I do refuse to join the milieu of celebration of victory by Modi

Why should I? Why should I have to become an admirer of Narendra Modi today? Can a win in an election glorify the horrific past of someone? Can this popular verdict legitimize the inaction of the state administration which was headed by Modi, when it's cities were burning in the fire of post Godhara riots? Do we have to forget Modi's inflammatory statement 'Every action has it's equal and opposite reaction' to support the riot in the state? Do we have to forget the massacre of Naroda Patiya (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naroda_Patiya_massacre) conducted by BJP and Bajrang Dal and a Nero watching the show as the Chief Minister of the state? Do we have to forget Prime Minister Vajpayee's advise to Modi to follow the 'Rajdharma' when he visited Gujarat following the riots? Do we have to forget Modi's 'puppy analogy' to show his 'kind heart' for the riot victims of 2002?

My criticism of Modi has not become untrue for a single moment just because he has won a popular election. I have always been a critic of Modi and shall always remain one. Pre Second World War Germany also had seen an Adolf Hitler rising to power (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler#Rise_to_power), we know the history thereafter. Definitely, there are differences between Hitler's and Modi's rise to power. But can we shut our eyes at the glaring similarities?

It is a fact that the country is fed up of rampant corruption especially during the UPA government, a change was very much the need of the hour, there is no question about it. The leadership-less-ness in the outgoing government had paved the way for a Modi to rise to power. And history knows that all the fascists, dictators around the world rose to power at the times of crisis. That is why Modi's rise to power has lot to do with an inefficient government at the center. There was the obvious question, what was the way forward in such a scenario had we not chosen Modi as the leader, no one had a convincing answer to that. Many people like me had showered criticism on Modi in every manner possible. But what everyone failed to explain was the alternative choice. But, is it not an undemocratic demand to stop criticizing Modi because there is no leader to challenge him today? It is not that we do not have leaders in the country, but it is a fact that no one else was able to market himself / herself the way Modi did.

No other leader was able to match up Modi's campaign machinery supported by a powerful group of crony capitalists during the election process. We have never seen such a non-ending flow of money during one election campaign in the country. The way Modi and his propaganda machinery performed that was astonishing and that reminds me of the Propaganda Minister of Hitler, Joseph Goebbels. Modi's propaganda machinery has learnt a lot from the books of Joseph Goebbels, in many areas Modi's machinery has in fact outperformed Goebbels' machinery.

They have transformed lies into truth. They have fooled people with a fake story of progress and development in Gujarat. The state has gone down in some of the most important Human Development Indexes during Modi's rule. Today the school drop out rate in the state is higher than the average all India rate. The percentage of non availability of doctors in Government Health Centers in Gujarat is higher than the National percentage. The state government does not seem to be the interested about the infant death ratio in the state, this is another area the state's performance has gone down during Modi's regime. Gujarat's performance in developing the lives of religious minorities, tribals and OBCs has again gone down during Modi's tenure as it's Chief Minister.

Agriculture is something Modi seems to hate a lot, that is the reason the state's once famous agricultural belt Saurastra is the least looked after region today. Modi's dis-likeness of the small scale industries is a matter of reality check of the Gujaratis, the benefits they used to enjoy once from the state government as subsidies are almost nil today. But is that a policy adopted by the State Government? The facts at least do not support that. If your surname is Ambani or Adani, probably you would see altogether a different story i.e. an industry friendly Government in the state. When Kejriwal accuses Modi for only developing the lives of the Ambanis and the Adanis, is that a subversion of facts? Is it not a fact that Adani has become a filthy rich person today because of a friendly state government that had sold lands to him at a throwaway price? Is that not a loss to the exchequer? Why is Modi silent on the gas pricing issue allegedly benifiting the Ambani owned Reliance Industries? Modi mocks his critics at every possible opportunity, we are yet to see his 'funny' side on the debate of gas pricing issue.

The banks of Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad is free of slum dwellers today, they have been moved out of the city so that it can get a 'modern' outlook to be presented to the world. Is this the way a government should deal with poverty? I am sorry Mr. Modi, suppressing poverty can make your city look better, but that is again a fake story of prosperity of your city. How can a city be a modern one where there still exists ghettos of religious minorities? Yes, it is a fact that till date, Hindus and Muslims live in separate localities in the so called 21st century 'modern' city of India - Ahmedabad. And many people in the power house TV channels were announcing that Ahmedabad has forgotten it's wounds of 2002.

There is no shortage of TV anchors who are asking for an apology from Modi about the 2002 riots. I do not care about the idea of any such hypothetical 'apology'. I do not think, any sensitive person on earth would care either. The person who had presided over a state that had seen inaction of it's administration during the post Godhara riots, does not deserve any pardon.

Let us think what the Modi led government going to present to the people. It is definitely going to be a big industry house friendly government. If Modi's track record as the Chief Minister of Gujarat is the standard to asses what we are going to get from him (as I have explained so far) the lives of the maximum of the common man do not seem to make any improvement in my opinion. I am most concerned about citizens' rights to voice their opinion when Modi is at power. The signs of a fascist regime are already out even before Modi taking oath as the Prime Minister of India. Kejriwal's and one Devu Chodankar's (of Goa) arrests are the very first signals of intolerance of the government we are going to get. I totally support Kejriwal's decision not to pay the bond amount to get bail. Why should he? Why should a government be so intolerant to put someone behind the bars for an old petty case like criticizing a powerful politician of the newly elected party at the center? So, do they expect us to be mute spectators? It is a common fact that politicians across party lines do attack the opponents, if we do not have a sensitive government in power to deal with such verbal doses that's clearly the signals of a dictatorial regime. Losing rights to criticize a government is the death of democracy. And, we do not want to be taught what is right criticism and what is not.

I am not sure how long I would be able to remain a Modi critic in such a time!!

Two riots

Could a crime against humanity like communal riots, mass murders et cetera ever be forgivable? I have been thinking about this for the last few weeks because of some development in the national politics in the recent weeks. I don't think anyone who cares for justice would love the idea to forgive or forget such a crime ever. Post Independence, India have witnessed uncountable incidents of communal riots. Among them, in my view, two riots were significant in some very important aspects. One was the anti Sikh riot in the northern part of the country after Mrs. Gandhi's assassination in 1984 and the other one was the anti Muslim riot in Gujarat in 2002. The reason I say these two riots significant than several other riots was the roles of the people / party in power were shockingly very different than in several other cases of riots. The parties in power and government machinery had strongly and openly supported the rioters which I think was not common in any other case of riots which are still very much alive in the public mind. The scale of massacre and loss of properties in these two riots in independent India were simply overwhelming and that was possible because of the state administrations' sponsorship in both the cases to a massive extent.

In 1984 the Congress party machinery had supported the anti Sikh violence openly. Mrs. Gandhi's elder son Rajiv was quoted as saying "when a big tree falls, the earth shakes" on the anti Sikh violence (Please refer: http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/India/India/Article1-352523.aspx). On 31st October we had lost the iron lady and then Rajiv and his men's organized revenge act with the active participation of the administration claimed some 11000 lives mainly in the northern part of the country. That was a great display of affection for a mom!! The party had never objected to the actions by men like Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar, Lalit Maken, the famous Amitabh Bachchan et cetera during the Sikh massacre in and around the National Capital because they were busy in 'Khoon ka badla khoon' (Please refer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_anti-Sikh_riots). All of these men were rewarded by the party some or the other way. Manmohan Singh's apology on behalf of the Congress party in 2005 for their role in the entire episode had hardly brought any relief to the victims and their families. In fact, that sounded a crocodile's cry because the party is still trying it's best to hush up the investigation by CBI of the 29 years' old history. However, can any message of condolence or apology ever erase a brutal past? Forgiving the murderers of '84 is not an option history can let us have. Cases are still going on in courts - that's the only hope left for justice.

And in 2002 we had seen the sitting Chief Minister of Gujarat showing his knowledge of philosophy / physics while supporting the violent actions of the rioters after the Godhra massacre. The country were shocked after the horrific attack on the passengers of the Savarmati express and immediately riots broke out across cities of Gujarat organized by VHP and BJP workers. We were shocked once again when the most powerful man of the province said "Every action has it's equal and opposite reaction" on the post Godhra riots (Please refer: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/2002-gujarat-riots-sit-report-indicts-narendra-modi-on-many-counts/1/128595.html). The details of Naroda Patiya massacre (Please refer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naroda_Patiya_massacre), Best Bakery massacre (Please refer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_Bakery_case) during the turbulent times of 2002 still shiver me in pain. Perhaps it was an irony that human massacres of this level were happening in Mahatma's home state. We talk about development in Gujarat, is any development going to heal the burns of 2002 ever for the victims? Can any sane person think to pardon the architects of the 2002 riots ever? I am not a saint, I cannot pardon anyone who burnt children, women and men to death. When people hail the Gujarat Chief Minister for the so called development in the state, one fails to understand that 'Gujarat model' means 'either you listen to me or face the consequences', 'either you live in peace and harmony or remember Naroda Patiya'. Have we become so undemocratic and so fascist that we have to follow a development model whose basis is nothing but fear? Choice is ours and it has to be between justice and brutality.

One must know that taking a strong and uncompromising stand against the state sponsored brutalities of 1984 and 2002 never means that this is a stand in support (even remotely) of either Mrs. Gandhi's assassination or of the brutal attack on the passengers inside the train compartment at Godhra. This is a stand against the people and the state who actively participated and supported the massive scale brutal revenge on entire communities for that kind of act for the purpose of teaching the communities some lessons. This is a stand against the people who shattered our idea of rules of laws. This is a stand against an uncivilized thought like revenge and a fascist mindset. If our stand is not clear, unbiased and uncompromising against any form of brutality in a modern society we would definitely fail the idea of justice altogether.

That's all I have to say about that!!

An open letter to Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's party

Comrades!

I understand that the greatest achievement of Red parties being in power for 34 years in West Bengal was to upgrade the living standards of the people belonging to financially lower and lower middle class. I am a great supporter of the Operation Barga. I do believe that one incident changed the livelihood of the poor in our state in a big way. But the people belonging to financially middle and upper middle class were the greatest losers in the Red era. Until the beginning of the 90s, this class have left the state in massive numbers. We have seen factory owners, factories in and around Calcutta being 'gherao'ed on a regular basis. We have seen the government sponsored strikes in the state (i.e. extra holidays in the calendar :P). We were frustrated on you, there was no formidable opposition in the state and that's the reason you had ruled the state for record number of years. Then there was new industrial policy of the state government to invite private sector investors and then there was Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. We had felt definite hope about the rejuvenation of industrialization in the state. Now you have lost power because of a massive negative publicity, bad media management and definitely some soft stands on the administration's part against Principle Opposition Party mainly in Singur and Nandigram. Also, the allegation of atrocities on the peasants in Nandigram played a huge role in dethroning the Red parties from power after 34 years.

At present we have a government in the state who do not seem to have a very clear vision on anything imaginable. Forget about industrialization and financial growth of West Bengal. In little more than 18 months of the new regime we have already seen the people who had voted for the change, have felt betrayed by the new government on several matters. There have been serious issues against the government in these months e.g. human rights violation (The Jadavpur University Professor incident), being callous about citizens' safety (Park Street and lots of other incidents of violence against women) and etcetra etcetra. We do not know if there have been any major investment or any hope of such investment in the near future in the state at all.

So the stage seems to be bright for the Red parties again. But what the rubbish is this two days all India strike huh? I strongly believe that Mr. Bhattacharya does not approve the strike politics of his party. Every sane person in this country knows that a damn strike cannot solve any damn problem of the country apart from letting people have a free holiday. I still believe that Left party leaders are some of the best speakers among parliamentarians. So, raise your voices in Parliament about the issues you are letting people have free holidays in the name of strike (believe me dudes, I am a fan of your strikes because I do get a work-free day :P). There are hell lot of forums available in the system, learn to use them, hire media managers and speak your concerns out to the media. People have long been failed to understand if the strikes have anything to do with any of the so called issues the strikes are called for. You say, you care about the poorests and they are the ones you call the strikes for. You really want us to believe that the mango people even know about the so called issues? Lot of the issues you 'want' to raise by such strikes are relevant - I do agree. But why strike? What's that going to do? Did any of the strikes in the past do any good to anyone in this country? Please wake up dudes! If you do not come out of your 'strike' politics I think your party is going to be obsolete in the coming 10 years to the max.

Cheers!!

Free speech in India. Bad joke.

We boast ourselves claiming the world’s largest functioning democracy. But I do not see free speech is allowed in this country. “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” – French Revolution, one of the greatest events of modern history taught this way back in the late 18^th century (arguably, this was written by Voltaire in one of his letters). The political class in this country are so ill-educated that even after 62 years of us becoming an official Republic they have not learnt the idea of free speech and democracy. We see intolerance across the parties throughout the country whenever there is any voice against any kind of establishment. In this age of social networking, when the entire world is becoming boundary less, much more maturity was expected from the bosses of the so called ‘largest functioning democracy’ on the planet. But sadly, we see a medieval age mindset still prevailing among our leaders.

Over the last few months we have seen our government trying to dictate the social networking websites on a number of occasions. The telecom ministry’s absurd demand to screen the posts of each and every individual on the social sites before they get published is nothing short of a military dictators’ or communist rulers’ wish list. In the state of West Bengal we have seen a tyrant at the Writers’ Building getting agitated by anyone questioning her government. Simply for raising basic questions on a national television programme a student gets the Maoist tag by the Chief Minister, a peasant gets arrested at the instruction of the state boss for questioning her about the fertilizer price. And the very famous Jadavpur University professor incident – the teacher was arrested by the ‘Gestapo’ forces of Calcutta for forwarding a caricature featuring the lady boss of the state. I was scared during that time as I myself too posted that caricature on my social account :P.

The Aseem Trivedi incident in Bombay is just the latest in this growing trend of intolerance at the government systems in the country. I have checked Aseem Trivedi's Faebook account and I did not find his cartoon on Indian Parliament is of a good taste at all. But arresting him because of creating that cartoon is against the very idea of democratic values. Political class in the country should learn that tolerance is a virtue and one of the most important ingredients of any modern democracy. I would also bat for having one or two funny bones for the rulers in our country ;).

I think looting Rupees 1.76 lakh crore is not that great a crime in the eyes of the bosses of our country, but ridiculing them for that action must be a sever crime!

Celebration of winning a sporting event (?)..

The ongoing celebration in Calcutta for winning this year's version of IPL by KKR is absolutely unprecedented by many standards. The victory by the franchise team is being hailed by many Calcuttans as something bigger than winning the last year's ICC World Cup by India. Few facts around this celebration have raised eyebrows. The unofficial local mouthpiece of the party in power in the state (The Daily Sangbad Pratidin) has been uncomplicated in describing the win as the win of change in the state. The Trinamool Congress propaganda machine went on as far as claiming that since the CP(I)M influenced Sourav Ganguly (what the shit!!) was not in the team, this time Shahrukh Khan and Gautam Gambhir took the challenge with lot of enthusiasm and the CM Shreemati Bandyapadhyay was always next to them in this battle. Wow!!!

http://epratidin.in/Details.aspx?id=8296&boxid=145735515 (my non-Bengali friends won't be able to read this, but I have already translated the first few lines of the crap).

The CM who always complains about lack of funds in the state government treasury, had shown that she has a kind heart by spending millions of Rupees of the taxpayers for the victory celebration of a franchise team. When Shreemati Bandyapadhyay hails the victory and relates it with the 'pariwartan' (change) of party in power in Writers' Building we must think that IPL is a political event, not a sporting one. In fact that's not that big a shock keeping Shreemati Bandyapadhyay's track record in mind of nonsense comments on hundreds of matters. But it was a real beamer when the President of India appointee, the Governor of West Bengal joined the chorus with the Trinamool Congress leader. Shree Narayanan described the victory of the sporting event (?) as the beginning of real 'pariwartan' in the state. I thought the Governor's role had nothing to do with any party being in power. I am aware that the governors in our country in general are not free of political bias all the time. But a person of his stature comparing the win of the sporting event as the political change in the state - frankly speaking, I have not heard anything like this before.

One more train accident..

One more train accident, loss of many lives and then the announcement of compensation to the victims' families. We have been watching this reality show of Indian Railways for decades now. Yesterday's train accident in Andhra Pradesh is just the latest in that decades' old reality show. In fact, we, the common men have accepted this reality as our fate and have learnt to be patient to be killed by the next train accident. That's why I do not see any public outrage after such a tragedy. The callous attitude in general among people about the death toll of 26 makes me feel sick. Such attitude of ours encourages the ever opportunistic politicians to indulge into cheap and populist vote bank politics. Railway Ministers have not increased the passenger fares for almost a decade now (apart from higher range fares). Former Railway Minister Shreejukto Trivedi wanted to bring some changes in that trend, he proposed to increase the passenger fares for all the classes in his much discussed Railway Budget, he wanted to bail Indian Railways out of ICCU. It is no secret that the largest PSU of the country has no financial arm either to provide the safety and security to it's passengers or to go for it's long pending modernization, definitely the hike of passenger fares was the need of the hour. The supremo of his party Shreemati Bandyapadhyay's wish of a populist budget was compromised - absolutely unacceptable - result: all of us know. And the situation remains unchanged. We, the common men are responsible to a great extent for letting our Ministers like Shreeman Ray (the present Railway Minister) wash their hands of playing with our lives by allowing them just to declare some compensation and set an inquiry commission after every tragedy, I do not see any public disgust being expressed towards the decision makers for their gallery shows. We hear about the anti collision device after every train accident in the country, but do not know when that is going to be a reality (or is that just an Utopian expectation?). We do not know how many losses of lives are enough for our politicians to to be shaken - to wake up and make more realistic and lesser populist decisions. Shreeman Ray, people won't mind spending few Rupees more if they are guaranteed of a much safer journey. Wish you could think about that rising above your and a certain Shreemati Bandyapadhyay's street level politics of cheap populism.

here i go..

Welcome to my blog!! It's been quite sometime I have been nurturing the thought of starting my blog. So here I am. What am I going to talk about? Well, nothing specific and everything in particular.. politics, cricket, football, religion, movies, adventures and et cetera et cetera. It is going to be kind of my diary - as my blog title suggests.