The nationalism debate: when will we get “Azadi” from the hypocrisy?

The last few weeks have enraged a new controversial debate in India. It is about who is national and who is anti-national.

The debate started when Kanhaiya Kumar, the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student’s union, was arrested and charged with sedition and criminal conspiracy. The charges were that anti-Indian slogans were raised at an event, in which it was quoted that Afzal Guru’s hanging was not only moot, but also wrong, because he was fighting for independence of Kashmir. There shall be many who will fight for the independence of Kashmir, and that they cannot be controlled by India. Why kill them who want independence?

. The charges were such that Kanhaiya, being the president, is responsible for the illegal activities being carried out in the campus. He along with other students faced the charge, which also included Umar Khalid.

Now a whole lot of drama in the parliament and in the media was carried out. Umar Khalid, who resurfaced on day in the campus, gave filmy dialogues like “My name is Umar Khalid and i am not a terrorist”. Kumar was beaten up in the jail, Smriti Irani proved that she is a brilliant actress, Rahul Gandhi tried to be witty, Narendra Modi quoted Rajiv Gandhi, the video which showed the anti-national activity, proved to be doctored, Kumar was released on bail, Kumar made an impactful speech filled with quotes such as “we want freedom in India and not freedom from India”.... oh did I mention that media went crazy covering this story? I guess I did!  

So kids, last year, the topic of debate was tolerance.

This year it is the topic of nationalism.

I choose my today’s topic as “The nationalism debate: when will we get “Azadi”

from the hypocrisy. “ Azadi” means freedom . This word was invoked again and again by Kumar.

So let’s talk about freedom of speech? Ummm... ok

Standing in front of thousand people, being live-telecasted by the whole media, you are accusing that we don’t have freedom of speech in India? Lol , OK!

You asked the prime minister of the country to quote Hitler, purely indicating that he is no less than a dictator. Ok...so did the dictator ordered to shoot you or hang you? Cause as far as I remember Hitler used to do that.

You invoked late Rohith in your speech again and again and talked about injustice but

I would have been happy if you would have also invoked the name of the Sujan Mukherjee.

Now ask who is he?

Just a few days back he posted something on Facebook , which created tension in the area of Birbhum,West Bengal.  He posted something on India-Pakistan t20 match, which he thought was funny but turned out to hurt religious sentiments. Though he was arrested on posting outrageous stuff, crowd from a certain community tried to create ruckus in the police station and even demanded him to be handed over to the mob. Now who will assure safety of Sujan? Did he get justice??

Did he find a place in your speech Mr.Kumar? I don’t think so, because election are coming up in Bengal and your party(left) will not want  to lose out voters there.

You can publically give out a “lal salaam” (red salute) because you are leftist. But when RSS tries to put forward an idea you accuse them of being communal and fascist. Ok, fair enough.

My intention here is not to demean Kumar here. I just don’t follow his ideology. And the irony is that if I oppose his ideology, I would be tagged  as “Sanghi”,”Bhakt”, ”Hindu fascist”   and what not.

And it is ironical because these people are fighting for a practise which gives space to every ideology. But at the same time they demean the people of ABVP, BJP and of course the new punching bag of the nation, RSS.

I have to give him credit for delivering a brilliant speech though. I agree with fact over freedom from oppression, poverty, caste system. But you ask all this to a newly form government.

 Is the caste system or poverty eradicated in west Bengal, where the left was in power for more than 3 decades? The same party whose ideology you follow!

This evening I heard that Kumar is going to be key campaigner for the left in assembly election of west Bengal and Kerela. Surprise, Surprise!

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So when are we actually getting freedom from these selective outrage and hypocrisy??

This entire tale has been blown out of proportion. Those who had to gain political advantage from this issue are already thanking their stars. No one has to right to say that who is national or who is anti-national other than the court. The same court which gave the below excerpts after releasing Kumar

“Suffice it to note that such persons enjoy the freedom to raise such slogans in the comfort of the university campus but without realising that they are in this safe environment because our forces are there at the battle field situated at the highest altitude of the world where even the oxygen is so scarce that those who are shouting anti-national slogans holding posters of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt close to their chest honouring their martyrdom , may not be able to withstand those condition even for an hour ”

Why am I writing this? I may not be student of the one of the most prestigious university in this country. Neither am I elected to any post or a good orator. But I am an Indian citizen who has the freedom of the speech to give out my thought to this world without misusing right.

Sex Education: why we need it ASAP

India has always been land of education. From Taxila University to IITs, it has been home to some of the most prestigious institute in the world. But unfortunately we have been lagging in providing quality education to the poor. The government schools are in desperate need of help.

Along with that, the curriculum provided in all the school is really very outdated. Majority of the class room are still under equipped and please don’t get me started on the unavailability of computers. But today, I would like to talk about sex education.

Now in India, even mentioning the word “sex” aloud is a taboo. It is something which has been discussed by the last benchers of classroom, often giggling when the biology teacher draws a weird looking vagina. Back in my days, young boys get to know about birds and bees via some really shady magazine or by a “bhaiya”( an elder and “experienced” boy of the neighbourhood). Taking notes from those guys is the worst thing any curious mind can get, but hey this is how the cookie crumbles in most parts of India. Things which I’m talking about are of course pre-smartphone and pre-easy internet era. And how can I forget those times, when our peers used to exchange those shiny discs of *ahem*, never mind. My point is that sex education is not available to the young mind and that it should be introduced as soon as possible.

I was shocked to read an article today, which was about a 9 year old boy who raped a 6 year old girl. This news is hard to digest but the incident was confirmed with help of medical examination. Now to be honest, these sorts of incidents are bound to happen. Young minds are not sure of the change happening in their body and because of exposure to pornographic material so easily, they tend to commit mistake. Now the boy have to spend time at juvenile remedial centre, but it could had been easily avoided if he knew that what he was experimenting was wrong.

 Sex ed curriculum around the world starts from a young age of 6-7 . They discuss about private parts and how it is inappropriate to be touched by strangers or others. This is the best way to keep a child safe from paedophile and save him/her from being targeted by those predators. Imagine the trauma a child will go through, when he will grow up and remember those horrific incidents. It would be only then, when he will realise that he was molested and by that time it would be too late to punish those demons of society.

Sex education is also necessary to preach young minds about safe and healthy sex. Even if they try experimenting from young age, proper guidelines will keep them safe from any Sexually transmitted disease as well as unplanned pregnancy.

When a child is given proper knowledge from a young age, he would have clear idea about maintaining his sexual health. It would also help him in family planning later in his life, and this is the most urgent need of India at the moment. Things are definitely changing and we are moving forward. Sex education has been included in some school boards but only a small aspect of it has been discussed. Sex is a hush-hush topic in major part of the country but it is now finding a place in many healthy debates

Time has come when talking about”birds and bees” will actually mean talking about birds and bees! Oh and yes, I have no shame in saying my thoughts aloud. And before we Indians gasp at this word one more time, let me spell it out to you again... S-E-X, SEX!

Making India Swacch:

Now days there is a huge cry in our nation about staying swachh or clean! And why not...

Staying clean is one step closer to being healthy. I am actually very happy that the government has started this program. I’m not sure whether the government could fulfil its promise of handing over a clean India to the Indians on 2^nd October 2019, which would mark the 150^th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi ji always propagated the idea of keeping our surroundings as well as our mind & soul clean.

 Even though government may fail in its project ( I sincerely hope they don’t), a good thing which has come out of this program is that everyone is talking about it. The media is airing about this mission almost every day. Many people have conducted cleanliness drive in a hope to get 30 second of fame in the Indian media. I think people who conduct such drives should definitely get this appreciation as it would encourage them to continue doing this work as well as ignite passion in mind of other people.

Now conducting these cleanliness programs are obviously necessary, but I think along with that we have to also educate people about its benefits. India is a country where majority of people suffer from NIMBY syndrome. NIMBY stands for “Not In My Back Yard” syndrome. It means that the citizen don’t care about the disposal of garbage until and unless it is not dumped in their own backyard. They will keep their own home clean but wouldn’t care about the cleanliness of the streets or neighbourhood. Now, how to combat with this syndrome? Well, we have to wake up our inner conscience. We need to realize that the society where we live is also part of our home. So next time, when we go through the cleaning spree of Diwali or any other major festival, please make sure to clean the path outside your doorsteps along with your home!

One of my major arguments of today would be the availability (or rather unavailability)  of toilets. Unfortunately, 53% of population still used to defecate in open in 2014. This unavailability of toilets not only spread disease but also plays a major social role in rural India. Girls refuse to attend school because they don’t prefer to urinate in open during school hours. 30% percentage of Rape crime against women could have been avoided if they were not forced to defecate in open. So construction of toilet is a must in many areas.

Answer me this please. How many times where you forced to urinate in woods while travelling on road, because the next closest toilet was at least 50km far and that too was in an old and dilapidated petrol pump??!! I’m not only accusing lack of facility. We Indian men are notorious enough to pee in almost every public place. Construction of the toilet is not the only solution. Report says that even after toilets where made in their home, some people still prefer to defecate in open because it provides them an opportunity to take a morning walk, see their fields, and take in the fresh air. They obviously have no idea that it would in turn affect their health. We need to educate them about its pros and cons before mindlessly conducting these “safai abhiyaans”.

Swacch Bharat program is hands down the best initiative taken by the Modi government and we, the citizen of India should make sure we contribute to this program by keeping us and our neighbourhood clean. Because the sweepers can’t clean every paan stains from the walls or collect those plastic bags which we throw away in streets without giving a second thought.

A big salute to those hardworking sweepers, who strive hard to keep our country clean.

With warm wishes of Gandhi and Shastri jayanti , I hope we will definitely succed in our mission of Clean India. 

Delhi election 2015: Analysis of the resounding victory of the Aam Aadmi Party by a common man himself!!

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The mandate is out. The sweeping of the seats has been done. Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) or Common man’s party has swept the Delhi assembly election. One of the youngest party to fight election in the world’s largest democracy, AAP achieved a feet which all the exit polls failed to even calculate. AAP success story is nothing less than a fairy tale in the Indian politics history.

A  techie turned civil servant turned social activist turned politician, the new chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal ,(IITian,IRS officer ,RTI(right to information) activist, Ramon Magsaysay awarder) has a new feather to add to his elaborated cap. And the cap which ironically, boldly scream “mein hoon aam aadmi” or “I am the common man”.

Winning 67 out of 70 seats of the Delhi assembly is not a joke. To curb the winning streak of the ruling BJP and to stop the chariot of the prime minister of India is definitely a huge feat. But what magic does Kejriwal’s broom (his party’s symbol) did which other party failed to do so?

Well, most people are still impressed with the work he did briefly for the time when he formed a minority government back in December 2013. Though it lasted 49 days only, its work still resonated with the people. The grass root plan was laid out properly. A promising agenda and manifesto was explained to people. And these simple things seems to have worked way better than the high profile campaigning and political mud throwing.

I really want to applaud for the maturity shown by the Delhi’s voters. Let us go back to May 2014 and look at the result of Indian general election. Delhi consists of 7 parliament seats. Even though AAP did impressive work in those 49 days, they failed to secure a single seat in those election. All the seven seat were won by BJP. They knew that should vote for a party which can provide us good governance and can form stable government. During general election, BJP was the obvious candidate to form a stable government. And during the state election, they thought that AAP could provide better governance in the state and they provided them the majority.

But what about BJP??  They were flying high in every state election past the general election of 2014 when they returned to power after a decade. Interestingly BJP’s vote share still remains the same. It has seen only 1.5% dip in its vote share, but still it went down from 31 seats in last election to 3 seats in this election.  The wonder happened because Congress vote share reducing drastically. While BJP vote share was 33% in last election, this year it had 32% of vote share and the rest of the vote were swallowed by AAP, which throttled them from 29% vote share in 2013 to a whopping 55% in 2015, i.e 29 seats to 67 seats .Somehow or the other , many section are yet to digest the BJP’s agenda and it is their work now to also include those people who are generally shying away from their party.

I really wanted BJP to come to power in Delhi. Not because I am a loyal BJP supporter( which btw I am)But because of the fact that Delhi is a special state where some power is vested by the central government and the other are vested by the state government. So it would have been better if both the state and central government parties would have been the same. How can we forget the famous Dharna(protest) by the then Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal because of his dissatisfaction  with the Delhi Police. This led to a stand-off between the center and the state government. Hope such situations don’t arise this time.

I heartily congratulate AAP and really wish Mr. Kejriwal stands to his promises . And for BJP… they should stop relying on the campaigning done by star politician ( Read : Mr. Modi) and should start preparing from the grass root level to explain people about its development agenda. Also , indulge every class, creed, caste  of people to your party, and stop relying upon the traditional vote of the urban middle class.

Few words for the oldest Indian political party , the Indian National Congress, which failed  to bag even a single seat in this election !!  please rethink about your leadership.

When I first started this blog, many of my friends advised me not to write about politics. But I just did. Because after all we live in a democracy and everyone has right to do anything under correct decorum. Thus I want to say that all the above views are my personal thought and not intended to offend anyone.

Statistics sourced from The Times of India.

Finally three cheers for the Democracy.