Sometimes I wonder if our political system will ever evolve. Or, probably it has and I have failed to acknowledge that.
What frustrates me the most is the adeptness of our political system to dig old graves. I’m sure you would all read or at least heard about Arabian Nights at some point of time in your life. I’m not sure if it is universally true but as far as I remember the genies in Arabian Nights are ‘good’ genies. In Urdu language, a genie is known as ‘Jinn’. What is unfortunate is that even after 62 years of partition, we still see the ‘Jinn-ah’ effect.
What I do not understand is the fact that RSS still talks about “Akhanda Bharat” (Unified India). Why talk about unified India when having a failed state like Pakistan is like having NPAs on your balance sheet? Whether Jinnah was a nice person is not the point that I am discussing here. Honestly, I do not care. What is most unfortunate is that the ‘Jinn-ah’ effect’ continues to haunt the largest opposition party to the extent that it has become a matter of ‘chinta’ (worry) and the party is still busy with their ‘chintan’ (brainstorming).
Even before the furor caused by Jinn-aah had hardly subsided, we had the ghosts from Kandahar resurface to haunt the nation in general and the BJP in specific. What difference does it make NOW whether Mr. Advani knew about Mr. Jaswant Singh being sent to Kandahar? To top it all, the Congress, whose regime had seen the most spineless Home Minister (Mr. Patil) the country has seen till date, is asking Mr. Advani to apologize for misleading the nation. Wonder what Mr. Abhishek Manu Singhavi meant when he was referring to ‘misleading the nation’.
There have been multi-crore scams. But, the Bofors issue (a paltry 65 crore defense deal) gained maximum steam. And even after numerous years from the time it first surfaced, it has been discussed on and off.
It has been 10 years since the Pokran II tests happened. As an Indian I am keen to know whether they were successful. But, why discuss the success or failure of the tests now? Why is a scientist declaring it now that they were partially successful? The only silver lining in the entire episode was the PM putting to rest all such rumors and showing complete faith in the declaration by Dr. Kalam and Dr. Kakodkar.
Did someone say we were progressive? ;-)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Have u bought the controversial book? :) Only in India people have time to discuss and debate on such nonsense.. I really dont understand why they r fighting over a book... R they trying to do marketing for tat book???
ReplyDeleteI only pray, these polticians dont become historians in all history books like Nehru, Jinnah and all in the future... Its high time they change the syllabus in schools. Education is the root cause and solution of all problems..
Deepika, i would say that there is no harm in getting to know about our history. But, continuing to discuss the same things is like flogging a dead horse. :)
ReplyDeleteYeah of course v should know our history but the prob is only few leaders are spoken about in our history books... There were many efficient people but their names are hardly found in our history books and anyways who knows that our istory books r rite.. They r all the collected opinion of individuals.. Same way, Jaswant Singh has written his opinion as book.. Y should anyone have a prob wit tat... Then wats the use of constitution... Our politicians basically want publicity... And our people r also ready to give them tat... Thats y our education system has to change... People have to be taught things tat r necessary for everyday's civilised life... Primary education should be good thats when a child's mind can be moulded properly.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how effective educational reforms can be in dealing with the opinionism mafia. Our political affiliations usually surface way past our primary days. Very often, the inclination is already decided for us.. via the family, the class, the caste, the city, the social circle.. inherited vested interests I'd like to call 'em.
ReplyDeleteWe've been served a rather even deal to be pragmatic about it all. Most in different corners of our country, in the village nooks & the urban slumlines, are not that fortunate. And even if quality education does somehow percolates to them, they have bigger problems facing them off.
Even elementarily, I believe that in most of our school texts Gandhi has been beatified.. yet I see so many Gandhi haters come out of the same educational system. A once die-hard rock'n'roll, pop n Michael Jackson fan becomes what he is today.. the chief of MNS. It once "didn't matter if you're black or white" to him but it matters today if you're a northie or a southie or a maharashtrian. Politics usually works on a different plane from education. It's a smart field that picks its own battles.
Like Bhagat Singh once said, "Gore saab ko bhaga bhi doge toh Bhoore saab aa k baith jayenge".
Those of us who hold our freedom of expression dear may want to read this
ReplyDeletehttp://pregnancyofthemind.blogspot.com/2008/06/you-have-right-to-remain-silent.html
ha ha ha. Narayan-you are right. I did not know that piece of fact about the MNS chief. The sad part is-while the issues remain dynamic still, the approach does not change!
ReplyDelete