India is a nation of variety. Variations are a constant trend here. Variety in language, variety in culture, religion, credos, caste, community. And the democratic government which should ideally normalize these variety and provide a quality governance usually gets entangled in the dirt of politics. Communal, regional and caste based politics. The whole theory of politics revolves around two concepts retaining power by creating vote bank and creating vote bank by exploiting the diversity and differences. And it's quite evident in the way Indian politics act.
If we take a closer look the federal republic governing system in India is distributed over regions/states poles apart from each other from the language, and cultural practice point of view. Hence the regional political parties have made their way into the big picture capitalizing on these regional needs. For instance Uttar Pradesh the most populous state of India with more than 170 million of population, 88 parliament upper house seats is ruled and re-ruled by parties whose single agenda is communal and cast based politics. Mayawati Beheji has been elected chief minister with overwhelming majority 3 times. She represents Bahujan Samaaj Party, fundamentally a party for the dalits of UP. So is the opposition party which is headed by a backward caste leader Mulayam Singh, Samajwadi party. Most of the UP population resides in villages depending on agriculture. And in India most of the villages are still strict about caste system. When a party makes it a agenda to provide employment to all dalits, propmotions and social respect for the backward caste. It hits directly into the fish eye of the emotion of the mass residing in villages under strict caste rules. This creates a vote back as good as 30% of the total voters. The reason why Mayawati never cared to speak about good governance, social walefare, price or economics. She enjoyed the assured vote of almost 35% of toal voter just by pointing out that they are lower caste and making it a single point agenda.
Similarly in Haryana Jat community is targeted by parties and hence the whole community's vote is assured. In Maharastra MNS is targeting on language basis. Hence to ctreate a safe vote bank of Marathi speaking people. In Rajasthan Juggars are provided with reservation as it ensured a safe vpte bank. In the national picture BJP the Hindu fundamentalist party makes Hindutva an agenda to win elections, as In India 80% of the population is hindu. While the congress at times has shown favoritism to muslims by granting subsidies and reservations, just to create a vote bank. Voters do get biased with the feel of favor by a particular party as for them it's a sense of security. But of late we have forgotten the Indian constitution proclaims India to eb a socialist, republic, secular democracy. Which is defied by such cheap vote bank politics.
The politicians make the fragile sentiments of common man as a soft target to instill insecurity and hence a false assurance to gain the vote. Providing them with short term benefits at times like reservation, partial or temporary employment. The mass mostly poor and lower middle class in India never enjoyed a respectable social status, when this hurt emotion is targeted they get exploited and the voting opinion is biased. Caste and communal politics has certainly influenced the voters to cast biased votes while being driven away by false rhetoric.
And finally it has hampered the actually development and meeting the real needs. This needs a mass awareness which can be incorporated in a slow process to bring in the transformation and making the voters immune to caste or community based politics.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Of blood, of attack and of acts - A question into Mumbai attack.
The terror attack on Mumbai has left the whole nation agape. Looking at
with blank stares. The audacious act so it be called, has proven the
security flaw and intelligence failure at a large scale. Exposed the
vulnerability of our so called huge and robust system, which was never
robust enough. All done, all said and seen and what remains is a bunch of
unanswered questions.
The fact till now:
1. They came all the way from karachi by the sea route.
hijacking a fishing boat midway equipped with ammunitions enough to kill
thousands.
The question:
See route is not been in use for the first time.
1993 serial blast had its RDX imported through the same route, Pakistan to Mumbai.
with officials involved. As per the recent IB (Intelligence bureau) claims
they had hints of such a massive attack and well aware of the vulnerability
of the sea route. Hence its not quite convincing that a large group set of
and hijack a boat mid sea and manage to come and split with out any notice.
If a boat is hijack off the Gujarat port, they how it was not being
reported. If the boat was attacked dint they try to connect to the base and
inform such an attack? Or it was deliberately ignored?
The fact:
1. Two terrorists went berserk at CST causing havoc by firing
indiscriminately at the crowd in the disposal. They were taken notice of by
the time they entered much before the firing, if not much still before they
started firing. In the small stations I have seen RPF jawans carrying Insas
automatic rifles surveilling in multiple numbers. Then how come they were
not present at the largest station of Mumbai, which has already witnessed
terror attacks earlier. Later it was told the police was ill equipped. Ill
equipped does not mean unequipped, if a report is to be believed there
were some 120 RPF police men in CST at the time of attack. And considerably
at least 10 of them must had have had automatic rifles. Then why no deliberation was
done to stop these two terrorists who later went ahead to kill ATS chief
Karkare and ACP Kamte. Had they been engaged in a gun battle there, the
officers might not have been dead. It seemed all we lacked here was courage
and a zeal to act valiantly. The same terrorists were killed and arrested
by a much lesser number of people about 12-14 at the Girgaun Chowpathi. An
officer Kadam killed one with his service revolver from a close range
fighting front to front.
The fact:
1. Four entered Hotel Taj and were able to keep the best commandos of India
at defensive mode for three days. its now told that the operation took such
long because of the huge size of the hotel and not proper location of the
terrorists.
Question:
IF they didn't know the location of the terrorist. Were firing in air?
Firing started soon after NSG entered the hotel on Thusrday. If the
building was of such huge size then why not individual operating teams
sent for each floor simultaneously. Why only one entry was chosen and the
commandos were not air dropped in TAJ too? It means the terrorists out
smarted out commandos as well out powered they. Three terrorists were able
to shift the place from floor to floor and steal food from the store
in spite of the NSG inside.
Fact:
The operation was slowed down because the primary aim was to save the hostages.
Questions:
Then why not even one hostage was saved. and why two different teams were
sent where in one would have taken care of freeing and taking the hostages
to safety solely and the other to engage and kill the terrorists?
The hostage crisis is when the terrorist demand their security and
relinquish any attack even a single shot fired, and supply of food or
locomotives. But none of such things came in demand here.
And when the NSG was able to fire at them for two days long gives the
perception
1. They knew the location of the terrorists
2. There was no such situation were they were forced to stop gun battle
The sheer out put that remains is two terrorists were smart and trained
enough to out power our elite force for two days long. Finally they were
shot dead only when they lost the morale and possibly physical strength. So
it was a win at their weakness and not at our strength.
Conclusion:
India might self console itself proclaiming its as a victory but in reality
the dilapidated building and bloody walls speaks the truth its not a
victory. They achieved what they had come for: to kill, to frighten, to make mockery and to die. And they did all. Two people were able to destroy the largest and best
hotel in India in matter of hours. Like always the Indian politics will try
to capitalize on it and create a vote bank. The politician will come front
exploiting it on their better and barking false politics. The media Making
salable shows and worthless discussions of the deceased and the lost. The
police trying to brazen out. The news papers making graphical
representations and the people giving dismal look and consuming them all. All of them: the politics, the false pride, the television shows, and the ornamental
reports. But the sacrifice of those who fought valiantly will remain but with
disrespect. The tear filled anticipating eyes of the ones who have lost
the dears will remain unsatisfied. The common man will remain unbothered and the whole country remains serene. Again. In a while even this will be forgotten with mediocre laws being enforced, few battles of words being exchanged with the neighboring country and few
lathi clad hawaldars being deployed at public places just to create inconvenience , until a similar attack occurs again. Then once again the same acts will be repeated like a protocol in cycle. Nothing will change. Just remains the sense of defeat
and deceit.
with blank stares. The audacious act so it be called, has proven the
security flaw and intelligence failure at a large scale. Exposed the
vulnerability of our so called huge and robust system, which was never
robust enough. All done, all said and seen and what remains is a bunch of
unanswered questions.
The fact till now:
1. They came all the way from karachi by the sea route.
hijacking a fishing boat midway equipped with ammunitions enough to kill
thousands.
The question:
See route is not been in use for the first time.
1993 serial blast had its RDX imported through the same route, Pakistan to Mumbai.
with officials involved. As per the recent IB (Intelligence bureau) claims
they had hints of such a massive attack and well aware of the vulnerability
of the sea route. Hence its not quite convincing that a large group set of
and hijack a boat mid sea and manage to come and split with out any notice.
If a boat is hijack off the Gujarat port, they how it was not being
reported. If the boat was attacked dint they try to connect to the base and
inform such an attack? Or it was deliberately ignored?
The fact:
1. Two terrorists went berserk at CST causing havoc by firing
indiscriminately at the crowd in the disposal. They were taken notice of by
the time they entered much before the firing, if not much still before they
started firing. In the small stations I have seen RPF jawans carrying Insas
automatic rifles surveilling in multiple numbers. Then how come they were
not present at the largest station of Mumbai, which has already witnessed
terror attacks earlier. Later it was told the police was ill equipped. Ill
equipped does not mean unequipped, if a report is to be believed there
were some 120 RPF police men in CST at the time of attack. And considerably
at least 10 of them must had have had automatic rifles. Then why no deliberation was
done to stop these two terrorists who later went ahead to kill ATS chief
Karkare and ACP Kamte. Had they been engaged in a gun battle there, the
officers might not have been dead. It seemed all we lacked here was courage
and a zeal to act valiantly. The same terrorists were killed and arrested
by a much lesser number of people about 12-14 at the Girgaun Chowpathi. An
officer Kadam killed one with his service revolver from a close range
fighting front to front.
The fact:
1. Four entered Hotel Taj and were able to keep the best commandos of India
at defensive mode for three days. its now told that the operation took such
long because of the huge size of the hotel and not proper location of the
terrorists.
Question:
IF they didn't know the location of the terrorist. Were firing in air?
Firing started soon after NSG entered the hotel on Thusrday. If the
building was of such huge size then why not individual operating teams
sent for each floor simultaneously. Why only one entry was chosen and the
commandos were not air dropped in TAJ too? It means the terrorists out
smarted out commandos as well out powered they. Three terrorists were able
to shift the place from floor to floor and steal food from the store
in spite of the NSG inside.
Fact:
The operation was slowed down because the primary aim was to save the hostages.
Questions:
Then why not even one hostage was saved. and why two different teams were
sent where in one would have taken care of freeing and taking the hostages
to safety solely and the other to engage and kill the terrorists?
The hostage crisis is when the terrorist demand their security and
relinquish any attack even a single shot fired, and supply of food or
locomotives. But none of such things came in demand here.
And when the NSG was able to fire at them for two days long gives the
perception
1. They knew the location of the terrorists
2. There was no such situation were they were forced to stop gun battle
The sheer out put that remains is two terrorists were smart and trained
enough to out power our elite force for two days long. Finally they were
shot dead only when they lost the morale and possibly physical strength. So
it was a win at their weakness and not at our strength.
Conclusion:
India might self console itself proclaiming its as a victory but in reality
the dilapidated building and bloody walls speaks the truth its not a
victory. They achieved what they had come for: to kill, to frighten, to make mockery and to die. And they did all. Two people were able to destroy the largest and best
hotel in India in matter of hours. Like always the Indian politics will try
to capitalize on it and create a vote bank. The politician will come front
exploiting it on their better and barking false politics. The media Making
salable shows and worthless discussions of the deceased and the lost. The
police trying to brazen out. The news papers making graphical
representations and the people giving dismal look and consuming them all. All of them: the politics, the false pride, the television shows, and the ornamental
reports. But the sacrifice of those who fought valiantly will remain but with
disrespect. The tear filled anticipating eyes of the ones who have lost
the dears will remain unsatisfied. The common man will remain unbothered and the whole country remains serene. Again. In a while even this will be forgotten with mediocre laws being enforced, few battles of words being exchanged with the neighboring country and few
lathi clad hawaldars being deployed at public places just to create inconvenience , until a similar attack occurs again. Then once again the same acts will be repeated like a protocol in cycle. Nothing will change. Just remains the sense of defeat
and deceit.
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