leading Tamil weekly showed pictures of inmates killed by Cops in an encounter. They do not bother about the validity of news published. E.g., One leading Tamil daily showed in their website on Sep 11 2001, that the City of Los Angeles is bombed and thousands of people dead.

Certain Television channels concentrate more on the acts done by a set of political parties whom they consider besides ignoring the atrocities done by their own people. Specific newspapers budging to the political pressure do not want to prop up with the social & economic problems, though they were duty-bound. Capricious news flashes are shown in the news channels trying to destabilize the society and by enumerating rumors. E.g., few TV channels showed information about predicting earthquakes when chennai felt a tremor. Certain newspapers deliver news with a malicious intention to prove their point. E.g. a Tamil newspaper said in one of their last week’s edition that the PM believed the issues pointed out by the TN MPs about the state government were true, when the PMO has said nothing about its veracity. Nevertheless to mention that there are only handful of responsible media outlets in the country which knows what it is talking, but are attacked by politicians. These responsible media provides a proper check and balance for the democracy.

I reiterate that my observations are on a specific set of media that does not have any moral code of conduct and acts without rhyme or reason. But someone should have control over such depraved deeds, be it the government or the media itself. When the media fights for its right with the government why not it force the specific set of media to act responsibly? I have never seen any criticism about a media in another media. Does it mean that the entire Indian media system is flawless? My general opinion is that the media has lot more to do, to be a responsible pillar of the democracy.

Caste based Reservation

The million dollar question is not who wrote & practiced Vedas and Mantras, but why should reservation divide people based on specific social groups. Talking about the past will not yield anything. Conveniently, people who support reservation forget the fact the entire system is being misused. The good deeds of the system are overshadowed by the damage it makes to the society. Reservation in any form increases the gap between various social groups. It increases hatred amongst people and creates sociological problems. The reservation system is the root cause of the religious intolerance that prevails in most part of our country.

We have reservation in almost everything. Instead of providing reservation per se, the laws of our land should be tightened to protect the rights of the marginalized. Change is the only constant. We need a change to the existing reservation system. Continuing it for another century would reverse the existing reservation system. In future, we may need a new system to protect the rights of a group which was once considered a forward social group.

Emergency Response Team, Indian Railways

I would like to mention that the personnel who do the clean up job for the Emergency Response Team of the Indian Railways are ill equipped. I go by the photographs that were published in the newspapers during recent train accidents. It shows the dereliction of duty by the top guns of the Indian Railways in not providing them the basic needs that are part of such clean up job. Such personnel are not given hand gloves when they remove the bodies of the passengers forcing them to use their bare hands. They don’t have shoes when they have to walk on the railroads. I have not seen any of them wearing safety jackets, helmets, etc. No one should be allowed to do such job if his or her wellbeing is at risk. Safety comes first not only for the passengers but also for the people who do the noble job of cleaning up rail accidents. The otherworldly treatment meted out to such personnel has to be deplored in word and spirit.

Attorneys General

The Indian constitution is clear that the Attorney General’s and the Advocate General’s job is to give ADVICE to the Central and State government respectively and they have to uphold the Indian Constitution at any cost. But the recent judgements from the Supreme Court and certain High courts do not imply that. Their eligibility criterion makes them to think & act at par with that of the Supreme Court and the High courts Judges. If they have provided timely advice to the Governments and it had been taken into consideration, then it means that these Generals have upheld the Indian Constitution. And if the lawmakers acknowledged the same, it also means that the lawmakers have upheld the constitution. But certain laws of the Central and State governments being struck-down by these highest judiciaries recently, makes me think that someone is not fulfilling their responsibilities in accordance to the Indian Constitution. Had these Generals been the Judges of the respective courts, would they have allowed the laws that are illegal and unconstitutional? The irony is that the lawmakers and these Generals have taken oath to uphold the Indian Constitution at all the times. Are they?

Bird Flu

Going by the history, India was a major victim of the Spanish flu during 1918 and 1919. An estimated 17 million, about 5% of the population died in India alone which is more than the total died in World War I. The mortality rate was extremely high at around 50 deaths per 1,000 people. In the Indian Army, almost 22% of troops who caught the disease died of it. With the current infrastructure setup, it is much easier for the flu to spread its wings and in such case the mortality rate in India would be severe. And thanks to the recent legislation the pharmaceutical companies have limited scope to imitate life saving drugs. Indeed the Government has to accelerate its bureaucratic boundaries and get the skates on to tackle Bird flu.

Article 31 B (Ninth Schedule)

The Article 31B of the Indian constitution is a blank check for the legislature and should be repealed. Article 31B could one day bring an autocratic form of a government and make India’s status as the largest democracy in the world, a thing of the past. If the Parliament voluntarily brings an amendment to withdraw it, its current members will be remembered for ever as the “champions of public good”.

Welcome Verdict

Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the expulsion of 11 MPs, I would like to see the law enforcement personnel to prosecute them in accordance to the law. I strongly feel that expulsion is a very minuscule reprimand. I want them to be treated on par with the common mass. Expulsion from the parliament is just a retribution for lowering the dignity of the house but the main crime of “corruption in public life” has to be strongly dealt, with severe punishment. To deter future occurrences, the parliament should come up with a crystal clear law that terminates the membership of corrupt MPs, get a refund of the perks and allowances they have received during the tenure and restrict their future pension.