Manoosiyat of dirty politics

Double standards in politics are rising as vertically as the priceline and there seems to be no dearth of political leaders who are out to have fun at the expense of their respective voter manoos.

Look at Shiv Sena. The bhaiyyas have been in Mumbai for ages. So have Shiv Sena and Bal Thackeray. And the ’twain have co-existed peacefully, even when the non-manoos did not know Marathi. So why is the manoos vs non-manoos campaign so young? Because it is nothing but turf war within Sena, not so much over manoos and non-manoos as between Raj Thackeray and the Uddhav-Bal combine. Can someone tell us if the Sena has a quota for Marathis manoos in its party recruitment drive? Like, only 10 per cent non-Marathis allowed?

To add appeal to their outrageous campaign, (why does the Government always allow it to snowball), the Sena chooses its targets carefully. This time it is superstar Shah Rukh Khan.

Now, there are a hundred more serious issues the Sena could have raised rather than go after a frivolous opinion expressed by a personality who has no impact whatsoever on policy.

So what if SRK feels Pakistanis should have been in the IPL? Does it matter if Afridi is missing or present? What matters, and what the Sena should be after, is the complacence of Pakistan on 26/11. With such an organised force, the Sena could go all out to pressure the Centre into taking some action against Pakistan and the perpetrators of 26/11 blasts; how come the Sainiks are yet to go after Kasab? Why have they not gone on a rampage demanding his immediate hanging from the Taj Mahal Palace? After all, they are hardly known to respect law or the judicial system. Why just centre around banning My Name Is Khan? Will that serve any purpose for the nation and its manoos, even its Marathi manoos? All it will do is give free publicity to the film.

Let’s come to SRK himself. Much as you love him he, too, has become an epitome of double standards. First he ignores the entire Pak line-up in bidding for his team KKR at the recent IPL auction. Some days later, he issues a statement saying Pak players should have been picked up! He then refuses to apologise and says it is his private opinion. It is another matter altogether that as the controversy unfolds with the Sena turning ballistic, King Khan gets inordinate publicity for his film My Name is Khan.

Thanks to the Sena and SRK’s obvious courting of the Muslim segment, the opening buzz will take care of MNIK’s returns — on both sides of the border.

Simply put, Sena gains terrain and SRK eyeballs for his film in a win-win controversy. The aam manoos, meanwhile, keeps footing the bill.

As the controversy threatens to die down, in jumps Rahul Gandhi with his ‘I-have-to-become-an-icon’ campaign. He gets all the brownies to say simply and convincingly that Mumbai belongs to all Indians. He then takes a quick ride through the megapolis, including a hop into the local train, as the Sena looks the other way. Was it that the Sainiks were on tea-break or, did the cops finally showed us how they can manage to quell any movement if they really, really want to?

Let’s end with the biggest double-standards votary of them all — the Union Government. Our PM, the economic reform king of yore, has just announced that the food crisis is here to stay. Of course, he does not say if his Government will tackle it but he is, nevertheless outraged that chini, daal and sabzi are selling like gold dust. Perhaps, it’s here that he could put the delectable “zero tolerance” phrase to best use – and if the Centre is not doing so on its own, can the Shiv Sena please launch a campaign against it on the following issues — zero tolerance to price rise, zero tolerance to corruption and zero tolerance to terror. It’s sounds much more appealing and reasonable than its current zero tolerance to non-Marathi manoos!

Red tide rising in Lalgarh

The All-India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries, of which the Darjeeling district committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which spearheaded the Naxalite movement, was an important constituent, became the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) in 1969. The latter, however, splintered soon thereafter and, at one stage, there were about 40 different groups and parties professing allegiance to the Maoist political stream. Yet, despite this and the harsh repressive measures, the movement spread from the Naxalbari area to Debra and Gopiballavpur in Midnapore district in West Bengal, Mushahari in Bihar, Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh and Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh within a short period.

The movement has continued to grow, and now covers substantial tracts in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, with contiguous areas of these States forming a ‘Red Corridor’ stretching from Andhra Pradesh to Nepal. It has also established a presence in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The insurrectionary violence now being witnessed at Lalgarh and elsewhere in India is led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist), formed in September 2004 through the merger of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People’s War and the Maoist Communist Centre of India.

A significant feature of the Maoist movement is that, stamped out in one place, it has raised its head in another. Thus, suppressed in West Bengal by the end of 1972, it re-emerged as a force in Andhra Pradesh, where it had been crushed earlier, by mid-1970s and in Bihar in the 1980s, and then in the other States.

One reason for the movement’s survival and spread has been the inadequacy of the state’s response. Counter-insurgency is a highly complex and multi-dimensional business spanning territories as far apart as psychological warfare, electronic surveillance to human intelligence-gathering and actual operations on the ground. Each of these areas requires expertise, state-of-the-art equipment and motivation of the highest order, which is lacking in most State police forces steeped in sloth and venality. In fact, it is the predatory nature of the State police forces that makes it difficult for them to enlist popular support against the Maoist, and easy for the latter to whip up popular anger against them and make them targets of attack.

The impact of this basic drawback has been aggravated by the fact that the police are poorly armed compared to the Maoists who often sport AK series rifles against their .303s. They lack adequate communications equipment, an absence which has been acutely felt in Lalgarh, and mobility, there being very few adequately armour-plated vehicles which can withstand landmine blasts. Even the special outfits that several State Governments have cobbled together have not helped because of inadequate weaponry and equipment and the fact that officers and personnel leading them are from the State police establishments and thus tend to be defined by their ethos and conventional mindsets.

Besides, police forces have to be led at the political level by leaders who command respect by virtue of their personal attributes and who either themselves have the vision and intellect to recognise the magnitude of the challenge posed by the Maoists and the nature of the response required, or are wise enough to leave matters to police officers who have it. There are few such leaders at the State level. Rather, the majority of them, including those in ministerial chairs, are known to be corrupt and not terribly bright, which makes it easy for the Maoists to run down not only them but the entire parliamentary system of Government as an instrument of exploitation and class domination.

Political leaders are frequently unable to identify officers who have the integrity, commitment, intellect, sensitivity, political acumen and courage to lead counter-insurgency operations — as opposed to those who have not. The factionalism that prevails in the Indian Police Service — as also that of the Indian Administrative Service — cadre of various States, makes the matter particularly difficult. Poorly-led police forces are at a serious disadvantage when facing most Maoist leaders who are educated, committed and have years of operational experience behind them.

Maoists also have the advantage of a ready reservoir of recruits from tribal and other disprivileged families that find themselves deprived of their traditional means of livelihood and uprooted from their meagre landholdings and homesteads by a ruthless, inhuman process of development that principally benefits the emergent upper and middle classes at the cost of the poor. Matters are compounded by a rapacious, extortionate and arrogant bureaucracy which strips citizens of both money and dignity whenever an opportunity presents itself, and which constitutes something very similar to the New Class which Milovan Djilas defines (The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System) as being “made up of those who have special privileges and economic preference because of the administrative monopoly they hold”.

The state being still the principal instrument of development, with functions extending from running banks, hospitals and insurance companies to providing electricity and water connections to homes and factories, the intense and widespread alienation that follows cannot be overstated. One then hardly needs to be surprised by what one is witnessing in Lalgarh. And there will be many more Lalgarhs without a fundamental change in the way India is governed.

15th Loksabha:Challenges to face

Elections are over mandate is out and UPA is in power again in a much stronger position from the last time.This mandate has not only given the chance to make a stable govt. but also to do more in the national interest without any compromise as it was a very often situation in the 14th loksabha.
Today's period is not the same as it was in 2004 , now the situation is very different with hell a lot things to face and to do..
let us take an overview what are the situations one has to face and change.

EDUCATION: There is much to do whether its primary, secondary or higher education.Primary education is free but we dont have proper infrastructure to imply it in a much effective way...and infrastructure not means to build buildings etc but to give a regular incomes to rural and urban families so that they willingly send there kids to schools for education & not for food.The same thing implies to secondary education but now we will even have to introduce sports at a great level whether its in secondary level or higher.Vocational courses must be introduced from the secondary level only as per according to the vision of mahatma.
Turn your heads you will say many engineering, medical, law colleges etc. but are they all providing "quality" education?This must be improved in a very steady and proper manner.Research based studies at university level must be encouraged.Easily available education loans at 1-2% interest rate must be given to every student in need.

AGRICULTURE: Slow agricultural growth is a concern for policymakers as some two-thirds of India’s people depend on rural employment for a living. Current agricultural practices are neither economically nor environmentally sustainable and India's yields for many agricultural commodities are low. Poorly maintained irrigation systems and almost universal lack of good extension services are among the factors responsible. Farmers' access to markets is hampered by poor roads, rudimentary market infrastructure, and excessive regulation.
Irrigation facilities are inadequate, as revealed by the fact that only 52.6% of the land was irrigated in 2003–04, which result in farmers still being dependent on rainfall, specifically the Monsoon season. A good monsoon results in a robust growth for the economy as a whole, while a poor monsoon leads to a sluggish growth.
This govt. must take steps so that our dependency on monsoon must be decreased.Farmers must get easy loans on a very low interest rate of 1-2% as in many other countries.Awareness for crop and farm insurance must be increased as soon as possible.

DEFENSE:Our defense is very strong and there is no doubt in it whether its aerial, naval or land based.But still there are reforms to made , we are facing scarcity of officers in our forces as everyone needs something for living..so we need to revise the pay and wages of armed forces and give a job security to everyone who joins it.
Now the most important thing; our armaments ,we need to get self dependent in this field as due to this we are the worlds largest importer of arms and ammunition in the whole world.
This will not only save a lot of money but also strengthen our defense.

ECONOMY: Even in this period of global recession we are like the healthiest patient in the ward.But we need to take ourselves again in the same position and in an even better position.Privetisation must be contained as it was in the previous govt.Banking reforms must be introduced to contain foreign direct invests in the banks in future.
And...and...and....it must be ensured that every single penny thats is been issued for the public must go to the public.

SECURITY: This is the biggest concern in the present time not only for india but for the whole world.We are surrounded all around by a group of hostile nation.Terrorism is on its height.separatist movements are on rise in many parts of the nation.Serial blasts are happening every where.
Special forces trained specially to contain terrorism must be formed.Tougher and effective laws must be made.
Special courts must be established for the cases concerned to terrorism.
And as its a trend from many years that we just look after only one issue must be changed....an even bigger issue of naxalite problem must be looked after and while doing this ist should be kept is mind that it falls in other category as all these naxalites are a result of our ill governance , exploitation of poor peoples by local powers and government.We Just need to give them opportunities and and componsate them for what they had suffered and believe me in no time we all will be walking hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder.

TECHNOLOGY & SPACE PROGRAMME: By 80's how many people were knowing about computers ,IT,or even "technology" itself.We were rejected by USA when we asked for a supercomputer...and then a change tooks place in the vision of Late.Rajiv Gandhi and in no time we made our supercomputer by ourself.And now we are the IT king of world exporting thousand of IT products and professionals throughout the world.
Now in todays period al we have to do is to take on a new height and maintain its success.
Well as i believe whosoever is going to get the space is going to get the whole world.We are on a very good track in our space research but need to maintain and increase its speed by increasing the funds and raise awareness in our youth to be a part of it as technicians, engg.,scientists etc

CULTURAL & SOCIAL UNIFICATION: This is very important and difficult challenge that this govt. has to face. A lot of dent has been made by the regional parties in the name of region and religion, cast and language.
we will have to aware the people
that we are indian first rest is later.this will not only strengthen our unity but our manpower too.This govt.must aware people that states were made to develop a pace in our development and to provide better law and order,not to create a so called "sub-nation status".

I hope this govt. takes positive steps for our betterment...
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Well thats all for now more coming soon..

"An Indian to an Indian for the whole mankind."
Awatansh Tripathi