While all the Indian media, parroted the separatist line on Kashmir over the last couple of weeks, about the demands of Azadi from Kashmiris in the valley... a "blog"... not a news story.. came up on TOI about an unprecedented dialogue on the issue involving the real kashmiris... wonder how this never got reported in the mass media?? If only, we could provide support to similar initiatives, we could atleast solve part of the problem.
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indus-calling/entry/an-unprecedented-dialogue-on-kashmir
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indus-calling/entry/kashmir-s-azadi-with-the
Another interesting news story... came around the same time... now this is what the idiots in the Indian media should be covering instead of the handful of protestors pelting stones on the roads...
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Protesters-in-Kashmir-face-stones-their-own-bitter-pill/articleshow/6420878.cms
Showing posts with label Indian Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indian Politics. Show all posts
Monday, August 23, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Is India really Shining?
Most readers of this post, the elite few in this country, with access to broadband network connection and computers, educated in English medium schools and prestigious universities, carry a notion of 'India Shining'. The shine is eye-caching in the urban centers of development like Gurgaon, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad etc with the mushrooming new skyrises, shopping malls and multiplexes, 8-lane national highways, 7 digit salaries in the IT and Financial Sectors, the rise of the Sensex from 5000 to 20000, and revolutionizing upheavals in various industry segments like telecommunications, road tranport, commercial transport, air-travel, banking and investment, insurance, media and entertainment, education, power & energy, and information technology,
No doubt India has seen tremendous growth in the last 2 decades and it has been for good, but we need to look beneath this shining carpet for the dirt within, that covers the majority of our population, who are not only bereft of any benefits of this growth, but have no means to voice their opinion or anguish at the widening gap between the haves and the have nots. And the greatest irony is that this majority of have nots in our country has the decisive say in the formation of a so-called democratic government that in turn choses to ignore the very same masses to play in the hands of the rich.
I do not mean to discredit the achivements of our nation, but is it really shining? Is it like the shining glare from the surface of water in a dirty pond, that makes it appear beautiful, hiding away the rotting filth within? Just the other day I read two contrasting stories on the newspaper frontpage, and the agony and pain I felt within was revolting. One reported that the Supreme Court reprimanded the government for treating our soldiers and martyrs as beggars, by offering them a measly Rs 1000 (USD 20) as monthly pension, and when challenged by the families of the martyrs of Kargil, it went to the court to fight it out, and on the other side, another story reported that the MPs and MLAs of Delhi are demanding allocation of posh apartments in the newly constructed Games village in New Delhi post the Commonwealth games from the government. Can it get any worse?
No doubt India has seen tremendous growth in the last 2 decades and it has been for good, but we need to look beneath this shining carpet for the dirt within, that covers the majority of our population, who are not only bereft of any benefits of this growth, but have no means to voice their opinion or anguish at the widening gap between the haves and the have nots. And the greatest irony is that this majority of have nots in our country has the decisive say in the formation of a so-called democratic government that in turn choses to ignore the very same masses to play in the hands of the rich.
I do not mean to discredit the achivements of our nation, but is it really shining? Is it like the shining glare from the surface of water in a dirty pond, that makes it appear beautiful, hiding away the rotting filth within? Just the other day I read two contrasting stories on the newspaper frontpage, and the agony and pain I felt within was revolting. One reported that the Supreme Court reprimanded the government for treating our soldiers and martyrs as beggars, by offering them a measly Rs 1000 (USD 20) as monthly pension, and when challenged by the families of the martyrs of Kargil, it went to the court to fight it out, and on the other side, another story reported that the MPs and MLAs of Delhi are demanding allocation of posh apartments in the newly constructed Games village in New Delhi post the Commonwealth games from the government. Can it get any worse?
Lessons from the resurgence of the Congress Party in Indian Politics and the fall of BJP
Towards the end of 2003, the demise of Congress Party seemed inevitable, and the new bloc in power, BJP, seemed confident, probably overconfident, of its dominance on the Indian political scene for the time to come. Congress leaders, whatever were left of them, had pinned all hopes of survival in the hands of the last known figure of the Nehru-Gandhi 'Parivar', Sonia Gandhi, who till that time had no experience with Indian Politics, Indian Culture, Language, or anything Indian for that matter; her only credential being her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi, the last scion of the Nehru-Gandhi parivar, and a former Prime Minister of India. Today, it seems more distant in the past than the Indian Independence day, and Congress has returned back to dominate the Indian Politics, with BJP clearly losing its grip. As I look back to 2003 and the events thereafter, as a management student I see invaluable lessions in leadership, management, organizational behavior, Indian politics, branding and strategy. I would end this post here, and will share more thoughts on this later.... but hope its food for thought...
Monday, August 24, 2009
Thank you... Mr Jinnah
Mr Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, has been in news recently in India, thanks to Mr Jaswant Singh, whose book on Jinnah has raised a furore in the subcontinent. A huge debate has started again on Jinnah's character, where some claim he was an opportunist who caused the partition of India on religious lines and called for 'direct action' leading to the carnage of thousands of Hindus, and others claim he was a learned barrister of elitist and secular view, who fought for the rights of muslims in pre-partition India. For whatever Mr Jinnah stood for, matters not to me in the current times.. but I do feel greatful to him for causing the great "vivisection" of India in 1947. The way I see the partition of India in 1947, with all its horrors and human tragedy, it was the fire from which emerged the sapling of the modern day nation of India, destined for glory as a great example for democracy, tolerance and achievement by human enterprise.
India before independence, did not seem to exist as a nation/entity; rather it was a neighborhood of states and nationalities, bound together only by geographical proximity and some common strands of religion, faith and race. Over 2000 years of foreign rule marked by repeated destruction at the hands of barbaric invaders, infighting amongst princely states ruled by unworthy hereditary rulers, and perpetual exploitation of the masses at the hands of the the rich and powerful by means of caste, creed and race, had mauled the very soul of this great civilization to its very core, that even today is marred by a general apathy amongst its people for everything that does not concern them directly and has bearing on their survival.
What Mr. Jinnah did in 1947, resulted in the "creation" of a strong and united entity called India from the amalgamation of erstwhile British colonies that comprised of the Indian subcontinent, by amputating the divisive and fundamentalist forces (read people who chose to create Pakistan) that did not believe in its history, culture, and soul, and bringing together the majority Hindus (and other non-muslims) - from all across India, making them shed their regional and linguistic associations and unite as one to create India. The horrors and human tragedy inflicted by the partition only made our founding fathers (read every citizen of independent India) ever stronger in their resolve to build this nation from their sweat and blood.
Had we not had to taste the horrors of partition in 1947, freedom would have seemed to come too easily and cheap, and with the mutually untrusting populace of Hindus and Muslims living in one country would only have Balkanized India, and we might have had to face a Kashmir in each and every state of India. How better could we have convinced so many sub-Indian nationalities to co-exist as one Nation, if not for the common threat from our ill-willed neighbors who were our so called brothers before partition.
Let me be clear that I do not intend to state that Hindus and Muslims can't coexist or that all Muslims belong to Pakistan and do not belong in India. I strongly believe that Muslims who chose to stay in secular India and consider it their motherland, are equal citizens of India. Partition however, did separate the majority of fundamentalist Muslims and those who did not associate themselves with the notion of a united India, from those who did.
What would have been even more horrible than partition, is to share a border with Iran and Afghanistan - home to the Taliban... Imagine, we could have been the fighting ground for the West against the Jihadis, and someday a nuclear missile targeted for Iran might have missed its target and fallen on Indian territory. Aren't we better off today??
Pakistan, although has been a pain in our a** throughout, but at the same time it has been a key motivation behind a lot that we have achieved so far as a nation, be it the strategic military might that we have established or the nuclear bomb, or just learning from them how not to be. :)
To summarize, with all my heart, I Thank You... Mr Jinnah.
India before independence, did not seem to exist as a nation/entity; rather it was a neighborhood of states and nationalities, bound together only by geographical proximity and some common strands of religion, faith and race. Over 2000 years of foreign rule marked by repeated destruction at the hands of barbaric invaders, infighting amongst princely states ruled by unworthy hereditary rulers, and perpetual exploitation of the masses at the hands of the the rich and powerful by means of caste, creed and race, had mauled the very soul of this great civilization to its very core, that even today is marred by a general apathy amongst its people for everything that does not concern them directly and has bearing on their survival.
What Mr. Jinnah did in 1947, resulted in the "creation" of a strong and united entity called India from the amalgamation of erstwhile British colonies that comprised of the Indian subcontinent, by amputating the divisive and fundamentalist forces (read people who chose to create Pakistan) that did not believe in its history, culture, and soul, and bringing together the majority Hindus (and other non-muslims) - from all across India, making them shed their regional and linguistic associations and unite as one to create India. The horrors and human tragedy inflicted by the partition only made our founding fathers (read every citizen of independent India) ever stronger in their resolve to build this nation from their sweat and blood.
Had we not had to taste the horrors of partition in 1947, freedom would have seemed to come too easily and cheap, and with the mutually untrusting populace of Hindus and Muslims living in one country would only have Balkanized India, and we might have had to face a Kashmir in each and every state of India. How better could we have convinced so many sub-Indian nationalities to co-exist as one Nation, if not for the common threat from our ill-willed neighbors who were our so called brothers before partition.
Let me be clear that I do not intend to state that Hindus and Muslims can't coexist or that all Muslims belong to Pakistan and do not belong in India. I strongly believe that Muslims who chose to stay in secular India and consider it their motherland, are equal citizens of India. Partition however, did separate the majority of fundamentalist Muslims and those who did not associate themselves with the notion of a united India, from those who did.
What would have been even more horrible than partition, is to share a border with Iran and Afghanistan - home to the Taliban... Imagine, we could have been the fighting ground for the West against the Jihadis, and someday a nuclear missile targeted for Iran might have missed its target and fallen on Indian territory. Aren't we better off today??
Pakistan, although has been a pain in our a** throughout, but at the same time it has been a key motivation behind a lot that we have achieved so far as a nation, be it the strategic military might that we have established or the nuclear bomb, or just learning from them how not to be. :)
To summarize, with all my heart, I Thank You... Mr Jinnah.
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