Though I think I am too small in there scheme to ask questions, I would nevertheless like to ask a question. Why did RSS not condemn the attack on Samjhauta Express.
The only thing I heard was equal compensation for some other train victims. I mean how can they even think like this. These people were Indian guest and were killed due to our irresponsibilty. Period.
Thinking them as Muslims is perhaps idiotic. That goes against the very ingrains of Indianness that we think off.
I am not planning to write long on this, just waiting for comments and then I will write again.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Friday, March 2, 2007
Why do we need a govt ??
Why do we need government.
Ever thought about it ? It has been something we take for granted. It has to be there. It has to be there for a civil society , it has to be there for sorting out things , it has to be there because it has to be there. Sadly the third is perhaps the most common of the answers we give to oursleves. Atleast in India. Governemt to us is something we try and aboid, to the greatest extent possible. Even as kids we are taught to avoi the police man, as we grow up this apathy increases. Given a choice would you live in a governemnt flat or a designer aprtment. Sadly for most of us govenment is about inefficiecy, corruption, apathy , everything negative that we can think of. It is something we can do without. Or would love to do without.
But is government that useless an entity ? Perhaps an answer to this can be sought in the havocs that not having an efficinet governmanet can create. You have been saving all your life for an apartment. Paying the EMI through your hard earned money or 15-20 years. Killing the small desires for the one dream. This did not ave anything to do with government. It was built by the top notch builder. Electricity, water, sewage everything is private. And then one day when you are in office someone else bribes someone to acquire that. That's the need of governement. Take the same apartment once more. A small bomb planted somewhere in the aprtment can bring it to ashes. Simply because the redundant government was sleeping. What happens than. Your dream of years is out to ashes. Would you be able to dream again in life after that.
And that perhaps in my views is the reason for government. To let its citizens dream. And to take steps to preserve dreams. To nurture them, to cultivate them. This is preaps what seperates developed nations from others. The governemtn has to give the citizens assurance that there dreams would be protected. Not distroyed because someone was bribed. Not destroyed because someone else wanted to distroy them. Not distroyed because the furtile ground for dreams is no longer there.
Now moving on Indian model of governance. Would the relatives of those killed in Gujrat be able to have dreams. To have dreams you NEED to have sleep. And if the sleep is disturbed by nightmares you can not have dreams. And yet no Indian politican of name has ever resigned because of that. Can you dream if you are living in a slum. May be you can but the chances would e slimmer than if you are living in atleast some sort of place. 35% of our cities live in such a situation and yet no one thinks about it. Can you dream if you are not sure if you wil not see tomorrow . Prehaps not. And yet none of our politicos seem to be worried about the abjuct failure of security.
And that perhaps brings me to things we should expect from government. Or demand from it.
- Security - that if we sleep today I will get up tomorrow. security that my honest opinion will not be supressed by power. Security that no one will dare misbehave with me just because I am a nobody in system. Security that my basic right of roti, kapra and makaan will be protected. Security that I can dream.- There could be more points beyond it.. Please try and help.
May be if we can define the requirements from the government can we think of ways of finding the government.
Ever thought about it ? It has been something we take for granted. It has to be there. It has to be there for a civil society , it has to be there for sorting out things , it has to be there because it has to be there. Sadly the third is perhaps the most common of the answers we give to oursleves. Atleast in India. Governemt to us is something we try and aboid, to the greatest extent possible. Even as kids we are taught to avoi the police man, as we grow up this apathy increases. Given a choice would you live in a governemnt flat or a designer aprtment. Sadly for most of us govenment is about inefficiecy, corruption, apathy , everything negative that we can think of. It is something we can do without. Or would love to do without.
But is government that useless an entity ? Perhaps an answer to this can be sought in the havocs that not having an efficinet governmanet can create. You have been saving all your life for an apartment. Paying the EMI through your hard earned money or 15-20 years. Killing the small desires for the one dream. This did not ave anything to do with government. It was built by the top notch builder. Electricity, water, sewage everything is private. And then one day when you are in office someone else bribes someone to acquire that. That's the need of governement. Take the same apartment once more. A small bomb planted somewhere in the aprtment can bring it to ashes. Simply because the redundant government was sleeping. What happens than. Your dream of years is out to ashes. Would you be able to dream again in life after that.
And that perhaps in my views is the reason for government. To let its citizens dream. And to take steps to preserve dreams. To nurture them, to cultivate them. This is preaps what seperates developed nations from others. The governemtn has to give the citizens assurance that there dreams would be protected. Not distroyed because someone was bribed. Not destroyed because someone else wanted to distroy them. Not distroyed because the furtile ground for dreams is no longer there.
Now moving on Indian model of governance. Would the relatives of those killed in Gujrat be able to have dreams. To have dreams you NEED to have sleep. And if the sleep is disturbed by nightmares you can not have dreams. And yet no Indian politican of name has ever resigned because of that. Can you dream if you are living in a slum. May be you can but the chances would e slimmer than if you are living in atleast some sort of place. 35% of our cities live in such a situation and yet no one thinks about it. Can you dream if you are not sure if you wil not see tomorrow . Prehaps not. And yet none of our politicos seem to be worried about the abjuct failure of security.
And that perhaps brings me to things we should expect from government. Or demand from it.
- Security - that if we sleep today I will get up tomorrow. security that my honest opinion will not be supressed by power. Security that no one will dare misbehave with me just because I am a nobody in system. Security that my basic right of roti, kapra and makaan will be protected. Security that I can dream.- There could be more points beyond it.. Please try and help.
May be if we can define the requirements from the government can we think of ways of finding the government.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Death of civil society
Hi
Writing this blog against convential, or politically correct, wisdom. This is probabely spurred by the bad press Ram Jethmalani has attracacted for defending Manu Sharma. Or by the decision of Ghaziabad advocates on not to defend the infamous murderers of Nithari.
On the face value this protests of activists , these decisions of lawyers seem so justified. Here was a murderer who was saved by his clout. Here are some more murderes who have mercilessly butchered tens and hundreds of innocent kids. They do not deserve any mercy. They should be killed immediately. This perhaps is the common wisdom today.
And this precisely is what I would like to write against. When you hate somebody you become like him. When you hate Manu Sharma for the fact that he used his political power to save himself and you use the entire power of media to campaign against that, are you yourslef not becoming similiar to Manu Sharma. Or when the lawyers are deciding to deny Nithari murderers oppertunity of justice, are they themselves not murdering justice.
And this perhaps is more serious than Manu Sharma or Nithari. Society can survive on Manu Sharma. Society can survive a parliament full of 500 criminals. But a society that takes laws of land, that it itself made, can not survive. That precisely is the reason why we should be vigilant in our zeal to protect the people. Society itslef should not fall in the trap of murdering justice to murder the criminal.
So while a society was perfectly fine in exposing the heious crime that these people might have committed, it is perfectly wrong in deciding the punishment of these people. That is the work of judje.Let us not, in our zeal for justice, not swap these roles. For that would be society murdering its norms, because of unsocial elements. Let us not kill the tree to kill the weeds. Let us, while we attack those who attack or values, give them the value to defend themsleves. Defending the weak might not be a priority for a criminal, but defending the defenseless, even if he's a criminal, has to be the duty of a civilised society.
Writing this blog against convential, or politically correct, wisdom. This is probabely spurred by the bad press Ram Jethmalani has attracacted for defending Manu Sharma. Or by the decision of Ghaziabad advocates on not to defend the infamous murderers of Nithari.
On the face value this protests of activists , these decisions of lawyers seem so justified. Here was a murderer who was saved by his clout. Here are some more murderes who have mercilessly butchered tens and hundreds of innocent kids. They do not deserve any mercy. They should be killed immediately. This perhaps is the common wisdom today.
And this precisely is what I would like to write against. When you hate somebody you become like him. When you hate Manu Sharma for the fact that he used his political power to save himself and you use the entire power of media to campaign against that, are you yourslef not becoming similiar to Manu Sharma. Or when the lawyers are deciding to deny Nithari murderers oppertunity of justice, are they themselves not murdering justice.
And this perhaps is more serious than Manu Sharma or Nithari. Society can survive on Manu Sharma. Society can survive a parliament full of 500 criminals. But a society that takes laws of land, that it itself made, can not survive. That precisely is the reason why we should be vigilant in our zeal to protect the people. Society itslef should not fall in the trap of murdering justice to murder the criminal.
So while a society was perfectly fine in exposing the heious crime that these people might have committed, it is perfectly wrong in deciding the punishment of these people. That is the work of judje.Let us not, in our zeal for justice, not swap these roles. For that would be society murdering its norms, because of unsocial elements. Let us not kill the tree to kill the weeds. Let us, while we attack those who attack or values, give them the value to defend themsleves. Defending the weak might not be a priority for a criminal, but defending the defenseless, even if he's a criminal, has to be the duty of a civilised society.
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