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A desperate and directionless nation finds a leader or ‘Rehnuma’.

Anna Hazare could not have appeared at a more appropriate time on the scene.

Just when a helpless nation stunned and plunged into darkness, by scams and governance deficit, was trying  to ward off  its  despair to some solace in World Cup win (by blowing it out of proportions), a little known, unassuming common man appeared on the scene, and declared his intention of taking on to the corrupt system, head on.

A wary nation first looked at him with suspicion but soon found that it was not possible to ignore his determination. So awesome was his simplicity and truthfulness, that in no time he struck the cord with the entire nation and took its population into firm grip.

For a nation in the darkness, a magnificent spark flashed. In hopelessness a streak of hope appeared.  In a moment the euphoria of world cup vanished into the thin air, and it was this little old man everywhere. Youth particularly found itself strongly pulled to his influence.

Slow moving government apparatus did not move at first. Two days later, misjudging the mood of the nation as usual, government tried to project a brave face by rejecting the demand of the old man to issue a notification. Next day, rocked by the huge roar of support coming for him, resistance of the government crumbled and it issued the notification in the evening.

Anna Hazare phenomenon has changed the destiny of the nation, for good. In just four days it has turned many age old concepts and beliefs (like nothing positive against corruption is possible in this country) upside down. Dozens of writers and analysts will spend years to find out why and how this phenomenon happened at all.

But as Anna himself has said, it is only a beginning. A long battle is ahead. Those whose dreams have shattered will not sit idle. They will try every trick in the book to scuttle the progress of this movement. But real threat to this movement shall come from the people who on seeing this as a great opportunity have jumped into the bandwagon. Anna was right in stopping the politicians from taking advantage of the situation, but it may be a difficult task for him to guard against a large number of self seeking swamis, babas, NGO walas and others, who have crowded his dais.  He would need to tackle these people very cautiously and carefully. It would perhaps be better for him to move alone on his path like Mahatama Gandhi did, and only pursue his own line of action i.e. criminals should not be allowed to enter the Parliament and every govt. functionary, even Prime Minister should be accountable to the people of India. But he also need to be very careful that in this process his image of a simple and humble person should not be affected, otherwise all the gains shall be lost in no time.

If you want to know more about Anna Hazare, click on the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxksAURdwTI

Time only will tell what happens next. But it looks that the destiny of this nation has changed because the public has, as it is called, tasted the blood, and it is a matter of time only when the demands of Anna Hazare are met. Hearts of corrupt and manipulators must be shivering to see the support for the campaign against corruption and for transparency.

As this is a topic of great national interest, every Indian citizen should share his views on it. Kindly therefore give your views or comments on this matter.

Corruption in India

The law which says that the one who pays bribe is also an offender, is the biggest promoter of corruption in India.

People are pushed to the wall to pay bribe, naturally against their will. And when they have paid it, they cannot complain because paying a bribe is also an offense.

This is the reason why the morale of those who openly demand bribe is so high in this country.

Imagine a situation. You are on a railway platform at 2am on a winter night, with your wife and small children. The train comes and the TT demands Rs.10 for allotting you each seat. Otherwise, he would not let you inside the compartment, even though vacant seats are there. What would you do? If you give that bribe, you become an offender and cannot complain. If you don’t, you miss the train and force your family to spend the cold night on the platform, against all odds and dangers.

The TT goes home with Rs.1000 in his pocket, collected for allotting 100 seats. Hefty pay package he gets from his employer is already there.

If you are allowed to complain and hundreds like you, who were exploited at the hands of this TT also complain, perhaps he would not be so daring and emboldened in demanding bribe.

What do you think?

Friendship with Pakistan

Partition of India or creation of Pakistan was the result of ‘Divide and rule’ policy of the British, or of ego or personal aspirations of a few individuals who were at the helm of affairs at that time, or the natural outcome of intolerance of two communities for each other, is a matter of debate.

But one thing is clear that it caused a huge damage to both the communities and nations, and left deep wounds and a burning fire.

As would have been natural, this fire should have died down and wounds healed, with the passage of time and cooling of passions. It should have happened fast because two people had lived together for thousands of years and had common culture, language, food and values.

But it did not so happen.

One of the reasons was that this situation of hate and enmity for other country did come handy to the governments of both the countries, first for consolidating the newly created nations, and later to keep the attention of its people diverted from real issues, in which their own performances were not dismal but shameful. So both of them kept fueling the fire. Situation remains unchanged even today.

But in this process they did great disservice to both their nations. Scarce resources, that should have gone into improving the health and education of populations and creating vital infrastructure went into military build up and fighting wars with each other. This resulted in both the countries becoming poorest of world’s countries, with half of their populations going to bed with only one diet a day.

The situation, however, provided a gold mine to the weapon hardware producing countries of that time mainly USA and USSR. These and other countries dumped their rotten weaponry systems in these two countries and took away whatever was in their hands. Rulers of these two countries unmindful of the pitiable condition of their populations, kept on doling the meager wealth of their nations in exchange of the weaponry, which was mostly to remain unused.

So intense was the propaganda unleashed in these two countries against each other that even finest of the brains failed to understand the game. This negative propaganda has blindfolded us to such an extent that our minds don’t receive anything positive on the other side.

A common perception planted in the minds of Indians is that there is hardly any Hindu population in Pakistan and none of them holds position of any significance in Pakistan.

Following news item which appeared on the first page of ‘The Times of India’ news paper on 18th March,2010, proves contrary to this perception:

“Pak Hindu MPs stage walkout over terror slur”

Islamabad: Chaffing at a Lahore high court judge’s comment that Hindus were financing terror attacks in the country, nine Hindu members of Pakistan’s National Assembly staged a walkout in protest on Wednesday.
‘‘The sentiments of four million Pakistani Hindus are hurt by Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif ’s uncalled-for remarks,’’ said Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker Ramesh Lal. No sooner did he say this on the floor of the House, he was joined by other Hindu lawmakers who then walked out. Members of the Awami National Party, too, joined in, and their protest was described as the first in Pakistan’s House against the judiciary…”

There are a large number of other misconceptions planted in the minds of populations of both the countries, which are far away from the truth or reality .

There is thus a need to change these wrong perceptions against each other, in the minds of both the people, as these are doing a great deal of harm to both the countries.

Friendship between India and Pakistan shall benefit both the countries in following ways:

1. Reduction in defense expenditure of both the countries.
2. Increase in trade between them.
3. Availability of health and educational facilities of India to the population of Pakistan and vice versa.
4. Greater say for the region at international forums due to their putting up of joint front.
5. More tourists coming to the region due to peace.

These VIPs

There are two categories of citizens in this democratic country. VIPs and UIPs. Very important persons and Unimportant persons. Thank god that there are no categories in between these two, like LIP (Little important person) or SIP (Some important person) etc. This single word ‘VIP’ has made the entire population of this country, numbering well over a billion, unimportant. 

 

I think that initially, ‘VIP’ title would have been meant for the President and Prime Minister of this country. After some time all central  ministers must have also declared themselves  VIPs. A little later  babus in states must have bestowed this title on the Chief Minister and ministers in the state cabinets. Side by side all MPs must have also jumped into this bandwagon. Then top elements of babudom, armed forces and judiciary etc. must have also quietly slipped in.

 

How can a few select people be important and rest all unimportant. Who decides whether a person is important or unimportant.

 

It is said that the constitution of India grants equal rights to all its citizens. But on probing a little, it is found that in  Indian Constitution this right of equality  has been described as:

“The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.”

 

From the above clause it appears that state can discriminate against a citizen on the grounds of his being an Unimportant Person, and so discrimination of state against an Unimportant Person is not illegal in this country.

 

I am not fully aware, but it can be safely assumed that  these Very Important Persons would have given themselves (from the money collected from a billion Unimportant persons of this country) at least some benefits like huge bungalows, army of servants, special electricity and water lines where load shedding or dry taps or gutter water in taps, would be an unthinkable thing. Roads in their areas would not have known pot holes, which is a brand mark of this country.

 

But one thing on which they all are so passionate about, is their ‘Personal security’. All of them insist on a large number of armed guards around them (24×7).

 

Even high ranking army and police commanders, who are supposed to be protecting and guarding the citizens of this country, move out only when there are a large number of guards around them, to protect them. These VIPs have no faith in the capabilities of the normal police and military, who are supposed to be protecting the lives of citizens of this country.  

 

Why are they so scared? Have they done something terribly wrong?  Though some of them are known to be hard core criminals, also murderers.

 

But nation should question. Why is their security so important? Will there be a huge loss to this country if any of them gets killed unprotected? Will the loss be irreparable? Will the country come to a stand still? Will the sky fall?

 

Those who are witness to pre-Nehru era in this country know what influence Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru had on the mind of Indian public. He virtually ruled the minds and hearts of every Indian of that time. Perhaps new generation cannot understand now, but India without Nehru was unthinkable at that time. On that fateful day of 27th May 1964 (his death), India was stunned into silence. It came to a stand still. Light of the nation went off. When returned to its senses after sometime, nation wept like a child who has lost his father. There was only one question in every body’s mind. What would happen to India now.

 

But Gulzarilal Nanda  and later Lal Bahadur Shastri took charge of the situation and the jammed wheels of country slowly started grinding again. After some time, the nation accepted the reality and went about its normal business. Proving the hard fact of life, that nobody is indispensable.

 

So a very important question we ‘Unimportant persons’ should ask ourselves is why is that our hard earned money is being spent on protecting these ‘Very Important Persons’. Why is a good amount of nation’s meager resources spent on this wasteful exercise. Even persons who move around with tags of honesty and prudence on their chests, like our Prime Minister and Defense Minister, are also totally blind  of this broad day loot, right under their noses.

 

If anything has to be done on this important matter, it will have to be done by we the ‘Unimportant persons’ only. Because if you will go to your political leader, he or she is a VIP. If you will go to President, she is a VIP. If you will go to higher judiciary, they also are VIPs. If you will go to human rights Commissioner, he also is a VIP. So no help can be expected from any of these quarters, on this matter.

 

Now after writing this article, what will happen to my security? Unimportant persons (common man) are otherwise also left with hardly any security in this country, as all the security forces meant for his protection have been diverted to protect VIPs.

India-World leader?

A mischievous campaign is being launched that India is going to be a super power in this number of years, and that it is going to be a world leader in that number of  years, and so on and so forth. 

The sad fact is that India is still a sea of poverty and illiteracy. Most of its cities and towns are showcases of total neglect, apathy and mis-governess. There is absolutely no concern in any relevant quarter, to the growing monster of population increase, particularly in those sections of society who cannot educate or even feed their children. After sixty years of independence, vast areas of this country get flooded every year and houses and livelihood of millions of very poor people are  destroyed. Fate of this country is still dependent on rain gods and entire rain water that it gets, is presented to the sea god, leaving the fields dry and empty, and population hungry. A huge part of the population of this country has no access to tap water (even though the taps in posh areas of this county also dispense un-potable water, that too only for a few hours of the day), electricity and sewage systems. There is no system of cleaning the streets and roads  in vast areas. This country cannot not find a few hundred honest people, who can man airports efficiently and  not cheat our guests, who come from abroad, thinking it to be a good country. There is no need to see the position of this country on corruption  index of the world. A vast majority of the population is skilled enough to be unskilled labours only. Can such a mismanaged country depending on rain gods for its food, with growing illetrate and poor population be a world leader.

All this talk of India becoming a ‘World leader’  is a myth, intentionally promoted by the quarters who were/are supposed to deliver but have not delivered. To divert the attention of Indian public from the pain they are bearing and shall continue to bear. It is a plot to fool the people. So that they do not get so frustrated that they start dismantling a system, that is so useful to these quarters, but has not benefitted this country. 

Though having a self confidence is a good thing, but over looking ones weaknesses and unnecessarily boasting, can prove to be a disaster to an individual’s and also a country’s future. An individual, and so also a country cannot become great unless and until it recognizes its weaknesses and tries to get over those weaknesses and  shortcomings. 

Indians as nation will have to first recognize and accept their shortcoming and try to remove these. Then only can they think of taking some respectable place in the world map.  

Those of us who really want to take this country forward should come together and try to find solution of following gigantic problems of this country: 

  1. Uncontrolled growth of population, particularly in those sections who cannot take proper care of  their children.
  2. Taking care of children who are already there.
  3. Food security of the country.
  4. Corruption in public life.
  5. Water management.
  6. Sanitation and health care services.

Welcome to JagoIndia.com !

Hi, let us make a new beginning.  Let us start  thinking  on how can we make India a better place to live in.

Some people are of the view that most of Indians are so uncivilized, illiterate, backward, dirty, undisciplined, selfish, corrupt, irrational and lazy that nothing can be done of this country.

But there may be some valid justifications behind these properties of some or many of Indians. 

Many anti social elements have sabotaged, and have taken over India’s parliamentary system, and  have become leaders of this country.  Writ of these musclemen politicians run so large that even when they are in jail, people of their area cannot dare to vote against them. Population of a country of corrupt leaders cannot remain honest for a long time.

Corners of Indian ‘metros’ which are jam packed with human beings  are full of human waste, because there are no public toilets in large areas. Floating population, who have no houses in that area, is left with little choice.

Indians masses are uneducated, sick and dirty because of bad education system and poor food quality control, sanitary and health services. Corruption and uncontrolled growth of population, particularly in families who even cannot support themselves, does not allow the things to improve.

In the nutshell there may be some valid reasons for all the ills of this country. 

If optimistic, positive and like minded people of this country can come together on a platform, discuss these problems, find out solutions and start working on those solutions, definitely things can improve for better. 

Unfortunately the section of Indian society, who can really make a change i.e. educated middle class, is not aware that it is only they who can make a change.

Time is waiting for them to wake up.

Tragedy of this country is that we all are looking towards politicians. But all politicians, whether of this side or that side,  are well aware that they shall not have their say,  if population of this country becomes educated and well off. It is in their interest to keep the population illiterate and poor, because only then it remains their vote bank. It is this uneducated and poor  section of population that brings them to power. This is the reason that after 60 years of independence, no policy worth its name has been made to control the population that cannot even support itself. Any normal person knows that with this unchecked growth of poor illiterate population India cannot become an advanced country. Recall the hordes of pregnant women beggars with huge number of starving tattered children in their laps, begging on the traffic signals of Delhi. Also recall the other poor children begging there, who have been left to starve and die after given birth. Limbs of some of them physically damaged to make them more pitiable.

Jago India is an attempt to create a forum of Indians who want to participate in the  efforts to do something for this country.

First step in this direction would be to identify and prioritise areas where maximum efforts need to be directed. This would be done by taking views of maximum number of people. Some way would be devised to arrive at a consensus on this matter. When such priority areas are identified, we shall start discussions on how to address the problems.

So start thinking on the subject and come out with a list of problems, which if addressed, would make India a better place to live in.

Your response is eagerly awaited.

Jago India.

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