Alas! there isn’t any govt. finalised bill yet. It is still in the process of preparing a bill. Yes, govt. has released a tentative bill, against which Anna’s team has reservations.
Right or wrong reservations? I don’t know. I’m not equipped enough to explain or understand nitty-gritty of Govt. Lokpal version and Anna’s Lokpal version.
Anna says he has the referendum. Govt. say they have the numbers. Who is right? Is an unaccountable referendum way to go for framing a legislation? If that the case, then would ever uplifting of harijans ever been possible by our caste-centric society. No!
Agree or Disagree with legislation, right or wrong our legalisation's may be, honest or dishonest our parliamentarians may be, effective or ineffective our parliament system may be, one thing for sure, it is this system which has brought stability and a mechanism for functioning in our country. True, today it is rotten with corruption. We need quick measures to check them. But, need to understand at the cost of what? At least not at the cost of overturning basic foundation of a democracy, i.e, Parliament
What is the solution?
First, govt. can’t simply impose a legislation. It proposes a draft. Then the draft goes to parliamentary committee. Parliamentary committee then reaches out to general public to gets their views, conducts surveys, etc and finally tables a bill in Parliament. This bill then has to go through both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha before it becomes a law. If required any house can send it back to parliamentary committee to do further study/research. Can a parliamentary committee draft a bill which Jokepal? And at same time evade 24/7 media focus?
Anna needs to understand that Jan Lokpal Bill cannot be the bill proposed by his team. And he shouldn’t discredit other bill as Jokepal. It would be a direct insult to parliament functionary. Anna should have waited for Parliamentary committee to be formed. Expressed his views. In stead he is doing “My way or a High-way.” Pass our bill or I would fast-unto-death. Unfortunate indeed. Co-operate and negotiate, it is our govt. Non-cooperation would only hinder the progress but never a solution for a democratic country.
Alas! there isn’t any govt. finalised bill yet. It is still in the process of preparing a bill. Yes, govt. has released a tentative bill, against which Anna’s team has reservations.
Right or wrong reservations? I don’t know. I’m not equipped enough to explain or understand nitty-gritty of Govt. Lokpal version and Anna’s Lokpal version.
Anna says he has the referendum. Govt. say they have the numbers. Who is right? Is an unaccountable referendum way to go for framing a legislation? If that the case, then would ever uplifting of harijans ever been possible by our caste-centric society. No!
Agree or Disagree with legislation, right or wrong our legalisation's may be, honest or dishonest our parliamentarians may be, effective or ineffective our parliament system may be, one thing for sure, it is this system which has brought stability and a mechanism for functioning in our country. True, today it is rotten with corruption. We need quick measures to check them. But, need to understand at the cost of what? At least not at the cost of overturning basic foundation of a democracy, i.e, Parliament
What is the solution?
First, govt. can’t simply impose a legislation. It proposes a draft. Then the draft goes to parliamentary committee. Parliamentary committee then reaches out to general public to gets their views, conducts surveys, etc and finally tables a bill in Parliament. This bill then has to go through both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha before it becomes a law. If required any house can send it back to parliamentary committee to do further study/research. Can a parliamentary committee draft a bill which Jokepal? And at same time evade 24/7 media focus?
Anna needs to understand that Jan Lokpal Bill cannot be the bill proposed by his team. And he shouldn’t discredit other bill as Jokepal. It would be a direct insult to parliament functionary. Anna should have waited for Parliamentary committee to be formed. Expressed his views. In stead he is doing “My way or a High-way.” Pass our bill or I would fast-unto-death. Unfortunate indeed. Co-operate and negotiate, it is our govt. Non-cooperation would only hinder the progress but never a solution for a democratic country.
My association with tennis is mostly through Federer. I still remember it was during Australian Open 2005.I didn’t know who Federer was. Neither did I know his opponent Marat Safin. It was in final set of that match, I first saw a tennis match. Crowd was going crazy. Safin’s serve was lightning fast and he was dominating. But, I was supporting Federer in that match. He lost it in fifth set, as he slip on match point. Then came French Open. Nadal was in the news, a young man, running high on clay success. Again I was supporting Federer. He lost again. It was then I started watching tennis consistently and hoped Federer would win. My hope came true. Federer began to win more frequently and soon by next Australian open, I was a Federer Fan who would hate to lose. Things were moving smoothly, he was winning all of the matches, except on clay. Didn’t concern me much in the beginning. But when he lost second final too, I was worried. I was blinded by his rate of success. I must say at some stage I was just keen on his winning, than his brilliance on court.
Then came the worst part, I remember virtually for 4-5 grand slams, I stopped seeing him play in later part of tournaments. I began to be superstitious. I used to blindly follow score line after the point finishes. I used to constantly change the channel and made sure, I wouldn’t be seeing crucial points play. I begin to associate his losing points to my behaviour. It used to get so top of my nerves that it would take 24 hrs to come out of it if Federer wins and 48-72 hrs to come out of it if Federer loses.
Today, when I reflect back my behaviour was laughable. I feel sad that I couldn’t watch his brilliance in those crucial moments. When I see Federer play these days, somehow winning and losing seem to be second for me. I just look out for his artistic majesty. Even today I get disappoint when he loses. But, I can just dust it off with in few minutes. Why all this now! You must be wondering?
I have seen many times we feel wicket would fall if we don’t watch or batsmen would score a four on not watching. In beginning it happens in any random match. It slowly becomes a habit and we slowly stop seeing and enjoying the match as we get more bothered with result. Somehow result takes precedence over game and in most cases we end up doing all insane and foolish acts believing our team would benefit from it.
To all those crazy sports fan don’t score an own-goal as I did. It is a game at the end of the day. Not, a ritual for one to be superstitious. Enjoy each moment of play !
Prologue: Yesterday I saw two advertisements which were in sharp contrast. First, was from the government advertising on right to education. Second, was from the various schools and colleges of their ability to churn out top results year after year. I shall deal with the latter in this post. It is that part of the year when news channels are inundated with advertisements of success from all schools and colleges. I have little idea how education system works in various cities and states in India. But, in Andhra Pradesh especially in Hyderabad it sells like hot cakes. Somehow over the years the need for education has drastically changed. Today, education is about percentage secured or getting a seat in IIT’s, NIT’s, other top universities. I’m in no way contemplating against having aspirations to get into IIT’s or NIT’s. But I’m very much concerned with the mad rush for ranks, percentages and marks. Is it really what most of us want? It wasn’t always this way. What has changed in a decade? That today we have children of class six being trained for IIT?
Concept of coaching for IIT was started with an idea to help students in their preparation. It was started by Mr. Ramiah with a noble cause. But, soon it has paved way for others to use it as a business. Today it has blown out to be such a business that I wouldn’t be surprised if five years down the line we have Narayana/ Chaitanya ringing the bell at the coveted Dalal Street. We could be having stock market experts and brokers analysing trends, ups and downs in the education sector. We might have to buy their stocks to get admission into them. Then, their are people on both sides of the coin with regards to justifying coaching styles of Narayana, Chaitanya,..etc. But, can anything justify the ludicrous level primary education system dropped to in our school ?
Class 10th students are forced to sit for extra study hours, late night classes as a preparation for 2-3 months before exams. We all seem to be lamely agreeing with this trend. Time has come to take stringent actions to stop the sale of education. Their should be complete ban on IIT coaching in schools. Schools should use that infrastructure for other purposes like play ground, arts, etc. Schools should be fined and administration should be sentenced for minimum jail terms if found to be taking extra and late night study hours. (Cancelling licenses to schools would be bad option as it would students in perilous situation). Also, check needs to be on number of students per class and total admissions. Explanation should be given by schools for fee they seek. Any hike needs to be informed to govt. with justification before implementation. All the schools need to follow same time-schedule. On the whole govt. needs to play big boss for these private players.
State Govt. of Delhi has taken a measure to address above concerns, by restricting admissions to a school based on locality i.e. preference would be given to students who stay nearer to school. Also some seats would be reserved for needy and govt. would be over-seeing all the admission process. It’s high time for Andhra Pradesh govt. to quell the misadventures schools are dealing in and take appropriate measures to address the low-level primary education has dropped in city.
Prologue: Muttiah Muralitharan donned curtains to his career in a very emphatic way. A look-back into his cricketing prowess which is been an epitome for fellow-mates. The stadium was engulfed with ooh’s and aah’s as Indian tail was keeping Murali at bay of his 800th test wicket. For a moment it seemed history would repeat itself. Back then, Sir Don Bradman fell short by 4 runs of having a unique record of more than 100 average in tests. But, for the spin wizard who is omnipresent at pole in every record for a bowler, pursuit for quarry finally came to an end. Pragyan Ojha ensured his space in record books as he became Murali’s final scalp in test cricket.
Murali would be reminisced for his unique wrist off –spin action, popping vivacious eyes which more than glared at the batsmen and his rapturous gleefulness during batting. Like any other bowler Murali was sanguine about his batting skills. Those apart, no one could wager against Murali of not attempting to take a wicket in each delivery. Though sometimes, he could be seen bowling mundane phlegmatic spells. But, it was his way to subterfuge batsmen. He mastered the act of dissemblance and best of the best have been caught napping against him.
Murali’s closest rival in his time has been Shane Warne. Murali and Warne have allured cricketing world with their bunch of tricks. They always seem to have something up their sleeve to aghast the dismayed batsmen. But their careers couldn’t have been more antonymous. While Murali had maintained a very-low profile image outside the cricketing field, Warne was marred with sex and dope scandals. That apart except few trifle numbers nothing separates them in individual brilliance. In most ways Warne vs Murali is synonymous with Ponting vs Sachin debate. Where again, Sachin’s ubiquity in record book is well-known.
Murali is among those very few cricketers who haven’t dwindled away into retirement. His career in latter part though has been laden with injuries and fitness. One could even say he remained a silhouette of his prime days. But, his tenacity scraped him across the 800mark. Very few sport-persons have exited arena on a high-note. Few of them are Pete Sampras( won his 14th grand slam), Warne & Glenn Mcgrath( won Ashes 5-0). Others like Michael Schumacher, Lance Armstrong at-least for now don’t make the cut.
We have been fortuitous to witness Murali bowling. His agleam ablaze still hackles the awe-struck batsmen in dreams and will mesmerize sport lovers like us for decades to come.
Prologue: BJP’s mascot for Hindutva Modi once quoted ‘saarein terrorist musalmaan kyun hothe hein?’ How true are Mr.Modi’s or for that sake BJP’s unilateralist claims? Also peek into the tryst between saffron & bloodin Indian Democratic History.
BJP’s rather blatant lull response to Gujarat’s Home-Minister pivotal role in cold-blood butchering of Sohrabuddin Sheik’s and murder of only witnesses in the case, his gravid wife Kauser Bi and Prajapati implies either their justification of wrong-doing or their submission to Gujarat Chief Minister Modi. Since, BJP which never stops bragging about being a ‘party with a difference’ where decisions are taken by party then an individual one can safely reject the latter case. One can vividly assert that BJP stands by fake-encounters (though they might claim Sohrabuddin & Prajapati to be ISI agents but nothing justifies rape and murder of a pregnant innocent Kauser Bi)
Unfortunately it’s neither the one-off such instance to look pass by. It comes along with the recent perilous trends and assertions BJP is seen making. Be it from adamantly baiting for Afzal Guru’s head or disturbing involvement of a BJP MP and few RSS workers and associates like Sadhvi Pragya Singh Takur and many others like-wise her in the series of bomb-blasts at mosques across India. Though RSS-BJP does say that they were former party associates but their one time association with them raises certain moral questions.
It’s obligatory for a national party like BJP to come clean on these worrisome allegations against them. Everyone agrees it’s an extremely volatile and sentimental issue. That doesn’t imply one should brush it under the carpet or shoot the messenger instead of listening to the message. It’s not the time for BJP-RSS to score brownie political points in the name of Hindu alienation or sublimation in their own country. It’s a strenuous task for BJP-RSS as its organization has been mostly been with non-Hindu bashing. But they have to be humble enough to accept their mistakes before it escalates into Hindu identity crisis because ramifications of further delay in addressing the issue would be severe and devastating with in-repairable damages.
But, affiliation between saffron and blood dates back to the rudimentary days of a democratic India. RSS did play a righteous and essential role in India’s freedom struggle. But in the latter part of our nation’s nonviolent fight, RSS chose unfortunately violence path and deplorably undermined Ghandi’s ideology of a united secular Indian. In fact RSS is reminisced for seconding the Jinha’s quest for vivisecting India into two nations and also for their vital role in instigating riots against Muslims and Sikhs at the time of partition.
The friction between Ghandi and RSS wasn’t restricted to the period of partition during which Ghandi was dogmatic of democratic India being a secular than a Hindu state. Their differences came into limelight when a former RSS worker Naturam Ghodse assassinated Ghandi in bright daylight amidst of his followers for implausible bigoted profane stance of Ghandi during separation.
Even though RSS was vindicated, grey shades loom over organization role in corrupting the mindset of Ghodse. At the end Ghodse vehemence declaration of his act being a vengeance against Ghandi for his back-stabbing and dishonoring sentiments of Hindus which concords with RSS perseverance of Ghandi role during independence.
RSS slowly decayed after being banned by the Nehru’s govt. for alleged role of RSS in Ghandi’s murder. Again it began to rise when it hopped public space for their legitimate agitation against late Sanjay Ghandi sponsored Emergency in India. But, their real ascendance was during the controversial Babri Maszid demolition on the name of Lord Ram. But by this time BJP was the political front of their ideology and aspirations. It’s well known that BJP is mere a mascot of RSS. It’s during the Ayodhya Rath Yatra when BJP-RSS duo maneuvered and manipulated the public opinion along with cajoling so called karsevaks for demolishing the mosque, which remains a blot on India’s secularist credentials.
Having savored the popularity and public support BJP-RSS began to deepen their foundations in Indian politics with their proclaimed Hindutva branded politics and built their pillars with disharmonious trust especially between Hindu & Muslim. For further salvaging their position one could see them instigating violence’s like Godra Riots in Gujarat or Christian riots in Orissa & Kerala.
Unfortunately for RSS-BJP there avers boomeranged and made them stand naked in front of our nation. Though BJP might give statements like terrorism doesn’t hold any religion, etc at press conferences but reality is that at public venues their speeches are in-depth with hate-speeches such as one have stated above of Mr. Modi.
