A judge named Jyotsna Yagnik, in Ahmedabad, may not go into record books of Guinness or Limca for she has not done anything record breaking officially. But for me what she has done is to repose public faith in judicial system her single biggest achievement.
Unfortunately this also means the executive and legislature have failed to deliver. Every matter is now referred to courts. I wonder why we have all other institutions at the first place.
I stopped reporting these events years back. But I still go through the reporter’s agony in such scenarios. The very person who was elected to represent and protect the area is convicted of doing exactly the opposite. The very people who thought they will be protected by the executive for following blind orders of anarchy were left in lurch while their masters tasted power.
It was a heartrending scene at the court premises to see families of convicted crying helplessly. If only they had given an afterthought of what they were doing ten years back, they could not have seen this day.
If I was in Modi’s place, I would have come in public support to these convicts because these are the people who put me into power and I just cant wash my hands away. Even if I had to sacrifice power and my personal pride, I would have stood my ground. That is what makes a real man. If these people had not risked their life for nothing tangible in return, it was their ideology and faith in me. I cant turn away from my supporters.
But who cares. Take for example the social sphere rhetoric of praising NM for the work he is supposed to do and for which we all elected him (we represents people of his constituency). Counter question is then why are his counter parts in other states not performing the same way?
This is where a big fat misunderstanding is. All heads of state wants progress in their state (along with their own personal progress) but then we don’t have the great people of Gujarat elsewhere. In a state like Kerala or West Bengal projects are held up because people just do not cooperate. So who are the real heros in state’s development? The state leader or the people of this state?
But at the same time, we fail to see the flip side of this big industrial development or casually ignore it. Either way, ignore at your own peril because it will come to haunt us today or tomorrow. Largesse and heavy subsidies to private sector comes at our cost. Tata Nano is manufactured at a place and on power that the people of Gujarat have paid but the profits go to Tatas. The big expansion of Gujarat as an auto hub is nothing but paid by the people of Gujarat. Normally in such cases, the income gap between rich and poor increases leading to social unrest.
Then the second logical question is to see the Roads in Gujarat. Very few know that these highways projects are made with negative grants where a private conglomerate pays money to government to build these roads. In most cases government obliges with land acquisition at lower prices and subsidized rates and when the highways are built on Build, Own, Operate and Transfer, one thing that does not happen is transfer. There is no transparency on how long can a company own that road. It becomes a private property on which we pay toll eternally. Who would not like to get such contracts? Since other states dread to take such decisions, their roads are primitive as government coffers are empty to even repair leave alone build new roads. Private contractors benefit, big conglomerates benefits more and the biggest beneficiaries are political parties or political figures. And a big group of supporters pat Modi on his back for this big loot.
So the next logical question comes whether I am a Congress supporter. Sadly I have to say a big no because they are the real architects of this rotten system. They are the living Aristocrats of India whom many think are born to lead the country. Even if Rahul Gandhi is a misfit, he is prodded to be the PM by a certain section of people.
One more question I may face is whether I support people who wave Pakistan flags or vandalise places of importance. The answer is that I owe my loyalty to this country and not any individual like many of my friends who put personal interests and personal idols more than country’s interests. We will continue to have people who do vandalism. It is a law and order problem. Regarding their loyalty, I would say if they have not yet realized the plight of Muslims in their own land, then they only will repent.
Hinduism is a word coined by Arabs who dealt with India early on. I don’t expect people to agree on this. Then everyone beyond Hindu-Kush Mountains was called Hindus. This is our real heritage and this is the reason we call ourselves as Secular and not because we have different religions here. The caste system, superstitions, religious hatred, child marriage, Sati, astrology, black magic, patriarchal system were all our invention for which we should not be proud of.
So everyone who chose to be here are Indians. The problem that we have in India is too much freedom. A type of freedom that a person can go and vandalise a monument of national importance. Another person can ask this guy to leave the country on the basis of their caste, religion or colour. If there was a regulation on this and if there was a fear that such acts will not be tolerated, this will not happen. A classic example is Dubai.
Most importantly one should understand that criticizing is not treason. It can only build and strengthen the weakness that we have within ourselves.
So when the entire world knows for what and who orchestrated 1984 Sikh Riots or 2001 Gujarat riots, why not own up and take the moral responsibility?
These are my personal thoughts put as it flowed. Not intended for reproduction.
