Tuesday, January 25, 2011

"................ aur Raja ko praja kabhi dhoka nahin de sakti"

However, the other way round of this dialogue - from the Hindi movie 'Kya Yehi Pyar Hai' - is true. For the time being, the Raja is in news for deceiving the Praja. Not that the Raja was in news for all the right reasons in the past, the Praja too knows it. But the magnitude of these dhokas of the Raja can even put a natural disaster like Tsunami or a man-made structure like The Great Wall of China or simply a man like The Great Khali...... (I am running out of comparisons now... sob sob)..... to shame. The series of these dhokas can any day beat the number of waves I saw at the beach. And trust me, these dhokas are doing nothing but erasing the identity of the Nation, just like those waves at the beach erased my/my friends'/my girl friends'/my cousins'/all & sundry & miscellaneous names which I wrote as a kid and as a youth.

They say, "If Cricket is my religion, Sachin is my God". Likewise, with the number of scams that have unfolded in the recent past (and folded back conveniently in the same pace), ardent henchmen of a party can swear by the scam and scamsters. How would this new statement sound? "If Politics is my religion, Congress is my caste and Suresh Kalmadi is my God and CWG Scam is my Holy Book". Or even "If Politics is my religion, BJP is my caste and Reddy Bros. are my Ram & Lakshman & Bharath and Mining Scam is my Holy Book". We are in an political era, where valuing the scams in thousands of rupees might make you look like someone from the sets of Sholay (Gabbar: "Arrey oh Saamba... kitna inaam rakhe hai re sarkaar hum pe?" Saamba: ".......Poorey pachaas hazaar") Talking in lakhs (Are you kidding buddy?!!) of rupees might make you look someone from medieval era. It's the era of crores and not one or two but three but as much as Rs. 1.76 lakhs crore (and more). I have tried 17 times to figure out the number of zeroes with no success. For once, imagine. Someone who is handed over the task of cleaning this mess. He might have to write to Casio/Citizen/Orpat to have a claculator specially manufactured which can accomodate some 20 digits (What? Not enough?) or may be even 40 digits (if one keeps future in mind). Hey, even that is not necessary, if this Rs. 1.76 lakhs crore also contains a reserve to fill the pockets of the investigating agenices. What is surprising is, the stand-by Minister who replaces the tainted Minister claims that such a loss of revenue to the Nation doesn't exsist at all. Bole toh, if I have to put in his typical Nayee Dilli style, all he said was "Desh ko nuksaan hua hi nahin hai. CAGwaale maa chudaaye apni" (Apologies for the expletives). That is what you meant right, Mr. Kapil Sibal? How neatly cooked up! No wonder he was also considered as an 'excellent chef' during his tenure at the Harward Law School!

If there was enough tadka and teekha in what transpired and conspired in New Delhi, South India too had it's share of saambar, especially in Karnataka (I am keeping it to a simple 'Karnataka', I am bored of seeing people write karNATAKA). There has been tearing off the kurta (fortunate not to see tearing off the pajaamas too) in the assembly, there has been a walkathon from Bangalore to Bellary which resulted only in the walkers losing weight and nothing substantial (The Reddy Bros. lost face in the Panchayath elections, if at all it is of some consequence) and of late, there has been a Test Match between the Governor and the Chief Minister. If the CM's current is tainted, the Governor's past and his associations (To put it in a saas-bahu serial style, it is as simple as "Tumhara ateet hi mera vartamaan bana hai") When the opposition is showing impeccable respect to the Governor (which they didn't to the citizens while ruling), the ruling party - not surprisingly - has termed the Governor 'Congress agent' or 'Sonia agent'. The State is in a miserable situation. Your today's blunder is justified by my yesterday's folly. My yesterday's folly has to be forgotten because it is not as big as your today's blunder. There is a CM in Gujarat, who appears before the SIT, gets himself grilled for X hours and comes out clean (as per the leaked SIT report) and here we have a CM, who promised a 'Gujarat model Governance' but has been spending time visiting His Holiness (i.e. the Swamijis and temples in all South Indian States), His Excellency (i.e the Governor) and His Highness (i.e the party top brass in New Delhi). He even goes to an extent of saying to 'reveal' the names of 'all those who are corrupt' within his own party at New Delhi. It is like those Hindi movie dialogues "Aainda agar tuney meri behen ki taraf aankh uThaa ke bhi dekh liya, toh main tere poorey khaandaan ki aankhein noch loonga". There the hero utters it to the villain. Here the hero utters it to his own god-fathers! And lo, because the His Excellency permits to prosecute the CM, he even goes on a rampage, calls for a Bandh the next day but declares it late in the evening, blocks roads, burns tyres and costs the State's exchequer Rs. 2000 crore in a day (What the heck, just 2 more scams and we will recover it)

When such has been the extent of loot, when such is the attitude of the elected leaders towards the citizens and governance, when there are Adarsh and CWG scams being unearthed day in and day out, it is only time for the people to keep political allegiance aside for once. The talks of the party ideology which is used as a weapon to lure the common man at the grass root, is diluted to the core as it creeps upwards. Looting of money, public wealth, land, nepotism, frauds become the common ideology of all parties. Why should a State observe a bandh if a tainted CM is permitted to prosecute by the law? What does justifying one's past scandals because the other's present scams are huge in nature bring to my table? Perhaps the hero worship culture of political figures - committing suicide on their death and threatening immolation of self on they not being inducted in some random Ministry - have given them an assurance that the supporters will stand solidly behind even after all the blood has been sucked. It is time we stop taking sides and speak in the same tone, whoever usurps land for his son or whoever gives today's product at yesterday's price. Else,

Republic Day wishes to all my friends. Nothing really to be proud of when on the eve of R Day, a Govt. Official on his way out to expose corruption is burnt alive.


- Common Man.

Image courtesy -
i. http://mediavigil.blogspot.com/2010/11/all-party-meet-on-2g-scam-fails-to-end.html
ii. http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Bangalore/article52647.ece

iii.
http://www.orasnews.com/independence-day-of-india-15th-august-2010/flag-hoisting/

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh what a narration. I liked the impartial look at the misdeeds of all. No siding with anybody. Thats the true essence needed for our Democracy to function.
I was wondering at the Indian of the Year 2010 contest by NDTV. What a farce!! The chosen contestants include Sonia Mayno and Rahul beta!!
Your choice is limited to A.P.J and Tendulkar. Here again I do'nt vote for persons making money with ads of Coca cola, Pepsi Aviva etc

vasanth said...

Good commentary on the state of affairs in our country. At least if it had the sexual overtones of a Berlusconi we would have enjoyed it. There is no glamour girl either like Palin in US. Only a past menopause Radia.
If you askme, the man of the year should be Subramaniam Swamy a a tireless petitioner with abundant legal knowledge who has exposed everyone from Jayalalitha to Karunanidhi.
An alternative is Vinayak Sen, falsely accused of sedition, for all the good work he did as a doctor among the godforsaken tribals.

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