Revisiting my own thoughts ...

 Why should this be necessary ? I ask myself. 

The answer I get is that " You haennt found or got the satisfactory answers to your questions raised in your blogs howsoever intermittently written. 

I hope this new start or the Late in life Second innings ( Yes .. I played cricket ) will be more satisfying to me as well as the small community i may be able to communicate with thru this Blogging system !  So help me, and wish me all luck freinds !

Rajiv from 'Rajiv ki duniya '

A Dilemma I and many of my era face ..

 By 1975-76, the roughshod politics of Indira Gandhi had everyone on the backfoot, including the braver Jan Sangh and the Samajwadi Socialist party. We had just passed out of our colleges and universities. The future was full of uncertainty. 

The entire opposition joined hands to overthrow the draconian rule of Indira Gandhi brand of congress govt. I had thought that the malaise of the congress as led by Sanjay and Indira Gandhi had been cleaned up. The new dispensation of the people, the Janata Party held out huge promises but ultimately thanks to the the machinations of the coalition politics, leaving JP, Mahatma Gandhi by the wayside. Even Lohia and his thoughts underwent severe changes.

 The Indira Congress came back with vengeance on all and sundry who had opposed her. The era of safari suit clad politician had established itself, with the Jan Sangh and other parties taking a backseat though the Jan Sangh by the mid eighties had dumped the Old style politics and steadily added to the numbers of the legislators at the cost of less emphatic parties like the Old Congress, Socialist Party the defunct Swatantrata Party and other minor groups. However they still had no love lost for Gandhian principles or politics in their new ‘Avatar’ of the Bhartiya Janata Party ! It ( the name Bharatiya Jananat Party was a very clever ruse by the Jan Sangh of yore which gathered together these disparate elements of post 1980 political landscape.) The rudderless but as yet somewhat committed 'Old value' Gandhians found it convenient to  come under the umbrella influence of BJP with Atal ji as a moderator of finesse in matters of political use. The ‘Jan Sangh’ OR the BJP was chuckling all the way to the eletorate ..1985 onwards till 1999 and by 2004 thought that the draconian Indira Congress was down and out and they had grabbed the country leadership proper !!

No one expected the Sonia Congress to win in 2004 and more so in 2009 ! The gory details of the various scams made the electorate desperate for a change. Narendra Modi had steadily won over Gujarat and was the arbiter in chief in the BJP by the 2014 elections. The Old Congress values and JPs plea for a united front against the corrupt and clueless Congress ( Indira)took a totally new meaning under the BJP ( or the Bhartiya Jan Sangh Party, if you will ..) leadership vociferously led by Narendra Modi. The ‘ease of living’ and the upliftment  of the ‘Antyodaya’ , honesty in public life, the three most powerful and largely successful precepts of the 1977 Janata Party had languished since 1984-85. The new Jan Sangh in its new ‘Avatar’ of BJP had quietly taken over the mindset of the electorate by 2014. A whole new generation had emerged since 1977-81 and you could love your nation once more under the powerful leadership of Narendra Modi and also hope for a better future. NAMO showered praises on Gandhi and Patel for the glorious Indian independence and singled out the Nehruvians for all the ills the nation faced. He gave recognition to the good politician till then ignored jealously by the Indira- Sonia Congress. The foolish conduct of the new scion of the Indira Gandhi family was a willing bait to NAMO rhetorical campaign and ultimate victory in both 2014 and 2019 elections. In fact, today it seems that without the continued idiocies of the so called Congress, even NAMO will find it difficult to win elections as comfortably as in the past ! India largely votes negatively- remove the top guys if you are not happy ! However it is now that for the first time the electorate has to take a call on the directions taken by the NAMO govt. In 2022 it will be clear if the electorate is really intelligent enough to tweak its preference if not the govt ! 

The irony of the situation is that the Congress which owes so much to Gandhi and Patel and Subhash and many other lesser leaders is miles away from these leaders’ values and policies which ensconced them in the voters hearts ! The BJP on the other hand has as yet to take a firm decision on their closeness to the Jan Sangh policies and their leaders of past and not just put all their eggs in one basket ! Something totally different and democratically effective economically and socially has to come forth under a true “Janata” Platform or maybe a new “Janata Party”a free and honest organisation has to take up the top position which will usher a more democratic and stable political system. I and most others have never liked ‘Goras’ rule’ but we certainly want a firm and honest British style of Parliamentary democracy for starters ! 

Can this happen, Election Commission of India ??

Can we make some promises this election year ??

We all lament that after the elections the newly elected members simply vanish from the constituency for the next five years and are not responsible to theirs and their party's commitments. So, a few suggestions:-

1) Every successful Candidate should be asked by the Electoral Officer in charge of declaring him victorious to sign up on an affidavit that he or she shall visit the constituency in a given week slot within the year of his election to explain to the electorate what he has done and achieved for the constituency as per the promises made in his party's manifesto as well as his own promises made during the election.

2) This signed affidavit should be made mandatory to be presented to the Pro-temp Speaker of the Parliament before the new Member of Parliament is given his Oath in the House. No Candidate member should be allowed to become a 'proper member of Parliament' and take the oath unless he has submitted this document to the Speaker/Pro Temp Speaker. In absence of this document his/ her membership of the house should be declared null and void.

3) The new Member of Parliament must give his performance report in his Constituency every year and also every year thereafter for the next three years. Those of the constituents of the constituency who had voted in the elections should give their response in a referendum which can be carried out over the internet ( over the mobile phone/internet responses with the voter id card references which should show the respondent as having exercised his vote ). The response over the next three years from the date of the elections will give a fair idea to the nation at large about the performance of the Member as well as the democratic functioning of our Govt. The last two years are enough both for the electorate and the M.P. /M.L.A. to come to their own conclusions and take a call and act responsibly.

I agree that that the last suggested para will need lots of improvement and additions, but let us make a beginning. I think all the political parties should agree broadly on the above. The way to push this reform has to be with the Electoral officer starting off with the affidavit - straightaway. Let the Election Commission, the last bastion of a free and independent institutions left in the country take immediate steps before the 16th of May'14 is upon us. Am I asking for too much ??  

A pause before we vote !

The festival of democracy is here ! The party flags and festoons and the noise and the 'sloganfest' and the shout of the the largest democracy in the world is here for the whole world to watch, see, hear and envy is here !!

The Election Commission of our country, perhaps the only and the most unbiased organisation left untouched by the political executive over the past 15 Lok Sabha elections has done all that it could to give a further boost to our credentials as a vibrant thinking democracy. On 7th of this month, the first votes will be cast. We have more than 42 days before we know the first results. As I look forward to the end result, enjoying for a day our another great religion cricket unfold it shortest version championship on 6th April in the evening, I wonder if our elected representatives will be any different than the ones who we already have? Will they have any self regulation ? I wonder.

And I think that the Election Commission has another task cut out and they must act fast. A task perhaps very much in some form or the other in our hearts but never perhaps properly, and legally perfected. A system under which all the elected representatives are forced to go back to their school days. A time when they were supposed to show their homework to the class teacher and feel concerned about on pain of punishment.

So here goes; it should be made mandatory for every elected member of Parliament to go back to their constituents every one year from the date of their election and explain to them what they have done or achieved for the constituency they have been elected to represent. Secondly, what is it that they intend to do in the following year. And, what do they intend to do for the last three years. This should be a compulsory act and any M.P. not following this constitutional obligation should be debarred from participating in the Parliamentary proceedings and certainly not allowed to vote in the proceedings. The Election Commission should frame all the rules and regulations in this regard and each M.P. elected should sign this declaration and commitment before he is handed over his election certificate. Without this declaration he should not be allowed to take the oath in the new Parliament.

A system of recall is a long standing requirement and perhaps this could be the a starting basis for that law too in the times to come.

But am I thinking like an idealist ? Perhaps.

The BJP the party which is expected to win the election and give us a new Govt. is yet to finalise its Manifesto ! The Congress Party , the Party that swears by the Constitution and the national movement ethos, give its Manifesto a mere 48 hours before the first votes are cast. And the earliest to the finishing line in this regard, and the party that is so upset with the current system also feels it important enough to finalise it just a week ago ! And these parties expect us to vote on the basis of the promises made in the Manifesto which is supposed to be discussed by the voters before they decide their vote ? OR is it that we are just going thru the motions of our great 'Dance of Democracy '?  

Is it because of this non seriousness attitude towards the issues which will create a political thought process that is forcing us to believe that BJP is MODI and MODI is BJP ? That Arvind Kejriwal is AAP and AAP is Arvind Kejriwal ? and of course that SONIA - RAHUL is Congress and Congress is SONIA- RAHUL ?? Are we not going back to the helpless days of pre-emergency days when INDIA was INDIRA and INDIRA was INDIA ?? I shudder to think.

I hope the above will force some of my friends to think afresh - whatever be the result of this election.

God , be indulgent towards us, please !!

Is your Papa in a picture only ...Nana ??

“Is your Papa in a picture only ..Nana?”  The innocent question just halted me in my tracks. I had just shown my fathers’ picture portrait on the wall to my grandson Shaurya and told him that he was my father. Shaurya  my grandson, had unwittingly, unknowingly asked me a question, which if I had answered honestly would have left him unsatisfied. For if I had said yes, he would have disbelieved me, for no one, and particularly Papas should live only in pictures ! Then I would have had to tell him that “well..you see Shaurya ..he is no more with us ..he is with the Angels “ and he would have known that still I have not given him a truthful answer. How would I ever want this wonderful child of God  to worry about life and death at this tender age ?? To my great relief he had already challenged me to a “Galaxy Explorer” game on the net !  I had quickly grabbed the opportunity.

And yet, it was as if all that had happened only yesterday. I could still see the pyre burning at first slowly, then a little harder and finally with such ferocity and brightness that at one moment I could see the bones of the feet  and the fingers  of my father in the pyre clearly silhouetted against the yellow and orange flames that had overtaken the pyre and the frail body wrapped inside it, that was my father, our beloved ‘Chacha ji’ to most who knew him. Soon the bones  just broke off and fell...The whole process had taken not more than 2 -3 hrs and now the blazing pyre had petered out all its fury spent as if signalling that all that was humanly visible was about to end. Very soon only ashes and smouldering embers were left. I could see a couple of other bodies lying in their yellow and white shrouds, tied to the flimsy bamboo beds with their near and dear ones huddled over them, waiting for the space ....

And very soon, suddenly, a group of workers came from nowhere and with the help of a coconut tree large leaf broom and just pushed the entire burnt out remains of the pyre, my fathers’ earthly form reduced to ashes, out over the ‘Chabootara’ into the holy river Ganges that flowed beneath. I was left open mouthed, is this all that there is ? Is this how my father should end ?Is this how all of us will end ? Isn’t there something missing... I mean should we not have done something before we all came to such a pass? It was too late however, and my fathers ashes were already flowing along with the genteel waves of the holy river. Even if I wanted to gather him all once again, it would not be possible. He had already embarked on his grand journey to mingle with the holy spirits and we were not allowed to go anywhere near the holy path way , at least not beyond the burning ghats ...for the moment.

The professor sahib who had been relating his experiences with m y father while the pyre burned had also tired and wiping his moist eyes and face, overcome by emotions, he put his hands around my shoulders and said, ‘all of us are blessed to have known your father and you must not despair , now that he is no more. His life itself is a huge reference book for you and all of us to carry on our good lives.’ With some Sanskrit couplet, he bade us goodbye. We, my brother, my couple of nephews and some neighbours and well wisher friends who had stayed on with us slowly made our way back to our home at Ishwargangi, Varanasi. Very soon we were mingling with the crowds on the streets of Varanasi, all of us sad, in anonymity, lost in our own thoughts. We  reached  the darkened streets or ‘gullies’ , as they are known in Varanasi, of our old family house where the rest of the members of the family were inconsolably in distress. The night somehow, slowly, sadly, passed over us, while we all lay awake.

More than 32 years have gone by and  still remember my father as will every person who has loved and lost his father, and will be challenged by the thought that ‘if’ only ...’ ‘if only...he or she had done this or that’ or  if only a few more years were there to go still....

I am comforted by the thought that there are perhaps many thousands in this world who are going thru this pain and I am not alone in this predicament.

I hope that the younger generation, our hope of the future, not only successfully negotiate their current challenges, but somewhere in their warm hearts they remember their parents with love and reverence. So that when they are questioned by their grandchildren, they will at least be better prepared to respond with greater wisdom than I could .... so that they would be able to tell a story to their grandchildren that they would readily believe in, believe in love.   

"AAP ki dilemmma"

The AAP ki dilemma !( Or is it the Country’s?)

I wonder if Arvind Kejriwal and his friends had ever imagined the political uncertainty they were to unleash when they did not get their 47 seats so vehemently claimed by AK in his interviews to various channels in the Capital and the NCR regions. That they got 28 has further confounded their political sagacity which I rate very highly even now. It has at the same time given them a huge opportunity to clean up the ‘Aegean stables’ so to say, of our country’s none too attractive political journey. They must now force the population of Delhi ( to call it New Delhi would be missing the point) to revisit the history of their political territory and thru this the political territory of the country of at least the last 65 years if not more. Perhaps the earlier period can be left best to the renowned historians and lesser mortals to juggle with.

For what Kejriwal has done is to open up the innards of each political outfit in the country and laid them bare before the embarassed public eyes. That they ( the people ) should be embarassed more, is a different matter and at the same time a very pivotal matter. I would insist that the Indian masses should look deep inside their own ‘zameer’ ( for want of a better english word) and come to their own conclusions as to why during their earlier independent existence they allowed their political thoughts as represented by the ‘established’ political parties to go astray and get deeply ensnared in the corrupt quicksand of any new and developing nation. This probability was very well known to the people or the members of the most effective and honoured party of the post independence era, the Congress Party, formed out of the blood sweat and toils and tears of the freedom movement of the nation. I would also quickly add the personas of the other ‘left of the centre’ political parties  like the Socialist Party, the CPI, the Forward bloc etc. This latter group I would leave out for the present for the purposes of getting to the bottom of what I wish t o say. So, back to the wonderful ‘zameer ‘ of the people of this country which the AAP has forcibly opened up once more.

For well over a quarter of a century, the Congress Party headed by Mrs. Indira Gandhi and her descendants decided what was best for the country and its people. Which sector to be propelled, which financial laws to be pushed thru, which social legislation to be strengthened was her whim and fancy. There was hardly any democratic push for any major sinew of the nation from the party ; what mattered was that the Party boss was kept in good humour and that would ensure that the ‘business as usual’ ethos would continue, and that all is well with the Indian democracy. Slowly, an established but thinly veiled corrupt system of governance got established. So, it did not matter if officials received expensive gifts and junkets and favours from the emerging dynamic business class for files to be moved effectively. It did not matter at all very soon that these powerful centres of change ( read the govt. official, the corporate executive et all ) received expensive gifts during Diwali, Christmas and other such important revered festival days. Gifts and favours which in their wildest dreams they would not have dared to purchase from their salaries or known sources of income. Overnight, many ‘successful’ executives became ‘very well to do’ and sometimes ‘originally rich’ classes of officials and individuals who would naturally scale the heights of officialdom at double speed and all would again be ‘business as usual’. Nobody would point a finger at them or their sudden upwardly mobile stance and ambience. Till something like the Coal block Scandal or the 2 G Scam or the CWG scam would break loose and the dull sensibilities of the Indian masses would be shaken, in fact brutally woken up to start groping for a way out. Not that Arvind Kejriwal  has provided any blue print for sorting these out and getting us on a righteous path immediately enough.

Now that the AAM Party has taken the political challenge by its horns, it is also very heartening to note that they have started by steadfastly sticking to the honest, simple, and straightforward living standards for themselves, C.M.s and Ministers and of course the M.L.A.s elected right from the word go ! No flapping security of gun toting men to signal that they are bringing in tow a ‘Minister’ or a ‘bada Aadmi’ !! No palatial bungalows, and unnecessary fan fare. These are some basics on which they will build ( at least I hope so ) These are the basics on which every other ‘established’ party will flounder and will have to perforce do a re-think. They will ultimately have to do a rethink on the political thought with which they wish to engage the masses.

Aur bhi bahut gham hain duniya mein, abhi yaaron !!

No time to tell the truth ...

Kyunki Sach Bolne ka koi samay nahin hota.... !

I am grateful to Rahul Gandhi for taking this adage seriously when he trashed the ‘Nonsensical’ Ordinance which sought to save the tainted and corrupt leaders from the whiplash of our Courts and the laws of the land. While Shri Lalu Yadav had to pay a heavy price by accepting his new address in Ranchi Jail,  ( there were others too...) the message was clear ; ‘As you sow, so shall you reap...’  At least that was the new ‘diktat’. It is also a undeniable truth that none of the established political parties ( at least the two major ones) will be seriously doing any heart search. Elections have to be won and compromises will have to be made. That also is a ‘Sach’ which can not wait for any auspicious moment to be stated.

Just pondering over the various ‘’truths’ or ‘Sachi batein’, and even though the list is endless, it is always good to give a start ....another truth which can not be waiting for an auspicious time !

We start our lives with all the good things that we need to be being dinned into our ears right thru our cradle days to school. By the time we reach college, we start believing that ‘thoda aate mein namak milane se jyada koi farak nahi padta’. So we all keep on adding salt (untruth) to our truth(aata) till we realise that we have ‘namak’ in the ‘aata’ ki bori ( life’s final scorecard ).

We start our responsible civic lives with the premise that in order to survive this in ‘cruel’ world you need to compromise once in a while. Otherwise how do we change the society and world if we ourselves don’t survive in a ‘decent’ and ‘fair’ manner?! So we close our eyes to all wrongdoings in the Government, the corporate world, ( of which I was a hard working member ) and society ( of which I am a member) and we carry on.

Till we confront the Frankenstein we have created, be it in the form of wayside corruption, smart corruption in the offices( Govt as well as Corporates), corrupt and dishonest intellectual discourses and finally our helplessness to set right even the minutest of flaws of our civic environment. As I said there are many, many truths which need to be stated to ourselves and there is no ‘auspicious time’ our ‘opportune’ time like in the case of Rahul Gandhi as mentioned in the beginning.

The greatest truth according to me is the inherent capacity in a human being to recognise his or her own ‘untruths’ and know for certain the way ahead as was dinned in the ears ...many, many years ago... It is just that we do not wish to face the pain and failure when we try to embark on a truthful path ahead. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the only ‘human’ being who could face this pain and discomfort and yet he embarked on his ‘Nidar’ path, something which he exhorted his countrymen to follow, very successfully !

This country needs its people to be truthful, honest, and courageous; and if Rahul Gandhi is attempting that then full marks to him. My suspicion is that very inadvertently he has rekindled the desire among many of us to ‘sach bolo’ even though ultimately this ‘sach bolo’ funda may almost certainly expose ‘his’ Congress party of its true colors.

Let us start our little ‘experiments with truth’.