MAHI IS DEAD

‘Mahi is dead’, was the one liner which one of the leading news channels gave soon after the hapless child was pulled out of the bore well in which she had fallen into 84 hours before. Not the first child to fall in and not the first to die. Ever since, the widely televised rescue operation of ‘Prince’ was covered live, many more have fallen in, only to come out dead.

The public is exhausted of the nail biting suspense of watching and hearing of such agonizingly long operations and their subsequent failures. They are tired of grieving and they are tired of helplessly wringing their hands as by-standers. Like one of them, I too had tried to block my mind by switching off the TV, only to toss and turn all night and getting up in the wee hours of the morning to once again switch on the idiot box in the wane hope of hearing a happy ending. But, it has almost always been sad news.

But more than grief, now it is outrage and anger; anger at the abuse and callousness that we as a nation and as adults show to our children, especially poor children.

Is there never to be any accountability? And what is this entire hullabaloo about havans and yajnas being performed all over the country by a generally apathetic citizenry and the vulgar compensations doled out by equally unsympathetic governments?  Money to shut the mouths of victims groveling in poverty! A small price for children they can anyway do without!

Is that all we are capable of? Will the laws and law makers of this land always let the perpetrators of such crimes go scot free? Will those responsible never be hauled up and their faces never shown to the public? Will criminal charges never be pressed against such offenders, whether individuals, organizations or governments? Why don’t the media follow up after the child is dead? Why don’t they expose such criminals?

Because, most of the victims in the past have belonged to the poorest section of society. Their parents are daily wage earners; labourers who toil all day and their children, wallow by the sides, in heat, dust, rain or cold depending on which time of the year it is. No crèches, no day-cares, no ayahs or helps to watch over them while their parents toil to earn a few rupees to put food in their mouths at the end of the day. Parents, who can perhaps only watch from a distance and the corner of their eyes, as they dare not antagonize their contractors.

Are we to blame the children then for straying away and falling into death traps? Or are we to blame their parents for not taking good enough care of their wards? Can we even begin to imagine what it would be like for a toddler to be stuck in an eight inch diameter hole, in the darkest possible pit deep in the earth without light, food water; even without the familiar faces of those who love him/her?

And what about the huge cost involved in extricating these children? Who will bear it? Not the culprits we can be sure. And what about the loss of innumerable man hours, of the common and not so common people? People who include locals, government officials, doctors, engineers, army men and not to mention the media, watching these spectacles. And not to forget the man hours wasted by millions of viewers who sit glued to their TV sets, unable to do anything else because they just can’t get the distressing images out of their minds. And what about those who even get badly injured in doing these risky operations? Who will bear their pain?

And what about the huge amounts of equipment which are moved to these sites from other assignments, like cranes, earth movers, ambulances, trucks, army vehicles, staff cars etc, etc. Who will bear the cost of these?

No one in particular, but, everyone in general! At that moment of course, everyone wants to wear the Good Samaritan halo and enjoy even a little bit of glory; like the administrators who bask in media attention, giving sound bytes to a hungry media.

BEASTS REDEFINED!!!!!!!!

Just saw the footage on TV of a policeman in uniform in Araria, Bihar stomping an injured man to death. I am still shaking with revulsion and horror. Have we as a people, as a nation sunk so low, and gone back so far into time that even beasts appear benign. Listening to news everyday is an act of bravery and of steeling oneself to hearing more and more gory crimes against humanity by our own people and against our own citizens by those in power. We are a free nation apparently, a democracy where its people are meant to be supreme, but the rot that bad governance and absolute decay in human values brought upon us by corrupt politicians and equally insensitive and indifferent citizens has made us into some creatures which even perhaps God cannot recognise. if it werent for the press, howsoever, sensational nothing would come to light. But, enough is enough. What will it take for us to become human again, forget honest ones, atleast kind to all living beings, especially our own species.

BALI KE BAKRE

Our soldiers and para-military forces are nothing but “bali ke bakre” for members of the establishment: be it politicians, bureaucrats or any other agency like the election commission. Because of their callousness and lack of understanding about the ground realities our men continue to die unnecessarily. They are made to go like sitting ducks, because there isn’t any planning or strategy to address the obvious dangers.

The recent deaths of our men in the first phase of elections show just that. What was the election commission thinking? Clubbing all the high risk regions together in the first phase was absurd. It only resulted in spreading the forces thinly over a vast area. Even a common citizen would know that having elections on the same day in places like the naxal affected areas of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh etc, and north-eastern states as well as Jammu and Kashmir was suicidal for any law enforcement agency.

Never before have so many security personnel died in election duty. Many election officers have also died this time. But, who cares? What does it matter if two dozen people die in a country of one billion, especially security people? After all that is what they are meant to do, some of our rulers would say.

No, they are not supposed to die like this. Especially, the way they died in Nalco’s bauxite mines at Panchpatmali hill in Koraput district(corporates are no better). The siege has shown in what pathetic conditions these men were housed in. One fan for 14 people and one toilet for 26 men! No proper drinking water and no basic amenities. Because of the heat inside the rooms, they have to sit out all day in the open. This how we treat our soldiers whom we expect to go out there face and the enemy from within and without and give up their lives happily. What an ungrateful nation!

Just, so that we may go about our lives peacefully and normally, these men live in harsh terrains, constantly under the threat of bullets and ambushes, and we cannot even provide them basic necessities like drinking water. They are expected to walk miles for fear of being ambushed but we cannot even house them properly and provide them with proper equipment. While, they carry antiquated guns, the ultras are armed with AK-47s. No political party will have anything to say about these things; because, the men who die are too insignificant.

MOTHER EARTH

since millennia
you have been doing this to me
carving portions of my body
drawing lines on my person
each bloodier than the last
you kept multiplying
and kept drawing lines
taking a piece of your own
nothing else would suffice
you never stopped to think
of my wounds or my pain
you continued
till the borders grew so tight
and my pieces so small
you could have had me
for mincemeat
now I am unrecognizable
as far as the eye can see
there are walls, fences and barricades
you call them countries, states, nations
but the lines that you so meticulously drew
also broke homes, families, hearts
they cut rivers, meadows and mountains
even the skies are in tatters
as you cannot fly into another’s
nothing is complete today
nothing is free
only one thing is true
there are enemies on every side
you spend millions to survive hate
what could have been yours with love

LEADERLESS, DIRECTIONLESS, CHARACTERLESS

If the terror attacks have numbed us, the subsequent political circus by the Congress-NCP combine thereafter has been nauseating. Our politicians will remain the same—insensitive, petty and self-serving. First Vilas Rao Deshmukh took his own sweet time to ‘offer’ not ‘submit’ his resignation and then it took several hours’ nay days, for the decision to select the CM for the troubled state of Maharashtra. To silence the media channels somewhat, Rahul Gandhi gave a statement that the CM for Maharashtra had been decided but the name would be announced later. Why? What took so much time? Obviously, it was because of the behind the door haggling between Sena, NCP and Congress.

The utter bankruptcy of our political parties! They are unable to come up with a single name which would be acceptable to all. And the icing on the cake has been the announcement of Chagan Bhujbal as deputy chief minister. How can they even consider a man who is so tainted, at this juncture; somebody, whose name was involved in a multi-crore scam? Is this what we citizens deserve in this hour of crisis? Instead of coming up with a name of high integrity and administrative abilities we are forced to accept a man of doubtful credentials. As a citizen one feels insulted and helpless. These men who are elected representatives are on their own trip. The terror attack is only an opportunity to grab the coveted seat. Damn the people and damn their sentiment!

The only qualification to be a chief minister in India is to be a sycophant to the high command or a major contributor to the party fund or belong to a certain caste. One is amazed that the choice was being discussed on lines of who is a dalit or who is maratha. Whether you have a criminal background it doesn’t matter. Whether you have any education or not it doesn’t matter. Whether you have handled any ministry competently earlier doesn’t matter. Which is why perhaps, you had a sarpanch (Vilas Rao) rise to that level; his lackadaisical approach resembling that of a village square politician. For the past several days when work in Maharashtra should have been at an urgent pace, it has been held in abeyance because of no political leadership. All the departments which need to coordinate with the home ministry were obviously waiting. And in this crucial hour this can lead to loss of momentum.

I do believe just as the citizens of Mumbai had gathered at the Gateway of India to express their anger towards the political establishment they should gherao the mantralaya and not allow unacceptable candidates to be selected as the CM, deputy CM or home minister.

HOW DARE YOU MR. ACHUTANANDAN!

The country in general and Keralites in specific should rebel in one voice against the Kerala CM’s crass remarks. How dare he abuse a slain martyr’s family? Our politicians were spineless we always knew but they would indulge in such loose talk against the father of a hero killed in action defies all norms.

First the home state does not send any representative on Major Sandip Unnikrishnan’s funeral and then only under extreme public pressure the chief minister along with his home minister arrives only after the family has already declared they won’t meet political visitors. The father who was already broken hearted and grieving at his young son’s demise was further hurt and humiliated at the manner in which the people at the helm of his own home state had behaved. His outburst was one of pain and disillusionment. Couldn’t Mr. Achutanandan have shown more grace and not used such disgusting language. This terror incident has truly unveiled the ugly faces of our politicians who strut around wearing masks of empathy and concern.

The entire state of Kerala should rise and throw out such a chief minister. He should realize he is alive at this ripe old age because men like Sandip die at young ages.

JAWS OF TERROR

Mumbai has been pulled out of the jaws of terror. For this we have to thank only our men in uniform. What an awe-inspiring job they did in the last three days in the face of such extreme danger and odds—each one of them: the NSG, the MARCOS, the Army commandoes and even the Maharashtra police. But, my head hung in shame when after 36 hours of battling at the Nariman House I saw them board dilapidated state transport (BEST) buses. Is this how we treat our heroes? Is this the kind of logistic support we can provide them? Even a three-tonner would have been more respectful. Why was there no one from the civil administration to at least provide them with some very basic refreshments? Is this how super specialized commandoes who put their life on line get treated?

This country does not deserve its soldiers. More so, the politicians and bureaucrats, who first create these horribly, complicated situations because of their callous, incompetent and corrupt behaviour; and then push these brave men to do or die. It is, of course, to the credit of our forces that they never let the nation or its people down; be it the war in Kargil, natural calamities or man-made disasters like pulling a child out of a bore-well.

But, in the last 30-40 years, successive governments have undermined the prestige and position of our men in uniform. It was to the credit of Indira Gandhi who had so substantially increased the defense budget for both men and material, that the salaries and perks of soldiers had risen several fold. Perhaps, that was one of the reasons for our emphatic victory in the 71 war. Not that our soldiers would have let us down without it, but a happy and motivated force is a much more lethal power to reckon with than a demoralized one. In 1962, when the Chinese attacked us our soldiers didn’t even have woolen socks (forget high-altitude gear) in sub zero degree temperatures. More men died of cold and frost bite than perhaps bullets.

It is not enough to salute them, shout slogans and sing platitudes when they pull us out of some terrible disaster. We have to thank them and show our gratitude in tangible terms- both monetary and in kind. I was shocked to hear Arnab Goswami mention on his channel TimesNow that some bureaucrats had actually questioned and resented the 2 dozen eggs the soldiers got as monthly rations.

Even the recent controversy over the three service chiefs hesitating to implement the sixth pay commission in its current form has raised the hackles of our babus in South Block. One should stop as a nation and ask ourselves what has driven the top brass in the three services to take such a stance? I think it is for the first time in post independent India that the chiefs have refused to accept the diktats of their political masters in issues relating to their men without their being involved. It shows their level of frustration, anguish and humiliation at being treated as a second class service. The people of this country would like to see them get equal if not higher pay than their civilian counter parts of the same rank.
Whenever, our men in uniform die in action or get injured the political masters that may be rush to announce rewards, gas agencies, petrol pumps etc, and then the moment the dust settles on their graves make their families, parents wives run from pillar to post, adding insult to injury.

The country wants its political leadership, both in government and opposition, to set aside their partisanship, and for once give their soldiers their due and show more respect to their standing. In today’s, troubled times, when we keep calling upon them not just for external dangers but also internal ones, let us not shed crocodile tears but offer real rewards. And please, please, Mr. Modi and Mr. Advani don’t come when a city is battling terror to score brownie points, when you can very well wait for the operation to finish. Our soldiers our not beggars, don’t announce one crore compensation like alms.