Jas(t) don't want

It probably took less than 3 minutes for BJP top brass to communicate to Jaswant Singh that it was great to work with him for 30 years and now he is sacked from the party for his views on Independence that contradict with party's ideology.

Is BJP too intolerant? Is this against our culture, custom bla bla...... well how can we treat someone like this? he has put in 30 years of his life, was a cabinet minister himself and one who's contribution to India's growth is unquestionable.

Well over 60 years of Independence and we still talk and argue over such worthless issues. I believe that our history, both pre and post independence is manipulated. Lots of facts are not mentioned or are inferred wrongly/ politically. We probably would never know some facts. We respect past, but it's dead. We just cannot keep doing postmortem over and over for proving our points, right or wrong.

So, I am happy that we Indians, individuals, parties, organizations etc are getting aggressive, and getting intolerant towards nonsense. The Jaswant Sing episode must be a learning for all of us that India cannot effort to focus on issues that matter least today. Anyone who speaks other than, economy, infrastructure, social justice, law and order, security & safety, fundamental rights and democracy should be out of the parliament. Today we cannot effort anything other then what I just mentioned and yes we must stop non-sense today.

Now, how do I see Mr. Jaswant Singh's contribution and his story. I see him as a batsman who is playing a Test Cricket Match, who has batted for long hours and he is now at 199. He then plays a lose shot and lose his wicket. No discounts whatsoever. It was a great innings, we are proud of you but you cannot be given a second chance to complete your 200. And this applies to all.

Thanks Mj. I am proud of your association with BJP, your contribution is great and we shall remember you as a great leader. India, let’s move on.

SRK Detained at Newark - Why I don't care?

SRK was detained at Newark airport in United States and was question for over two hours. This hit the headlines in all national news channels in India, and upset the fans and government. But why I don't care, and why should I care for SRK. This happens with thousands of Muslims who enter the United States every year. Government and media don’t react then, so why so much hue and cry for SRK. It has happened with celebrities and politicians on number of occasions in past.

If United States believes that Muslims are threat to them and Indian government don’t protest for ordinary Indian Muslims who enter United States then why trust SRK and worry so much for him. He is a Bollywood Icon – so what? Prime Minister of Australia was accused of spying, this has happened with many leaders in past. So, if it is matter of security, no discounts, detain, question everyone, when common Muslims are harassed that way then please no discounts for SRK. If government believe this is the not the way to treat SRK then so is the case with hundreds of other Indians who enter United States. Detain, question and harass just because he / she belongs to a specific religious community has been a general practice at US airports.

9/11 was a failure of FBI and other security agencies (of USA), which they now are trying to cover-up with such indecent and unfriendly manner. This can be debated but the topic I am writing is on SRK detained on arrival at Newark. I hope incidents like this brings some sanity to governments across the world and they unit to protest against such discrimination, but for SRK, I really don’t care.

Court sets the tone right

Another Landmark judgment from Karnataka high court. However, this time it was Court Vs PIL seeking stay on statue of Tamil poet Thiruvallavur near ulsoor lake in Bangalore. This is what the division Bench headed by Chief Justice P D Dinakaran has to say on the PIL;

"Peace and tranquility should be maintained at any cost. If any third party holds bandhs and agitations, the state is at liberty to deal with situation in accordance with the law"

It's up to we Indians to understand and appreciate that the only way forward is with unity and respecting each other. We live in different states of India, and not different countries. Respect is earn by means of love and friendliness and cannot be forced by someone.

Humiliating the Heroes

In 1956 summer Olympics which were hosted by Australia, Indian football team qualified for the semi-finals along with Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and USSR (eventual winners). India defeated Australia in the quaterfinals booked the spot for semis. They were one win away from earning a medal when they lost the bronze medal match against Bulgaria 3-0. This probably is the best performance by Indian football team till date. Neville D'Souza scored a hatrick against Australia in quaterfinals to become the first Asian footballer to score a hat trick in Olympics, he was also the top scorer of the tournament.

Almost 75 years now, very few remember this great achievement by an Indian football team. And this year All Indian Football Federation (AIFF) decided to go a step further (rather backward). They decided to humiliate the forgotten heroes by paying them petite amount of Rs. 25,000/- (approx 500 USD). And when the heroes tried reaching the AIFF offices / secrateries etc no one bothered to take the call.

Tired of this ghastly attitude, the Melbourne squad skipper Samar Banerjee and other 8 surviving members decided to return the chequest to AIFF. You can read the full story on following link:
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/humiliated-indian-soccer-heroes-return-cheques/98599-5.html

Well. What a day it was for sports in India. Somdev Burman wins a match against world number 15 and Haryana state imposes additional tax on Golf (they consider it as entertainment and not sport). God bless old aged bureaucrat and thankless politicians.

Television - killing your vision

Television (TV) are commercial available since 1930s, though in India they became available only in 1980s. Ramayana, Mahabharata (Indian epics) and 1982 ASIAN games in Delhi made it popular among the masses. Almost three decades since its inception, from one single channel "Doordarshan" to more than 200 channels now, from a boon to curse, TV has travelled a long distance. It has become the single largest reason of us losing our ability to think and develop vision.

From 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM, Indians spend most of their time watching TV, be it news, sports, daily serials, cartoons or be it whatever. A friend of mine who returned / shifted back to India about 2 years back often complain that his parents are most busy watching TV. "They just keep watching the idiot box, for anything between 6 to 10 hours a day", said he. He is now worried that how his kids are getting addicted to this idiot box. What's going on, where we are putting our energies on. On an average, 6 hours a day, we park our brains, decide not to think beyond what's shown on TV and forget the real world. The damage is not limited to the time when we watch TV, but gets extended to hours when we don’t watch TV, discussing what we see. The damage is not just limited to individuals or families but to health of society in large.

Obama recently appealed to the American kids to spend more time with books and less in playing video games. The increasing influence of Indians and Chinese in corporate world in US is growing concerns among US diplomats. Don’t we need to worry on similar lines, isn’t TV eating up our ability to think? Are we as a society losing our ability to have vision for coming generations?, and all this damage by choice and not by force.

It nips me when I see the way we as a society are losing our ability to have vision. We cannot think beyond what we choose to cover our eyes with. The next great Indian revolution will be when we Indians learn to distinguish between entertainment and addiction and then decide to dump this addiction, and when we start having vision for self, family and society.