To all our politicians/leaders/public figures who are influential but flying high and claim to love people for that ......
"That kinda lovin' turns a man to a slave
That kinda lovin' sends a man right to his grave
I go crazy, crazy, baby, I go crazy"
Ok thats aerosmith alrite :) but yeah it kinda suits the situation ..aint it ?
Sometimes its demoralizing to write about politics ... and as it is everybody is writing about it to debate some daily event in the election process in India.
In this existing scenario of mayhem across the world, due to the terrorism, communal tensions, conflicts between nations/races and natural calamities, the elections are about to take place in the world's largest democracy, India. During the elections, the religion issues, the communal hate speeches, the criminilization debates, the celebrities debate .....everything is pointing to one and only one thing ...and that being ...the ordinary people (especially the lower economic class) are being taken for such ultimate fools and being insulted on their face for their helplessness, day in-n-out by everybody around.
Now, without getting into the details and debates of what a young gentleman said in his "hate" speech, the very fact that a young person coming from a well-off family can actually go and talk such utter disgusting rubbish in a remote village shows the entire state of lawlessness and power corruption. This remote village is a place which he wouldn't have any business with, in his personal life. The region has been assigned to him by the party to work upon professionally. Now, the party is not backing the young fellow's alleged statements but at the same time, definitely backing him up after initial days of hiccups wherein they had to collect their own wits. If that's the case then, either the young fella has taken things into his hand without consulting his party or he was actually given complete freedom to do so. Considering that he is completely being backed by the party as a candidate, we can assume the latter ie., complete freedom being given to a candidate with limited experience in the profession. Now, if a politician with such limited experience and working under such a super banner is allowed to make such an extempore speech and also a free hand to conduct howsoever he wishes to then, doesnt it speak volumes for the unprofessionalism of the party itself. Should I assume here, that the party is literally "Ram Bharose" in their operations/methodologies ? (pun unintended). I am not really chasing this issue as the "end of it all" situation or getting into any party bashing/preference on my part.
Talking about hate speeches or communal speeches, I saw a documentary called "Final Solutions" by Rakesh Sharma. Anybody who can get a copy of it should view it once. And please keep the kids away because of its sensitive content. Apart from loads of sensitive details, it showed some really communal speeches being delivered, which obviously never got highlighted. I fairly assume such speeches are being delivered even at this moment and would be continued as a standard practice to woo the "ordinary" ( read "foolish n helpless") people of this country.
Just a quick thought here as to the reasons if any behind the other speeches not getting enough attention in the media or discussions. Is there a star power factor attached here as well ? Even though the hate speech needs to condemned but is there a factor of 'who delivered it' responsible in highlighting the entire issue ? Don't know really ..but maybe.
*** keywords for research : Media Favourites/Corruption/TRP's ? ***
Ok, I am reading a book called "India After Gandhi". Now Ramachandra Guha has compiled and narrated an amazing story of the manner in which "India" was actually born and how has it shaped up till now. Even though a country like India and its story can never be told in an 800 page book but its a masterpiece without a doubt. It has a bibliography of around 90 pages. I would strongly wish and suggest, not only translating the book into all the possible languages in the country but also to have it in the school curriculum as a compulsory subject say over a period of 3 years (VIIIth - Xth class). We have got to know, where we are and how we became what we are today as a nation. No-one amongst my peer group would actually believe that our nation, as we are today, was almost ruled out as technical impossibility, as per political scientists in that era. And its seen as a wonder, even today. Now the mention of the book might seem as a deviating reference from my initial focus on religion being the standard and the only ingredient at times for political campaigns. The reason that I mentioned this book was because of the starkling similarity between the manner of influence used in the early 20th century and in the 21st century. The same topics and debates to influence people, the same class of people and the same style still exists. What has really changed afterall ?
I think the notoriety of formulaes on how to rule the common masses have obviously been passed on till the current generation and is being used quite effectively. The formulaes has definitely made more impact in the psyche of the nation than the fading popularity of the committment and perseverence by many, to make this nation a possibility. And such a losing battle prompts my desire to make this a text book or rather an integral subject for the young children, who deserve the right inputs in moulding their ideas instead of the largely corrupt caricature of the entire political or administrative "system".
If I tell my young urban peer generation to read the book that I mentioned above, before reading say a book like "Audacity of Hope" by Mr. Barrack Obama, I would get raised eyebrows for sure. I would get a cynical remark saying "Nothing will work here..so stop your pseudo idealistic preaching" or "Are you in your senses ?" or a remark on my marital status (single) saying "You need to get married more than reading such books". Why is that ? Is it because we as a generation are tired of keywords taken in the cliche'd envelope containing our history ? Say keywords like Freedom Struggle, India, Gandhi.... n all. Is this generation somewhere tired of listening to the same bugel for ages and are almost closed to even listening to it now ? Does this generation really know the details of the real challenges that have been faced in just bringing together and managing a single structure called India ? No. Thats because, from the time everything started for this country, the keywords have been taken advantage of in gaining political mileage or raising sentiments or if simply put, to raise enough dust to confuse/convince ordinary people.
With absolute due respect to Mr. Barrack and his book, let me now think about the general impression or attraction towards a book like "Audacity of Hope". The motivational aspect in the urban youth might be dissected in the manner say ...
1. The current generation does see some hope in a contemporary icon of integrity more than the sickening rut of debates that we end up wasting our energies on a daily basis locally.
Everybody here knows the truth beyond the cloud of dust and that is the reason for such well accepted discontentment. "
2. In very rare cases, it would make a more fashionable statement in the peer group. And why not ...??? we definitely need to have pride n style in anything to get us interested in it. So nothing wrong in it.
So where does this blabber end ? This blabber ends in a note that
1. Its time that we be open to accepting and being positive towards the progress which we have made till date as a nation. And that is very significant indeed.
2. We do have enormous amounts of issues and problem areas for us to work upon. So instead of simply shouting for a "change" or looking upto the need for a messiah, one thing that we can practically do is to try and know whatever we can about our growth and about our country. This would be a concrete step to have more qualified ideas and sensitivities which is needed more than hollow/infectious emotions and lazy demands.
