Cartoons & Freedom of Expression

On Sunday our parliament celebrated 60 years of parliamentary democracy and many lofty speeches were made by our politicians about democracy and how we have matured over these six decades. However if one tried to do a reality check he will find that we have only gone regressive, and with each passing day we are going even more backwards. Have we failed Democracy or has democracy failed us? I don’t know, but both seem to hold true.

Before this day, on Saturday and on Monday we saw our parliament debate on a 63 year old cartoon of Dr. B R Ambedkar claiming that its inclusion in school textbooks degrades the dalit icon. If Dr. Ambedkar were alive today he would have shamed this entire bunch who are trying to make political gain by using his name. This issue was raised first by Mayavati who is still licking her wounds from the drubbing she got in the recent elections and is now desperately looking at some short cuts to regain her vote bank and this issue proved to be a handy one. Then everyone else jumped the bandwagon, making merry while the sun shines and thus make a mockery of the parliament. Precious time was wasted time on a frivolous issue when the nation is facing so many difficulties like inflation, poor health care, farmer suicides, corruption etc.

I saw the cartoon myself and found nothing objectionable in it. None of the senior learned men and experts who were called up for discussions on Television found anything objectionable. Only a small bunch of misled fools were making noise and trying to drown every voice of reason. Had Dr. Ambedkar been around he would have used a whip against them. The students who were interviewed were seen laughing more and ridiculing the politicians for wasting precious parliament time on such a frivolous issue. A small 12 year old child seems to be more mature than our stupid politicians.

A leader like Yashwant Sinha is worried that such cartoons degrading politicians, and showing them in poor light will affect children and the children will grow up to hate politicians. Has Mr. Yeshwant Sinha ever cared to sit down and introspect as to why politicians are looked upon this way and have become a laughing stock today. Nobody talks bad about Nehru, Sardar Patel, Dr. Radhakrishnan, La Bahadur Sashtri and politicians of that generation, the way today’s politicians are talked about. If fact every one revers them. Why then so much change has come about in the last 60 years in people’s perception of politicians. People from every walk of like agree that they are the root cause for all the nation’s ills. Almost half of our MP’s have criminal records. Each one of our MP’s or MLA’s, since getting elected has increased his/her bank balances a thousand fold. Nobody has answered from where the windfall came from. They are involved in crimes like extortion, land grabbing, corruption, blatant misuse of power to suppress those who are weak. None of them seems to be interested in the country and its welfare and progress.

How then can one have any respect or sympathy for these politicians? If the common man was given an opportunity to have his way each one of them would have been lynched. When asked some of the heads of political parties say that criminals are given tickets because they win elections for the parties concerned and therefore cannot be ignored. Thus the poor voter from rural areas is blamed because he is uneducated and sells his vote and therefore these criminals enter parliament. If that is the case why does nobody blame our so called intellectuals and well educated people who still vote for a corrupt Kalmadi to the post of Olympic committee president. The same Kalmadi who is undergoing so many enquires, is named by the CBI and has spent time in prison is still being voted, not by poor uneducated rural voters but by well educated and learned people from across cities serving in various sports and games committees. Are they also not falling prey to Kalmadi’s lavish parties in five star hotels where expensive liquor flows when our sportsmen do not get facilities to train and a healthy diet during camps. Why is nobody questioned when such a thing happens?

I must say that our politicians are themselves responsible for the plight they are in, however they are too shameless to accept this fact. Everyone is to be blamed except themselves. Redemption however is not so easy because the rot runs too deep. They need to take that long and painful walk backwards from the cesspool of corruption and everything that is evil that they have walked into so far. I do not think that any politician of my generation will even try to do this. Power has corrupted each one of them so much that life without power simply terrifies them. Therefore they will only try to save their skins by blaming others and in this instance the cartoons, and maybe tomorrow something else. Encroaching upon our freedoms that are guaranteed by our constitution seems to be one easy way. They find objection in an innocent cartoon on Dr. Ambedkar, yet find nothing unusual in trampling upon the very constitution that Dr. Ambedkar gave us. What Irony?. Today it is cartoons in text books and tomorrow it could be cartoons in newspapers and magazines and then newspapers themselves, something Mamata Banerjee has started in Bengal by banning all newspapers that are critical of her in government libraries.

One ray of hope however, during the debate in parliament was the voice of Jaswant Singh who went against his colleagues and others as the only voice of dissent. He spoke as to how hilarious he found the cartoons and he had a large collection of them. He said these cartoons helped him realize whenever he had made mistakes in his political life. He said that his eleven year old grandson had so many other things that could influence his mind rather than some innocent and funny cartoon. All other politicians too should follow his example. First correct yourself and reform. Jaswant Singh needs to be applauded here for his stand.

Finally, too all politicians of India, I have this humble advice: Be an honest leader who is loved by the masses. Be mature in your thinking and not a fool with little matter in the head like a Mayavati and others like her. Your vote banks should be the masses across all castes, creeds, religions and regions. People will watch and appreciate your honesty, transparency at work and your good deeds and you will be rewarded by their blessings and good wishes. Remember the good wishes and blessings of a destitute and hungry countryman far exceed in value all the money that you have accumulated and all the monetary rewards that you have acquired. Remember that you are elected and sent there not to waste time, agitate and stall parliament, but to legislate, discuss the ills that are plaguing the country and help rectify them. After this see how the perception of the common man towards you changes for the better. Please leave our cartoons alone !!!!!!!!!!!.

Follow up to Terrorism & Maoism

Within a couple of hours after I published my earlier blog came the news that the bullet riddled body of a Sub Inspector of Police kidnapped earlier was found in Odisha. Dear Swami Agnivesh how to you explain now the greatness of your naxal friends? Please remember that this menace can be put down only through brute force. The people who have taken up guns are not marginalised tribals nor the ones who want to fight for their causes. These are plain and simple thughs and murderers. The sooner people like you and Arundathi Roy realise this the better.

Maoism & Terrorism

I read a news article today wherein I found Swami Agnivesh describing Mr. Chidambaram as a terrorist worse than the Maoists. In this article he has gone to discuss the character of the Maoists as great as if they are the embodiment of non violence. In the end I did not know whether to laugh or to cry. Swami Agnivesh must be expressing his frustrations here, as he was a mediator between the government and the Maoists some time ago and failed in bringing about a compromise which would have made him a celebrity across the country. Having failed in this exercise he finds in Mr. Chidambaram an easy scape goat. Was he that stupid to think that he could bring about a change in heart among the Maoists whose only aim is to grab political power by force? The targeting of Mr Chidambaram first started after he began going after what is now described as saffron terror. Since then he has been targeted by the RSS, VHP BJP and the entire right wing politicians as also by unemployed people like Subramaniam Swamy a person with zero relevance in Indian politics. He has been targeted by Naveen Patnaik who calls him a person wanting to destroy the federal structure and Jayalalitha who sees a rival in him in Tamil Nadu politics. Now we see him being targeted by the Swami Agnivesh. Until he began going after saffron terror it is the same BJP and the right wing parties that described him as one of the best Home Ministers of independent India. Coming back to Swami Agnivesh, he talks about how the Maoists in their greatness released all their hostages recently which include the two Italians, the MLA and the District collector. He has however conveniently forgotten the two security guards of the collector who were butchered for simply doing their duty. He has forgotten all the ordinary policemen who have been killed in their hundreds, the local people who have been abducted and killed on suspicion of being government spies. What about them? Don’t they matter to Swami?. Are their lives as citizens of the country less important to him? What about these great maoists who extort money from business houses and then indulge in rape, molestations and even burning down of hospitals and schools. I would have been a little happy if corrupt officials and ministers had been the targets of Maoists. Yet I find only ordinary tribals ( for whom the Maoists claim to be carrying the banner) being butchered and a reign of terror imposed in areas under their control. Also, they only target those young officials who have opted to work in these tribal areas and bring in development in those areas. They very well know that after crying hoarse for years complaining about the neglect and lack of development in tribal areas and creating sympathy for themselves, it is the development measures taken by the government and the people who implement them are their enemies. They know that if schools, hospitals, roads, electricity, water etc. are provided to the tribals, they the Maoists will lose their relevance and their power. Therefore they want to avoid development at any cost. The Maoists have only one interest and that is to grab political power through the barrel of a gun. There is only one solution to this menace. Anyone who questions the might of the state and takes up arms against it needs to be crushed and crushed so badly that they never raise their head again. So far our governments have been very weak and soft towards the Maoists and have sought appeasement. It is now time to crush them with whatever means that are necessary. Be it the para military or the armed forces themselves. Today Naxalism is a greater enemy than the Al Qaida terrorists and it is growing by the day. Mr. Chidambaram is perfectly capable of doing so, but for this he needs support from all sides. Our narrow minded politicians are trying their level best to derail his efforts. Sometimes I even wonder if these might be on the payroll of the Maoists.