March towards mobocracy

Photo from deepwarriors.com

Over the past 63 years of our experimentation (I would not call it existence) with liberal democracy in India, we have been slowly but surely moving away from those ideals and moving towards, what I like to call, a mobocracy. It's a situation where democratic institutions become defunct, and any dispute is settled by brute force. The more raw power a group has, the powerful they are in the society. Our exercise of franchise has also been moving in that direction, overtly and covertly. Overtly in the sense that political parties try to use their muscle power to garner support; covertly in the sense that political parties try to appease groups and communities, hoping to get their votes, by either directly supporting, or ignoring acts of goondaism by elements of that group.

The last point brings me to the case of the Kerala lecturer T. J. Joseph, who was recently removed from his job for hurting religious sentiments of a particular community. I do not know what exactly he asked in the Malayalam question paper which hurt the sentiments of some people. But that is not very relevant here. Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that he did ask a question that hurt some people. What would be a civilized way to deal with that? One could go to some grievance redressal body in the college concerned, or to a court or ... Instead, what happened put us at par with the most barbaric societies on the earth. Some memebrs of the Popular Front of India chopped off his hand. The police believes that some 49 people were involved, and it was a well-organized crime. What happened after this was even more shocking: No reaction from any political party condemning the attack.


As if there is no end to how bizzare things can get. In an absolute chocker (or is it, really? Should we prepare ourselves for more?) the New Man College dismissed Joseph from his job for hurting religious sentiments. Questions that arise are:

1. Is the punishment commensurate with the crime committed (assuimg it was committed)?
   
2. What made the college authorities think that they can arrogate themselves to such positions?

The college's rejoinder with that decision is perhaps potently the most dangerous aspect of the whole episode. They have said that Joseph can be reinstated only if he is pardoned by the leaders of the community whose sentiments have been hurt. Firstly, goons attack someone, then you punish the victim, finally you leave him to the mercy of the so-called leaders of those goons. Justice indeed!

Unfortunately, this incident shows a trend in the country (or may be the world): one of grave intolerance, complete disregard for democratic institutions and mechanisms, and a culture where anything goes if there is gain at the end (votes in our political terms).

Long live Indian mobocracy.

Living with Nature

Our ancient civilization, or all traditional civilizations, I believe, see man as a part of nature. Usually, all ancient traditions teach us to conduct our lives so as not to destroy the balance in Nature and not to imperil our own existence. Some go so far as to nurture orphaned babies of wild animals, as this Bishnoi woman is seen doing.

Bishnoi woman feeding her baby and
an orphaned cinkara. Photo taken from Rediff.com

This reminds me of my childhood. The government did have the meteorological department, but given their capabilities now in terms of weather prediction, one can easily imagine what it could have been some 35-40 years ago. So, during the rainy season, if my mother had to take me somewhere, and was worried that it might rain, she would go to my aunt and ask, "Do you think it may rain?" Of course, this did not mean if it would rain the next five minutes, but rather if it would rain in the next 10-12 hours, a much more difficult question to answer. My aunt would look at the sky and the clouds (and remember, in those days in a suburban town, there were no apartment buildings and nothing hindering your view of the sky in any direction), and come up with her prediction. I do not have a statistics to show how often she was right. But we can assume that she was right a good fraction of time, otherwise my mother would not trust her.

I definitely do not have the ability to predict rain by looking at the sky. My son hardly ever looks at the sky. Somewhere, our civilizational progress is taking us away from our Natural roots!

Say No to Caste

The government has ultimately decided to go ahead with including caste in the
current census. Some of the castist parties are still unhappy with the
modalities. But I want to use this platform to launch a protest against
inclusion of caste in the census.

There is no denying that caste is one of the deep, almost defining
realities of the Indian society. I do not believe or hope that caste will
naturally wither away if we simply avoid talking about it, or do not include
it in the census. And I also believe that the issue of caste deserves a much
more nuanced debate, at political and academic levels, to make any headway
in removing this atrocious institution.

But, the political reality is that all mention of caste is with an aim of
perpetuating this horrible social crime. How else can you explain why
caste should be basis of admission in higher education, while millions
of children, naturally mostly from lower castes, do not have access to school
education? The Congress Party has already said they do not want to be on
wrong side of the caste divide this time (unlike 1990 Mandal issue). This
clearly reveals that the eye is on the votes, and everything else is an
excuse.

So, if you believe that caste census is another strategy in the game of
vote-bank politics, and want to see a caste-less India sometime, say NONE
to caste during census. Spread the word.

Let's make a beginning.

A close shave

As if the horrible train crash at Sainthia on Monday and decoupling of the Rajdhani Express engine were not enough, another train accident was averted in Bihar. Mahananda Express got onto the same track on which a goods train was already standing.

Where are we going? While all public service systems are going down the drain, our leaders are busy throwing flowerpots.

Journey to Hell

There was a time when ministers used to resign, owning up moral responsibility, even for a single rail accident. That Lal Bahadur Shastri did it is well known and much spoken about. If my memory is not betraying me badly, I remember the same principle being followed till 1980. But not any more, of course. Like everything else, the railways has become an arena of petty politics, and not an institution of public service.

It was 1976, and I was traveling from Bombay (it was not Mumbai) to Calcutta by the Bombay-Howrah Mail via Allahabad. On the second evening, when the train was entering Allahabad Jn station, we were served dinner. It was a deliciously hot mutton-curry and rice, served on fine china plates, brought on trays along with knives and forks. During mid-90s I traveled extensively all over India by train, many times by sleeper class. Though the grandeur of china, knife and fork were missing, the food served was something that would fill you.

Fast forward to 2009. I was traveling from Delhi to Allahabad by the North-East Exp. The lunch served was a couple of rubbery puris and and aloo sabji with a lot of curry and very few peices of aloo. Imagine if you have to travel all the way to Guwahati! Then 2010. I was traveling again from Delhi-Allahabad by the Kalka Mail. The lunch consisted of few grains of chana-daal, very poor quality rice, rubbery puri, and exactly three thin slices of parwal as an excuse of sabji.


Well, you can still survive without food for a day. But how about accidents? The kinds of which happened with Jnaneswari Exp and at Sainthia, to name just the most recent ones? The message coming out of the government is none is responsible. Ex-ministers are busy lambasting Mamata-Didi while their own records are nothing much to show off. The Congress party is busy guarding its precious ally, the TMC. Pranab-babu is on record saying `No one can predict accidents, that is why they are accidents'.

Well, Pranab-babu, most Indians could do without this profound wisdom of yours. They have a little more intelligence than what you believe. What we are talking about is not predicting accidents, but preventing them. Do you or your wise political colleagues have any idea how to do that? Or do you think our lives are worth nothing more than a few lakh rupees, and these junk statements of your ilk?

Now as enraged as we are about your callous attitude and statements, two more shockers were on the way. The railway declared (1) none fell ill in the Mumbai-Howrah Duranto Express a couple of days ago. (News channels showed angry passengers complaining about falling ill after eating stale food that also contained cockroaches); (2) coupling between the engine and the coaches detachted twice in the Delhi-Patna Rajdhani Exp. The first one shows that the Railway considers all those who complained about falling ill to be liars!!! Not just apathy, but ignominy to follow that.

Surely, the journey by Indian Raiways have become a journey to Hell.