Resurgence of Bihar

Bihar always been the capital of India's political theatre. Although every nook & corner of this great nation been politically fertile, Bihar always remained special. Since the time of the likes of Gautam Budhha, Ashoka, Kautilya and Chandragupta, the region has proved its mettle, time & again, in political initiatives and intellectual supremacy. The state has always played the central and pivotal role in shaping the political dynamics of the nation.

Irony is, once booming - political, art, education & cultural powerhouse, is today considered to be the most backward, poor and badly governed geographic address of the globe. There are infinite factors, can be held responsible for the debacle. But I will emphasis on the lack of political will coupled with accute corruption in governance and public offices, the main culprits behind Bihar's pathetic infrastructure and abysmal socio-economic situation.

All said and done, volumes been said and written on the pricking 'Hows' and haunting 'Whys'. It is now important to re-focus on the changes that is taking place, in the socio-political landscape of the state.

24th November 2010 will be considred a historical day, when Bihar has once again showed its political maturity, by choosing the right government for herself. And the selection is unanimous, this makes it special. The people showed clear mandate to those, who delivered, leaving no more loopholes for anyone to exploit.

I don't want to name any political party or person exclusively related to the result, as it is irrelevant. A lot of people are already writing about it. What is important here, is to understand from the trend, the mood, the democratic curve, the power of commoners, political literacy of the so many illiterates and the economically marginalized.
The people of Bihar have shown that however they look like, whatever their castes are, whomever they believe as their gods, whichever situation they might be in, now all they care, is the common good for Bihar. And that's a huge collective breakthrough. These were the similar approach which brought great revolution like French Rev and kicked out King Luis-XVI and Tsar of Russia .

The resurgence of Bihar came at a right time when people of India need to look within and value their democratic decision. The power to vote should not be taken for granted or used casually. Afterall not everyone in this world having the priviledge to choose their own future, like we do. The government we get is the projection of our collective insight towards our future. It is the sure shot fear of rejection in the mind of our non-performing corrupt leaders, which will push their backs to the wall. And we will have right and able leadership to shape the future of our nation, in this crucial century. The method is simple, use democracy as a vaccum cleaner, to suck the pollutants out of the system.

Bihar election should be taken as a political alarm, which rung to wake our conscience. Many of you must be thinking that this is not the first time people have selected a govenment, with majority. I am sure, it is not the case. What is important here is to look at who choose who and in what circumstances. How powerful is the commitment to change for better. The selection of hope over despair. And above all, rise over all the mental prejudice, bias and myths. The economically not so powerfull state, is showing the nation, the way forward.

The people of Bihar has learnt from their past mistakes and now moved ahead to embrace the future, more confidently.

What is so AADARSH about it?

I wanted to write down some highlighters on Barack Obama's maiden India tour, eventually the longest so far by any US president. Now it will be followed by my take on yet another scam called 'Aadarsh Housing Society Scam'.

Ever since the news of the scam broke out by the media, i was wondering, where are we heading? Whom are we making fool? All our claims of superpower status, are for real or fake? Do we really deserve or ready for taking serious role in geo-politics? Why we are so concerned about calling Pakistan a 'Terrorist State'?

All the above concerns of our office bearers in Delhi are farce. When ours fundamentals itself are not in place, do we need to look outward? Can we really afford scams like Aadarsh society, 2G or financial blunders like CWG. Nope. We can't afford it anymore.

Recently published UNDP report rank india 128 among nations in Human Development Index. Even countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Srilanka are better ranked than us. Does it bother any one person who is asking for coveted permanent seat in UNSC? India should be told to first correct its fundamentals than should seek any global recognition or such political luxury.

We may soon be leveled, a country of hypocrats. This is not a wild assumption, it can be a stark reality of 21st century.

Until unless development is not uniform, not reaching all Indians, in every nook & corner of the country, till then the whole notion of GDP growth will remain mere economic denomination of privileged.

Justice should prevail in the nation and corrupts should be treated as traitors. I believe, in democracy, corruption should be handled promptly and with iron fist. People tend to feel more frustrated, when they see their elected representatives, are abusing trust, power & position, intrusted upon to them. The common people/voters feel cheated / handicapped and tend to lose faith in the system and take up arms for coercive corrections.

The government, police, investigation agencies and judiciary should work in tendam to deliver, to eliminate the menace, for forever. Till the time we let corrupts walk free, our civil society will remain in mess and we will see no uniformity in our development measures.

First Reaction on Ayodhya Verdict

Considering the nature of today's very sensitive verdict, i find the judgement apt and possibly the best in the interest of faiths, societies and nation at large. The best part is now both Hindus & Muslims can worship side by side at Ayodhya.

I personally was deeply aghast when the mosque was demolished years back in 1992 and since then awaited for some logical formula to solve the issue for once and all. Today is the day when it has arrived. I always believed that the disputed piece of land at Ayodhya should be used as a common platform to demonstrate the secular might of our great nation. Hope now things will take shape in that direction.

Political and legal commentary is on, whether the judgement is right or tilted towards the majority or unfair,whatever may be the readings between the line, we must give respect to the judgement by the honorable court. It is not wise to jump on the guns once again rather i believe learn from the past and move ahead.

It is too early to elaborate on the judgement any further. Atleast i'm happy that many in my country today will sleep in peace.

Now another hike of 10k a month, that too tax exempted

Yes, while i was writing my previous post, our greedy parliamentarians were planning their next move. As usual their melodrama fetched them additional 10k per month, this time a pure tax free perk. How ironical the fact is that the people who represents us in the parliament decides their own salaries? Using us, the voters, as mere numbers to manupulate & tools to ensuring their seats in the prestigious house.

Should not be there a democratic process in place, to decide on remuneration and perks of parliamentarians? A process where common man like me feel more inclusive. At present, we are just like mute spectators, watching our country getting mauled by its own people.

I wish to live in a Democracy where it is applied, in its real sense. A system which assimilate peoples' opinion, not simply posing on to them. In democracy, the truth must be retained, however inconvenient it may be.

300 percent hike for parliamentarians

One of the Parliamentarian was mentioning that he spends 25-30 grand every month towards offering tea to his visitors/constituents. Apparently, the guy is a chieftain of one the princely states of India.
How sick/silly the reasoning is?

The government has announced to increase the salary of our parliamentarians from 15k to 50k. A bloody 300 percent hike. All this happened amidst high intensity drama in both the houses. I'm sure many corporates would be red faced and i wish they could take some lessons from it :).

The hike is unreasonable by any scientific calculation or logic and going to further stress the exchequer. Anyways, this should not bother the govt as they have the cushion of tax payers (slogging asses) in growing numbers.

We have celebrated our 63rd years of independence (chronic misery for many) few days back. Despite the fact, we are yet to establish a transparent institution, whose sole responsibility will be to appraise the individual performances of parliamentarians. The appraisal will be against the proposed agenda (task sheet) submitted while filing for the nomination. The institution will be reporting to Election Commission, cc to President of India & Supreme Court.

I know, there may be such proposals made in the past by senior policy makers, thinkers or very few left - proactive bureaucrats. Even though the proposals would have died, suffocated in the dusty files.

The matter must re-surface, discussed and brought to reality. The financial records (earning against assets) of our representatives at both Parliament Houses must be audited methodically. The guity and non-persormers' political career should be wrapped up, to pave path for others.

My Wish - लूटो जितना लूट सकते हो, हमारा कौन क्या बिगड़ लेगा - ये ख्याल corrupt politicians के ज़हन से निकल जानी चाहिए।

Raining future

FO for almost last two months now, last year's abysmal rain and even dreadful water management led to real bad harvesting seasons. On top of all millions of tonnes of food grain rot - facilitating netas to adjourn parliament proceedings at regular intervals, abuse each other, waste precious tax money paid by commoners like me & many more.
Aam janta reeling under pressure of rising prices while prime time news slots are flooded with intellectual debate on rising inflation. The famous India pastime - PTB (Bass the buck) is on.

Yesterday even the parliament house gave its way to rain drops. Netas got some real cool issue to continue their dog fight at the expense of millions of white collar corporate honchos fighting to reach their respective offices on time, & foremost keep their jobs intact.

Our tax money is getting looted, coin-by-coin, in the name of CWG. Do we have a say is this so called democracy? At one hand people are dying of hunger, not becouse of lack of food but becoz of lack of ACCESS TO FOOD.

My wishlist - Fat ass - knee week leadership should move out, young generation take the command

Delhi's Cannot Place

I've not misspelled 'Connaught Place' in the title, i'm putting it deliberately. I find it even worse than what i had seen on my 2008 Delhi visit. Delhi per se looked quite changed but not for any good. Though Delhi Metro looks smart and gives Delhites some respite from the awful traffic conditions which is spread all over Delhi, not sparing premium addresses like North-South block & 7 race course road. I felt nice to notice as Raisina Hill, still gives good ride to the motorists while saving face for Indian capital.

The truth is New Delhi is getting further unlivable, thanks to uninvited and now hated 'Come on - Wealth' games. Believe me I'had not even bothered to think whether we need such show in India or not, but as soon as i landed in Delhi i been introspecting on the subject throughout my two day ordeal in the city. All my sensibilities unanimously opposing it now.

Delhites don't want rain (though they badly need it) as they know that rain will add to their sufferings, a 5 minutes of good rain can delay your life 1.15 hrs, or even take your job. Your next step can land on a 10 ft gorge, right on the middle of the road. Expect anything in Delhi now a days.

The state government is promising that things will be under control and by 10th of August ______, Delhi will be out of misery. I've not written the year as you can fill in the blank. I've seen a guy getting out of his brand new Honda City with folded pants and hopping to his office, as that's the way you people are walking now-a-days at Cannot Place.

The good thing about being an Indian is that you adapt to the extreme. No protests. I've observed a kind of hope or rather hopelessness (i'm not sure) in the eyes of people. They believe that whatever the situation may be, will be over soon. After all our governments are working towards our future. We should not always critisize them. For god sake Folks, what about today? Does it matter?

Delhi's present situation can be a prudent example of effective non-working of decision taken in haste (of course undemocratic). The irony is, few politicians taking once again a billion people for a ride, that too without any major dis-comfort. Otherwise how come governments decides to risk a fortune on games, in the country where more than half of the population doesn't have access to fundamental living standard, a country falling at the bottom in Human Development Index. Going for Commonwealth Games. lol. Hahaha...:)

Shilaji, first fix Delhi's basic urges, like water, electricity, hygine, housing, roads, rising living expenses etc. And then probably 10 years from now you may take up Commonwealth Games. You may have to first install common comfort, common prosperity and common happiness.