vision of a common man

VISION OF A COMMON MAN

The present precarious situation of our country is quite bewildering. The hidden grievances of our people has audaciously erupted in the form of volcanic lava. India once called as “land of opportunities” has been transformed into a “land of hypocrisy”. The lack of competent bureaucrats and the inability of our eminent leaders to tackle the prevailing melancholy state of affairs, will doom our country. I guess, never before has India ever been faced with such malicious issues simultaneously.

First of all, tackling the ‘Red Menace’(Maoists) has become Achilles’ heel for us. The so called ‘negligence’ shown by our government towards the downtrodden , backward class, tribal people has been countered in the form of massacre and terror. The Maoists have been perpetrators of senseless violence. The asylum of the Maoists have been the forests of Maharashtra, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh. The Maoists are nothing but common inhabitants of a region, deprived of their rights. Handling this sensitive issue is more demanding than countering terrorism since the Maoists don’t demand a separate country, but equality in terms of lineage and rights. The basic difference between a Maoist and a terrorist is the same. The Maoists have a lot of sympathizers, but soon with a plethora of merciless acts of violence, even they are being numbered.

The state government is reluctant to employ military force against the indigenous people. Hence being soft towards them , they refuse to accept the Maoist problem to be mild. The police personnel are not well trained, and the old, rusty equipments are no match to the AK-47 of the Maoists. Also recently, as discovered by Home Secretary G. K. Pillai, some of the Forest Officers are linked with them and act as promoters and catalyst in their endeavors.

Secondly, coming to the CWG fiasco, I was in New Delhi few months back. Believe me, the situation there is quite unpalatable. I couldn’t get the spasm of something grandiose taking place in a few months time. Through the CWG, the prestige of our nation is at stake as the whole world will be watching us. The whimsical committee headed by Mr. Suresh Kalmadi(IOA Chairman) have brought shame and admonished our country on a world stage. There was a plethora of irregularities observed in the budget allocated for the games by the Union government. Moreover we keep pondering where our hard earned money(paid in the form of tax) is being utilized!! The term ‘corruption’ in Indian polity is no neologism, but the way the committee went ahead in their pursuit of hosting the CWG was unethical. Surely ,it is a great opportunity for us to showcase our multidextrous abilities to the world, but not at the cost of filling one’s pocket. The news of huge financial irregularities is emerging at a time when the CWG is a few days away from kick-off. Hence any major actions against the ‘traitors’ is very unlikely. The media and the mob can bleat regarding this issue, but the big bullies will come out of this quagmire and scuttle this issue into oblivion.

Now the entire country is asking the same question-whether bidding for the CWG was a rational, pragmatic decision? Holistically, wasn’t it an impetuous thing to do? India, definitely can’t be termed as a sporting nation nor does it bear a sporting culture. When the country lacks adequate infrastructure and decent training facilities for sportsmen, is spending thousands of crores of money in hosting the CWG justified? What if the money would have been utilized in improving the infrastructure(giving world class facilities to our sportsmen, providing synthetic surfaces for the hockey players, providing more grass, clay, and hard courts for our tennis players, synthetic tracks for our athletes, etc) instead of spending crores of money on ‘toilet papers’? Players who have been connoisseur in their respective fields, have achieved proficiency by training abroad. Few notable examples are-Leander Paes, Prakash Amritraj, Somdev Devvarman are settled in US, Anand settled in Europe, Abhinav Bindra(who won us gold in the Olympics) hired a foreign personal trainer. The questions that have popped up in recent times have no answers but a successful CWG taking place is highly surreal.

Thirdly, the Kashmir issue. I’m in a huge dilemma to take any side. On one hand, I would like Kashmir to be a part of India for eternity, but I can’t close my eyes to the sentiments of the people of Kashmir. The present state of Kashmir can be best described as ‘filmy’(not in real sense but exactly as depicted in hindi movies). The constant oppression and biased policies of the state government towards the kashmiris, has made them to face the inevitable wrath. The agitation led by the Hurriyat stalwart Syed Ali Shah Gilani, is at a nascent stage. It would be our fallacy to underestimate this agitation which has already been successful in maiming the state government. Omar Abdullah, who is a novice in the field of politics, has been detrimental in handling the current situation. He has been tagged as ‘puppet Chief Minister’ in the hands of people sitting in New Delhi. His attempt to hold the CRPF personnel responsible as scapegoats has backfired. Even the political opposition, PDP, has refused to coordinate. Its high time now for the President of National Conference Dr. Farooq Abdullah to take the reins into his own hands and start the negotiation process. Farooq is a true kashmiri in every aspect and understands the sentiments of the people of kashmir. Its understandable that in order to satiate the extremists, immediate negotiations is a must. Earlier, the state government had to deal with the masochistic people(‘jehadis’), now they have a dubious job of suppressing the frantic instigated by the religious fanatics. As stated by Gilani “it took 200 years for India to gain independence from British rule, and its been only 62 years since we have been fighting”.

It all started under Pandit Nehru, when the kashmiris were deprived of their democratic rights(plebiscite) and were forced to merge with India after partition. Since then, they have been under constant scrutiny and are toiling under the perpetual discrimination in each and every aspect. India is a democratic country that allows everyone to express his or her views. But how does one express anger and anguish?(may be by agitation and stone pelting). An believe me, seeing kashmir as a separate entity(or merging with Pakistan) is not a distant possibility anymore!!

Its time for our eminent PM Dr. Manmohan Singh to break his shackles (you can get who I’ m referring to)and come out as a leader to usher the nation. He ought to be the great ‘healer’ in this noxious environment. Nobody doubts his credibility as an ‘economist’ or ‘statesman’ but lacks dynamic abilities. Its perfect time for him to intervene and prove the world that India is a secular, democratic country indeed!!

What does the common man do in these cases? Increase in the literacy rate in our country has made the common man(which includes the rural people)aware of the prevailing circumstances in our country. Even if a person is illiterate(academically) every household can afford a daily newspaper. The common man has a characteristic opinion and vision of his own in every aspect. The baseless evening gossips in the market place are now replaced by awareness issues. It will be our fallacy to consider the common man to be naïve and ignorant. The common man in today’s world is an erudite. The world is changing; India is changing. But what can the common man do about it?

Its true that India is a democratic country. But the only thing that the common man possess is a ‘single vote’. Today when elections are won by sheer power of money and hooliganism, the common man stands alone helpless. His sincere efforts are jeopardized and sabotaged.

A common man is not born with a silverspoon in his mouth like the Gandhis, the Pilots, or the Abdullahs to carry on the political lineage. He is forced to be satisfied by the stature of a mere party worker. The common man has knowledge and credibility but no opportunity. The common man pacifies and convinces his inner soul and moves on in life, fully aware of the outer world!!