Happy Independence day - India at 60

Happy Independence day!!!

India has completed 60 years of independence and has achieved a lot in those 60 years. Still a lot remains to be done and as always I am hopeful that things will only get better from this point onwards. I wish India a bright, independent, prosperous and most importantly a peaceful future to celebrate the virtues of democracy, equality, liberty and fraternity for a long long time to come.

On India’s 6oth birthday quite a few bloggers have expressed their well wishes. Mirza Faisal takes a trip down the memory lane. RealitCheck wishes that the politician’s ability to divide India to vanish. Jo doesn’t want to celebrate August 15th. Inam Abidi at the IndianMuslims lists some proud moments of India while Sandeep thinks that it has been 60 years of Deceit and Misgovernance

Retributions is running a series called India at 60: Tackling the governance Challenge (part1, part2). Nitin suggests three things that India should focus on. Sujai has some suggestions on how to better India.

Not just Indians but the well wishes are coming from everyone. Ali Eteraz wishes India and Pakistan and at All things Pakistan, Owais Mughal and Adil Nijam send us Independence day greetings.

Taking a stroll around the blogosphere, reading everyone’s independence day posts has revealed that Indians care a lot about India and feel a lot for it from within. Getting the wishes from Pakistan makes me feel good. With so much love around can we say that the future HAS to be good!

UPDATE

Atanu is hopeful of the future and wishes we achieve economic freedom as well. Neelakantan describes the 60 years in 60 words and Mohib shows independence day in pictures.

February 5, 2009 Posted in: India No Comments

What Is Wrong With Our Teachers?

Right after the news of death of a student because of teacher atrocity comes the report of electrocuting and beating kids to punish them for their “own good”. There is this other teacher who paraded a kid naked for taking a dip in the school tank. At least this one got one year jail. Another case is that of Munir Patel who started getting siezures after being hit by the teacher on the head.

All this makes me ask…What the f**k is wrong with these teachers? Are these teachers so helpless in controlling their anger? Don’t they have any heart? How can they hurt someone so mercilessly?

I think the teachers who don’t know how to do their job get this angry. I remember when I went to school, none of the teachers who were considered good ever resorted to corporal punishment. Those who did, were never a good teacher. A teacher who knows his job and does it well automatically gains the respect of the students. Even the most disrespectful student wouldn’t show disrespect to such teachers. On the other hand, the punishment handling teachers were always feared but almost never respected.

It is weird that teachers think that beating the hell out of a student is “for their own good”. How the hell can it be? Students get scared and many dropout from school due to such excesses. Many students lose their confidence and fare badly at school. Who is responsible for this irreparable damage? I would say both the teachers and the parents. When a kid reports any such incident on a smaller scale the parents brush it aside as nothing. Also there is a general feeling that the “Guru”(teacher) must be right in disciplining the “Shishya”(student) .

It is good that some states like Delhi, Goa and TamilNadu have banned corporal punishment, more needs to be done. It should be a law passed by the parliament so that it applies to all the states. Secondly the teachers and parents should be educated about the ill effects of such acts and above all the law should be enforced and the guily teachers brought to justice.

February 5, 2009 Posted in: corporal punishment No Comments

Another Student Dies Due To Excessive Beating By Teacher

This is shocking!

What do teachers think of themselves? Do these jerks think that the school is their kingdom and everybody their subject? Look at this…

Seventeen-year-old Arpit Kanwariya’s invigilator — a Sanskrit teacher named Indira Samar — beat him with a bamboo stick for keeping his ‘legs out of the desk’ while writing a test on July 26.

…

Arpit’s parents say he was hospitalised after he came back bruised from the school on July 26, where he underwent treatment till Wednesday night.

Says Arpit’s father, Sampat Kanwariya, “He said he had fever. He didn’t tell us what had happened. There was a small clinic. We took him there thinking he would be okay, but even he didn’t know that there was an internal injury. Then on Wednesday we brought him to the orthopaedic department of this hospital and they told us it was a case of surgery. Then we came to know he had an internal infection and he died at around 5 am.”

Since when keeping your legs out of the desk became a crime? And who gives the authority to the teachers to hit students? I don’t think corporal punishment is at all necessary to “discipline” students.

The teacher is rightly charged with murder. I hope Arpit’s parents do not give up and make sure that justice is delivered.

February 5, 2009 Posted in: Uncategorized No Comments

Sunjay Dutt’s Case - A good sign.

I think the sentencing of six years of RI for Sanjay Dutt is a good sign. Like they say, if you do the crime you have to do the time. It seemed in India never can a celebrity be sentenced but seems like times are changing and Sanjay Dutt’s sentencing would cast some fear in the minds of celebrities.

“Celebrity status is no consideration in the eyes of law. Justice is blind folded and this appears to have been established,” Memon, who had represented many of the 1993 Mumbai blast accused in the TADA court in 1990s, said.

“People were under the impression that the learned Judge P D Kode would grant Sanjay the benefit under Probation of Offender’s Act because of widespread campaign in Dutt’s favour by his family, well wishers and admirers but it did not happen,” he said.

“Whether the final findings of the trial court are ultimately sustainable or not, it must be said that people have started now believing that our criminal justice system treats a mason and a millionaire alike,” Memon said.[link]

I hope the offending celebrities and politicians keep getting punished in the future as well.

February 5, 2009 Posted in: Sanjay Dutt No Comments

Help Vinay fight Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

Thanks to Gazal for pointing this out to me. Vinay is suffering from AML and is in need of a bone marrow transplant. There is an entire website dedicated to this cause. When I had heard about nirali, I had urged everybody to go and register in the national bone marrow registry. Sadly she is no more with us but I would still encourage everybody out there to get registered. It could save one life.

My wife and I registered when the different drives were being conducted in our area. To find out about an upcoming drive in your area visit the website.

Please register and help make a difference.

June 9, 2007 Posted in: AML, Leukemia One Comment

The Rajasthan Story Of Caste Politics.

What is happening in Rajasthan is pretty shameful but not unexpected. The Gurjars have come out on the streets and their demand is that their OBC status be changed to ST. The protests have turned violent and as usual loss of life and public property follows. This includes pelting stone, burning police stations, road blocs and what not.

While the Gurjars are protesting to be included in the ST category, The Meena community is protesting against it. They have vowed to not let this inclusion happen as they are the only community classified as ST in Rajasthan.

What do you make of all this?

In my view this is happening for two reasons. One is Caste based identity Politics and the other is Quota Reservations. Because of Caste politics people vote en bloc as a community and they benefit as a bloc. This is what happened when jats in Rajasthan were granted OBC status. Since they are powerful and well off they kind of cornered the benefit of reservations. The gurjars, that has an OBC status was later promised ST status by BJP. The community voted and BJP came to power. The Gurjars now want the promise fulfilled. Apart from reservations the gurjars have another reason to protest. They have had very less political representation throughout Rajasthan except Dausa. Dausa is perhaps the only place where they have any political clout. When they learnt that Dausa was being converted into a reserved seat their patience ran out with BJP and they have come on the streets. Now if Gurjars get included as ST then the other ST community Meena suffers because someone else will come to share the ST reservation pie. Hence they protest to maintain their exclusive benefits. All of this is ridiculous but not unexpected. Looks like group assertion in India has become the only way to achieve any kind of benefit. This is a sad situation but is Muscle power of the community the only way to get social justice?

These events also bring out a big short coming of the entire social justice programme based on reservations. Many have been arguing all along the futility of implementing such huge programmes without solid data backing them. With incidents like these one can not help but doubt the fairness of the reservation system. The entire ad hoc classification process of communities as OBCs has to stop. The government needs to collect data and clearly define criteria based on which a community can be given a particuar status. It should also tackle the issue of creamy layer otherwise what is happening between different communities will get repeated within the same communities. Thereafter will come the quotas within quotas and so on.

Pratab Bhanu Mehta has an excellent take on the whole issue.

I personally feel it is time to revamp the whole reservation system with something new.

Sardar’s Slippers

AFRAID THAT SOMEONE WILL TAKE AWAY YOUR

SLIPPERS WHEN YOU LEAVE THEM OUTSIDE THE

MOSQUE / TEMPLE? —

FOLLOW THE SAME METHOD AS THIS

GENIUS SARDAR!–

May 29, 2007 Posted in: Funny Stuff, Humor, Humour, Jokes, Jokes and Humor 6 Comments

Women Drivers

May 27, 2007 Posted in: Funny Stuff, Humor, Humour, Jokes, Jokes and Humor 6 Comments

Chai Noon

May 25, 2007 Posted in: Funny Stuff, Humor, Humour, Jokes, Jokes and Humor One Comment

Why Mayawati as CM could be a good thing…

The recent elections in UP have had the results that could be good for UP in more ways than one.

The first and foremost that there is no hung assembly in UP. Thus providing a chance to focus on other things than just survival politics that had become the headache of every party in power.I hope that BSP makes use of this opportunity to get some development work started and I mean not only at basic level but also some ambitious projects especially regarding electricity, water and roads.

Secondly, this election has proved to be a setback for divisive politics . BSP has demonstrated how the future belongs to those who work with an all inclusive attitude. Now all that the BSP needs to do is show a slight sign of good governance and deliver to an extent on their promises. They can then ensure themselves another term at the help of the affairs and possibly pave the road to Delhi.

Third and most important is the hope and dignity that the election brings to millions of Dalits in the country and UP in particular. Mayawati symbolizes the breaking of upper caste monopoly over power. This election is an important landmark and will go a long way in boosting the Dalit morale. Dalits all over the country can now stand with the belief that Yes it can happen. The lesson that they should learn from this is that they should follow what BabaSaheb told them i.e. Educate, Struggle and Unite. The recent decision by Mayawati to give reservations to poor among the upper caste is an amazing step. It wasn’t long ago when Kanshi Ram said the same thing. He was against reservations for Dalits. He believed that the Dalits should be in power and give reservations to upper caste. It is about time that the Dalit community tasted power. It remains to be seen that they taste the fruits of power as well.

So far Mayawati has shown great political acumen in reaching where she is today but there are a few things that might have to change in the years to come. For one there is no other leader in BSP other than her. There is no second generation leadership. She needs to groom the second generation leadership. She also would have to mend her autocratic ways to be more successful at the higher level.

All in all I am very hopeful that this is the beginning of a change in UP and the relationship of dalits to power.

A lot has been written about the election and Mayawatin in the Blogosphere. I provide some links that are related.

Great Bong on Maya Memsaahib

Confused on Maya Memsaahib

Krish on UP Elections

Hindol Sengupta - Why I am afraid of Mayawati

Shivam Vij - On Why Hindol needn’t fear Mayawati

Kamla Bhatt - Excellent Profile Of Mayawati

Vinay Singh on UP elections

May 23, 2007 Posted in: Caste, Mayawati, U.P., UP Elections 2 Comments