So far away ...

Couple of days back we marked the event of six months, since the horrific terror attacks in Mumbai and not surprisingly, the TV media paraded its darlings, Suhel Seth, Shobe De et al, to rant out their frustration against the fact that nothing really has changed on the ground since then. Yes, definitely so.

Caught between the claim to uphold our constitutional rights and our inept judicial system, we have a case that is still being waged against Kasab, when the evidence clearly shows beyond doubt, how he walked around the city spewing bullets. There was also the news on how one samajwadi party MP reportedly has put the brakes on the government from purchasing modern weapons for the Mumbai police. NSG hub in Mumbai and other metros is still far away from reality.

So, all the elite could do, similar to post 26/11, is to vent out their anger on prime-time television, which they are extremely good at. Leave alone the fact that, majority of the Mumbaikars preferred to give the elections a miss and the turnout was pathetic compared to the rest of the country.

That is how much the urban folks care about the polity of this nation and no wonder the Congress was able to sweep the Mumbai constituencies, even as the city is being dealt with one of the most insipid administration, either during the terror strike or the deluge that happens every monsoon.

Do the politicians really care about urban voices? Or, is it the other way around? Do we really care about ourselves, beyond the yells and shout.

Call it the very sorry state of our democracy, we are no way close to reforming the political main stream, which has gotten rot over years of mis-rule by netas of various parties and the dust and slime covering the pillars of our parliament would require a great deal of work to rescue it from the ruins of sheer negligence and corrupt policies of various governments over the years.

Majority of the electorate still do not watch these prime-time talk shows and for them, the few rupees thrown out by a Mulayam or an Azhagiri, or a promise from a Karunananidhi or a YSR, appeals more than even the fundamental bijili, sadak, paani. They are the preferred choice of electorate and the ones who still get to decide whom to send to the parliament, not the urban middle-class from the metros.

Not that the voters of the metros are cared less, but what is cared even more is to sustain and strengthen that ignorance of the huge section of our society, that is yet to reap the benefits of the economic boom, by dividing them on regional and caste lines.

Last election saw few interesting faces in the form of Mallika Sarabhai from Gandinagar, Capt. Gopinath from Bangalore, Meera Sanyal from Mumabi, throwing their strength in the political ring, which so far has been chastised as a show of the unruly, corrupt and irresponsible politicians of this country.

Not surprisingly, all of them failed miserably, except for the few shrewd alignments like Sashi Tharoor, who joined the fray as a Congress representative.

What could have really made a difference in the past six months is for the Mumbaikars to come out in one voice to vote. Given the nightmare they continue to endure in the city, in spite of being the largest taxpayers, they should have given a record turnout that stunned the politicians. That never happened.

It is one thing to sit outside and cry out loud. You cannot clean up a system, unless you are part of it. The more we distance ourselves from the mess, the more it gets rot. It is like the typical urban attitude, when we litter our roads with trash, thinking it is someone else’s responsibility to clean it up. No wonder our roads stink and so does our political system.

As debated on the prime-time television, we are still far, far away in leading a revolution to bring about a commonsensical change that we all dream about.

So far away from me. So far, I just can’t see!

End defunct tokenism.

It was the first match of the 1987 Reliance world cup between Australia and India and most of my fellow schoolmates were restless, having to miss that game. Some of the backbench bullies in my 11th standard class were already conniving and soon we had the guys walking out of the class and so did I - often at the end of the line. When the head master came out, the boys just would not budge in and finally he had to relent and the school closed for few days. Reason – what else, Sri Lankan Tamils. It is a different story that India lost that game in the last over, in spite of sixer siddhu’s heroics.

Late eighties, in government aided schools and colleges like mine, all we needed was a reason to get few days off and the Tamils issue used to be the noble savior to pull the shutters down. The schools and colleges would close down for few days, as the students would take to the streets protesting in support of the ethnic Tamils and against the atrocities of the Sinhalese.

For the timid few like me, at times, we would not even know the reason behind the strike till we come back home. Anyway, reason mattered less, if that gives you few additional days to play cricket or to get burnt in the sweltering heat, roaming around the streets of Madurai.

Years later, it is a sad state of affairs and for whatever reasons, the Sri Lankan issue has disappeared from the people's minds and Tamil Nadu is strangely quiet these days, over this issue. May be, people lost the heart to stand up for the LTTE after the gruesome assassination of Rajiv. But, the attention is very much required, given the human calamity that is staring at Sri Lanka right now.

The once savior of the Tamils, now with his mobility curtailed to a wheel chair, is busy shopping ministerial births for his kin. Just few months back, Kanimozhi resigned her Rajyasabha seat for the cause of the Tamils. If at all there were a reason to be a renegade, it would be more appropriate right now.

Amma and the usual suspects of the other fringe political parties, who thrived under the guise of the LTTE, have gone hiding and there is seldom any hue and cry over the death of the LTTE leader and his family. All the noises they made during the election time, appear to be a perfunctory effort or rather symbolic.

But, what worries me is this very absence of a concerted effort from the administration of either Tamil Nadu or the Centre over the ominous humanitarian catastrophe in Sri Lanka. The issue is not ideology anymore, it is more of humanitarian. According to UNHRC estimates, nearly 300,000 civilians are living in hellish conditions and the country is thoroughly ill equipped to handle a crisis of this magnitude.

Agreed, in some way the determined Sri Lankan Government helped us fight a common enemy and we diplomatically looked the other way when the Sri Lankan Government went on rampage against the LTTE and the Tamil civilians who were caught in the cross-fire.

But, the time to act is NOW. With the LTTE wiped out, why does the Government of India dither with its action plan to save the helpless people? This is the time for tokenism to be replaced with meaningful assistance, to assert our prowess as a regional leader and to show the way for the troubled neighbors.

If this new Government requires a main agenda item, it has to seriously work on the almost non-existent foreign policy priorities towards our neighbors. If you look around, from Pak to Nepal to Bangladesh to Burma to Sri Lanka, we are engulfed in deep trouble across the borders all along. This is going to leave a serious dent on our state of affairs and sooner we realize, the better.

Shame on Us!

Height of mediocrity and Shame on us!

What could be the first order of mandate for the prime minister and the congress’s high-profile leaders to burn their mid-night oil and sort out? Not the looming humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka where millions are living in squalid conditions, not the worsening economy and rising food prices, not the uncertain state of the millions of youth who would be passing out this year with no jobs given the sad state of the economy, but to settle a feud between members of a family with their insatiable thirst to gobble up power and the money that comes with that.

If there was in me, any part of my self that felt jubilated over the success of our democratic setup and the near overwhelming victory bestowed by the citizens of this nation to a single party, the incidents of the past few days between the Congress and the DMK, over the portfolio allocation has totally shattered that and I can’t but feel depressed over the sequence of events.

There goes a leader of a party in a wheel chair to New Delhi, who till recently was ailing in a hospital and who, one fine morning, given the political compulsions and to appease the Tamil sentiments, sprung a surprise and decided to go on a fast for the Tamils’ cause. This time, the reasoning is not the people of his state or the endangered Tamils’, but to shop around for a coterie of his family members and a bunch of corrupt and inept politicians, dictating terms on what he would like to be offered in the cabinet.

Lets look at the dubious players.

A surface transport minister, Balu, in whose term the golden quadrilateral took a backseat, who mysteriously disappeared during the truckers’ strike, his controversial sethu samudram project in shambles and who became popular when he openly acclaimed the way in which he influenced the petroleum ministry to get subsidized gas for a firm managed by his son.

The IT and Telecom Minister, A Raja, who shot into fame when he got this plum ministry over another family feud and who got popularity over supposedly making the country's exchequer lose millions of rupees by under-pricing the spectrum allocation.

A poet by name Kanimozhi, who was on the political sidelines till her mother got worried about her wealth and the growing stature of her brothers and whose administrative experience would be nothing more than organizing a cultural event by name, Chennayil Sangamam, along with an LTTE sympathizer.

And the most important of all, Kalaingar’s eldest of sons, whose true powers even the father himself had not discovered till recently and who ensured the party gets the seats in the southern Tamil Nadu, and for whom, anything less than a cabinet post would not go well among his fellow gang men. Forget the fact that, he just got acquitted over a criminal case and he has little education or administrative experience to run a ministry like Health, when the country’s health infrastructure is in shambles.

Sure, Mr. Kalaingar and his son have the onerous task at hand to ensure they get the return on investment for all the money that were wielded in open during the elections! He has a larger family, to feed their aspirations and ambitions so that they all leave in peace as he and his political career sets in the horizon.

But, if the mandate were for development and the unquestionable integrity of the person, Dr. Manmohan Singh, what would be a shame on the billions who gave this decisive verdict, would be the rapprochement that is being worked out, compromising dignity and basic administrative standards.

This vote is for the prime minister to break out of the shackles that were put on him during the last term, by people like a Kalaingar, a Shibu Soren or a Karat. It would only be prudent if the Prime Minister and the Congress realize the strength and come to reality of the decisive mandate given to them.

Else, the people of this country have clearly shown how they could go shopping for another alternative in a voice that is as decisive as this time.