The Status bar on my Facebook account has been saying that I want all the redundant rhetoric (post the Mumbai nightmare) to stop. And that I want all of us to see how we can help in turning some of the rhetoric into reality. This is true and I am, especially, referring to the electronic media in our country. They, I must give credit, have been doing an exemplary job ( even if often overenthusiastic and sometimes irresponsible) in the last few days but are now going round and round in circles in dealing with people's reactions to the horrid events in Mumbai and their fall out. Since, the night of 26th November my mind like yours, I am sure, is buzzing, the shock and anguish were followed by anger. Anger against many things not just against the terrorists, their backers and political apathy; arguments and counter arguments are raging through my head. But the time for another empty rant has run out, we have to channelize this anger and have sane discussions.
The Mumbai tragedy was loud and long drawn but don't forget we have been a target of continous attacks and have been in this defenseless state for a long time now, political parties have changed at the center and the states, over this period. The attacks on citizens across the country continue in form of too common and frequent bomb blasts; in the form of deeply terrorized North-Eastern states of Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Tripura; to unending dance of violence in J n K; to different forms of attacks in Gujarat, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Maharashtra, in fact, communal and caste violence across the country; to the naxal militancy across so many states; we have many very dangerous enemies from outside and inside.
We need to as citizens find the very solutions whose implementation we are demanding. We have discussed on this blog, many times before, the futility of depending on political leadership to respond. Their response are never to the issues but to the mileage to be gained out of the tragedies, across parties- may it be the shaky ruling coalition or the bloody-minded opposition, whose attitude gets reflected in the very fact that these people have been branding terror suspects from Malegaon, who were being investigated by the late ATS chief Karkare- 'soldiers of Hinduism'. A terrorist is a terrorist, beyond any religion. They, the terrorists, are not attacking just religions or communities, their target is humanity and civilized way of living.
Mumbai, might actually have been the proverbial last straw on the camel's back. The only positive thing that has arisen out of this terrible tragedy is that people, in general, are starting to react to life around them, don't know if it is a passing thing or if, indeed, it is a real change. I am really hoping that these voices can be sustained.
One thing I do know amidst all this confusion, our Democracy is as good as we make it. There is no shrugging responsibility may it be the politicians, the bureaucracy, the civil society or the very in demand, 'aam aadmi', us. I also know that war is not a solution, we have seen far more developed nations struggling with it, we can certainly ill-afford it.
I am going to give some semblance of rationality to all the millions of thoughts and comments buzzing in my head and post again soon with more stuff that I have been feeling, hearing, thinking and processing.
3 comments:
wt u r sayng is right n dis is wt all opposed to this horrendous terrorism feel. but i feel we'll forget this mumbai incident soon like d previous ones, n thn again 'wake up' when v r attacked once more...
(FROM ur OLD frnd on whose buk u wre suppozd to comment)
Anna what you are saying is right but somewhere I feel that we all are responsible for our present situation....i feel releived when i blame the system or the politicians or people around me....but we are the one who support these political parties sometimes for our own petty issuses which we think can be fullfilled by any X Y Z party or person....we see things in a very limited dimension we don't see things in largeness...At present the kind of choice to choose our leader is.....you know, for me they all are donkeys...even if one or two people are worth choosing then they don't live too long coz most of the competeters will be after their lives....when the leaders themselves are criminals what else are we expecting from them....we need a new system,new generation people , well educated to take charge who are atleast free of all these castism and hindu-muslim fundas....
sorry i can express myself better in my mother tongue....
Just to comment on the democrazy and vote bit, even as the Taj and Oberoi and Nariman house were still under seige our offices were functional, the attendance must have been skewed, but I do know that attendance was full amongst the support staff ( they couldn afford to loose a days wages terror or no terror). Similarly when it comes to voting though I have no data in this regard am quite sure that the ones who go out to vote are the ones most in need.They are the ones ( the majority of our population) without the basic needs who recession or not dont know if they have a job the next day or week, do not know where their next months rations would come from...and when politicians make their speeches, with all the promises this section of the voters however cynical they maybe still hope and vote, for them terror is definitely a concern but of more concern are the basic needs...so the challenge the govt we vote for has to face is to ensure that their different voter segments continue voting for them and the occassional voices which rise like now are also addressed but these voices are few and far between and the govt knows that even with a medicore performance they can still come back to power if not in the next election then in the one after that, this being mainly because in most states and the centre the race is mainly a two party one... so the choice is really very limited. One important thing I would request all those who read these comments is to ask yourself are you a registered voter? Do you vote religiously for elctions be it local ones or the central one? Guess i am not making much sense right now.. sitting at office but had to respond to the entry, same being so pertinent to the current environment we face.
Post a Comment