The INC : Gandhi to Gandhi

The year 1920 was significant for the Indian National Movement as it saw the lean-yet-courageous barrister from Gujrat actively immersing himself in the national movement. The year was also important for the Indian National Congress as it underwent a remarkable change in its party structure under the guidance of M. K. Gandhi. Provincial Congress committees came into existence, a democratic structure was put in place in the party. The party from then represented a democratic structure which continued even after our independence. Having said that, Gandhiji himself defied this structure at times  viz., SC Bose issue of 1939, Sardar Patel issue of 1947 etc. Yet, the party largely stood for the representative democratic structure in the Indian polity.

Come 2013, the INC has lost its charm as the legacy holder of our national movement. It has allowed itself to rot under the dynastic politics. The recent AICC meeting was a testimony of the dynasty worship. The party-workers were busy shouting the slogan demanding "The Prince" to be the PM candidate in forthcoming elections. They chose to be oblivious of the fact that the prince has never been part of the Council of Ministers (CoM). They seem not to care about the prince's (dis)qualifications. The prince is so much so worshipped that his request to increase the LPG cap was immediately put into consideration by the PNG minister, who was earlier too much reluctant to even consider it. The CM of a state had to reconsider his cabinet decision because the prince thought so. This blind 'puja' of a member of certain dynasty does not suit the INC which spearheaded the national movement. Now that he has mentioned only women empowerment to any questions asked in the "interview of the year", we can expect few, new half baked, women oriented programmes aptly named after Indira Gandhi in coming days!!

Well, the sad story doesnot end here. The party bigwigs are not even aware of the fall that the party is about to take (or are they?). The country is awakening and becoming more and more aware of the day to day politics. The youth is demanding a transition from representative democracy to participative democracy. How the INC can expect such a generation of people to support and vote for it considering its medieval style of politics? INC has to compete with Narendra Modi (not BJP ?!) who has been increasing his following day by day under the clout of Hindutva and Development agenda. There is absolutely no comparison between NaMo and RaGa (would you like to compare David Fincher and RGV ?!!).

Its a shame to see a political party with such a historical significance failing to stand up to the values on which it was built more than 100 years ago. Only a messiah can whisper a sense in the party now and help it to reinvent itself. At the looks of it, that messiah is no where near the party rings now.

Religionism, Regionalism, the Intolerance

        Recently we all woke up with a shocker of a news. Six worshipers were gunned down in the premises of Wisconsin Gurudwara in Oak Creek. Initial investigations points to the hate crime, which has become increasingly dangerous lately. The accused proclaimed himself to be an Aryan and was seen close to a white supremacist group.

       While Obama govt has to re-look into their gun policy, as it has become, lately, very easy to access guns in USA. As a Bollywood movie points out that of late everybody wants a gun- from chaprasi to a politician- as anger is seeping in everybody and one loves to see others in misery. The other question that the incident showcases is more severe and relevant to us also. The question about how tolerant are we towards other religions, to other regions, to multiculturalism.

      The intolerance is slowly but surely making its way into the minds of, intellectually weak, people. Examples were shown by - Anders Behring Breivik by bombing and killing people in Norway, ethnic clashes in England a year ago shook the entire world. These people who feel that they are superior to the others just because they belong to a different race, religion or for that matter country shows the level of sickness engulfed to their mind, to their thinking ability.

       These people are proud of something which they have not earned. I am Hindu because I was born, which happens in a natural way, in a Hindu family. An Aryan is an Aryan because his ancestors belonged to that race. In a global society- race, culture, region, religion- do not have significance. These things have been ancestral and will be for ages down the line. At the end of the day we are humans and we should act like one. No religion, region, race are superior from the other. All have their own significance. Violence in the name of these is cowardice. It does not bring peace to the executor or the executed or the survivors.

Lets hope for a peaceful world.

The Realm of Negativity

The newspapers, the news channels, the tabloids, the magazines and last but not the least- the human psyche have become a realm of negativity. Remember, the T- Bag of Prison Break mentioning about the Captivity of negativity- Well!! That's what I see now in the real world now.

Politically, if I see it, the government is a werewolf whereas the opposition is toothless tiger. Let alone the expectation of positivity from that arena. The news being thrown at us 24x7 have the news of all the bad things happening in this world. Human psyche has transformed and began to like this interference of negativity. It has become quite natural that we lean our attention to stuff that is negative, bad or gruesome.

Well! Good or bad is always relative. If we feel something is bad than it means we know what is good and indeed good exists! Mass do not want to see good and media, in a race to earn more money and survive, do not show good.

How does this system affect the country?
Well! Imagine a kid growing into a juvenile in this kind of environ- listening about the corrupt government, inefficient opposition, characterless society. This will manifest a very bad image of the country which is not so bad rather. Such youths will never loose any opportunity to leave this country behind, probably forever. So, we loose our own assets to somebody else.

Does that mean we should never see or show the bad aspects of the society?
Weight-age should differ. Positivity should have a major share. Letting the common people to take decisions about bad or good is novel idea. Youth should be mad to feel that it is not so bad to dwell here. After all, it is not so bad to be here!!

Looking at the cause not at the effect

The nation has again plunged into the streets with the same vigour and anger, if not less, as it had in the beginning of the year gone but for completely different reasons this time. Nation is outraged, angry, embarrassed after the recent rape and death of the medical student in Delhi. The political and judicial classes have reacted to the nation’s mood by taking many steps like setting up of Fast Track Courts for the speedy trials of rape cases, institutionalizing stricter punishments for the offenders, setting up hotline for the needy etc. But, as the days have gone by we are still reading about many other rape cases coming into light, many more victimized by the dreadful, inhuman act. Many victims have even tried to commit suicide.

Here, there is a need to pause and have a re-look at what exactly is going wrong and why the society is not kind to the fairer sex. TN has vowed to give death sentence (or in some cases chemical castration) to the rape offenders, so does this mean in coming year or so the rape cases will come down regularly in TN (if not drastically)? The point, here, is not that there should not be any strict punishment to the hideous crime committed. There should be, but, the point is that whether this would suffice or bring in any significant change? Such steps should be looked as short term implementations against the crime. There should be an approach that will look at the cause of such incidents rather than looking just at the effect. As Praveen Swami of The Hindu rightly notes in his article that there are many contexts ‘as possible keys to the production of India’s urban-male dysfunction’.

Case Studies

A system where there will be a detailed case study of the convicts of rape in the past will help in better understanding of the socio-economic background of offenders. A psychiatric analysis of the convicts to understand the psyche or mental condition may lead to clearer ideas in understanding the contexts better. Once the case studies are done, deductions can be made to understand what exactly is wrong with the male dominated society of India. These studies will not solve the problem in a snap but it will certainly provide the guiding light needed to walk towards the probable solution. Also these studies should have some statutory or legal backing or else it will be just another case study done by any NGO which never gets read, let alone, getting governmental recognition and implementation. With many men believing that the victims of rape invite the crime on themselves showing them the mirror through these studies becomes important.

More visibility

Indian women are, by default, house-wives by profession, and thus there are very less number of women visible in the workforce of the country. The minority catches the eye of the people. In India, even now, a women working in any domain is an eyebrow raising issue(except say in IT industry but the workforce there is mainly single women, most of them who quit jobs after marriage to become house-wives). The patriarch ego of men condemns such presence. The possible solution to the problem can be to increase the women workforce. Way forward in this could be implementation of existing legislation strictly or drawing more legislation for the upliftment of women esp. girl children from the shackles of male oppression. Quota for women in Parliament might well be the first step in this direction. 

The change of the hour is not quick, hasty, ad hoc decisions but thoroughly thought, long term, ‘cause’ based decisions which will have long lasting and permanent effect on the society for its betterment.