Message Exchanges -- Untitled-1

Given below is the link of an article that a friend had posted.

http://qz.com/178362/india-crosses-the-moral-line-of-no-return-if-narendra-modi-becomes-prime-minister/

And this was my additional comment on it.

SZ: Unfortunately. Getting ahead on Fear and Hate is easier than doing it the right way.

And this was the subsequent comment of another person that started the entire conversation, which some may find interesting.

DM Whom you want to be?

1. Farmer =

2. Farmers Wife =

3. Farmers Son =

4. The Mongoose =

5. The Cobra =

Match those characters with a suitable options....

You, Common People, Politicians, India's Future, Narendra Modi, Media, Confusion, Corruption, Inflation, Rahul Gandhi, greedy people, opportunist, Economy or you can put your own word.

Before that, read the story!!!!!!

Once, there lived a farmer and his wife. They had a little son. The farmer had a petmongoose. The little boy and the mongoose were fond of each other. They were good playmates.

One day the farmer was busy at his fields. The farmer's wife had left to the market. The little boy was fast asleep in a cradle. The mongoose was lying down near the cradle.

A cobra somehow got into the house and it was nearing the little boy. The mongoose sniffed the snake and jumped up. He fought with the cobra. The cobra began to attack. There was a fierce fight between the cobra and the mongoose. The mongoose finally bit and killed the cobra.

The mongoose saw the farmer's wife returning from market. He ran happily towards her to greet her. She saw blood around the mouth and paws of the mongoose. The farmer's wife mistook that the mongoose had attacked her son.

The farmer's wife took a long stick and gave heavy blows on the mongoose and then ran into the house. She was shocked to see a dead cobra lying on the floor near her son. Now she realised her mistake.

SZ: So I assume the meaning of the story would be something like Wife is the voter. Son is the economy. Mongoose is Modi and Cobra are Muslims.

DM: It's upto u (Shoaib)..........what u want to choose!

It's reflects your perception about the matter.

You are supporting Modi or not it's pointless.

The moral of the story is don't land into any conclusion from outside.

SZ: Oh I don't deal with perception (Dear DM). I deal with probabilities and likelihood in real life. There was nothing wrong with the column, but when you put up a story, it seems like a nice way to avoid the tough question on choices. So I extrapolated one possible meaning that you wouldn't want to consider or like, making the same point, as you wrote - "don't land into any conclusion from outside."

The truth is you don't need to be involved but just be near a riot/war/huge-fight (a fight when someone dies) to know things. Be so near that you can know not the stories through other people but hear them directly from the horses mouth. The ones who are still alive by matter of chance or the ones who killed or the ones who lost someone there. If you don't know and if you haven't seen, don't compare with cliche stories, you can argue on an ideology but don't compare realities to stories. Reality is very different.

My understanding is you have never seen or been near to a riot but if I am wrong, which I certainly can be, please share your insight and what you have seen or heard and how near were you.

If not then next time when you hear of a riot, I suggest you go there. meet people, talk with them. Don't argue, don't tell them about fairytale stories, just listen and observe. Give time and then see them again, with time will come perspective and they will tell you things as a matter of fact in words devoid of emotion but words that will send chills down your spine. This time it would be different than the time when emotions were high, that I can assure you. Talk to them in different places - sometimes at their house, sometimes where they have tea, sometimes over dinner, sometimes when they would read a piece of news. In that case you wouldn't conclude from outside.

DM "I will never forget the hand till my death"

This is the comment of my mom about an incident which took place in her life more than half a century ago.

The moral story which I put up, its my nephew's 1st Standard Text book story (moral story). It carries a simple message for those toddlers that "don't land into any conclusion from outside" which is applicable to us as well & why I put up that story you come to know at the end of it.

Dear Shoaib, The incident which I am going to tell you it don't deal with probabilities and likelihood; it's all about perception of an Individual who directly suffered the fate. A single incident can be interpreted differently by me, you, mom, Zeeba or someone else & also the significance of that incident will differ from person to person based on their perception about the context.

Based on your reply I can assume that you never directly faced that kind of situation, only heard about it (directly from the horses mouth) but I did; or to be accurate my mom did.

If I wouldn't have faced those situation then my answer would have been a biased answer.

Yes, You truly reflected the facts & I totally agree with you but I also want to highlight that you overlooked few important aspects of it; like PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) & it's effect on human behaviour (Perception), snow-ball effect, devil's horn effect, fading effect bias, uncontrolled contributing factors etc. When you are dealing with a sensitive issues like riot/war/death then you need to consider all the aspects of real life, not a generic view of an incident.

I researched about it long time back; currently don't have any reference but if you are really interested to know then you need to spend weeks or even months while researching to come to a conclusion.

The truth is 'reality is stranger than friction'.

Few Related Articles

http://www.niu.edu/.../publications/walkerskowronski2009.pdf

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_memory_biases

If you have time read it.

A brief background about us. I am from West Bengal; 2nd largest concentration of Muslim Population in India (wikipedia). I am Bengali; my grand parents & my father immigrated from East-Pakistan or currently Bangladesh during partition (1947). That time a large amount of Bengali's didn't immigrated from East-Pakistan immediately, they stayed back because they loved their home land & also they don't want to lost all their resources (house, land, shop etc). My mom's family was one of them.

Though they were the minority ethnic group in East-Pakisthan/Bangladesh but they were happy. My mom's father was a post master & her uncle was one of the renowned Doctors in East-Pakisthan/Bangladesh. It was a joint family & they stayed together in a very big house. That time they were one of the wealthy family in that town with lots of land, a store, a nice doctors chamber & few cows. My mom's uncle had thousands of loyal follower that time & everyone respects them very much. Everything was fine for next 15yr with some minor problem. From late 1963 to early 1964 the situation in that area started to get intense (Ref:http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_East-Pakistan_riots) but then also it didn't escalated into an alarming level. Though that period Hindus were banned to wear shoes, use umbrellas, ride a rickshaw or can't sell their property but because of their reputation in the town/mohalla no one objected. Even they felt safe in that area. According to my mom testimony, her uncle used to quote "this is the safest place; we feel very safe & secured here". But one night during 1964 riot a group of people came to their house (out of which few are family friend) killed her uncle without giving him a moment to react; kill his newly wedded pregnant wife; killed my mom's elder brother & tried to kill everyone else. My Grand Father took my mom (that time she was only 8yrs old) with him accompanied by her elder sister (12yr) & her young brother (6yr) & fled through the back door in the middle of a night (around 2am) with the help of their servant (Ponchu Da). They have to left that place bare footed without a single penny in their pocket.

Luckily my grandmother was out of town & she survived. Later they came to know that they also killed their loyal servant (Ponchu Da). They walked whole night though the jungle with a scare in their mind that someone is following them!

In the early morning with the help of a person they reached the India boarder. Even the help provided by the stranger is not free of cost, my grand dad have to give him his gold chain in return. While returning to India my mom saw a truck, full of death body (I don't need to say who they are) out of which one hand was hanging outside the truck. The blood soaked hand struck the 8yr old girl so badly the it still hunts her.

In my first line I referred that hand.....

Now forget about everything; Modi, mongoose, cobra, you, me, your religion, my religion everything.......

Just think yourself a 8yr old girl who lost her elder brother, uncle & aunt (who are equivalent to her mother & father) just few hours back & in the morning she saw the most horrible seen in her life.

Mr. Shoaib, can u please shed light about the probability or the likelihood of her emotion trauma caused by this incident!

& also can you please answer some of her unanswered questions.

1. Why they killed my brother(13yrs)? What he did?

2. My uncle saved thousands of life but why they killed him who saved their life?

3. Why my uncles childhood friend (who also studied with him) was among the killers?

4. Why they killed my innocent aunt or our servant?

She didn't get the acceptable answer & because of that her perception totally changed about a particular community!

Is she right or wrong?

Who will decide?

Till now, it's half of the story! Waiting for your response. After your response I will clarify my stands & will finish the story.

SZ: She would be biased in all likelihood and would live those scars. And since you grew up perhaps you too would be completely biased, and in either case I cant contest with words because its difficult to change experience with words. But perhaps if and when the time comes will try to create an example so that your view changes. And I am sorry for the losses in your family.

For your questions there are no answers except that people who did that were wrong and unfortunately no human being tried helping your elders. If your mother believes in God of whatever sort, she should reserve those questions for that supreme being.

But to assume that only you or your mother have been traumatized is also wrong. My father was a little lucky, his friends struck him at the right places (during Ranchi Riots 1967) just that they were doctor's hand and not a butcher's so the cut was not deep enough to kill him instantly. And then luck favored him and Brigadier arrived at the hospital, since RMCH is near the cantonment area. Had the army people been 15 min late probably I wouldn't be responding today. The guy who struck first was his school friend who had come to visit them in college. Why he did he do that? There is no logical answer. And this entire attempt to wipe out some 34 Muslim boys was done in the presence of police unit that was deployed in the campus so that no untoward incident takes place.

Throughout his life after that, he could never open a bottle with his right hand, because when the senior staff of the college found him their immediate concern was to save his life and to work with all casualty that was coming in. No one looked into his fractured thumb. The hit on his head ensured that the vision from his left eye became nearly nil, so despite being a book lover and a veracious reader he had to remain content with only one eye.

Despite this incident my father never differentiated among his friends based on religion and he never asked me to do so either. Rather what he taught us (his children) was there would be some bad people and some good, don't judge them on religion or caste or creed. And look through events understand what happened? Why it happened? Who benefited? And how the common person on the road (you and me), we lose out in a struggle for power, ideology and money where we have no stake.

We too have lost friends and families to riots. But then we have also seen incidents of hope. Bhagalpur riots 1967 we lost some very close family friends. Then in 1989 riots Bhagalpur was really bad and that is when one of our family friend's tenant did what few would have done. Rioters came and asked the tenants (hindus) to come outside the house, there were offered to shift everything to a different house on the same road, and then all owners (muslims) were locked inside and the house was set on fire and rioters left. Somehow most of the people managed to escape but they had hidden two children and in trying to run they actually left them. The tenants son entered the burning house saved the two children. And everyone left Bhagalpur overnight, the price of saving lives for the tenant too was to leave the house and the city. They all shifted to Patna.

And similarly there are many incidents where individuals have put their foot down to save lives, across regions, across religions in times of madness. I can understand how your mother would feel contemptuous, so does my mother - she lost her cousin in Benares riots of 1972, and nearly lost the man she was to marry in Ranchi riots.

Some one will have to rise up to the occasion and do what is right and if we can remove our biases for a moment we all know when we are right and when we are wrong. I don't know how to explain, well I hope you can understand.

DM: You are right, people should have reacted the way your father did. The lack of consciousness, lack of logical thinking is the main problem not a particular community or people.

Let's finish my story first then u will understand everything......

I told you before, every incident can be perceived differently by different individual. My mom developed a grudge or hatred about a particular community.

Is she right? Obviously not.

People mind alway tend to generalise every incident.

Here comes the concept called "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable" by Nicolas Taleb's. People generalising the incident based on their comfort level or suitability or mental satisfaction.

Now, comes the analytical part.

You know Shoaib, you were partially right, I have grown up by listing all those stories & become biased. I assumed/perceived that all the Muslims are bad because I also didn't get the acceptable answer. I started to felt that those people who can kill a child, a pregnant women & a person who saved their life several time they must be bad & evil people.

So I generalised my thinking & developed a barrier between me & all the other Muslim friends. In school I don't even have a single Muslim friend because of the perception.

In class-XI I started developing friendship with Abdul (My first Muslim friend). We studied in a same school & also in a same coaching centre. In few months we become good friends. Then a stereotype warning came from my family, don't mix with Abdul. I tried to convince then that he is good, he is different, he is not like others but one statement from my mother drained all my effort & I hit a concrete wall.

I am just quoting her sentence "you friendship with Abdul is less than a year old; my uncles childhood friend didn't hesitate to kill him after 30yrs of friendship; then who are you?"

That time I was determine to prove her wrong but I didn't have the answers of her questions!

Then I started my research about the incident.

Do you know what I found?

"The reality is stranger than fiction"

My uncle was the topper in school & college but his childhood friend was far behind in term of results, reputation, assets etc. when my mom's uncle Used to attend patients in his private chamber his childhood friend used to spent leisure time in his chamber while appreciating his achievements.

But the reality was different; he developed ego & envy against him. Here comes the concept called the snowball effect. It's was developed over the time, not in a single day. He was also an doctor but overshadowed by my mom's uncles reputation. He dreamed to practicing like him but it never materialised in reality. After so many years the opportunity came in his way to eliminate his competitor & fulfil his sleeping desire. The person only took the opportunity of riots to fulfil his grudge & takeover their moveable or non-moveable assets without a criminal proceeding or any negative publicity which can't be possible in other way. This type of greedy, selfish, self-centric attitude didn't signify any religion like Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian. Those type of people doesn't belongs to any ethnic group, they comes under only in one category which is criminals. It happens with me, it happened with you & also to others. This type of people was there in the past, is there in the present, will be there in the future. It's upto you which color you want to put in. This incident happening every day everywhere.

Some are defining it as political, some defining it as a communal & some defining it as a cultural (honour killing) issue.

Whom you want to blame for the losses is upto you. You can blame your destiny or the god or the country or the government or the minister or a particular community.

Here the main question......Can you control it? It's impossible to control human mind or evil thinking. The incident which occurred in her life cannot be controlled from outside.

Here the contributing factor is not religion nor political or cultural. It's a criminal intent (uncontrolled contributing factor) done under the shadow of communal riots.

Just talk with those people who have lost their life in riots, u will find all of them have lost their home, assets or other belongings. What you thing those people who is executing the riots is doing it for ideology? If you think so then you are the biggest fool I have ever mate. Yes exceptions are there but I can guarantee that most of the people would have different intension.

But in reality convincing the sufferer about the real issue is very tough. Even if they understand everything then also a unconscious negative feeling will be there at the back of there mind. It's like a time bomb; u need a spark to re-ignite it. In that context you were right, a good leader need to secure that kind of incident should not happen but for him it will be difficult to control those criminal minds to stop exploiting the issues like riots, ethnicity or something else for their personal gain. I believe except a criminal mind nothing exist in this world which can influence a person to kill his/her childhood best friend or a child. Whatever is the reason can you kill you childhood best friend or a child in any circumstances?

I don't think so.....A sound human being can't do it any circumstances.

After my finding I shared my view with parents & created a solid stand point. They are 100% convinced or not I am not sure but atleast they don't have any problem with my friends & don't shows the stereotype attitude.

Hope for the best......

Regards

DM

SZ: Your analysis is mostly correct.

Criminal intent can be checked if the law is based on the concept of 'Justice' and the implementers have decided to do so. Mostly if I have come to understand correctly, then in a 50 year history of someone trying to achieve a just kingdom/society/nation then for about 5-10 years the society actually would witness a phase where criminal intent is completely checked and there is peace overall. After that either border wars will start or something will go wrong with society because a new leader will be born. Since inciting is very easy, may not work with you and I, but in general giving a speech with negativity and raising the tempo is easy and for quick success leaders often employ this.

Now well I may be foolish, but then 'to believe' one has to take a leap of faith and that is the essence of most religion. I think we are in agreement that most people do not think analytically, if that assumption is correct, then maybe we can also come to a common agreement that most people do not analyses their religion and the leap of faith could be in the wrong direction. Now that is seed of ideological criminal intent (example: Elements of Taliban in Pakistan (the ones who only kill innocents), perpetrators of Malegaon blasts and Mecca Masjid (hyderabad) blasts , KKK (in US) etc.)

You know the cases against such people should be made under criminal offense rather than terrorism or any other part of law. But the truth is that the foot soldiers in such organizations actually have 'weird' belief system. Maybe the leaders of such organization are more analytical and hence outright criminals but on grassroots its belief -- driven by idealogy.

My observation, so far, has been that all criminal activity has a reason -- money, power, lust/jealousy, revenge, mental instability or ideology. At least till now I have not come across a case which cannot be compartmentalized in one of these categories. Assuming its only one would be wrong.

I maybe wrong, one can always be wrong but that is the structure that I follow so far. If you have better insight then do share.

[p.s. since you read, understand and perhaps follow Taleb to Gladwell. check out Robert Shiller's - 'irrational exuberance' and Karl Marx]

And it end here

Rebuttal on Swaminathan A. Aiyar's recent column

Swaminathan Aiyar's latest column was "Gulf Oil: Declining US oil imports could push up Indian expenditure on Navy".

I am too lazy to summarize his points so you wil have to put in the effort of reading there. Sorry.

India's navy expense will go up but it will not be because of US shifting out of Gulf. I don't agree to his reasons. It will go up because of ambitions.

1. Its still a decade to 2020. For the simple idea just open any of such studies that were published in 2001 stating how the world would be in 2011. And check the original figures of 2011. You will get a clear idea of why such studies shouldn't be taken too seriously. One should read them but not make a hypothesis based on them.

2. Aiyer's argument that US will shift out of gulf and make ways for China is also not quite correct. US will muddle in the middle east for two reasons. First it will be there because the 'Israel Lobby' will make sure that US remain in close proximity of the country for emergency support. Second, US had no business in Vietnam and yet it fought the communist. The USofA is too used to playing police and making sure it has strike capabilities all over the world within few hours. And for this goal it will maintain its hold in middle east.

Recently to counter the growing presence of China in South China sea, the USofA decided that it will station marines in Australia. (Link).

Wild guess

The New York Times headline was screaming "Bin Laden Is Dead, Obama Says"  And all other headlines and news channels were making useless noise as always.

It seems no one is paying attention is that this operation was carried by a small group of trained people. What was not achieved by huge army with all modern technology was actually achieved by a small set of people. Making an important point that to kill or capture serious terrorist does not require a regular army combing through hostile ares, it only increases the over all collateral damage (Afghanistan) without giving any actual benefit. The effective strategy is to send few highly skilled people after the intended target. This is a old battle tactics used to take out snipers. Perhaps going forward there will be much discussion on the learning and observation from this result.

Though not sure, let me bet that when the hue and cry subsides, it will come to light that, ‘it was basically an assassination of Osama carried out by the CIA under the executive order of the president.’ that’s how they got him.

"Maoists butcher 74 Jawans"

On a hot Tuesday afternoon, (April 6, 2010), I went to the office pantry for lunch assuming it to be a normal day. But on entering I realised, that for a change, everyone was intensely watching the news channel.

The flash said, "Maoists butcher 74 Jawans". This was the breaking news that covered all the news channels, irrespective of the language -- english, hindi, bangla etc.

Since then I have been seeing many different opinion on the subject, in different style. From graphical images with timelines in print, to shouting journalist on TV, to serious tone of foreign print, debates on face book and columns and sarcastic blog -- http://thusspakehriday.blogspot.com/2010/04/smile-now-ms-roy.html -- (this was different to me).

There are few things that are difficult to understand seeing the various debate. Why don’t people try and move forward and look for a proper solution? Why get stuck to a single point of view and go around proving the other side is wrong? Why focus only on history and not look to future? Why look only at the future and not consider the history? And there are many other questions that we all have but lets not go there for now.

Factually, the thing none can deny is— a loss of human life is wrong.

We for the sake of simplicity have the habit of making things too simple and then not get anywhere. So below are given the different aspects and each is dealt separately. Because this issue is complex.

What is happening?

In the name of growth there is exploitation. Brands have failed in countries because they did not address the cultural factor. Similarly, industrial development without working on neither the sustainability front nor on understanding the culture of the place or working to bring the inclusive growth will not be real growth. it becomes exploitation.

To fight the exploitation there is extortion. There have been many reports that extortions are collected from the businesses/industrialist to run the naxalism. Coming to this point, how come naxalites don’t fight those who exploit nature in the form of cutting sandal trees? how is it that certain industries face the threat of naxal especially PSUs while others don't. It is common knowledge that coal and mining mafia are the biggest exploiters but how come they are not not under naxal threat, ever?

Politicians sharing the bed with Naxals. While Shibhu Soren was not keen in solving the naxals in Jharkand, as they had helped him win the elections. Many questions have been raised on Mamata’s covert support for the naxals -- remember the Rajdhani episode.

To deal with extortion, raging atrocities. While it is true, that there has been extortion at a local level also, where the naxals came and killed villagers for not supporting them but that does not justify the stand the government took by forming Salwa Judum who went about raping and killing (both covered in tehelka)

Settling scores in the garb of naxals. MCC, Ranvir Sena and PWG are treated as part of the naxals in the region of Bihar. Most of the killings done by these groups are not against the state as much as they are caste wars.

What will not solve the problem?

Bringing in military and air-force will not solve the problem. Because this is a different sort of warfare, this is not a conventional war where we are fighting a force that can easily be distinguished. Typical military can only deal with external threats better or with threats that do not involve the population from where the army is raised.

The other thing one must remember is, any approach where one expects the results to show up in matter of few weeks or months, will not work. The current generation of leaders would have seen this problem from their childhood or since their teens. Therefore, dealing with a brash mentality will not be easy. These people will not come to the table so fast. They have not seen peace long enough to believe in it.

What will work?

A strategy where all parties can be put on a similar platform be used. The local population should be given primacy; all the efforts of rehabilitating the tribal areas and securing them should be made. This is basically not an easy.

It be ensured that the local MP/MLA is present his/her area for min of 200 days a year (out of 365). Speeches and talks of leaders in the area are recorded, to ensure that if speeches are inflammatory then those politicians be remanded and disturbances are controlled. Choppers, para-military forces and technology should be used to provide them with cover and strength to deal with the naxals.

Any industrialisation in the area should include the tribals, other locals and special emphasis be laid on a company’s profit but the environmental and local population’s grievances.

Borders with Bangladesh and Nepal are manned as much as possible. Because banning ammunition is an important part to deal with them. If there is any logistics help from outside the border then that should be dealt with promptly. Similarly if ammunitions is traced to factories in India then loopholes should be plugged.

We must understand that a problem brewing for 40 years will not get solved in just 40 weeks. So lets not try and do that.

Desertion

Some time back, I was asked a question. "Why is it that when Muslims are beaten up in Israel or in some other country, then there is such hue and cry but the same is not reflected when China does it in Xinjiang’s?"

Well, to be frank, I don't have any straight answer. Although I tried reading and getting some answer somewhere. But there was no success. Based on personal observation there could be multiple factors or a certain combination of these factors.

First of all its not just Xinjiang, most of the countries where there is no freedom of press the report on carnage against the local population does not get limelight. How many countries with no freedom of press has done any reporting?

Then there is "presence factor" or "kinship factor". Allow me to explain with an example. The gulf countries have a sizeable population belonging to India. So even if something is not reported in the media for a few days the information will be transmitted through word of mouth. This may not generate public opinion at a very fast pace.

Similarly, while it is true that most countries claiming to represent the "Muslim Country" did nothing concrete, they did not even lodge a diplomatic protest or condemn it on the international front with the exception of "Turkey". The reason being, Xianjiang has a population which are partially turkic in regions and hence the public opinion of Turkey forced the government to react.

Also one needs to understand on how media covers. When BBC covered the wars in Bosnia or in Chechnya or when it covers Israel/Palestine, its their coverage that makes all the impact. Now in all of these places the reports said the fight is between XYZ and Muslims. If China's or any countries problem is not covered with the same intensity, the impact will not be the same, it mellows down. Add to it ignorance. How will there be any reaction.

There are geo-political mixed with a spice of economic reasons as well. For example, Iran and Pakistan cannot make any statements against China, since it is the Dragon state that protects the two in Security Council.

p.s. It would be a great pleasure if someone can point out other reasons that may have been overlooked

One reason which has not been pointed out or touched above is that of the drawback of the human nature i.e. pride, selfishness, envy, ignorance........

O freedom, My freedom!

On January 26, 1950, India as a nation was not reborn rather it was christened. The rules (the constitution) to run a nation were put to practice from that day. Till then we were ruled by British Law under the British Monarch but on that day it ceased to be so and India became a Republic. 60 years it has been today since then and the rule of law is facing an asthma attack.

“WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly
resolved to constitute India into a [SOVEREIGN
SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC] and
to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual
and the [unity and integrity of the Nation];
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twentysixth
day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT,
ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS
CONSTITUTION.”

This is the preamble of our constitution. Its importance can be compared to that of 'United States Declaration of Independence.’ The declaration lays the foundation for freedom, the reason. The preamble tells us – How we will live in this country.

According to the supreme court it should be only used to interpret the constitution in an ambiguous situation. Well read it. Read it many times over, over again, and the one thing that we will have to confront is we are not what the preamble envisaged. It has the spirit of why we needed freedom; freedom from the Raj (British Raj). Looking at it today there is still a lot for us to imbibe from it.

The first line says – we the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a socialist, secular, democratic, republic.

That’s a big line, have we resolved to it? We are secular, democratic, republic and socialist to some extent. But more in words, cause actions fail to support this. Yes we are secular; we crucify everyone in the name of religion. Yes we are socialist; we will privatize all companies, profit or loss making alike. Yes we are democratic, every time we have elections we choose a powerful thug; this may not be entirely true since there is a lot of hope with Omar Abdullah. Let time be the judge on him for he is still young. That’s quite an achievement for us.


The next one has many components where we the citizens shall enjoy justice, liberty and equality. Alas! We are a dismal lot here too.

On December 23, 2008, Lok Sabha passed eight bills in 17 minutes! Now these are rare species of human and they should be kept in a museum or should they be sent to the zoo cause how many humans can present, debate and arrive at a consensus on eight bills in 17 minutes? Among this bill includes a radically altered Criminal Procedural Code (CrPC). According to this bill cops cannot arrest a criminal if charges would result in seven years or less of imprisonment on proving guilty

Therefore now one can do anything short of killing which is termed as – attempt to commit culpable homicide - So harm in trying or scaring some one to death. Then, I am sure that thieves will upgrade themselves to robbers, as robbery too comes under the same gambit. Or you can act like Raju or Madoff i.e. cheating; women can be sure to not feel so good because 'outraging a woman’s modesty' is no more a serious issue according to the government (I really want to know what women MPs and the President have to say on this); this should help the son's of those MPs who are involved in cases of rape etc. Oh and a new tool of killing anyone perceived to be threat by politicians will be 'death caused by negligence' a.k.a try killing some one then just prove that it was negligence. After doing all or one of them, the police department famous for being inefficient will only serve a notice.

Now comes the fuuny part - the notice of appearance casts a duty on the accused person to appear before the police and “cooperate” with the investigation. (Freedom at last!) It is only if he fails to comply with the terms of the notice that the question of arresting him will arise. And what will the police do when the criminal runs away? Try chasing him/her, how in humane that is, making a pot belly officer run after a criminal? That is insanity? Where is the Human Rights commission?

Now back to the benifits of the criminal - I guess the easy thing to do would be to commit a crime and if you are served a notice then get ready to run. Just leave the country and go some place, cause if proven guilty you will go to jail. And if you can hire some smart lawyer and give a little money to the prosecution also make sure to do something that would make the witness go hostile. Well if you can do all of these then dont go to bahamas or some other place like Dubai or Pakistan. WE (the government- please dont get confused with the people) will protect you!

Oh and the best part is that if the police arrest accused person then they (police) will have to tell the court ‘why it did so and furnish evidence in support of it.’

On the other hand new laws are being incorporated for terror – latest in the list being strengthening of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, (UAPA), 1967. When will we learn? Previously also we had these anti-terror laws but it has never managed to protect us. The truth is, they have been abused by those in power time and again.

Now see the funny part these laws (TADA, POTA and UAPA) do not identify any new offenses under the law. Because ‘terrorism’ is complex and no country could define terrorism in precise legal terms. One man’s terrorist turns out to be another’s hero. What is done is that, definition is made murky and vague. Now look at this, violence itself is also a given importance under other offenses like murder, arson, loot, rioting, causing injury, etc. under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) or under laws like the Arms Act or the Explosives Act. The very offenses specified under these draconian laws.

However, if a person is charged under the provisions of UAPA instead of the IPC, the police would obtain legitimacy for torturing the accused. Thus, it will be the cop choice to charge under UAPA. The accused would then be denied bail, the only good thing is they wont accept forced confessional statements. So, overnight, they become "terrorists" in the eyes of the law while the other accused remain without any such term tag. Therefore if a politician or a well connected person is charged it wil definitely be IPC and a normal person will be left to the mercy of the Cop.

With such double standards being implemented how can we say that WE WILL PROVIDE JUSTICE TO OUR citizen – social, economic and political?

LET THE SHOW GO ON

Course books have been meddled by past two governments. And now the states and centre are having different things in their books. The precedent has been set; history will not reflect the past but those in the seat of power will decide what the past was.

“Media is the fourth pillar of democracy” – This statement was there in the school text book (don’t know if it is still there or not.) And Jawaharlal Nehru understanding the importance of this fourth pillar sanctioned in Delhi the prime spot building around Income Tax Office (ITO), so that media is near the seat of power and can put a check on those in the driving seat of the country.

There are instances like emergency when the press did what it’s supposed to do or at least tried to do so. So did it manage to get justice in Jessica Lal murder case but what about now? It is quite when the rules are being set to end justice. Why did it behave irresponsibly when there was carnage in Mumbai? Why is it that India doesn’t allow Aljazeera being the biggest democracy? What is there to fear?

We allow hatred in the name of freedom etc. ‑ Gujrat 2002 (target of hate - Muslims), Orissa & Karnataka 2008 (target of hate – Christians), Jammu & Kashmir 2008 (target - minority in the respective area). This is a small list post millennium, detailed and well researched would be longer. The noted ones in pre-millennium have been – Sikh riots (1984), post Babri Masjid riots (1992) and many more; this we have allowed so far. But a channel with the idea of representing the other side will not be allowed?

Where is the citizens ‘LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship’? Why is one allowed to preach hate in any form but the other cannot even practice the liberty? Why the double standard?

Without Justice and Liberty how can one even think of Equality?

For the record how are we equal? When those who rule us can get away after scams and get re-elected? When the CJI says that judges need not declare assets, then where do Justice and Equality Stands?


But this should not mean the end of the world

One thing maybe we have managed to preserve is the idea of ‘Fraternity’; if not in the complete then partial. The belief that we are a great nation persists, when things go awry from riots to Mumbai 26/11 we get to see the believers stand up. There are those who stand for the fraternity like Hemant Karkare and many others whose names have not been highlighted but contribution no less in significance.

On the road the feeling of nationalism is high in every one, in there own ways. If not for the county, then for a holiday, the spirit is at a high. And ‘Yes’ we are secured on that one day because the, our dear politicians are safe with their A, B, C to X, Y, Z security cadre around them.

Let us try to keep the spirit because that will only give us the hope. The hope – Change will happen, and there shall be a better Day. That winter can be long but will end some day. For it is our work to keep the lights on and stand for the fraternity in the hope, “one day democracy will bring justice and liberty.” That will be the day when the constitution will follow the preamble in spirit and word!

Jai Hind!