Another Black Friday

With the anti-corruption movement shaking the whole country, the Indian state Assam seems to be witnessing a lot more than that. Although corruption is a problem affecting the whole country, there are other serious problems (some of them are historic so to say) affecting North East India as well as Assam for a long time: sometimes due to the negligence of central government, sometimes due to the state government elected by our own people. Two days back there was a public protest led by Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) in the capital of Assam which turned violent claiming three lives including a minor. They were protesting the recent Assam government plan to evict thousands of Assamese people from hills and wetland areas around Guwahati. Surprisingly the government put up polling booths in all these areas during election. And after looting the public votes, now they are planning to turn them homeless. It should also be mentioned that the government has not taken any such steps so far to evict millions of illegal Bangladesh immigrants from various such government places including Kaziranga National Park.

Lots of public as well as private properties were destroyed, blame it on both the protesters as well as the government who did not take necessary measures. The role of police forces while those properties were destroyed also raises doubts in everyone's minds. They were just silent spectators and did not make any effort to stop it. Around 170 private vehicles were damaged and 2-3 city buses were put on fire in the incident. While KMSS has denied such destruction of public properties, the government is blaming the protesters, specially their leader as well as RTI activist Akhil Gogoi for this. But the role of police force while the properties were destroyed forces one to doubt whether this was a conspiracy by the government itself to put Akhil Gogoi behind bars. They tried to do it before the election also blaming Akhil Gogoi of violating election protocol, but had to release him within hours due to public protests. Today, the government has done the same mistake again by sending him to custody for three days. Already public protests have started at various places in Assam, specially Guwahati. People have blocked national highways, the streets have become deserted with shops, offices closing down. Hope this protest won't turn as violent as the one two days back. Assam might have witnesses hundreds of such black Fridays, but nothing has changed. Forget about such day or month long protests, even the six year long Assam agitation could not fulfill it's sole purpose and both the public as well as the government are responsible for this. Like we were betrayed by the government before, now also there is no good reason to expect something better, but hope the public will act in a matured manner this time onwards both in electing a government as well as raising voice against anything which threaten their existence and make them homeless in their own soil.

Alternative ways to fight against corruption?

With the recent movement in India led by Anna Hazare and others against corruption, there have been mixed reactions from the people of India. Although I have seen very few who are doubting Anna Hazare and his crusade against corruption calling them unconstitutional and all, it is worth looking into any alternative way(if any) in the minds of these people to bring the corruption down in India. Anna team are putting pressure on the government to implement the Jan Lokpal bill which will bring an autonomous body called Lokpal into existence. This will handle everything like speedy probe, trials and awarding punishments to the culprits without asking the government. I don't know why people are opposing this move? I have not seen any strong reason from anyone why Lokpal is not going to work. Most of the people who are complaining it seems, are not a fan of the way Anna is pressurizing the government. I would request them to suggest an alternative way. And even if there is an alternative, let Anna and his team fight in the way they prefer. After all they learned it from Gandhi, the father of the nation. Before independence also, people did not agree with each other in their ways to fight against the British. And they indeed fought in different ways, although the whole credit went to Gandhi and his followers only. So this time also, it's perfectly alright if someone think he or she does not believe in Anna's way. May he(she) fight in his(her) preferred way. As long as people support the cause (which is fight against corruption now) and choose their own way to fight for it, the solution will come in one way or the other. But just criticizing the Anna and his team (which now the Congress led government is doing to save their own political leaders who will be nowhere is Lokpal come to existence) is not enough, people should come up with proper logic why they think Anna's crusade is wrong and also suggest alternative ways to fight against corruption if they at all think corruption is a big problem India is facing nowadays.

Where is this country heading for?

The kind of things happening in this country (India of course) in past few months are really shameful. With the multi-billion dollar scams coming into light and sending the culprits like Raja, Kanimozhi, Kalmadi etc to jail, the anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare and later by Ramdev and all have gained a new momentum recently. The way the government has used brutal police force against the peaceful protesters in Ramlila maidan, New Delhi has in fact increased the momentum of the anti-corruption movement with every possible party, organization (except Congress) condemning it. The Congress led government seem to be playing a dual role: they accept the Jan lokpal bill demand of Anna Hazare team on one hand and on the other hand they order heavy crackdown on Ramdev led peaceful protesters. Their recent action has forced all of us to doubt whether the govt is serious at all about the Jan Lokpal Bill which if come into play will leave no room for the corrupted leaders and bureaucrats. Congress seem to be afraid of this bill a lot as many big leaders of the ruling government have been sent to jail already and if this bill becomes operational, may be all of the Congress leaders will be sent to jail. Unable to fight against the mass supporters of anti corruption movement, they government is now taking this issue personally against the leaders like Ramdev by putting income-tax, CBI behind him to probe some issues claimed by the government. The government is even claiming the aide of Ramdev to be a Nepalese criminal and trying to probe how he managed to get an Indian passport. The same Congress government however issue Indian voter ID's to millions of Bangladeshi immigrants who illegally infiltrate into Indian territory. It's unfortunate to see that the opposition parties like BJP are not taking full advantage of such a situation to fight against the Congress led government and their atrocities on innocent people. Even self-acclaimed common men's friend Rahul Gandhi seems to have disappeared instead of raising his Italian origin voice against the inhuman crackdown on the innocent people. He was shouting a lot recently for the Uttar Pradesh farmers against the land acquisition by the Mayawati led government in Uttar Pradesh. But now, when the same kind of situation has arisen sponsored by Congress although, he is silent. This clearly shows how fake Rahul Gandhi and his activities are. Hope the youth of this nation will stop calling him an idol of this country or future Prime Minister of this country or similar bullshits. Anyway, as long as we, the citizens or India are united against corruption, we do not need any false sympathies of people like Rahul Gandhi. Hope this movement turns into a revolution in this country and bring food, cloth and home to the millions of poor instead of increasing the Swiss bank account balance of Politicians.

Monsoon 2011

Season's first rain has finally arrived on June 2nd in the city of Bombay giving the much needed relief from the scorching heat and humidity. Although full fledged monsoon is going to arrive only after June 10th, these pre-monsoon showers are serving a good purpose as well. First rain brings a festive mood to the people of any Indian city I guess, a festive spirit beyond religious boundaries where everyone just come out of their home, office to celebrate by getting drenched in the rain. Although the first rain of the season could be dangerous to get drenched in, yet nobody seems to care about that. Being from Assam, where rain comes very often I am not so much enthusiastic although to go out and get drenched, but yet I love rain a lot, I always keep looking forward to it, it reminds me of my home, my childhood...it feels just awesome. In most parts of India, rain brings an end to the depressing brownish look of the hills, forests and covers them with a fresh green envelope. I know, it sounds exactly opposite to most of Europe where rain brings depression ;-) My landlord in Munich, Germany went crazy when I told him that Indians love rain a lot and we welcome it with immense pleasure. Anyway hope rain lasts longer this time, keeping Bombay cool and enjoyable :)