Category: Politics

Dear BJP and other political parties

Dear BJP and other such “political” parties,
I heard that you guys had called for a countrywide bandh today. From what I know and understand, a bandh, ideally is a peaceful activity wherein people and businesses supporting the activity, show their allegiance by not working. 
Today however was something else. More than businesses shutting shop by their own accord, it was the hired goons and muscles that forced people to down shutters. The ones who protested were bashed up! There were reports of violence in many parts of the country and the public infrastructure was damaged in at least three states.
You guys must be really proud of what you cooked up. I am sure all of you will sleep peacefully, probably as calmly as as child, tonight. You would have loved every second of the 15 minutes of fame that you enjoyed today, at the cost of us Indians. 
And why would you summon for a bandh in the first place? You wanted to bring things to notice? There are other ways to do it. Lets start with logic and reason. Who stopped you from doing a large campaign on the national media (the kind you do when you are fighting elections) and trying to make people understand why is that fuel prices are going up the spiral? You could have posted intelligent questions in the Assembly and hold the leaders responsible?
Agreed that inflation is getting out of control. I understand that the petrol prices are going through the roof. I know that its getting increasingly difficult for a common man to live a happy and content life in India. But does that mean we make it even more difficult for people! 
Dear BJP and the brains at the helm, a bandh is as anti-progress as anything else could be. If we were to strike about everything, we would not have reached where we are. The prehistoric man, could have decided to strike against the animals of the jungle. And we wont have had a civilization. Gandhi could have sat at home against the British and we wouldn’t have had a free India. Stop looking that far back in the history. If businessmen like Tatas and Ambanis decided to call for a bandh every other day for stupid reasons, they wouldn’t have had those empires that they have. You know, a man’s destiny is not really “written” by some God. Its the man’s actions that actually help him create that destiny. While you were forcing the bandh around the country, there were a few men and women who were still working and trying to make this country a far better place to live in. Hats off to them and salute to their spirit. 
You know, with time, typically, political parties grow in stature and they command respect. Their actions earn respect for them. This move has undone a lot of all the hard work you guys may have had done in past few years. I was not really sure if I wanted to get involved with politics but you guys have made my resolve much stronger. Hopefully I would live to see a day where political propaganda like this would not be encouraged by people.
Till then,
A proud Indian.

Elections 09 – Reults

Results of elections 09 are out. Thankfully Congress led UPA has got a clear mandate. Though no one expected this outcome but now that its the writing on the wall, this effectively means …

  1. We would have a stable govt for next five years. Unless a Black Swan happens.
  2. Left, Fourth front and other such frivolous concepts and ideologies would find no place in governance or decision making of the govt. And this means more development and investments in becoming efficient.
  3. Stage is set for Rahul Gandhi to get some much required experience in governance and policy making. He has been just talking all this while. Now is the time, over these next five years, he would hone his skills as a public servant. Obviously not at the cost of the nation.
  4. Other young parliamentarians (Sachin Pilots, Sandeep Dixits, Jyothiraditya Schindhias, Naveen Jindals of the world) would also test waters and the cabinet for the future (Elections 2014) can be groomed. Of course assuming that BJP with all their “mature” leaders would not be in reckoning in 2014.

I am glad better sense prevailed and people chose stability over regionalism. Hope UPA now performs well enough to justify our trust in them.

P.S.: I hope to play a significant role in 2014 Elections. From looks of it, I am going to support Congress. But again, let time show us the what it has kept in store.

Of VIPs, Traffic and Priority

Yesterday I was going from Santacruz West in Mumbai to Chembur on an autorickshaw and was passing Western Express highway when suddenly out of nowhere a huge traffic jam appeared. As with other traffic jams, no one bothered to inspect the reason and everyone was content, lost in conversations. Suddenly right behind me an ambulance started its emergency alarm. People obviously took note and tried to wedge around and create some space for the ambulance.

And this is when we realized that jam was not because of a pothole or a faulty signal but it was a roadblock setup because a VIP was passing by. He was going to attend some award function at Hyatt hotel. His cavalcade had some 20 odd cars and an ambulance in the tow. After he passed through, the fat policeman lazily ambled and opened the road block. I dont even know what would have happened to the person in the ambulance who was in dire need of medical attention.

I mean VIP by definition is Very Important Person and its us, the common man who has made another common man, an important person. Why should a VIP thus get a priority over a common man when it comes to using roads and other public infrastructure? And especially over a dying man stuck in an ambulance that is forced to wait because a VIP has a party to attend?

Understood that very important people have very important tasks to do and they are busy and they cant afford to get stuck in the traffic. And since they are important, their security is also of prime concern. But is roadblocks a solution? It they are getting late, cant they leave early enough? If they are important, cant they schedule meetings at nearly locations? And if all this is unavoidable, why cant they take a route and a time that is not inconvenient to everyone else?

Talking of security, if I were to hit a VIP running on an empty road, all I need is to hire a sniper perched on top of a roof. And then there are other easier, more efficient ways to target them in hotels, news conferences, restaurant openings, movie premieres etc. After all these are the things that take bulk of a VIP’s time.

How about looking at alternative modes of transport? A helicopter ride for example. It costs some Rs. 50,000 per hour. I am sure it will be less than what it costs to run 20 cars, atleast 100 personnel, another 500 policemen to man the route, about 500 cars affected because of the jam and one or two odd people stuck in ambulances.

How about having all the important functions at one place? Something like the parliamentary building where all the not so important ones who want to meet the very important ones are summoned and meetings are conducted in a safe environment?

There are one thousand questions that we can ask. And we should. India asks Y.

Originally written for Mutiny.in

Terror Attacks on Mumbai – Analysis

This website probably has the best unbiased analysis and implications of the terror attacks. An excerpt …

Now, step back and consider the situation the Mumbai attackers have created. First, the Indian government faces an internal political crisis driving it toward a confrontation it didn’t plan on. Second, the minimum Pakistani response to a renewed Indo-Pakistani crisis will be withdrawing forces from western Pakistan, thereby strengthening the Taliban and securing al Qaeda. Third, sufficient pressure on Pakistan’s civilian government could cause it to collapse, opening the door to a military-Islamist government — or it could see Pakistan collapse into chaos, giving Islamists security in various regions and an opportunity to reshape Pakistan. Finally, the United States’ situation in Afghanistan has now become enormously more complex.

Please read. Kudos to George Friedman over at Stratfor for wonderful analysis.

Independent India and Independent Indians

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT THE NEW NEW THING

I got this SMS from Sonali (she doesn’t blog yet)

While v celebrate 61 years of independence, i hav just one ques fr u – after spending more than 2 decades in this 61-yr old country, r u a proud indian or an apprehensive indian? I first heard the latest rabbi song ‘bilqis’ 5 days back on india’s independence day and am still haunted by it. And i am still looking fr n ans to the ques raised – ‘jinhe naaz hai hind par woh kahan hai?’

And since its 9:30 PM, I am in office and don’t have anything important to work on, I thought why not some self-reflection. Please beware that this is going to be a rant where I go on a mental trip and hopefully get an answer. And to put things in context, the song that Sonali is talking about is this. And while I am writing this, I am listening to it.

So the question asks me if I am a proud Indian or an apprehensive Indian. In one line, a short and sweet answer is that I am a proud Indian. And more than apprehensive I am confident, curious and motivated, all three at the same time. If you asked me why, I would have no real reasons except for the statement that everything India is, defines me (large, full of contradictions, basking in the past glory, struggling to cope up with realities of world fast changing world) and everything I am, defines India (young, mediocre, forward-looking, ambitious, trying to prove a point, wanting to lead the world).

And now the longer version of the story. I am confident because I know that in last decades, thanks to few good decisions by some individuals (including my parents, policy makers and my professors), I have got myself bare minimum education required to actually understand things and take an informed decision. I am confident that since I know quite a few things, I would take a decision that is in the best interest under prevailing circumstances. I am no magician with a magic ball to gaze through and predict what the future holds for us. However, at the same time I know that I am on an adventure trip where I chase things like glory, intelligent company and huge rewards for my efforts. And I am ready to take the risk for the same. I am not sure about the results but I dont mind trying.

I am curious. Because of my background, I know a few things and now with all the learning opportunities that this connected world gives me, I want to know a lot more. I want to learn and apply the lessons in real life and use them for my advantage. My curiosity keeps me going. To look beyond the obvious. To dig deeper. To investigate further. To reach the root of a problem and work on it from there. And once I am informed, that is the time when I feel I can be at my best.

And I am motivated. I am motivated because I cherish the freedom that came as a result of a long and hard struggle by millions of Indians. I understand that my life is so much better simply because I can take decisions without fearing any retributions of any kind. I understand that the very act of thinking like that is a privilege. And since I have that privilege of thinking and working in a free world, I know that I need to make the most of it. twiI need to preserve it for the generations to come. I have to leave something behind as a legacy (or even a simple gift). What better gift can I leave behind than freedom?

So what does Independence mean to me? I have thought about this a lot of time and every time there is a different answer. At times conflicting and at times comforting. But the essence remains the same. Independence for me is the complete freedom of thoughts and actions. This would mean being financially, morally and socially free. Apart from the financial freedom, all the other kinds are offered by the environment you live in. In my case it happens to be India. I did not choose India. It was something that was forced upon me (along with a lot of other things like my parents, my family, my physical appearance, my receding hairline etc.). To be very honest, if I could choose a country, I dont know if I would have chosen India over other “developed” and “free” countries. But now that I am an Indian and I have become what I am, there is no choosing things/people/countries. Only thing that remains debatable is how to take India to new heights.

There are tons of things that are awesome about India. And then there are many more tons that needs to be changed. Stories of corruption, favoritism, red-tapism, bureaucracy, laziness, mediocrity, procrastination, organized religion etc. are in abundance. Rare are the instances of honestly, brilliance, dutifulness, obedience etc. Still rarer are stories of Manjunaths, Dubeys, Kumars who have raised their voices and laid down their lives fighting for causes that they believed in. And there are people like Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar and Vijender Kumar who have broken the age old shackles and have proved themselves on the toughest platform they could have participated. I can go on talking about the likes of Kalpana Chawla, Kiran Bedi, Lt. Saurabh Kalra, NR Narayamurthy, Azim Premji, Dr. Bose (not Netaji), Sam Pitroda, Mother Teresa and host of others who have not only raised the bar and made us proud but changed the way, the world at large perceives India as a country. More than changing the perception of the world around us, we should be talking about changing the way we think about India as a country. The way we think about ourselves. What we have and how we can leverage them to reach farther.

A country is made of its people and is what all these people, decide to make it, collectively. It is very easy to play the blame games and curse the “system” but it takes courage to actually voice an opinion. A country is a place where we all have agreed to live (in a lot of cases by choice and in few cases by default) but since we are here and now is our time, one needs to contribute and do whatever one thinks is in the best interest of the country and self. It can be as elementary as teaching your maid or as monumental as casting your vote in the elections (which as numbers would prove, only less than 65% of Indians do). A country is not about You. It definitely is not about me. It is about us. It is about we. It is about India. We need to move beyond the petty battles of YOU and ME and work collectively for US

Change is something that is very interesting. Change is one of those things that everyone desires and asks for. And moment there is even a glimmer of change, everyone starts resisting it. But why am I talking about change all of a sudden when we are talking about India and being an Indian? What do you think things like our opinions, our leaders, our policy makers, our education system, our perceptions, our thinking, our actions need?

And coming bacl to what Rabbi asked, “Jinhe Naaz Hai, Hind Par Woh Kahan They, Jinhe Naaz Hai Woh Kahan Hai?“. Do we have answer? I dont know about a lot of things and I don’t know how to weave beautiful stories and poetic text but I know one thing for sure. Next time, there is someone who challenges my India, I would be there and I would stand tall and be counted.

What is your story? Please share. Please ask yourself. Please ask your friends. Please ask strangers. Please investigate.

Somnath Chatterjee expelled from CPI(M)

After all the drama that happened in the parliament, very few people actually stand out for their conduct in the parliament yesterday. Somnath Chatterjee probably leads the way. He made sure that the trust vote proceeded without major interruptions and moderated the entire discussion with a mastery of a ring master.

However, his party rewarded him with an expulsion for “seriously compromising the party position“. His only crime? He did not resign from the post of speaker of the Lok Sabha when his party wanted him to.

Before the trust vote CPI(M), Mr. Chatterjee has been a member of CPI(M) for 40 odd years, asked him to resign from the post of the speaker so that the number of votes against the govt. goes up by one (the speaker does not vote in the confidence motion – he only votes in case of a hung verdict and his vote becomes a decider). However, Mr. Chatterjee stood high on his moral ground and decided not to resign and precede over the motion.

CPI polit bureau member Biman Bose said

Somnath Chatterjee might have acted according to the Indian Constitution, but our party has its own constitution and decisions are taken as per party rules

This is as ridiculous as it can get. Are we trying to say that Mr. Chatterjee was penalized because he put the Indian constitution higher than a political parties’ rules?

And with all these shenanigans they are trying to take on Mr. Chatterjee who has served on various committees and has even won the coveted outstanding parliamentarian award (in 1996) for his conduct and contributions.

Obviously expulsion from a party does not threaten his position as the speaker. A speaker cna only be removed is a no-confidence motion is passed against him. It is real unfortunate to see leftist parties acting in such a rash manner and being very short sighted.

Dance of Democracy

What does the trust vote mean for India ..?

After all the drama that we witnessed yesterday, it actually comes as a breather that govt. is actually solid and will be till the next elections. Yesterday, probably was the blackest day in the history of independent India. From allegations on the ruling government to personal remarks to show of cash in the parliament to utter disrespect to the constitution, we saw it all. The entire world saw it all. And this is the world’s largest democracy we are talking about.

And now the ordeal is over, we need to focus on few things. First and foremost the Manmohan Singh govt. needs to clear its name out of the very serious allegations against them for influencing the vote. Then they need to make sure that the reforms and developmental activities do not stop. Obviously with the next general elections less than a year away, focus probably would be on taming the inflation, cooling the prices and leaving the feel good factor behind.

Coming to the proceeds and developments yesterday, I think whatever happened has happened for good. The govt. is no longer a mere toy in hands of leftist parties. The govt. now knows that they can function without trying to appeal to the whims and fancies of their “partners”. Leftist parties have always been pro-people and anti-development. There is nothing wrong with it. Not that they dont want the country to develop but they are so myopic in their vision that they often forget that we need to move on at some point in time. Until we imagine the possibilities, we cant really achieve them.

The government was a mere puppet in left’s hands and left actually threatened at every available opportunity to pull the support. Only to prove a bloody point and in turn making the country unstable. They were always anti-reforms, anti-industrialization and anti-development. No wonder even though we have the best pool of human capital, we are still lagging behind the world. We are employing people anywhere and everywhere just because we demand that they need to be given employment. Compare us with countries where people actually spend time creating intellectual capital rather than manning ATM machines, automatic parking meters, elevators in malls, mending grass on lawns of rich and famous etc.

Now that left is out of the way, the government can proactively work on issues like privatization, FDI in retail, opening up more sectors for competition and evolution, so on and so forth. I am not sure that govt. will actually take large and/or concrete steps in this direction but at least they now have an option.

Lets talk about Ms. Mayawati for some time. She actually believed that she was going to be the next PM. In a speech yesterday she said that it was a conspiracy of BJP and Congress to stop a dalit woman from becoming the next Prime Minister of India. Are you kidding me? Ms. Mayawati as PM? I know shes a great politician and leader but excuse me. And I think its about time she should stop using that stupid racism card and move on. These pranks will take her and her elephants only so much far. I think with this trust vote, she has been completely sidelined. Congress will never ever work with Mayawati again. BJP, although they dont have a clear prime ministerial candidate after aging Mr. Advani, would not want Mayawati to become the PM. For me, Ms. Mayawati can now rest for a few years and keep her dreams of running the country safely in the deposit box.

What about BJP and Mr. Advani? Everyone knows Mr. Advani wants to be the PM. He has been trying to topple the govt. ever since he got elected as the leader of opposition. He is one of those leaders who can change his thoughts and stands at the drop of a hat. Remember Babri Masjid? Remember Jinnah incident? Remember Godhra? There are tons of them.

Anyways, BJP as a party for me is about oldies whose best is behind them. They are now living their unfulfilled dreams of ruling the country and itching their names in the history books. They might win the next elections but again they do not have a clear leadership. I would not be surprised if someone like Narendra Modi is promoted through the ranks as the next prime ministerial candidate. Everyone else in BJP can speak really well but they dont really stand for something that the country can buy.

Rahul Gandhi was a revelation yesterday (speech on Youtube). He probably for the first time stood up on this large a political arena and got counted as a formidable politician. He took objections from the opposition, answered them gracefully, was probably the first time when he left the mark. All the years of hard work on him is reaping fruit. His speech made a lot of sense and he actually made a point when he said that energy is linked to poverty. He used anger, passion, silence, anguish, disgust, loud voice, humor at the right times to make sure the speech was effective. In his speech he made it clear that he is not looking at the nuclear deal just as a solution to energy problems but as a tool that India can use to become the next super-power. He showed confidence in the youth in country. He said country was brimming with confidence and self belief. This is for the first time when I am confident that he could be a good leader and I would want to give him the responsibility to run the country. And considering that majority of junta voting in the next elections would be young Indians, no points for guessing who would they want to vote for.

I must also mention Omar Abdullah here. Omar Abdullah gave one of the most passionate speeches during the session (speech on youtube). He has always been one of those few leaders in India who I always thought has the brains, intellect and potential to be an effective leader. He spoke about India, Indians, Kashmiris, religions, his past mistakes in political career. He was very good on all issues. He will sure play a larger role in the development of new India when the new blood comes to the power.

With Rahul Gandhi and people like Omar Abdullah, Navin Jindal, Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindhia etc. coming of age, I think the time is ripe when the old must pave the way for new. When the old must handover the baton to the new and let them lead the country into a new era. When we should move from being a caste and religion based country to a country where developmental takes the front seat and efforts are made to reach the poorest of the poor at the same time.

The bigger question to ask here is that when would India reach in hands of people who are positive in outlook, are looking forward to development rather than petty politics of caste, religion, short-term gains. People who have strong Indian roots and are still looking at the world as their playing field. Leaders who see India as a superpower rather than a country of a billion poor people.

Only the time will tell and we will watch.

Haasil – The Movie

Bollywood is known to release the maximum number of movies in a year. And most of them are forgettable. A lot of them go onto become big hits and send the cash registers ringing. And then there are times when a movie creates a whole new world. The way people think. The way people talk. They way people perceive cinema. One of them is obviously Sholay. The other one is Haasil. I cant really compare the two but Haasil deserves its place along side any other acclaimed movie in the history of Indian Cinema.

The plot is really simple. Its about a small town in India where people are happy go lucky and go about their own tasks. Its a typical story of a young guy. Its a typical story of a pesky father. Its a typical story of a guy in love with a girl and trying to express it. Its about a typical university in India where student politics is more important than the academics or anything else. Then its the typical story of hatred, envy, love, politics, corruption, anger, wars and other such things.

And this is where all the typicalality ends. The story is interesting and compelling enough to captivate the audience. The dialouges are impressive and more importantly their delivery makes every small scene a cult. To the extent that I will probably call each scene a conversation between two characters. Characters who are small yet giant. Who are incapable by themselves yet can do anything if situation demands. Performances by Irfan Khan and Ashutosh Rana that can put any other actor to shame.

Personally, for me, the best two conversations are “Pandit hum der na lagaenge maarne main” and “Hum to ShivJi kay bhakth hain, saara zeher humein hi peena hai“. Although I don’t support piracy, the entire movie is available here for watching online and free download.

Haasil fans, please share your stories. And please note that this is not a movie review.

Links
Orkut Community for Haasil Fans
IMDB on Haasil
Wikipedia on Haasil

More Rational thoughts on the reservation policy in India

The last piece I wrote was an emotional outburst. This is more rational argument on reservations. I shall try to figure out the impact of reservations, thoughts on what could have been done and finally is there any hope?

Ok why reservations in the first place?
Reservation was the card played by the VP Singh govt. when they decreed for the first time that India needs reservations to help the lower castes. Some people credit their win at the centre to this card only. Obviously its a thing of past and no one can say what really happened. After-all history is written by people who win the battles.

I am not saying that reservations is a card that is played when you want to elections. You actually want to help the backward classes. You are motivated by general upliftment of the country.

Is it really going to help?
I have my doubts. These doubts are based on following observations.

  1. I don’t have numbers but I am told that at engineering colleges of repute (not the ones that are opened in small homes on outskirts of Bangalore), the candidates admitted from reserved classes don’t pass at all. Most of them flunk in first and second year and stop studying thereon.

  2. Then a lot of seats for reserved categories are filled with people getting less than 10% marks. End of the day education is about quality of students and maturity of interactions between them. If there are 53% people from general categories and average scores of 80, and 47% of people with average scores of 20, what kind of discussions are we talking about?

  3. There seats remain empty because there aren’t enough applications in the first place to grant admission to people belonging to reserved categories. If an institute can intake 100 students and it has to start a course with 80 students only because we could not find enough people to take reserved seats, aren’t we depriving other students of an opportunity to study?

Obviously I don’t have numbers to prove or reject these claims. Can someone help me with this?

To end this chapter (if I may say), honestly I don’t think that reserving more seats is going to help. They should rather try to find out why do people from these classes perform this bad in the first place. Is there a flaw in the primary education system? Is it because they assume that education for them is going to be easy and hence no need to put in effort?

What will be the impact and what could be possible outcomes?
Impacts would be many-fold. For the students that avail this opportunity, students that are now deprived and the country itself.

  1. Reservations means that only the best from the education system get into quality higher institutions. What happens to people who were average? They would have to settle for below average education. And because of this, they would miss the opportunity that could have transformed them from average to exceptional.

  2. This also means that general quality of education will come down. Not because people from reserved categories cant perform or they lack intelligence. But because they are not equipped to face higher education. Mind you a person can be intelligent and ill-equipped at the same time.

  3. Brain-drain might be back. And with a bang. I can already foresee a lot of talented budding doctors, engineers leaving the country in search of a place where their talent is respected. Not their castes.

  4. All the hoopla about FDI and India’s growth story might be in for a rude shock. If I was Microsoft or Google or Suzuki for that matter, I would not want to set shop in India because I know that finding good people would be tough and costly. It would also mean that business environment is unconducive. And once the growth story stops, then its a debate for another day if the country would grow or not.

Is there a way to help backward classes?
Getting a reservation done at under-graduate level does not guarantee that the life standard would improve. This move might create a large work force that is unemployable. And this would bring in more frustration. You are educated and cant find a job. From personal experience, I know for a fact that there is no feeling worse than that.

So what can we do to change things for people who have been oppressed? To start with I think we need to change the way they live. A child learns as much from his parents as from his surroundings. How about taking a cue from Madarsas and Gurukuls and replicate this in mainstream? These are the places where gurus preach and teach kids about virtues of life. Make them aware of the world around them. If we cant provide quality education to these kids at formative stages of their lives, how about making the system unconventional.

I used to work with an NGO called Pratham and they used this concept really beautifully. They would take a community and teach all the underprivileged children there. Mind you – underprivileged, not the reserved category. And they did it very well. That model runs on a self-sustaining model and is awesome. Can share more details if someone is interested in knowing more about it.

What can be done to mark protest against this move?

  1. How about getting talking to all bloggers to write about it? At least the ones with reach like Mutiny, DesiCritics etc.?

  2. Can this be a topic for blogathon? Anyone from their team listening/reading?

  3. Help YFE and other forums with online propaganda and marketing.

  4. Make an online task force and spam news websites with comments, thoughts and opinions. And make these quality comments so that they have to raise it on their prime-times. Knowing Indian media, they would anyways do anything to hike their TRPs.

  5. I am strongly against any kind of mass agitations that stops the normal functioning of the country. I voiced my opinions on the medico strikes, batti bandhs etc. I think I was wrong when I took that stand and I need to change. Now I am neutral to it. Is there a strong case of a mass agitation?

I am simply out of ideas. Can someone please put forth more thoughts so that we can actually do something constructive rather than just debating? Another peril of Indian education system is that we start debates and never finish things. Lets come forward with solutions rather than talking about things.

To end this on a light note, I was thinking about way forward for people who advocate reservation

  1. Just education is no point. We need to reserve places on the buses also. How about roads? Special clubs for reserved categories. Does someone remember ‘Dogs and Indians not allowed’ posters? How about ‘dogs and unreserved not allowed’ posters? Come to think of it, this could be an awesome article.

  2. Now that we have reservations for SC, ST, OBC, how about talking about reservations on the basis of religion? region? height of a person. Imagine – we only accept applications from people who are 5 feet 7 inches and weight 150 KGs.

  3. How about creating small states for every simgle category that you can identify and then ruling over them? Who wants 29 states. Lets split India into 19043 states all with homogeneous people. There could be a state for people who are bald and have Sharma as their surnames. Oops what about ladies then? Will they marry inter-caste, inter-state? Will these be approved?

Please understand that views submitted are personal only and might be flawed. Please help me see the correct picture.

Crossposted

Reservations in India – A reality now

Rediff.com says that Supreme Court of India has given its nod to 27 percent reservation to the OBCs. They have excluded the creamy layer from the reservation and they have said that this reservation would be periodically reviewed.

I have only one thought on my mind. Why did I ever study? All I could have done was wait for this day to come, get a fake certificate by paying a babu some 500 bucks, score less than average on JEE or CAT, get into the best educational institution in India, get a fat pay packet and live happily ever after.

I understand that we are a democratic country and we have to win elections, we have to divide the voters and win the electorate and we have to create a fuss on our “national son” not joining the cabinet. But want about the future of the nation? Aren’t these educational institutes supposed to nurture the talent for tomorrow? Are we going to run the nation with engineers and managers and doctors who are below average?

I am not saying even for a minute that OBCs cant perform as well as regular people. These castes and creeds were made in ancient India because of the way country was ruled. This in my opinion should have been abolished by the constitution in the first place. All I am trying to say is that because of the reservation, many deserving candidates would now have to go for alternative careers.

Also wouldn’t this incident set up precedents for every other group of people? Currently it is MNS in Maharashtra that is talking about reservation on the basis of region. There are certain groups that are asking fore reservation on the basis of religion. Tomorrow every tom dick and harry would want a reservation because they are different. What if I get 10,000 supporters and since I am bald, I demand reservations for bald people? And what if we start granting these reservations, a day shall come when majority of population that falls under “regular”, “non-reserved” category would be fighting for 10 seats. May be they can then demand reservation for “unreserved” category. Arent we dividing the country ourselves? Aren’t we doing what East India Company did to us?

And what about all those hate crimes that would now happen? I can already see these institutions polarizing in two sects. One from the reserved categories and one from unreserved. What about the poor unfortunate students that will have to face the brunt of the entire political drama?

Whatever has happened is unfortunate. There are other better ways to help OBCs reach a good living standard than reservations. I had high hopes on the Supreme Court of India. They have proved correct in the past but this time, at least in my opinion, they have made a mistake. No amount of argument would now dissuade me from speaking against education system in India.

I am so sorry to have voted for a govt. that took this step and I feel cheated right now.

Author took all the entrance tests that a school kid can take after his 12th class examinations. Got through one test to join a course at Delhi University. Took two years to get respectable enough score at CAT to reach MDI Gurgaon and now would preach that there is no point in pursuing formal education in India.

His other posts on reservation and education system in India are here, here, here, here and here.

President and Vice-President of India

I randomly asked 10 friends who is President of India. Dont be surprised with the results … Only 2 out of 10 knew who Mrs. Patil is. And for all the readers who don’t know the answer, it’s Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil.

Then I asked the same set of people who is our Vice President. And guess what.. no one knew. They had no clue at all. When I told them it’s Mr. Haimd Ansari, they were as confused as a kid in a nude bar.

India Shining?

What seems to be the problem?
One is that I asked people who are my age (25 +- 2 years). These people are so-called future of India and would drive the economy and country in the years to come. Most of these people are more bothered about the kind of money they can make rather than the kind of difference they would make to the country.

Second is that media – the driver of intellect and thought in India is really pathetic. Media in India is a business. With profit motives. As I have said earlier too, gone are the days when media would want to educate, inform and evoke thoughts from the citizens rather than pursuing profits generated by advertisements, sensationalizing news and paddling

How has this shift happened? Why are people less concerned about the state of affairs? Why are we becoming yet another society where politics is left to people without jobs, oldies, influentials and other larger than life people?

Thoughts anyone?

Links
http://presidentofindia.nic.in/
http://vicepresidentofindia.nic.in/