It is one thing to have expectations, and it is very human to be disappointed.
But it takes a very mean person to unload blame on an individual when a team's performance is involved. It takes a very stupid person to do that when the team is playing a sport, in a tournament in which 11 teams won't win. Clearly, we Indians are in no short supply for mean or stupid people, when 48%, according to a poll on Cricinfo, think Dhoni's errors cost us the World T20, in response to Dhoni's measured reference to IPL after match parties taking a toll on players and resulting fatigue.
Less than two weeks ago, the same MS Dhoni was at the top of his tactical game, when he won the IPL for Chennai Super Kings. It would take some imagination to think he would have drained his acumen on the flight to the Caribbean. Ravi Shastri called India's performance "pathetic", and Madan Lal has accused Dhoni of making "lame excuses". In his young career, MS Dhoni has won more for India than these two clowns could ever dream of. And he's still playing, and playing great, dominant, world beating cricket. Let's not forget it wasn't until Dhoni took over as captain that India reached the #1 spot in Tests and we're almost there in ODIs. I bet some of these bastards will scramble to say Dhoni has the best team India has ever produced! Bless the team when we win and blame the captain when we lose? Some consistency this!
To be capable of scathing criticism, one must be a top performer. Ravi Shastri and Madan Lal were never top performers. Madan Lal used to bowl a little quicker than Anil Kumble, and field like a rabbit with three paws missing. The only reason he didn't look as "pathetic" as he was, was because a certain stalwart by the name of Kapil Dev would be bowling beautifully from the other end. Ravi Shastri was a hopeless grafter who managed to gather fifties and win an Audi in the World Series Cup only because Srikkanth was blazing away at the other end. For these bloodsucking leeches to come out of the woodwork and opportunistically attack MS Dhoni is a new low, but it is very Indian.
South Africa, perhaps the most "professional" outfit in the world, also exited the World T20, in the same stage as India. No fuss. So did the West Indies, and New Zealand, who have hammered India on a few occasions in this format. No fuss. India lose, the country wants to burn Dhoni and his team. The callous way in which our news media makes this look like the team needs some sort of punishment for losing should tell us a lot about our national character. Nobody, including the Padma Shri decorated journalists have an ounce of character that MS Dhoni has. It is time to show him some respect. Win some, lose some, even the mighty Aussies were humbled on a day that belonged to England.
If Dhoni has enough gravity to not blame any individual players, if he has the guts to back young Ravindra Jadeja, and if he stands by his decisions, he can just as easily point to the not too distant past of his captaincy and remind us of the first World T20, beating Australia in Australia, beating South Africa, the West Indies, and the quiet ascendancy to the top of the world rankings and tell everyone to shut up. But he has cautiously and politely got us to examine the excesses of the IPL, that have left players with insufficient rest, and given a gentlemanly wake up call to those running on the assumption that carrying no injury equals fitness and those ignorant of the truth that fitness in competitive sport is having enough in the tank to pull out something extra when needed.
None of our players had anything extra when needed, except the kilos of weight Yuvraj has put on. Dhoni still kept faith in him, for one simple reason - he is a proven match winner. He is the 6-sixer hitter, remember? Our players did their best under the circumstances. Let's not forget that for a moment. The circumstances were however, inclusive of an obligation to party through the night, thanks to that asshole Lalit Modi selling the video rights for those parties for a whopping fifty million dollars! Can he be blamed for this debacle? No! Because he is there precisely to be the super commercial minded asshole missionary that can make the IPL richer! No trouble understanding that, have we?
Now, let's look at this rubbish notion that players are keener on playing in the IPL than for the country? Didn't we all take pride that India's IPL is the richest league in the world? Didn't we all glow in glee with the meteoric rise of the IPL? How un-Indian is the IPL? It is also a part of our cricketing folklore isn't it? How many of us know that the BCCI is a Trust that doesn't pay taxes? That is who our players are playing for, not India, get it? If the trust pays less than an IPL franchise, what's wrong in playing better for the franchise? It is clearly the sensible thing to do, is it not? Even though it may be too much for our pea brains to wrap around, facts are facts.
We want our players to be professionals, so that they get better at what they do. Being professional is about making rational choices, not emotionally clouded ones. Our cricket team is the best 15 we have in this country. We cannot "infuse it with new blood" as Ravi Shastri suggests, since the second tier in quality has some catching up to do. This lot is not old, and is a supremely fit unit, given enough rest. There is enough and more firepower and quality to take us to many more highs. It would be absurd to imagine this lot would suddenly become as mediocre as our older generation of cricketers or our media.
The Chennai Super Kings is a success story. It is a success story because it has plenty of good brains behind it. Great ethics, good display of everything needed to be a winning item. The BCCI is not such a good show. It has been around far too long in mediocrity to be suddenly rid of its problems, but it is taking some steps right. The Chennai Super Kings didn't party through the night. Many other teams did. The results are there to show. MS Dhoni, the superb athlete that he is, said the right thing about taking care of the body. He has taken care of his, while the others aren't such shining examples.
The media, rightly admonished by Amitabh Bachchan, should apologize to Dhoni for going overboard with criticism, most of it unwarranted. Our media is full of unprofessional goof ups! From calling Hindi the National Language, to unquestioningly accept that Barack Obama is indeed the USA's first black president, there has been ignorance, apathy, incompetence and sheer stupidity from many of the idiots who fill the idiot box. Compared to this, and our country's 134th position in the Human Development Index, Dhoni and his boys are way, way ahead.
The consummate gentleman that he is, and the intelligent person that he is, MS Dhoni has remained aloof, and even said how quickly things can change from love to hatred with the Indian public. The media is definitely to blame in adding fuel to any flame, whether it is positive or negative, all in the name of getting ratings. But actually, it is more than that. It is a cheap catering to the Indian Mob Mentality, which is there to bash anyone into the ground if that person is not in a position to hit back. We do not attack corrupt politicians that actually affect our lives do we? But we have no problem stoning cricketers' houses, burning effigies and going overboard with our boys who are not even 30 years old!
By the way, the most anti-national act I have ever seen from any cricketer is from Sunil Gavaskar. I respect him for many other things, but there is no way I will forgive him for carrying his bat for 60 overs and scoring 36 not out, in a game in which we were chasing over 300. THAT is the generation that produced the unheroes who tried not to lose too embarrassingly, who paid more attention to their attire than diving for a catch, and that is the lot that led a pampered life, neither setting great expectations nor reaching for great heights, playing less than half the time today's boys do, and losing ten times as many games.
The Indian cricket team of today deserves all the accolades they get. I have no problems with them making millions of any kind of money. I have no problems if they party late into any night, and I have no problem if they get sex from waitresses and adoring female fans at parties. They play great cricket, and that is their dharma, and they know they are good. It isn't easy being #1 or #2 in the world in any sport.
Let's see what we can do to bring our country upto the #1 and #2 spots in ANY other damn field! Till then, shut up about MS Dhoni. He and his boys have already done great for us.
BSK
21 May 2010
22 April 2010
IPLease ask the right questions!
The Indian Premier League has been in the news like a rabid dog peeing all over the neighbourhood for the last few days. It hasn't spared one tree, pole, gate, wall, shrub or blade of grass. It is the same stench everywhere.
First and foremost, this is a test of integrity, and Lalit Modi, who was arrested in the USA for illegal possession of cocaine, isn't a shining beacon of hope on this front. So, let the shady bugger burn - who cares? Let's get this straight - he is no hero. He stole Kapil Dev's business model of the ICL, which was already successful, used the BCCI's lousy officialdom to shut the ICL down, took pride in being "ruthless", and blew up the IPL to where the ICL was rightfully headed. Now, in Karma's lovely way, he's getting it rammed up his lisping arse, and I couldn't be more gleeful. But this is all small snack.
The IT department has been busy "surveying" all the offices of the IPL franchises, as if the fools will find anything in two days that they didn't find in the last three years! We have heard of tax havens and overseas accounts and shady money being laundered through the system and a thousand different people coming under the scanner. For heavens sake, wouldn't the people smart enough to use tax havens in the first place be smart enough to answer all questions? For most part, the structures will be totally legal, just wait and watch. Nothing is going to shake the palace down, for it was already fortified to withstand tremors much bigger than this!
Where are the real questions? Where is the incisive analysis that can get us to the bottom of this veiled chaos?
We are asking questions on why there is so much "foreign money" coming into the IPL. Well, DUH! The auctions were all held in US Dollars, remember, dumbos? Surely, it won't be Sakthi Sugarcane Juice and Mouli's Fancy Shop investing millions of US Dollars! Ask the real question - this is the bloody INDIAN Premier League, and is supposed to be for Indian cricketers and Indian cricket lovers primarily, using OUR players, OUR infrastructure and OUR TV audiences to make money out of. So, why the fuck are the bids in US Dollars and not in Indian Rupees? Is our country's money not good enough for our own league? Where is the national pride in evaluating our worth in US Dollars?
Modi is the kind of rascal that will wag his tail as much as he is allowed to. Cut it, and he will whimper into a corner. Does his tail deserve to be cut? IF he has procured stakes in three franchisees on his behalf through his relatives, then there is a clear case of him owning a stake in the outcome of the matches those franchises play and therefore one can ask why he as IPL commissioner is so freaking happy when Rajasthan wins, or why he should cheer with SRK for Kolkata. Well, now we know. If the outcome of the games played by a few sides can actually bring benefits to Modi, that is a clear conflict of interest. In the absence of precise laws, however, this is something that won't send him to jail straightaway. The part that can make him look worse is how he never mentioned to anyone, even in the BCCI, that he would like to disclose that some friends and relatives of his would own shares in 3 franchises. Simple enough, and would have put him above suspicion, since he declared this potential prickly point.
It was Modi who negotiated the TV rights of the after game parties of the IPL for US$50million. That's a whopping amount of money and Kapil would not have done this. So, is this pure genius? Yes, but it is the genius of the hustler, not the caring entrepreneur. The difference is that the caring entrepreneur will wonder where to draw the line, and whether having all night parties is a good thing for the players and the game and the image that so many role models will project to the world. More than that, he will concern himself with the more fundamental question - if the parties are a wind down routine, then let the boys have a good time, and let's leave them alone.
The hustler will wonder what can happen at the party that can increase the sale price of the voyeuristic rights to this "behind the scenes" record of events. It isn't that creative in any case to get some music going, some women on the floor, and get some booze to flow. Any middle class city kid in India knows to put this sort of party together. This prick is a hustler, period. Let's not shy away from fact. So, here's the second question - how was a hustler chosen to lead the IPL in the first place? The reason could be that he can get a lot of people to believe in his hustle! But the real reason is, and give it to the fox here - hustlers are quick, and someone who can move at Modi's speed is needed to supercharge something like the IPL. That's a plus, especially in India. But the hustler will continue to hustle. You can hire him to build a temple, but please let him not perform the pujas. Lesson to be learnt.
A lot of Indians will be disappointed with the turn of events but not with Modi. Why not? Because Modi is secretly what a lot of Indians wish to be like - dynamic, unstoppable, "ruthless" in his own words, and super successful. India is just starting to see this kind of animal, not because it is new to this land, but now, because of the numbers, we are comparable to the hustlers in other countries, and hence the media attention. Despite all admissions to the contrary, the media loves Lalit Modi. Who else can provide them with so much material to fill the voids of their own existences? Notice how our media always asks questions in reaction to what the guy says, never forcing him to think up something new in response? That is sheer incompetence, and Modi fits right into the scheme.
The BIG escape for the IPL is, and one that is still very much available - it can move outside India. It can take all its franchises and its offices and move to the Cayman Islands. That is just the movement of an office! For some reason, our government doesn't seem to be able to wrap its head around this idea! In this time and age, where your office is registered has very little to do with where you do business. The IPL can exist as a separate entity, merely conducting matches in India, by paying the BCCI, and do ALL its business from Cayman Islands. And it would be thoroughly legal, and in fact, much more efficient. No taxes, no questions asked. Money comes, money goes, everybody is happy. The players get paid, the franchises all see money, TV happens, ads happen, the event happens, and absolutely nothing on the ground needs to change!
This is all about television. Set Max has paid upward of a billion US dollars (what else?) to get the rights for 10 years. What difference does it make to them? The audiences have been beautifully recruited. They are going to watch Set Max no matter where the games are played. Do you think any of them gives a shit where the IPL's office is located? The only problem is, the IPL is under the BCCI, and the BCCI has a few stuck pigeons in it. They will not let the IPL become a separate body. This is what Modi didn't bargain for. Most hustlers have a breaking point and the 26th of April is Modi's breaking point. On that day, all the "offiicialdom" that he used to destroy the ICL will be thrown at him, and he doesn't stand a fucking chance. Poor little rich bitch.
Modi isn't so successful because he is the ultimate hustler. He knows how much competence it will take to catch up with his shenanigans. All this taxman raiding or surveying business is going to wear thin fairly quickly. All it takes is competent Chartered Accountants and the franchises would all have hired great people. Now, the one thing that can blow in his face is this, literally - the explosions in Bangalore that moved the semi finals to Navi Mumbai. The explosions themselves aren't great, but the fact that the Karnataka Police have said that the "betting mafia" was behind the blasts! So, there exists a betting mafia that the Karnataka Police knew about? Of course that begs the next question - what the fuck were you doing if they were not able to just conduct business, but also able to place bombs in the stadium? Fundamental, right?
Some people will get caught, not because the cops are that good, but because the bastards can smell money. Now they have the leverage to extort some big money from the betting mafia. But they will also have to come up with some facts, just to look good, in case the politicians who are no doubt involved, are made to look bad before this cloud blows over.
If the betting mafia spills a few beans, they will necessarily mention Modi by name. Why? Because Modi the hustler trusts only himself at the centre of the dealmaking! So, IF any deal was struck, he struck it, not a lesser clown. It is this style that has led to the allegation that he offered the Kochi franchisees US$50 million to walk away from a deal they won! Imagine offering 50 million to walk away from a deal they pledged to pay 333 millon for! Keep the change, Lisper boy! No wonder they refused. But what is Modi's gall in making that offer? The veiled threat is that the outcome of the Kochi franchise's future would be in Modi's hand, and he could make life miserable for them. So, this is like doing business with the devil, and the devil himself wants to give you money so he can do business with someone else instead. Luckily, the Gaikwads were no pushover, and they stuck to their deal.
Shashi Tharoor remains an enigma in this story. It's completely believable that the interest he took in Kerala cricket prompted him to make the phone calls asking why there was a delay with the Kochi franchise, and it is completely believable that his friend Sunanda Pushkar was merely introduced by him to help them out. If Tharoor has anything to do with the unleashing of the taxmen on all IPL affairs, then, good for him! That won't accomplish anything if everybody has been paying taxes properly, but it shows he won't hesitate to see how you look under a cloud of suspicion. After all, that's what Modi did to him - put him under a cloud of suspicion and made him resign! What Modi doesn't have the sense to think about is that a resigned man has a lot of time on his hands - and we know whose workshop an idle mind is.
Our media needs to learn to ask the right questions, the incisive ones, the uncomfortable ones that will bring something new to light and make us think about everything in a new way. Instead, fools, even the assholes with Padma Shris, ask dumb questions like "Is the image of cricket tarnished?". Well, fuck, duh! Who doesn't know the answer to this one? Like we're a philosophical society given to discussing the impact of religiousness without a proportionate influx of agnostic spiritualism! We're passive aggressive, gossip loving dumb jerks who love to see people go down. But let's know why someone went down and how we contributed to the system that put him up in the first place! Let's learn to take some responsibility. Let's learn to freaking wake the fuck up and ask the right questions.
BSK.
First and foremost, this is a test of integrity, and Lalit Modi, who was arrested in the USA for illegal possession of cocaine, isn't a shining beacon of hope on this front. So, let the shady bugger burn - who cares? Let's get this straight - he is no hero. He stole Kapil Dev's business model of the ICL, which was already successful, used the BCCI's lousy officialdom to shut the ICL down, took pride in being "ruthless", and blew up the IPL to where the ICL was rightfully headed. Now, in Karma's lovely way, he's getting it rammed up his lisping arse, and I couldn't be more gleeful. But this is all small snack.
The IT department has been busy "surveying" all the offices of the IPL franchises, as if the fools will find anything in two days that they didn't find in the last three years! We have heard of tax havens and overseas accounts and shady money being laundered through the system and a thousand different people coming under the scanner. For heavens sake, wouldn't the people smart enough to use tax havens in the first place be smart enough to answer all questions? For most part, the structures will be totally legal, just wait and watch. Nothing is going to shake the palace down, for it was already fortified to withstand tremors much bigger than this!
Where are the real questions? Where is the incisive analysis that can get us to the bottom of this veiled chaos?
We are asking questions on why there is so much "foreign money" coming into the IPL. Well, DUH! The auctions were all held in US Dollars, remember, dumbos? Surely, it won't be Sakthi Sugarcane Juice and Mouli's Fancy Shop investing millions of US Dollars! Ask the real question - this is the bloody INDIAN Premier League, and is supposed to be for Indian cricketers and Indian cricket lovers primarily, using OUR players, OUR infrastructure and OUR TV audiences to make money out of. So, why the fuck are the bids in US Dollars and not in Indian Rupees? Is our country's money not good enough for our own league? Where is the national pride in evaluating our worth in US Dollars?
Modi is the kind of rascal that will wag his tail as much as he is allowed to. Cut it, and he will whimper into a corner. Does his tail deserve to be cut? IF he has procured stakes in three franchisees on his behalf through his relatives, then there is a clear case of him owning a stake in the outcome of the matches those franchises play and therefore one can ask why he as IPL commissioner is so freaking happy when Rajasthan wins, or why he should cheer with SRK for Kolkata. Well, now we know. If the outcome of the games played by a few sides can actually bring benefits to Modi, that is a clear conflict of interest. In the absence of precise laws, however, this is something that won't send him to jail straightaway. The part that can make him look worse is how he never mentioned to anyone, even in the BCCI, that he would like to disclose that some friends and relatives of his would own shares in 3 franchises. Simple enough, and would have put him above suspicion, since he declared this potential prickly point.
It was Modi who negotiated the TV rights of the after game parties of the IPL for US$50million. That's a whopping amount of money and Kapil would not have done this. So, is this pure genius? Yes, but it is the genius of the hustler, not the caring entrepreneur. The difference is that the caring entrepreneur will wonder where to draw the line, and whether having all night parties is a good thing for the players and the game and the image that so many role models will project to the world. More than that, he will concern himself with the more fundamental question - if the parties are a wind down routine, then let the boys have a good time, and let's leave them alone.
The hustler will wonder what can happen at the party that can increase the sale price of the voyeuristic rights to this "behind the scenes" record of events. It isn't that creative in any case to get some music going, some women on the floor, and get some booze to flow. Any middle class city kid in India knows to put this sort of party together. This prick is a hustler, period. Let's not shy away from fact. So, here's the second question - how was a hustler chosen to lead the IPL in the first place? The reason could be that he can get a lot of people to believe in his hustle! But the real reason is, and give it to the fox here - hustlers are quick, and someone who can move at Modi's speed is needed to supercharge something like the IPL. That's a plus, especially in India. But the hustler will continue to hustle. You can hire him to build a temple, but please let him not perform the pujas. Lesson to be learnt.
A lot of Indians will be disappointed with the turn of events but not with Modi. Why not? Because Modi is secretly what a lot of Indians wish to be like - dynamic, unstoppable, "ruthless" in his own words, and super successful. India is just starting to see this kind of animal, not because it is new to this land, but now, because of the numbers, we are comparable to the hustlers in other countries, and hence the media attention. Despite all admissions to the contrary, the media loves Lalit Modi. Who else can provide them with so much material to fill the voids of their own existences? Notice how our media always asks questions in reaction to what the guy says, never forcing him to think up something new in response? That is sheer incompetence, and Modi fits right into the scheme.
The BIG escape for the IPL is, and one that is still very much available - it can move outside India. It can take all its franchises and its offices and move to the Cayman Islands. That is just the movement of an office! For some reason, our government doesn't seem to be able to wrap its head around this idea! In this time and age, where your office is registered has very little to do with where you do business. The IPL can exist as a separate entity, merely conducting matches in India, by paying the BCCI, and do ALL its business from Cayman Islands. And it would be thoroughly legal, and in fact, much more efficient. No taxes, no questions asked. Money comes, money goes, everybody is happy. The players get paid, the franchises all see money, TV happens, ads happen, the event happens, and absolutely nothing on the ground needs to change!
This is all about television. Set Max has paid upward of a billion US dollars (what else?) to get the rights for 10 years. What difference does it make to them? The audiences have been beautifully recruited. They are going to watch Set Max no matter where the games are played. Do you think any of them gives a shit where the IPL's office is located? The only problem is, the IPL is under the BCCI, and the BCCI has a few stuck pigeons in it. They will not let the IPL become a separate body. This is what Modi didn't bargain for. Most hustlers have a breaking point and the 26th of April is Modi's breaking point. On that day, all the "offiicialdom" that he used to destroy the ICL will be thrown at him, and he doesn't stand a fucking chance. Poor little rich bitch.
Modi isn't so successful because he is the ultimate hustler. He knows how much competence it will take to catch up with his shenanigans. All this taxman raiding or surveying business is going to wear thin fairly quickly. All it takes is competent Chartered Accountants and the franchises would all have hired great people. Now, the one thing that can blow in his face is this, literally - the explosions in Bangalore that moved the semi finals to Navi Mumbai. The explosions themselves aren't great, but the fact that the Karnataka Police have said that the "betting mafia" was behind the blasts! So, there exists a betting mafia that the Karnataka Police knew about? Of course that begs the next question - what the fuck were you doing if they were not able to just conduct business, but also able to place bombs in the stadium? Fundamental, right?
Some people will get caught, not because the cops are that good, but because the bastards can smell money. Now they have the leverage to extort some big money from the betting mafia. But they will also have to come up with some facts, just to look good, in case the politicians who are no doubt involved, are made to look bad before this cloud blows over.
If the betting mafia spills a few beans, they will necessarily mention Modi by name. Why? Because Modi the hustler trusts only himself at the centre of the dealmaking! So, IF any deal was struck, he struck it, not a lesser clown. It is this style that has led to the allegation that he offered the Kochi franchisees US$50 million to walk away from a deal they won! Imagine offering 50 million to walk away from a deal they pledged to pay 333 millon for! Keep the change, Lisper boy! No wonder they refused. But what is Modi's gall in making that offer? The veiled threat is that the outcome of the Kochi franchise's future would be in Modi's hand, and he could make life miserable for them. So, this is like doing business with the devil, and the devil himself wants to give you money so he can do business with someone else instead. Luckily, the Gaikwads were no pushover, and they stuck to their deal.
Shashi Tharoor remains an enigma in this story. It's completely believable that the interest he took in Kerala cricket prompted him to make the phone calls asking why there was a delay with the Kochi franchise, and it is completely believable that his friend Sunanda Pushkar was merely introduced by him to help them out. If Tharoor has anything to do with the unleashing of the taxmen on all IPL affairs, then, good for him! That won't accomplish anything if everybody has been paying taxes properly, but it shows he won't hesitate to see how you look under a cloud of suspicion. After all, that's what Modi did to him - put him under a cloud of suspicion and made him resign! What Modi doesn't have the sense to think about is that a resigned man has a lot of time on his hands - and we know whose workshop an idle mind is.
Our media needs to learn to ask the right questions, the incisive ones, the uncomfortable ones that will bring something new to light and make us think about everything in a new way. Instead, fools, even the assholes with Padma Shris, ask dumb questions like "Is the image of cricket tarnished?". Well, fuck, duh! Who doesn't know the answer to this one? Like we're a philosophical society given to discussing the impact of religiousness without a proportionate influx of agnostic spiritualism! We're passive aggressive, gossip loving dumb jerks who love to see people go down. But let's know why someone went down and how we contributed to the system that put him up in the first place! Let's learn to take some responsibility. Let's learn to freaking wake the fuck up and ask the right questions.
BSK.
17 April 2010
Who the hell are we, Indians?
Years ago, in 1947, we bought into this idea of a democratic India. Democracy was still an experiment then, of course, and it still is, and one that has yielded varying results across various countries. So, it cannot be the "system" that is good or bad, it comes down to us, We, the people of India.
We bought into this experimental idea because not many of us had a say in what we buy into, and a few intelligent people who were in the right place at the right time said it was a good idea to build a nation that was based on democratic values - fairness, equality, equitable distribution of resources, freedom of movement, a right to speak, congregate, express ourselves, protest, show dissent, and find representation in the political process that would run this country. We didn't agree, but we didn't disagree either. And somehow, by default, we got shoved into this experiment called democracy.
The great gift we got was the spirit of secularism. Again, just an idea, but one that has somehow grown upon us. It would be too confusing to have discrimination amongst us based on religion, caste or any other separator, so we ran with this too. This part has worked out well, despite all the religious fanatics that still don't get it, and the myriad ways in which dogma still affects our thinking. No political party is completely agnostic to faith, and we remain in the stone ages when it comes to pure spiritualism. Even the Indian tourism industry somehow thinks "spiritual" means "religious"! Stupid, but for most part, not without hope.
The other gifts we got as part of the new idea of India are the wide usage of the English language, a legal framework that roughly resembles that of the UK, a mechanism called "government", a free press, and a military that doesn't interfere with everyday life. These are gifts, because without any of these, we'd have sunk even further into anarchy.
What we didn't bargain for, however, is the need for us to constantly work to keep the above working. For that, it takes effort, above and outside of our personal jobs and duties, and it takes involvement and awareness. In other words, to make India work, we cannot be sitting on our asses and expect the "others" to do their jobs. It is our job to make the country work. This part, we don't get. We are an essentially selfish people, and those amongst us who have some civic sense are likely to appear like activists.
Life in India today is about screwing and not getting screwed. The country be damned, as long as we can make a few bucks and get the life we want. Money can buy us anything, but alas, it cannot buy us a quality country. For that, we need to make some sacrifices and recognize what we need to do. We never took into account the essential nature of the Indian person, while we decided what system we wanted. The essential Indian is corrupt, or corruptible, or accepting of corruption as a way of life. Why would so many millions amongst us pay bribes to get things done that we are legally entitled to? Because we are sheep, and sheep get fleeced.
For some reason, most Indians are really annoyed when I tell them that "Indianness" is about being corrupt, inefficient, dogmatic, AND having a sense of righteousness that the devil himself would be afraid of. Our relationship with God is the one we respect, and hence, if a puja routine is prescribed to an Indian family, they will carry it out religiously, perfectly. If they are told not to dump plastic waste, they might do it to some extent. If they are told to file a case against that official who demanded a bribe to okay their water connection, they won't. They will actually pay the bribe to maintain "the good energy" of their lives - smooth and easy.
This fear of questioning, the fear of reprisals, the fear of showing dissent itself rules over us. And then, for every damn thing, there is God. Somehow, our God is most fierce in folklore and mythology, but very benign when it comes to inciting us to question and fight for what is right. Our righteousness flies directly in the face of our religiousness. Somehow, there is never a discourse on this - on the essential lie of being an Indian in spirit.
The most corrupt rascals in this country dump much money in temples like Tirupathi. Somehow, we cunningly shift the onus of accountability for such ill gotten wealth onto the Lord! Look God, I gave you a crap load of money, now all you need to do is protect me! The Lord has already protected you by making you Indian - not just unlikely to be caught in your act of thievery, but even more likely to make you feel good about stealing and donating to a temple!
For some reason, we frown upon Godmen who have been found having sex with a multitude of women or in the throes of drug induced ecstasy, but we're perfectly all right with elected officials stealing from our coffers to build their personal wealth. I'm not sure what can be more askew! But, this is what is happening - We are angered by being made fools out of - that is the problem here! We fully expect elected officials to steal, but Godmen had to be holy! That's why we get mad at them for having a romp!
Heck, we could also be jealous. Having a sexual romp isn't that available to most of us Indians because we're not that enterprising. That is why we have moral boundaries defined by the boundaries of what we dare to do. It is the exact same reason for the BJP to get mad at Shashi Tharoor - he is not only smooth and articulate, but - hold your breath - has an attractive female friend who is not his wife! That is why the BJP spokesperson, the cunning hypocritical bastard, said "who his girlfriend is, who he is married to, who he divorces, is not our business". Then why mention all that? It is the power of allusion, that most Indians fall flat for. We can raise a scandal on mere speculation and allusion, and without a single fact, splash around so much that muddy water hits everyone!
For some reason, we forget that we are supposed to bow only to the truth. Sathyameva Jayathe, not God. Even God has to be truthful to win. Lord Krishna may be the delightful exception, but then, he is a super being anyway, who is not cluttered in any way. He must be exasperated, because India is cluttered in every way. We don't have a clue how to do anything with elegance, no matter how many resources we have. We need to seriously examine our "Indianness", if we are to get a clue on where we belong, if at all.
If India vanished from the face of the earth today, the rest of the world would not be that adversely impacted. Isn't that such a stunning revelation for the 2nd largest population in the world? The rest of the world might actually heave a sigh of relief. Strangely, the USA, with the much greater wear and tear it imparts to the world, would terrify the world if it pulled a vanishing act! Where would all the computers come from, where would all the Boeing planes come from, and the spares for so many of them flying all over the world, where would arms and ammunition come from, where would the best porn come from, and where would all the great movies come from!??? Who would we sell billions of dollars worth of stuff to? There is no substituting the USA, but India can be forgotten in a jiffy or two at the most. Guess what? They're a democracy too!
So, before we trumpet becoming a superpower, before we get pompous about our incredible place in the world and the role we are here to play, let's look at ourselves and get our basic shit together. Let's give as much importance to rational thinking as we do to moral and religious nonsense. There is no God concept in our Constitution! We aren't fundamentally subscribed to a religious idea of a country. God is a very personal thing, even though we do a puja before launching our spacecraft. For some reason our latest GSLV plunged into the sea. Could it be the wrong brand of incense sticks? No serious investigation into the failure of our first cryogenic engine is likely to result in a finding that blames the pujari.
So, let's learn to blame ourselves first, whenever things go wrong. It is a very good habit to get into. If I call 139 and get wrong information about my train's arrival time, it is upto me to fill out in triplicate, the complaint form at the railway station, and make my grievance known. It is upto us to bitch, and moan, and complain, and sue - till the garbage gets cleared on time, till the road gets relaid, till the sewers stop dumping into our rivers, and till we get every single thing we need to feel like humans again. Indianness cannot be the answer to the questions we are afraid to ask.
BSK.
We bought into this experimental idea because not many of us had a say in what we buy into, and a few intelligent people who were in the right place at the right time said it was a good idea to build a nation that was based on democratic values - fairness, equality, equitable distribution of resources, freedom of movement, a right to speak, congregate, express ourselves, protest, show dissent, and find representation in the political process that would run this country. We didn't agree, but we didn't disagree either. And somehow, by default, we got shoved into this experiment called democracy.
The great gift we got was the spirit of secularism. Again, just an idea, but one that has somehow grown upon us. It would be too confusing to have discrimination amongst us based on religion, caste or any other separator, so we ran with this too. This part has worked out well, despite all the religious fanatics that still don't get it, and the myriad ways in which dogma still affects our thinking. No political party is completely agnostic to faith, and we remain in the stone ages when it comes to pure spiritualism. Even the Indian tourism industry somehow thinks "spiritual" means "religious"! Stupid, but for most part, not without hope.
The other gifts we got as part of the new idea of India are the wide usage of the English language, a legal framework that roughly resembles that of the UK, a mechanism called "government", a free press, and a military that doesn't interfere with everyday life. These are gifts, because without any of these, we'd have sunk even further into anarchy.
What we didn't bargain for, however, is the need for us to constantly work to keep the above working. For that, it takes effort, above and outside of our personal jobs and duties, and it takes involvement and awareness. In other words, to make India work, we cannot be sitting on our asses and expect the "others" to do their jobs. It is our job to make the country work. This part, we don't get. We are an essentially selfish people, and those amongst us who have some civic sense are likely to appear like activists.
Life in India today is about screwing and not getting screwed. The country be damned, as long as we can make a few bucks and get the life we want. Money can buy us anything, but alas, it cannot buy us a quality country. For that, we need to make some sacrifices and recognize what we need to do. We never took into account the essential nature of the Indian person, while we decided what system we wanted. The essential Indian is corrupt, or corruptible, or accepting of corruption as a way of life. Why would so many millions amongst us pay bribes to get things done that we are legally entitled to? Because we are sheep, and sheep get fleeced.
For some reason, most Indians are really annoyed when I tell them that "Indianness" is about being corrupt, inefficient, dogmatic, AND having a sense of righteousness that the devil himself would be afraid of. Our relationship with God is the one we respect, and hence, if a puja routine is prescribed to an Indian family, they will carry it out religiously, perfectly. If they are told not to dump plastic waste, they might do it to some extent. If they are told to file a case against that official who demanded a bribe to okay their water connection, they won't. They will actually pay the bribe to maintain "the good energy" of their lives - smooth and easy.
This fear of questioning, the fear of reprisals, the fear of showing dissent itself rules over us. And then, for every damn thing, there is God. Somehow, our God is most fierce in folklore and mythology, but very benign when it comes to inciting us to question and fight for what is right. Our righteousness flies directly in the face of our religiousness. Somehow, there is never a discourse on this - on the essential lie of being an Indian in spirit.
The most corrupt rascals in this country dump much money in temples like Tirupathi. Somehow, we cunningly shift the onus of accountability for such ill gotten wealth onto the Lord! Look God, I gave you a crap load of money, now all you need to do is protect me! The Lord has already protected you by making you Indian - not just unlikely to be caught in your act of thievery, but even more likely to make you feel good about stealing and donating to a temple!
For some reason, we frown upon Godmen who have been found having sex with a multitude of women or in the throes of drug induced ecstasy, but we're perfectly all right with elected officials stealing from our coffers to build their personal wealth. I'm not sure what can be more askew! But, this is what is happening - We are angered by being made fools out of - that is the problem here! We fully expect elected officials to steal, but Godmen had to be holy! That's why we get mad at them for having a romp!
Heck, we could also be jealous. Having a sexual romp isn't that available to most of us Indians because we're not that enterprising. That is why we have moral boundaries defined by the boundaries of what we dare to do. It is the exact same reason for the BJP to get mad at Shashi Tharoor - he is not only smooth and articulate, but - hold your breath - has an attractive female friend who is not his wife! That is why the BJP spokesperson, the cunning hypocritical bastard, said "who his girlfriend is, who he is married to, who he divorces, is not our business". Then why mention all that? It is the power of allusion, that most Indians fall flat for. We can raise a scandal on mere speculation and allusion, and without a single fact, splash around so much that muddy water hits everyone!
For some reason, we forget that we are supposed to bow only to the truth. Sathyameva Jayathe, not God. Even God has to be truthful to win. Lord Krishna may be the delightful exception, but then, he is a super being anyway, who is not cluttered in any way. He must be exasperated, because India is cluttered in every way. We don't have a clue how to do anything with elegance, no matter how many resources we have. We need to seriously examine our "Indianness", if we are to get a clue on where we belong, if at all.
If India vanished from the face of the earth today, the rest of the world would not be that adversely impacted. Isn't that such a stunning revelation for the 2nd largest population in the world? The rest of the world might actually heave a sigh of relief. Strangely, the USA, with the much greater wear and tear it imparts to the world, would terrify the world if it pulled a vanishing act! Where would all the computers come from, where would all the Boeing planes come from, and the spares for so many of them flying all over the world, where would arms and ammunition come from, where would the best porn come from, and where would all the great movies come from!??? Who would we sell billions of dollars worth of stuff to? There is no substituting the USA, but India can be forgotten in a jiffy or two at the most. Guess what? They're a democracy too!
So, before we trumpet becoming a superpower, before we get pompous about our incredible place in the world and the role we are here to play, let's look at ourselves and get our basic shit together. Let's give as much importance to rational thinking as we do to moral and religious nonsense. There is no God concept in our Constitution! We aren't fundamentally subscribed to a religious idea of a country. God is a very personal thing, even though we do a puja before launching our spacecraft. For some reason our latest GSLV plunged into the sea. Could it be the wrong brand of incense sticks? No serious investigation into the failure of our first cryogenic engine is likely to result in a finding that blames the pujari.
So, let's learn to blame ourselves first, whenever things go wrong. It is a very good habit to get into. If I call 139 and get wrong information about my train's arrival time, it is upto me to fill out in triplicate, the complaint form at the railway station, and make my grievance known. It is upto us to bitch, and moan, and complain, and sue - till the garbage gets cleared on time, till the road gets relaid, till the sewers stop dumping into our rivers, and till we get every single thing we need to feel like humans again. Indianness cannot be the answer to the questions we are afraid to ask.
BSK.
02 April 2010
Foolproof Indianness.
26th November 2008. Mumbai. A few of our policemen died in a hail of terrorist bullets. The bulletproof jackets they were wearing didn't save them. In another case, a famous cop was not wearing a bulletproof vest, and was killed, and now the Maharashtra government has submitted its affidavit to the courts investigating the incidents.
According to that affidavit - "The bullet-proof jackets had been ordered by the Maharashtra government way back in 2001 and could withstand bullets fired only from 9 mm pistols and carbines."
These shocking admissions were made in an affidavit filed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Vijaysingh Jadhav on behalf of the Maharashtra government in the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, the day when a special court concluded hearing arguments in that 26th November terror attacks.
Similar jackets, which are not meant to withstand fire from AK47 or and SLR, are used even by the "military forces", the affidavit said. Great! So, what are they supposed to withstand? Water guns? Pea shooters? Firecrackers?
The state government told the High Court in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) that the jackets used during 26/11 were ordered in a time when the "threat perception" for the metropolis had "not taken into account an attack that would include simultaneous strikes and civilians held as hostages." Let's put that a little more honestly - "We never thought we'd get attacked, so we didn't give a fuck what we wore". What do civilians held as hostages have to do with bulletproof vests not being bulletproof? Also, simultaneous strikes. How many cops do we have? Just one? Don't we have simultaneous traffic lights?
To the question whether the jackets were of standard or not, the answer was that it could not have saved Karkare because the officer sustained injuries to his shoulder and neck, which were not covered by the jacket of standard design, the affidavit pointed out. Oh, great. So let's forget the bulletproof jackets for now, and let's focus on the foolproof bullets that aimed away from the areas the jacket covered. Brilliant.
Way back in 2008, we had police officers coming forward and telling us about jackets procured by the police through which "every single bullet went through"! Yes, even when shot from a long distance.
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2008/dec/011208-Mumbai-bullet-encounter-specialist-Vijay-Salaskar-Mumbai-terror-blast-bullet-proof-jacket.htm. In other words, these fools never really had any bulletproof jackets!
Let's take a step aside and ask ourselves how much of a deep rooted incompetence this has exposed. First of all, "carbines" were probably last used in World War 1. These are the long barreled guns with smooth insides, that don't even put revolutions on the bullets going out. Who needs protection from these antiques? This is not some museum coming alive every night. Even local gangs have more powerful guns these days! So, what kind of morons are sitting around taking these purchase decisions that are clearly completely useless? What kind of a brainless system do we have to be endorsing in order to spend money on things that have absolutely no meaning in buying?
Terrorists are efficient because they have to be. They need to cause maximum damage with minimum investment. So they get the best weapons, choose the fittest and mentally sickest amongst themselves, prepare to die, and go in all guns blazing, pun intended. To oppose them, we don't need any of their madness, but simply a mechanism that works. We need people that can shoot back, a chain of command that knows what commands to issue to whom and when, trained people who can pull the trigger when their guns are pointing at the targets, and machines that work. Period.
While under attack is not the time for chaos and confusion in the ranks, miscommunication amongst various government organizations, and missed opportunities. It is never a good time for any of this, but if we test any of our government controlled "systems" we will find them not working.
We gave our government offices computers a long time ago. For sure, at the very least, ten years ago. The Regional Transport Offices are amongst these. The police departments of various states even have claims on their websites that they are proud to be part of many new e-government initiatives. (Example: http://tnpolice.gov.in/chiefmsg.html). Ask a traffic policeman if he can pull out his walkie talkie, bark a number, and get the name and address of the owner of any vehicle he just saw running over ten people. The answer is NO! As incredulous as it may seem, there is no access to that simple bit of information! There is a whole official procedure to follow before this gap is bridged! That is where our government monkeys are, with or without computers. Fuckers just don't know what to do, except blackmail the public into paying bribes for the simplest tasks, and maintain total bankruptcy of functional ideas.
Of course this points to corruption, incompetence, and a host of other endemic problems, like apathy, non-action, and finally, to sum up - Indianness. It is time we defined this for ourselves, since we seem to have a hard time acknowledging that "Indianness" is indeed all the above rolled into one. This is a word that deserves to be in every dictionary. Only we Indians can fuck up something of importance so badly, that even after lives are lost, we're grappling not with the gravity of the situation, but with the process of concluding a "matter".
I'm not entirely unhappy policemen died, because most of them are corrupt bastards. The majority of them are unfit, insincere, not interested in service of any kind unless it is performed to obtain a bribe, and are just puppets of politicians. It is just fantastic that their incompetence in Mumbai was exposed by terrorists in such a short period of time, instead of our public interest, the judicial process, the media, and our Indianness combined spending the next fifty years telling us that our cops, their jackets, their guns, and their stupidity is a complete waste for the nation.
Are our policemen dispensable? Clearly, they are. Nothing of note has happened now that we have lost a few of them in terrorist and Maoist attacks. Their deaths haven't made any pockets of civilization more in danger, or lacking protection. The police forces of almost all states are nothing but drains on the budget, magnified several times by their incompetence and immunity from speedy prosecution. So, why do we need them, if they are not impeccable in their duties and manners?
Where it most mattered - doing their duty, they were found wanting, and if they are that inefficient, they can die. For heavens sake, there is nothing heroic about dying in a war you're not even fit enough to fight in, so let's stop making heroes out of unfit, uniformed thugs we hire to do our dirty jobs and look the other way when they take bribes, grow fat, and kill people in fake "encounters". Police custodial killings in India are rampant. Now we have them selling dead bodies. How low can these weasels go? It's wrong to generalize the entire police force of this country thus, but if they can take collective pride, they can also take collective blame.
It is absolutely shameful that this country supplies substandard equipment to personnel employed to do critical jobs, but we don't need to take any moral responsibility for the personnel themselves being substandard. If there are IPS officers facing charges of molestation of minors and abetting suicide, they can bloody well figure out how bulletproof their own jackets need to be and they can shoot the pigs that supplied faulty equipment. They once again failed to do their jobs - that's all there is to it. And the same can be said of many, many Indians who're not earning their keep. It's just part of our Indianness. When we get bitten because of it, that will simply add to ... what else? Indianness!
- BSK.
According to that affidavit - "The bullet-proof jackets had been ordered by the Maharashtra government way back in 2001 and could withstand bullets fired only from 9 mm pistols and carbines."
These shocking admissions were made in an affidavit filed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Vijaysingh Jadhav on behalf of the Maharashtra government in the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, the day when a special court concluded hearing arguments in that 26th November terror attacks.
Similar jackets, which are not meant to withstand fire from AK47 or and SLR, are used even by the "military forces", the affidavit said. Great! So, what are they supposed to withstand? Water guns? Pea shooters? Firecrackers?
The state government told the High Court in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) that the jackets used during 26/11 were ordered in a time when the "threat perception" for the metropolis had "not taken into account an attack that would include simultaneous strikes and civilians held as hostages." Let's put that a little more honestly - "We never thought we'd get attacked, so we didn't give a fuck what we wore". What do civilians held as hostages have to do with bulletproof vests not being bulletproof? Also, simultaneous strikes. How many cops do we have? Just one? Don't we have simultaneous traffic lights?
To the question whether the jackets were of standard or not, the answer was that it could not have saved Karkare because the officer sustained injuries to his shoulder and neck, which were not covered by the jacket of standard design, the affidavit pointed out. Oh, great. So let's forget the bulletproof jackets for now, and let's focus on the foolproof bullets that aimed away from the areas the jacket covered. Brilliant.
Way back in 2008, we had police officers coming forward and telling us about jackets procured by the police through which "every single bullet went through"! Yes, even when shot from a long distance.
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2008/dec/011208-Mumbai-bullet-encounter-specialist-Vijay-Salaskar-Mumbai-terror-blast-bullet-proof-jacket.htm. In other words, these fools never really had any bulletproof jackets!
Let's take a step aside and ask ourselves how much of a deep rooted incompetence this has exposed. First of all, "carbines" were probably last used in World War 1. These are the long barreled guns with smooth insides, that don't even put revolutions on the bullets going out. Who needs protection from these antiques? This is not some museum coming alive every night. Even local gangs have more powerful guns these days! So, what kind of morons are sitting around taking these purchase decisions that are clearly completely useless? What kind of a brainless system do we have to be endorsing in order to spend money on things that have absolutely no meaning in buying?
Terrorists are efficient because they have to be. They need to cause maximum damage with minimum investment. So they get the best weapons, choose the fittest and mentally sickest amongst themselves, prepare to die, and go in all guns blazing, pun intended. To oppose them, we don't need any of their madness, but simply a mechanism that works. We need people that can shoot back, a chain of command that knows what commands to issue to whom and when, trained people who can pull the trigger when their guns are pointing at the targets, and machines that work. Period.
While under attack is not the time for chaos and confusion in the ranks, miscommunication amongst various government organizations, and missed opportunities. It is never a good time for any of this, but if we test any of our government controlled "systems" we will find them not working.
We gave our government offices computers a long time ago. For sure, at the very least, ten years ago. The Regional Transport Offices are amongst these. The police departments of various states even have claims on their websites that they are proud to be part of many new e-government initiatives. (Example: http://tnpolice.gov.in/chiefmsg.html). Ask a traffic policeman if he can pull out his walkie talkie, bark a number, and get the name and address of the owner of any vehicle he just saw running over ten people. The answer is NO! As incredulous as it may seem, there is no access to that simple bit of information! There is a whole official procedure to follow before this gap is bridged! That is where our government monkeys are, with or without computers. Fuckers just don't know what to do, except blackmail the public into paying bribes for the simplest tasks, and maintain total bankruptcy of functional ideas.
Of course this points to corruption, incompetence, and a host of other endemic problems, like apathy, non-action, and finally, to sum up - Indianness. It is time we defined this for ourselves, since we seem to have a hard time acknowledging that "Indianness" is indeed all the above rolled into one. This is a word that deserves to be in every dictionary. Only we Indians can fuck up something of importance so badly, that even after lives are lost, we're grappling not with the gravity of the situation, but with the process of concluding a "matter".
I'm not entirely unhappy policemen died, because most of them are corrupt bastards. The majority of them are unfit, insincere, not interested in service of any kind unless it is performed to obtain a bribe, and are just puppets of politicians. It is just fantastic that their incompetence in Mumbai was exposed by terrorists in such a short period of time, instead of our public interest, the judicial process, the media, and our Indianness combined spending the next fifty years telling us that our cops, their jackets, their guns, and their stupidity is a complete waste for the nation.
Are our policemen dispensable? Clearly, they are. Nothing of note has happened now that we have lost a few of them in terrorist and Maoist attacks. Their deaths haven't made any pockets of civilization more in danger, or lacking protection. The police forces of almost all states are nothing but drains on the budget, magnified several times by their incompetence and immunity from speedy prosecution. So, why do we need them, if they are not impeccable in their duties and manners?
Where it most mattered - doing their duty, they were found wanting, and if they are that inefficient, they can die. For heavens sake, there is nothing heroic about dying in a war you're not even fit enough to fight in, so let's stop making heroes out of unfit, uniformed thugs we hire to do our dirty jobs and look the other way when they take bribes, grow fat, and kill people in fake "encounters". Police custodial killings in India are rampant. Now we have them selling dead bodies. How low can these weasels go? It's wrong to generalize the entire police force of this country thus, but if they can take collective pride, they can also take collective blame.
It is absolutely shameful that this country supplies substandard equipment to personnel employed to do critical jobs, but we don't need to take any moral responsibility for the personnel themselves being substandard. If there are IPS officers facing charges of molestation of minors and abetting suicide, they can bloody well figure out how bulletproof their own jackets need to be and they can shoot the pigs that supplied faulty equipment. They once again failed to do their jobs - that's all there is to it. And the same can be said of many, many Indians who're not earning their keep. It's just part of our Indianness. When we get bitten because of it, that will simply add to ... what else? Indianness!
- BSK.
22 March 2010
Padma Shris to anti national elements!
Let's ask ourselves what we should do with idiots who have been given Padma Shri awards, who don't have even an iota of respect for the Constitution of India, much less for an Indian citizen who points out a blunder on a contentious, sensitive matter of national importance.
The following e mail and the lack of response it got should tell us what kind of shady, ill-informed, dangerous, incompetent nincompoops work for organizations like CNN IBN - and how the government confers awards upon them for staying that way!
The following e mail and the lack of response it got should tell us what kind of shady, ill-informed, dangerous, incompetent nincompoops work for organizations like CNN IBN - and how the government confers awards upon them for staying that way!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: BSK
Date: Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 12:28 AM
Subject: Wrong mention of "National Language".
To: editor@ibnlive.com
Madam/Sir,
It is really disheartening to see a TV channel of your standing allowing such a poor standard of content editing in your telecast.
I was watching a program titled Y NOT just a short while ago on CNN-IBN, and the host made a singular reference to Hindi as the National Language in her conversation with some Mumbaikars who would like to see more Marathi being used in Maharashtra. I am even more amazed that this was not disputed on the spot! It seems that abject arrogance rules your roost and abject ignorance rules amongst the people who subscribe to your channel. Please listen to the lie you broadcast more than once.
http://www.flyerhigher.com/bsk777/YNOT/rashtrabhashalie.wav
In case you or your staff members have been ignorant, or hoodwinked into believing that India has a "National Language", you should really try and learn the facts - India doesn't have a National Language. Even if you have the opinion that it should, you should certainly not allow it to be mentioned like it is a fact. Even the most brazen embrace of mediocrity shouldn't allow for such blunders to go unchecked.
If your channel assumes the "right" to show such a dangerous level of disrespect towards India's Constitution, you really should be put out of action by a public interest litigation. This is indeed my opinion, but I'd like to know first hand from you, if you would choose to tell me, whether:
1. CNN-IBN has a vested interest in pushing Hindi to be christened a National Language.
2. That is the reason there has been no editorial outrage from your channel when people like Ram Vilas Paswan openly insult the Constitution by mentioning Hindi as the national language.
3. That is the reason you have made no attempt to bring to light the gravity of the linguistic imperialism that is being unleashed by the central government of India and Hindi supporters within its mechanism.
4. You are simply too incompetent to take up the depth of this issue and that the establishment of a "Hindi Diwas" means nothing of importance to you.
5. You simply don't care since advertising revenues can keep your enterprise in profit through mediocrity infested programming.
The debate has indeed shifted, if you notice, from whether we should have a unifying language or not, to whether some of us even understand the sanctity of the Constitution. You have, if you care, a goldmine of a topic to examine a lot of items that are important to India and Indians.
Where does CNN IBN collectively stand on the above?
I would much appreciate your response, and please don't hesitate to surprise me with the quality of the same.
Thank you,
BSK.
(The Padma Shri recipient is no less than the Editor in Chief of CNN IBN!
http://www.medianewsline.com/news/131/ARTICLE/2034/2008-01-27.html)
From: BSK
Date: Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 12:28 AM
Subject: Wrong mention of "National Language".
To: editor@ibnlive.com
Madam/Sir,
It is really disheartening to see a TV channel of your standing allowing such a poor standard of content editing in your telecast.
I was watching a program titled Y NOT just a short while ago on CNN-IBN, and the host made a singular reference to Hindi as the National Language in her conversation with some Mumbaikars who would like to see more Marathi being used in Maharashtra. I am even more amazed that this was not disputed on the spot! It seems that abject arrogance rules your roost and abject ignorance rules amongst the people who subscribe to your channel. Please listen to the lie you broadcast more than once.
http://www.flyerhigher.com/bsk777/YNOT/rashtrabhashalie.wav
In case you or your staff members have been ignorant, or hoodwinked into believing that India has a "National Language", you should really try and learn the facts - India doesn't have a National Language. Even if you have the opinion that it should, you should certainly not allow it to be mentioned like it is a fact. Even the most brazen embrace of mediocrity shouldn't allow for such blunders to go unchecked.
If your channel assumes the "right" to show such a dangerous level of disrespect towards India's Constitution, you really should be put out of action by a public interest litigation. This is indeed my opinion, but I'd like to know first hand from you, if you would choose to tell me, whether:
1. CNN-IBN has a vested interest in pushing Hindi to be christened a National Language.
2. That is the reason there has been no editorial outrage from your channel when people like Ram Vilas Paswan openly insult the Constitution by mentioning Hindi as the national language.
3. That is the reason you have made no attempt to bring to light the gravity of the linguistic imperialism that is being unleashed by the central government of India and Hindi supporters within its mechanism.
4. You are simply too incompetent to take up the depth of this issue and that the establishment of a "Hindi Diwas" means nothing of importance to you.
5. You simply don't care since advertising revenues can keep your enterprise in profit through mediocrity infested programming.
The debate has indeed shifted, if you notice, from whether we should have a unifying language or not, to whether some of us even understand the sanctity of the Constitution. You have, if you care, a goldmine of a topic to examine a lot of items that are important to India and Indians.
Where does CNN IBN collectively stand on the above?
I would much appreciate your response, and please don't hesitate to surprise me with the quality of the same.
Thank you,
BSK.
(The Padma Shri recipient is no less than the Editor in Chief of CNN IBN!
http://www.medianewsline.com/news/131/ARTICLE/2034/2008-01-27.html)
20 March 2010
Ready For An UnCivil War?
A few days ago, I had the pleasure of coming across an Indian anomaly - a happy worker! He is a parking attendant who works for a restaurant in Chennai. He greeted every customer who parked his bike, helped him move out safely and comfortably when he came back, and did it all with a smile, with no unspoken agenda like earning a tip. This chap was genuinely happy! How can this be? This is India, where we take no pleasure in our jobs, where we think of customers are interruptions to our business, and for some reason, have simply forgotten to be happy.
But then, this chap is from Nepal. Oh, yes, he speaks Tamil, and it took him all of one year to learn, he told me in his own cheerful way - after all, this is his "success" story. He is very happy to be away from Nepal, where life is tough, and not going anywhere with the Maoists in power. He isn't alone, and I have met a big number of Nepali people of late, doing jobs at restaurants, in shops, and even the guy who sells momos at Citi Centre is of course, from Nepal. It is perfectly legal for them to cross the border and take up jobs in our country, and here is why we should welcome them, without reservations - they have the immigrant values of hard work, no complaints, and gratitude for what is genuinely better than the life they have known.
Nepalese people aren't the most industrious in their own country, especially the menfolk. But throw in genuine opportunity, and the mandated need for them to send money home every month, and put them in a place far away from home, and they rock and roll. They are here, and they are fast replacing all the Indian faces that did those jobs not long ago. I couldn't be happier. But elsewhere, unhappiness is brewing, and a lot of chaos is just round the corner.
A lot of Indian youngsters, particularly rural youth, have migrated to cities, in search of that elusive better life. With the Karunanidhi government providing rice at Re.1/kg, (which is promptly polished and sold at higher rates by a lot of people who get it), there is plenty of incentive to be lazy. There are no native workers to cut sugarcane at Rs.200/day! Who cares about agriculture these days? There is no vote bank there. A lot of government funds are earmarked for "free" schemes that are guaranteed to create a generation of laziness. Even youth who migrate to cities do not want to do the slightly more demanding physical labour, many of them choosing to be, for instance, security guards in an air conditioned mall at Rs.100/day, of which he will be able to save nothing, rather than do some hard work to make double that.
Nepalese youngsters who come to India have no such reservations. They jump right into whatever opportunity is thrown at them, and they work damn hard, for it is important for them to "keep" their jobs, and grow. We have a whole new supply of "steady" workers, and our employers, particularly in the retail sector and service sectors like restaurants, should be very happy. They are freaking delighted! Our agriculturalists are thrilled to have labour from Orissa, UP, and Bihar. This is a state of happiness for now, for many.
In a few years, there will be a widespread recognition of the hardworking, sincere, and happy migrant worker. The local population of youth won't have the attitudes, the experience, or the skills of the migrants. Slowly, but quietly and surely, migrants will take over all the jobs in every sector. When Karunanidhi runs out his hare-brained ideas of giving things free, or when the treasury runs out of funds, the latter of which is likely to occur first, it won't be all that profitable to be jobless or doing dumb jobs for small money. No education, no experience, no reputation of doing hard labour, no specialized skills, and no smile - NO job!
This is when the unrest will creep in. The "feeling" that bloody immigrants have taken over all our jobs will just about set in, when this issue will get politicized. It can get ugly on the street, especially when politically backed for violence and unrest to be unleashed. We, the consumers, who pay the retail sector handsomely, won't be amused. We just want our service, and we will get it.
But now, we will have to contend with a whole section of our society that has been marginalized by their own stupidity and laziness, but carrying with them the notion that they have been duped, not by the politicians who gave them free food, but by immigrants who stole their jobs! The easiest thing to indoctrinate and instigate to violence is a group of people who feel they are deserving and capable, but have been denied their manifest destinies! Keeping them good company will be our already corrupt law enforcement agencies. Rich, ripe ground for nurturing anti-social elements like thugs, terrorists, bandits, dacoits, and a host of vermin that will by no means look hungry or haggard or jungle tough, but will be riding bikes, getting drunk, using drugs, and carrying weapons ready to attack any sign of other people's well being.
Rich people will be targeted. Not the Ambanis or the Tatas, mind you, but the genuine entrepreneurs who have all grown to have two car families through the success of their honest efforts, helped along in some cases by the immigrant labour class. The local niggers versus the immigrants! Why does this have such a familiar ring to it. Look at the black neighbourhoods in the USA. They breed mostly thugs, drug dealers, pimps, and a host of useless, unemployed, lazy, fat, complaining whiners who won't take any job, and live on welfare. These are the lot we're fast breeding in India, particularly in "free" states like Tamilnadu.
Poor Nepali people have nowhere to go in their own country, with dwindling incomes, and lousy encouragement for true enterprise. The Maoists have always been complaining - as is the habit with all ideologists who don't have a clue how to run a functional country. Enterprise always dies under repression. Maoism is communism, and communism is repression - this is the end of Nepal as a free society and as a country with any hope to progress. Their biggest draw, Everest tourism, is bound to take a beating, when the Chinese complete their electric rope bridge project to the peak. And who bears the brunt of all this change? India! Right now, it is thanks to having a lot of jobs vacant that we can absorb Nepalese people quite easily. Two years back, we had 2.6 crore Nepali people in India, as opposed to the entire population of Nepal being 2.5 crores! Now, that number is going to swell.
When the showdown starts, most of our Indian niggers will not realize that it is perfectly legal for any Nepali citizen to come to India and settle down, find a job, or start a business. It is the same reciprocation we Indians have in Nepal. A completely open border! But none of us will want to go there, except on holiday, or to start a business with money already in the pocket. This is already the case. Instead of going to the root of the problem, our politicians will insist that we come up with new laws that prevent Nepalese people from coming to India and working! It would be very easy then, not to notice how none of the jobs the Nepalese people started doing were in high demand among the locals.
This is exactly like the whining that goes on in the USA. Every year, thousands of migrant workers rescue the apple crop, the restaurant industry and a host of other industries. They're just there in numbers to do the actual work, while the locals find it below their dignity to work hard in tough conditions. Apple picking isn't by any means hard, but it is not as easy as sitting in an air-conditioned office hitting a keyboard, sharing stupid jokes with co-nonworkers.
India will have a well defined, out in the open class war, very soon. We're adding 40 million to the middle class each year, but we're also losing 13 million from the bottom, going into the poor class. The 40 million may be better off, but the 13 million are going to be much worse than they have ever known. The problem is that we have unwittingly prepared a whole generation of our people on this "opportunity" hype, which people automatically assume means "easy money". There is no easy money, and the hard money is being made by immigrants, not the local bums.
With extremists like Kishenji heading our own Maoist movements, we can expect not the Nepali immigrants but the local newly bred thugs to join up, happy to be part of anything that is anti-government. The armed forces are already mad that they are not being treated right by the politics of Delhi, not even putting them on pay parity with civil services. We're already seeing examples of ex-army personnel helping the cause of violence by supporting the Maoists and Naxalites and other fringe groups. This will only get worse. We will have an armed uprising, and total sectarian violence. More questions than answers, and our media won't be able to help that cause either, since they're also breeding on their own incompetence.
In our cities, we now have a young generation, that has money to get cellphones and motorbikes - usually working in call centres and such light labour pigeon holes. One doesn't need an education for any of these jobs, just some speaking skills, some presentation, and some willingness to show up will suffice. This whole generation of kids isn't much fit for doing anything other than simple routine jobs. Jobs that can easily migrate to the Philippines, or even Bangladesh. An easy money, dumb business is always easy to copy, and a 5% advantage in another country will mean some management genius in the USA gets to keep his job and bonus! So, we won't have much of a point building an army of call centre workers, when our country needs people to harvest grain.
The various state governments have the hardest task on hand - use our current healthy economic situation to make people more competitive, hard edged, and India vastly more productive. Truth is, nobody knows how. This is a time for merrymaking, to drink deeper from the illusion that we're a great nation headed towards our destiny - the greatest nation in the world. Only Kishenji thinks his bunch of lunatics will be ruling it by 2050. I wonder how he will convince a whole generation of bums to do some hard work!
The middle class entrepreneur in India is seeing some success these days, but there is no protection for the money we may make, in the wake of armed gangs running loose like they already are in Telangana, West Bengal, parts of UP and West Bengal - all the states that Kishenji wants for himself and his harebrained ideas. We will have to put our money offshore, and prepare for the time when we leave a potentially godforsaken country for good, or carry guns to protect ourselves.
Violent thugs on the roads, attacking us at will is not a long, far fetched nightmare scenario. It is the ONLY thing that happens when things rot as much as India has allowed right now. The opportunity to make the fast buck is upon us. Usually, nothing matters when this is lubricated by lax enforcement of the law, a corrupt state level judiciary, and the politics of numbers. Our country is all about looting as much as possible, as soon as possible. Consequences, there are NONE to worry about.
Maybe India isn't worth worrying about. Let's ask the Nepalese people what they think. Maybe that will tell us what is worth preserving. It certainly can't be our patented apathy and laziness.
BSK.
But then, this chap is from Nepal. Oh, yes, he speaks Tamil, and it took him all of one year to learn, he told me in his own cheerful way - after all, this is his "success" story. He is very happy to be away from Nepal, where life is tough, and not going anywhere with the Maoists in power. He isn't alone, and I have met a big number of Nepali people of late, doing jobs at restaurants, in shops, and even the guy who sells momos at Citi Centre is of course, from Nepal. It is perfectly legal for them to cross the border and take up jobs in our country, and here is why we should welcome them, without reservations - they have the immigrant values of hard work, no complaints, and gratitude for what is genuinely better than the life they have known.
Nepalese people aren't the most industrious in their own country, especially the menfolk. But throw in genuine opportunity, and the mandated need for them to send money home every month, and put them in a place far away from home, and they rock and roll. They are here, and they are fast replacing all the Indian faces that did those jobs not long ago. I couldn't be happier. But elsewhere, unhappiness is brewing, and a lot of chaos is just round the corner.
A lot of Indian youngsters, particularly rural youth, have migrated to cities, in search of that elusive better life. With the Karunanidhi government providing rice at Re.1/kg, (which is promptly polished and sold at higher rates by a lot of people who get it), there is plenty of incentive to be lazy. There are no native workers to cut sugarcane at Rs.200/day! Who cares about agriculture these days? There is no vote bank there. A lot of government funds are earmarked for "free" schemes that are guaranteed to create a generation of laziness. Even youth who migrate to cities do not want to do the slightly more demanding physical labour, many of them choosing to be, for instance, security guards in an air conditioned mall at Rs.100/day, of which he will be able to save nothing, rather than do some hard work to make double that.
Nepalese youngsters who come to India have no such reservations. They jump right into whatever opportunity is thrown at them, and they work damn hard, for it is important for them to "keep" their jobs, and grow. We have a whole new supply of "steady" workers, and our employers, particularly in the retail sector and service sectors like restaurants, should be very happy. They are freaking delighted! Our agriculturalists are thrilled to have labour from Orissa, UP, and Bihar. This is a state of happiness for now, for many.
In a few years, there will be a widespread recognition of the hardworking, sincere, and happy migrant worker. The local population of youth won't have the attitudes, the experience, or the skills of the migrants. Slowly, but quietly and surely, migrants will take over all the jobs in every sector. When Karunanidhi runs out his hare-brained ideas of giving things free, or when the treasury runs out of funds, the latter of which is likely to occur first, it won't be all that profitable to be jobless or doing dumb jobs for small money. No education, no experience, no reputation of doing hard labour, no specialized skills, and no smile - NO job!
This is when the unrest will creep in. The "feeling" that bloody immigrants have taken over all our jobs will just about set in, when this issue will get politicized. It can get ugly on the street, especially when politically backed for violence and unrest to be unleashed. We, the consumers, who pay the retail sector handsomely, won't be amused. We just want our service, and we will get it.
But now, we will have to contend with a whole section of our society that has been marginalized by their own stupidity and laziness, but carrying with them the notion that they have been duped, not by the politicians who gave them free food, but by immigrants who stole their jobs! The easiest thing to indoctrinate and instigate to violence is a group of people who feel they are deserving and capable, but have been denied their manifest destinies! Keeping them good company will be our already corrupt law enforcement agencies. Rich, ripe ground for nurturing anti-social elements like thugs, terrorists, bandits, dacoits, and a host of vermin that will by no means look hungry or haggard or jungle tough, but will be riding bikes, getting drunk, using drugs, and carrying weapons ready to attack any sign of other people's well being.
Rich people will be targeted. Not the Ambanis or the Tatas, mind you, but the genuine entrepreneurs who have all grown to have two car families through the success of their honest efforts, helped along in some cases by the immigrant labour class. The local niggers versus the immigrants! Why does this have such a familiar ring to it. Look at the black neighbourhoods in the USA. They breed mostly thugs, drug dealers, pimps, and a host of useless, unemployed, lazy, fat, complaining whiners who won't take any job, and live on welfare. These are the lot we're fast breeding in India, particularly in "free" states like Tamilnadu.
Poor Nepali people have nowhere to go in their own country, with dwindling incomes, and lousy encouragement for true enterprise. The Maoists have always been complaining - as is the habit with all ideologists who don't have a clue how to run a functional country. Enterprise always dies under repression. Maoism is communism, and communism is repression - this is the end of Nepal as a free society and as a country with any hope to progress. Their biggest draw, Everest tourism, is bound to take a beating, when the Chinese complete their electric rope bridge project to the peak. And who bears the brunt of all this change? India! Right now, it is thanks to having a lot of jobs vacant that we can absorb Nepalese people quite easily. Two years back, we had 2.6 crore Nepali people in India, as opposed to the entire population of Nepal being 2.5 crores! Now, that number is going to swell.
When the showdown starts, most of our Indian niggers will not realize that it is perfectly legal for any Nepali citizen to come to India and settle down, find a job, or start a business. It is the same reciprocation we Indians have in Nepal. A completely open border! But none of us will want to go there, except on holiday, or to start a business with money already in the pocket. This is already the case. Instead of going to the root of the problem, our politicians will insist that we come up with new laws that prevent Nepalese people from coming to India and working! It would be very easy then, not to notice how none of the jobs the Nepalese people started doing were in high demand among the locals.
This is exactly like the whining that goes on in the USA. Every year, thousands of migrant workers rescue the apple crop, the restaurant industry and a host of other industries. They're just there in numbers to do the actual work, while the locals find it below their dignity to work hard in tough conditions. Apple picking isn't by any means hard, but it is not as easy as sitting in an air-conditioned office hitting a keyboard, sharing stupid jokes with co-nonworkers.
India will have a well defined, out in the open class war, very soon. We're adding 40 million to the middle class each year, but we're also losing 13 million from the bottom, going into the poor class. The 40 million may be better off, but the 13 million are going to be much worse than they have ever known. The problem is that we have unwittingly prepared a whole generation of our people on this "opportunity" hype, which people automatically assume means "easy money". There is no easy money, and the hard money is being made by immigrants, not the local bums.
With extremists like Kishenji heading our own Maoist movements, we can expect not the Nepali immigrants but the local newly bred thugs to join up, happy to be part of anything that is anti-government. The armed forces are already mad that they are not being treated right by the politics of Delhi, not even putting them on pay parity with civil services. We're already seeing examples of ex-army personnel helping the cause of violence by supporting the Maoists and Naxalites and other fringe groups. This will only get worse. We will have an armed uprising, and total sectarian violence. More questions than answers, and our media won't be able to help that cause either, since they're also breeding on their own incompetence.
In our cities, we now have a young generation, that has money to get cellphones and motorbikes - usually working in call centres and such light labour pigeon holes. One doesn't need an education for any of these jobs, just some speaking skills, some presentation, and some willingness to show up will suffice. This whole generation of kids isn't much fit for doing anything other than simple routine jobs. Jobs that can easily migrate to the Philippines, or even Bangladesh. An easy money, dumb business is always easy to copy, and a 5% advantage in another country will mean some management genius in the USA gets to keep his job and bonus! So, we won't have much of a point building an army of call centre workers, when our country needs people to harvest grain.
The various state governments have the hardest task on hand - use our current healthy economic situation to make people more competitive, hard edged, and India vastly more productive. Truth is, nobody knows how. This is a time for merrymaking, to drink deeper from the illusion that we're a great nation headed towards our destiny - the greatest nation in the world. Only Kishenji thinks his bunch of lunatics will be ruling it by 2050. I wonder how he will convince a whole generation of bums to do some hard work!
The middle class entrepreneur in India is seeing some success these days, but there is no protection for the money we may make, in the wake of armed gangs running loose like they already are in Telangana, West Bengal, parts of UP and West Bengal - all the states that Kishenji wants for himself and his harebrained ideas. We will have to put our money offshore, and prepare for the time when we leave a potentially godforsaken country for good, or carry guns to protect ourselves.
Violent thugs on the roads, attacking us at will is not a long, far fetched nightmare scenario. It is the ONLY thing that happens when things rot as much as India has allowed right now. The opportunity to make the fast buck is upon us. Usually, nothing matters when this is lubricated by lax enforcement of the law, a corrupt state level judiciary, and the politics of numbers. Our country is all about looting as much as possible, as soon as possible. Consequences, there are NONE to worry about.
Maybe India isn't worth worrying about. Let's ask the Nepalese people what they think. Maybe that will tell us what is worth preserving. It certainly can't be our patented apathy and laziness.
BSK.
16 March 2010
2/3rds mad, 1/3rd dumb.
India! We've done it!
Finally, a place amongst the greatest nations of the world!
After a long, long, struggle, we've given our women something to genuinely cheer about. Thirty three percent reservation in the Lok Sabha. From now on, lives of women will never be the same again. What women, what kind of women, though?
Let's see how we're going to fill this thirty three percent and elevate our women who have been left out so far. Let's choose an idol - how about Mayawati? After all, she and idols go together, so how can she be ignored? In fact, she's gone on record asking, "What's wrong if I install my own statues?", http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20100315/818/tnl-what-s-wrong-if-i-install-my-own-sta.html - , and really thinks it is necessary for history makers such as herself to be prominently preserved as idols for posterity. I hope there will be a carving below her statue of her exact words today, so that posterity can kick her in the posterior if it chooses to.
If Mayawati can think of herself as a history maker, just because she is pushing state funds to build statues of herself and the other figures in her limited knowledge of India and the world, surely, that is a heck of a lot of motivation for our young women to enter politics and emulate her noble deeds? Let them choose. For now, let's focus on the kind of representation that this thirty three percent will bring in, with the fervent hope that this doesn't mean 33% of idiots like Mayawati.
Our women who come to the forefront in politics seem more smitten by the power bug than the men they are hoping to equal. Look at Jayalalithaa, the AIADMK supremo. The word "supremo" hardly sounds democratic, does it? We're not at all talking about leadership or administrative abilities. Who was the last Indian woman we heard of that was all about astute leadership and no shows of unquestioned power? Indira Gandhi negated all the good she did with that declaration of Emergency, one of India's darkest periods. And even she came with pedigree. We simply have megalomaniacs on the loose when it comes to political women. Still...
The most "womanly" parliament India has had less than 10% of women in its fold. And none of them rose from the ranks, so to speak. It takes pedigree, like exemplified by MP Kanimozhi, whose only claim to any kind of fame is being the daughter of Karunanidhi. In other words, we've now opened the door to the exact opposite of what we should stand for - gender equality. We're basically saying, "As long as you're a woman, you can show up and be a parliamentarian". So, while 33% is not "equal" to 67%, I wonder what the argument is all about. Clearly this is not about numbers or equality. It is about disturbing a status quo that is wrong in the first place. If India has roughly 50% women in its population, why should the representation of women be any less than that? Why is nobody talking about this?
Because we don't want to get to the core of any issue. Let's not expect our women to rise up and be better than the men have proved so far. Let's completely forget that in the Hindu pantheon, Gods are not greater than Goddesses, and that the Supreme Sakthi - the primal source of all energy - worshipped as Kali, Amman, and several other names, the one who created the Holy Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, is female. Let's continue to keep our women "aspiring to be equal" to the men they are already perhaps superior to!
The woman of substance in India is not sitting on a pile of cash, throwing tantrums and exercising her political will upon the nation in order to be preserved for posterity through idol worship. She is busy making ends meet, bringing up children, working two jobs, managing her household rather heroically, takes a genuine interest in the well being of her husband and children, and their futures, and still has time for friends and family. She is a super achiever in this country's madness, and she is not a politician. She is the quintessential Indian woman, who has the fight and the heart to do her job rather excellently, and she is not interested in politics, because it is not like her at all. The women in Indian politics are hardly representative of the Indian woman.
Now, there will be a scramble for filling up the 33%, but none of our parties have anywhere near the numbers needed for filling up these shining new reserved seats. So, what's going to happen? More dumbasses will have to be fielded, purely because they are women! We already have enough dumb netas in our country, but they have been around for so long, without any retirement age, and they have well near made it impossible for anybody young to come to any position of prominence in any party, even with pedigree, so what are the chances of somebody without pedigree showing up to the PM for instance? Almost nil. Now, we have this reservation for women that looks great on paper, but how the heck is it going to improve the quality of women's lives in our country when our women do not care for politics at any level at this percentage anyway?
Since it is already impossible for anybody young to enter and do something significant in our politics, it is not at all feasible for us to imagine any new, young, female candidate entering any fray. Up until now! But, this is the theory of it. In practicality, our dumb netas will wake up from their slumber, and field their already spoilt dumber sisters, daughters, grandmothers, concubines, and slaves, knowing fully well that within their party, they, the menfolk, will continue to wield the whip, no matter what percentage! Merely filling a seat in parliament will not turn any of our dumb women into parliamentarians. It hasn't managed to do that even to seasoned old farts who have showed up there for years!
Look at what it takes to enter politics in India today - for ANY candidate: Money, lots. Education, none. Noise making ability, plenty. Connections, as many as possible. Ability to corrupt and be corrupt, very necessary. Knowledge of issues, none needed. Ability to politicise, plenty. Need an example? Ah, just a minute.
>>> Courtesy, Times of India - As Mayawati was in the midst of her address at the rally to celebrate BSP's 25th anniversary here, the bees made a sudden appearance and made a hive on the stage below which she stood. The bees did not go unnoticed by the BSP supremo who pointed to them above her head and smelt a political conspiracy. Her party said the appearance of the bees was a conspiracy. The UP government also pointed to some "mischief" and quickly ordered an inquiry, apparently stung by the sudden appearance of the bees at Rama Bai Ambedkar maidan, the rally venue.<<<
What we have done is improve the "image" of the citadel, by promising more queens for the harem up there, not "better" women, or better governance or better anything. We have given the existing political parties more leverage to muck up the mix some more, in the name of "reservations". From this perspective, thank God the number is 33 not 50. It will take some very capable people to handle 33% of India's madness, and for some reason, we think this job will be better served by female dumbasses replacing the male dumbasses we have now. God bless us, atleast 33% of us!
BSK.
Finally, a place amongst the greatest nations of the world!
After a long, long, struggle, we've given our women something to genuinely cheer about. Thirty three percent reservation in the Lok Sabha. From now on, lives of women will never be the same again. What women, what kind of women, though?
Let's see how we're going to fill this thirty three percent and elevate our women who have been left out so far. Let's choose an idol - how about Mayawati? After all, she and idols go together, so how can she be ignored? In fact, she's gone on record asking, "What's wrong if I install my own statues?", http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20100315/818/tnl-what-s-wrong-if-i-install-my-own-sta.html - , and really thinks it is necessary for history makers such as herself to be prominently preserved as idols for posterity. I hope there will be a carving below her statue of her exact words today, so that posterity can kick her in the posterior if it chooses to.
If Mayawati can think of herself as a history maker, just because she is pushing state funds to build statues of herself and the other figures in her limited knowledge of India and the world, surely, that is a heck of a lot of motivation for our young women to enter politics and emulate her noble deeds? Let them choose. For now, let's focus on the kind of representation that this thirty three percent will bring in, with the fervent hope that this doesn't mean 33% of idiots like Mayawati.
Our women who come to the forefront in politics seem more smitten by the power bug than the men they are hoping to equal. Look at Jayalalithaa, the AIADMK supremo. The word "supremo" hardly sounds democratic, does it? We're not at all talking about leadership or administrative abilities. Who was the last Indian woman we heard of that was all about astute leadership and no shows of unquestioned power? Indira Gandhi negated all the good she did with that declaration of Emergency, one of India's darkest periods. And even she came with pedigree. We simply have megalomaniacs on the loose when it comes to political women. Still...
The most "womanly" parliament India has had less than 10% of women in its fold. And none of them rose from the ranks, so to speak. It takes pedigree, like exemplified by MP Kanimozhi, whose only claim to any kind of fame is being the daughter of Karunanidhi. In other words, we've now opened the door to the exact opposite of what we should stand for - gender equality. We're basically saying, "As long as you're a woman, you can show up and be a parliamentarian". So, while 33% is not "equal" to 67%, I wonder what the argument is all about. Clearly this is not about numbers or equality. It is about disturbing a status quo that is wrong in the first place. If India has roughly 50% women in its population, why should the representation of women be any less than that? Why is nobody talking about this?
Because we don't want to get to the core of any issue. Let's not expect our women to rise up and be better than the men have proved so far. Let's completely forget that in the Hindu pantheon, Gods are not greater than Goddesses, and that the Supreme Sakthi - the primal source of all energy - worshipped as Kali, Amman, and several other names, the one who created the Holy Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, is female. Let's continue to keep our women "aspiring to be equal" to the men they are already perhaps superior to!
The woman of substance in India is not sitting on a pile of cash, throwing tantrums and exercising her political will upon the nation in order to be preserved for posterity through idol worship. She is busy making ends meet, bringing up children, working two jobs, managing her household rather heroically, takes a genuine interest in the well being of her husband and children, and their futures, and still has time for friends and family. She is a super achiever in this country's madness, and she is not a politician. She is the quintessential Indian woman, who has the fight and the heart to do her job rather excellently, and she is not interested in politics, because it is not like her at all. The women in Indian politics are hardly representative of the Indian woman.
Now, there will be a scramble for filling up the 33%, but none of our parties have anywhere near the numbers needed for filling up these shining new reserved seats. So, what's going to happen? More dumbasses will have to be fielded, purely because they are women! We already have enough dumb netas in our country, but they have been around for so long, without any retirement age, and they have well near made it impossible for anybody young to come to any position of prominence in any party, even with pedigree, so what are the chances of somebody without pedigree showing up to the PM for instance? Almost nil. Now, we have this reservation for women that looks great on paper, but how the heck is it going to improve the quality of women's lives in our country when our women do not care for politics at any level at this percentage anyway?
Since it is already impossible for anybody young to enter and do something significant in our politics, it is not at all feasible for us to imagine any new, young, female candidate entering any fray. Up until now! But, this is the theory of it. In practicality, our dumb netas will wake up from their slumber, and field their already spoilt dumber sisters, daughters, grandmothers, concubines, and slaves, knowing fully well that within their party, they, the menfolk, will continue to wield the whip, no matter what percentage! Merely filling a seat in parliament will not turn any of our dumb women into parliamentarians. It hasn't managed to do that even to seasoned old farts who have showed up there for years!
Look at what it takes to enter politics in India today - for ANY candidate: Money, lots. Education, none. Noise making ability, plenty. Connections, as many as possible. Ability to corrupt and be corrupt, very necessary. Knowledge of issues, none needed. Ability to politicise, plenty. Need an example? Ah, just a minute.
>>> Courtesy, Times of India - As Mayawati was in the midst of her address at the rally to celebrate BSP's 25th anniversary here, the bees made a sudden appearance and made a hive on the stage below which she stood. The bees did not go unnoticed by the BSP supremo who pointed to them above her head and smelt a political conspiracy. Her party said the appearance of the bees was a conspiracy. The UP government also pointed to some "mischief" and quickly ordered an inquiry, apparently stung by the sudden appearance of the bees at Rama Bai Ambedkar maidan, the rally venue.<<<
What we have done is improve the "image" of the citadel, by promising more queens for the harem up there, not "better" women, or better governance or better anything. We have given the existing political parties more leverage to muck up the mix some more, in the name of "reservations". From this perspective, thank God the number is 33 not 50. It will take some very capable people to handle 33% of India's madness, and for some reason, we think this job will be better served by female dumbasses replacing the male dumbasses we have now. God bless us, atleast 33% of us!
BSK.
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