C'mon, cut the ...

You could not ask for a better juicy spice to add to the headlines on an Independence Day, other than to talk about your civil liberties and freedom being compromised over the incident of how our own SRK was detained and questioned upon his entry into the United States.

What is wrong?

The point is not about the paranoia that has gripped the US since the aftermath of 9/11 and just having a last name that is synonymous with a specific religion drives them to into this extra mode of caution. Perhaps, as it does on some cases, the xenophobia potentially could drive few people go over-board. That is a different issue, altogether.

The point is not that SRK was questioned for 2 hours; our concern was more that he was questioned just like any other normal citizens and treated un-fairly!

It is high time we get over this regal shame of giving this VIP treatment to individuals, even in areas that matter the most, like Security. If the US reserves the right of a harsh preferential treatment on the basis of a last name, so do we. We have an institutionalized preferential treatment based on societal standing that goes too soft on few people. This is going to cause us more damage than we could ever understand.

Seldom we, Indians, like to be frisked or even stopped at the gate by the duty bound security guards. At work places, I have seen the frown on the faces of people walking or driving past the security gate, when the security guard asks them to display their id cards.

Why? Because of the simple indifferent attitude that ‘Who is he to question or stop me?’ But, we do want the Best of protection and security and always look at it as the other people's responsibility. It’s not me; it’s him! Hello! The other fellow is just doing his job and how on earth is he going to know that Your Majesty is above the law - though none of us is not – and you should not be touched?

What puts me off at airports or the work place is not I being checked, but the lackadaisical way in which it is being done, under the guise of preferential treatment to the elite few. I have seen many instances at work places where, just to keep the visiting white skinned babu happy, our people taking the short cuts of skipping or rushing the mandatory security checks on the individual and his physical belongings like the laptop, which he carries.

Added to the SRK incident is the comedy of one of the minister’s comment – “we should do tit for tat”. Please do. Not doing that is the issue and don't spare anyone. There will be tons of people who would be more than happy to be strip-searched, if that can only give them the comfort feeling of being secure.

Who are we to decide who is an icon and who is not? In the absence of it, let us all be equally treated as law abiding citizens.

Treat no one as a ‘Global Icon’ and get over the colonial hangover of being sycophantic.

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!