Tuesday, April 17, 2007

MY THOUGHTS AT MIDNIGHT

India seems to be going through this phase of turmoil, if you are willing to call it that. Well I am referring to the recent Narayana Murthy national anthem fiasco and the "national flag” cake case of Sachin...just to name the two famous ones. There have been a couple of others and a few older ones that come to my mind like the Malini ramani cocktail dress in the tricolor. Anyway coming to the main point why is it that we are so agitated with these issues?

To understand this we need to understand the foundation on which India was built...the strong foundation which has managed to surprisingly stay on in spite of the events in the last 20 years-the socialistic structure. The socialistic structure was a choice Nehru made on behalf of India...well most people accepted it back then and voila, India was an imitation of the soviet union...maybe a cheap imitation or maybe not. And now; if you are a socialist nation then you follow their norms right?? Well obviously. So there we have the basic norms namely, a Hugh republic day parade displaying all your army might (the fact that your technology was outdated did not matter)...restricting the use of the national falg, embelem and other symbols to official use, jailing anybody daring to tow the official line and of course one of the favourite controls-controling the intellectual mindspace. And by the way it does not matter if Russia has stopped its "might display”:D.

So now it must be fairly obvious why we have such anger being vented on the street. It is a part of the socialistic set up. Anyone who goes against the "rules" is not to be tolerated. But then I find something really amusing...the rules are framed in the first place to project a strong nation...and if a nation can be insulted by a mere anthem or the cutting of a cake or by somebody sneezing on the flag, the nation just does not deserve to exist.


Thought I must add this... Before anybody goes on to call the protests political; pleaseeee. Members of political parties are people too. The membership should not be reason enough to bar them from protesting. It is Hippocratic to ok the Jessica Lall protests but not the Chennai bandh on reservations. More on the reservations later...lets get back to NRN...and the "IT BOYS"...he totlally deserved whatever he got...the protsts were less about the national anthem and more about his statements on the cauvery issue.MR murthy, you might get your appointment with the chief minister and prime minister to get your "incentives" namely tax sops to setup a "world class" company but the farmer can only dream of such appointments.When people have no other way to be heard; disrupting the life of you guys is the only way out to be heard..so chill Mr Murthy.
THERE WAS A POST THAT SAID THAT THE COMMON CHENNAI CITIZEN WAS SCARED OF OPPOSING THE GOONS...TYPICAL 2% TAMIL POPULATON RESPONSE.: D...infact if one had watched any news channel chennai was the city where most people supported the confrontation and bandh.after all it pays to support what benifits you.

KINDLY NOTE: THE AUTHOR FULLY ENDORSES THE MAAI BAAP CONTROL OF RESOURCES AND INTELLECT.

25 comments:

MS said...

Well, respect for national symbols ,I believe, is dictated more by nationalism than socialism.The national flag was sacred even during pre independence days- long before the Nehruvian Socialism started taking roots.So I feel there is a more of the typical sentimental value to national symbols than any socialism induced affinity. The trouble mongers certainly have neither. The (celebrity) targets have played into the hands of the trouble mongers by acting irresponsibly.

Comin specifically to NRN, I am not going to defend the anthem fiasco.But, when u expect a CEO of an IT company to solve ur infrastructure problems, head the Committee looking into Airport expansion, he can jolly well comment on the Cauvery issue too. "Members of political parties are people too. The membership should not be reason enough to bar them from protesting".. well, "IT BOYS" are citizens of the state too, and why should they be prevented from voicing their views?

MS said...

and i will get back to u on the reservations...........

z said...

you do have a point of nationalism..yes respect has to do with nationalism but then...understand this..socialism dictates limited use of national symbols...i would be killed if i sported an indian flag underpants..or burnt the indian flag as a symbol of protest..either of which has nothing to do with insulting the national symbol...one is an expression of pride if i could call it and the other is anger directed at the running of the state not the state itself..this country is a very young democracy which i would say is yet to understand the idea of FREEDOM...thats why i added that i endorese the maai baap....

and as far as the IT... goes never said they do not deserve to vent their opinions..just said members of pp like me too have a right to vent our anger..and am really sorry but mr murthy became the bangalore intl airport comitee by choice not by some gov dikkat...he wanted a better airport in blore and this came about after the tata airport plan was dropped.AND again never asked nrn to shut..just am saying be prepeared to face consequences..

Mambalam Mani said...

Scene 1: Sachin cuts tricoloured cake. People read this in the papers and see this in TV and carry on with their lives.
NRM asks national anthem's musical to be played, people just sing along with the music and carry on.

Scene 2: Politicians read about NRM's actions, and use that for venting out their anger at him, for God knows whatever be the reasons. Calls for "infosys" to be closed in Karnataka and NRM sent out of Karnataka too.
Politicians who shouted at the Lok Sabha chairperson when sachin was suspended by Mike Denness (what is the poor Lok Sabha chairperson expected to do for this 'heinous act' anyway?), now bay for sachin's blood for whatever he does because he is no longer the viable commercial force he once used to be.

I hope you get the picture when you read this. Unfortunately in India (maybe in most of the countries for that matter) when you talk about national opinions, you are treading a dangerous path. The opinions being raised against NRM or sachin are because of anything but a consensus of the populace. Its the parties that raises these issues and create a mountain out of them. I think, its a common trick of the hand deceiving the eye. Such unwanted 'concerns' only serve to divert the people from more plebian issues, which the political parties fail to address.
As for the chennai people supporting the bandh, news channels would have stated that chennai stoped in its wheels and showed overwheleming support for the bandh! Really? I suppose you assume that people of chennai had a lot of saying when DMK announced a state wide bandh and declared a holiday for all state Govt. offices. So people who didnt support the bandh are supposed to work on a holiday in a office thats closed? That too on a saturday?!? If thats how you interpret successful protests, then you are dreaming! The Govt. has no rights whatsoever to declare itself closed as a sign of protest on issue which is more of an agenda of a party that that of a state.

As for your opinions on national flag and freedom, there is a difference between rights and misuse. If you wear an underpants in tricolour or burn the flag even I will kill you. You should understand that you may right to display the flag as a symbol of pride on your car, or outside your house. But you dont have the rights to personally take charge of it and wear as a garment or burn it. Because the national flag is not something that belongs just to you. It also reflects the sentiments of another billion people. If you have anger at the running of the state, there are many other ways to show your protest than burning the flags. People in Assam, Gujarat, Kashmir and TN all have the same flag. If you think that Central Govt. did not give you your share of water, or the supreme court did not give you the reservation you needed, you cannot take into your own hands the sentiments of people as spread out in those states and burn it to display your protests.

z said...

@ santosh:well again..whatever my intentions as a politician..i am public too...so my protesting is not aliens protesting..if i were that bad..vote me out...

1. the national flag...whoa kill me..the exact socialist mindset drilled into us..from time unknown..knowingly or unknowingly... AND THIS IS WHAT THE POLITICIANS WANT TO DO TO SACHIN ...THE SAME U WOULD DO TO ME -KILLLLLLL ME .....if u r to believe that a nations pride will be "hurt" by a display of the national flag in any other way THAN THE WAY THE RULEBOOK SAYS..then the nation as i say does not deserve to exist-it is a bloody frail and weak nation.

2. the chennai bandh...we have all lost our BALLS..there is still a word in my dictionary called DEFY...on a sat..it is a different issue that it was a sat(mahaveer jayanthi btw).the situation would be no different on anyother day...i am sorry the quota issue is not a party agenda..it is the people's agenda..a national referendum(which in our country is banned btw) would give it a hugh thumbs up...simple fact with more and more castes being added to the "list" more people stand to benefit than lose(read us fc)..so for a pol par.to use it to their benefit is not wrong.great example the next time u get to chennai..let us go to MMC and shout anti quota slogans..i guarantee you that we will be the next guys to be experimented upon.

yeah..ok democracy is for each and every interest to be protected... that is how it is intended to work..but my friend it does not work that way...our country or any other country is is always majority rules...so if tomm the obc majority were to capture power(ala the rajiv gandhi ways with 2/3 maj) and issue dikkats for fcs to work only as manual scavengers or be shot at a lot of the fcs would probably be ready to even do that...and guys like you and me would run off to the US...:D

And have YOU NOT READ THE LAST SENTENCE......I FULLY ENDORSE THE MAAI BAAP...CONTROL OF NATIONAL FLAG WHATEVER THEY WANT.:D

Filarial said...

@ abhi sandy does not understand hindi.. :D..

MS said...

Now there cant be anything more insane than a referendum on reservations... No doubt it wll get a massive thumps up but are our 'netas' willing to implement everything thats hugely popular? Y dont they hold a referendum on whether Income Tax should be scrapped or not? the response will be more overwhelming.. so will they go ahead and scrap income tax if the people want that (am sure 99.99999% would wt that scraped) ?so the point is not if reservations are pouplar, but whether is is it in the larger intersets of the nation.. and its best left to the courts to decide coz ppl have no brains.. they r very short sighted, let Musharraf give them 2 measures of rice and free color Tv, they'll make him TN CM.. and this disturbing trend is nationwide

Mambalam Mani said...

well said marli..one thing i am confused about: is reservation for the economically backward people, or is it for specific communities? if the main aim is to give some clear advantage to specific sections of the society, then current trend of reservations make sense.. if its for the economically backward, then how true is the 1931 census going to tell which sections are backward 75 years after the census was done?

@prashanth: :P

z said...

@prashant: know that but was hoping against hope(now am sure) that he would know the basic stuff like bahut accha...:D

@murali: get better examples dude..say like free electricity for everybody...taxes...hardly 10% of the country pays taxes..so it really does not matter to the others....disturbing or not...a country is defined by what its people want to be...if this s what they wnt so be it...look at the cubans..happy ppl..those who dont like to b there land in florida....
better example..what our(read our state)mps told inderesan dir iit..we do not want us quality of edu..we want what our ppl can understand....

so the agenda of the nation for u/us might be different from that of the larger majority...

@santosh:RESERVATION IS NOT FOR THE ECONOMICALLY BACKWARD...IT IS FOR SPECIFIC COMMUNITIES(in ur words)..so the policy is fine...right or wrong is a different issue....on the obcs and sc sts will elobarate later on how the caste system actually worked or rather works...

MS said...

Abhiram, Hardly 10% may pay taxes(but its still is a significant source of revenue), but the % of population tryin to get into IIMs and IITs is definitely far lesser than 10%.. so the eg cited may not be out of place...

And Santhosh, yes as Abiram said, its on community basis ,as in identifying communities that are backward and reserving seats.. so even in this case 1931 census is not going to help.. Infact, the anti-reservation group is shooting itself in the foot by questioning the 1931 census .. the govt says based on that census, 27% was reserved.. the % of OBCs in India is now much higher(anywhere between 45-55%) and if a fresh census is conducted, there will be a demand for reservation in proportion to the population..this logic is will prove to be disastrous as quality and not quantity should count.. U can not trust the politicians to act sensibly in an issue thats a golden opportunity to mint votes... I reiterrate that its best left to the courts...

Asuri Sudarsanan said...

dei! comments ezhudhunge daa naa, comments page le post ezhudhareenge!

modhalle publicity kudunge daa.... so far the readers are only the authors!

z said...

@murali:see the populace for higher ed is less than a % forget 10% BUT....the point is whether ppl r elgible or not they will vote to support their caste...ppl beielve it is sort of empowerment for their caste even if it does them no good.in case of taxes or any other issue..this does not work..

@sri:sorry man..but had to repeat over and over..:D

Filarial said...

@sri the specific audience is us!!

Asuri Sudarsanan said...

ok whatever... but since when Abhiram was under the influence of the western world?

only here Socialism is defined as anti-democratic & hypocratic rules, un-warranted juristical bondage, forced compliance to the law, and whatever belial ways these people want to paint it with....

wearing a tricolour jetti is stupid on the part of the "citizen", he doesnt deserve any concern.

And since when Indian political structure got the culture of Industrialists taking over administrative duties in Federal bodies like AAI? I have known cases where TATA group adopted some sectors in a business deal, but the kind of practise like Murthy interfering with the infrastructure development policy of the govt. is something unheard of from the past.

as a part of CII and FICCI, he has the right to make recommendations. That's it. Nothing beyond.

He can give his comment on Cauvery issue as a Citizen, but not as a CEO. and there must be a firmer check on the capitalistic nature of Economy, esp the self-assumed IT Biggies and ofcourse Reliance!

Mambalam Mani said...

@ sriram: as a citizen NRM has the rights to comment. But since he is the big guy he is, whatever he says is blown up and people view his remarks as that of an Industrialist bigwig, IT head or whatever instead of taking it as a comment from an educated man, which is what he is!!!
As for your request to publicize this blog, what u think we shld do? Madras la poster adikanumaa? :P

z said...

@sri: again..i believe in the exact opp of what i have written(wrote that as a disclaimer??)..at least for now..cause as a nation we aint mature enough to embrace neo-socialism(as i call progressive socialism)....the tricolor underwear was meant to highlight the unwanted restirictions we r building..not just for the flag but in general as rules in business agri etc....again the point is if u want the newer "city bred" to embrace socialism...neo socialism has to b the approach..

nrm has not encroached on the aai.there i have to defend him..it is the 2nd (suppposed to b first..well cochin is now)private airport of the country the BIAL..which still has to deal with gov for land etc.

agree with u that too much importance given to it bigwigs..but again....thats the audience the media caters to(thats why mayawati cannot b shaken even if u show her murdering live....her audience is not "corrupted" by the media):D....the reason is also pretty simple..the socialistic foundations r very weak in the cities...not progressive enough..

AND..how come u came with a post rather than a comment..:D

Asuri Sudarsanan said...

is there any ombudsman exclusive to handle News channels issues?.. if so then Ban CNN-IBN (sep for the exclusive interview with Amar Singh on Abi-Ash marriage )

this is why, a board room guy is heard by public on a issue involving politics!

@Abhiram - I ref. to Prashanth's reply, i assumed this not to be a comment page, but a discussion forum :P

Viragh said...

guys this discussion reminds me of the good old college days wer we used 2 fight 4 nothing sitting around the canteen round table :)

Mambalam Mani said...

yaaa probably we should rename the blog as crescent canteen
or maybe i think abhiram would suggest ISO canteen :D

z said...

Iso canteen.lmao lmao....maybe iso canteen where harvind's appalam was hijacked.....

@sri: abhiram's socialism is not influ by western... i have always maintained that to propgate an idea successfully it is imp to have an idea that is unique and can attract the greatest number of people....

Harvind Dokshan said...

I perfectly agree with abhiram abt the tri color underwear if india is ideally a democratic nation as it is supposed to be then i can do whatever i feel is right and is patriotic to me. if wearing an underwear wit tricolor on it is, then so be it.. who the hell r others to questionn it... if me wearing it affects the emotions of ppl then me not wearing it affects my emotions which i care about first than my compatriots..though this is not the ideal case... but still if this would hold good then so will my other rights of speech and acts..
Secondly abt Sachin's tric color cake... Same would hold good but for the fact that I am all for killing him for all the different reasons... and abt NRM i donno y suddenly therez this NRM saga... he had been a quite, dignified person staying away from limelight all along..y all this hype? i ve heard and read abt his presidential candidacy./which in my opinion is the most stupidest this thing ever even if Dr.APJ had to call it 'fantastic'... well if it is for NRM then can't even think of reasoning on Big B's...yes as many have said NRM is also a citizen and he can voice his thoughts... well true but y all of a sudden... i might have missed a lot of preceding events to this or might not be aware of but the Cauvery issue had been alive for ever...y now... did he attain enlightenment only now??? but again i cannot dispute his right of speech but jus can quantify it...
if only abhi-warya (sounds horribel to replicate bradgelina)... and first lets stop americanizing and hav our own way..bollywood to start with and then kolly,tolly,mallu, and jollu and so on..wat a big piece of shit it that...nyway coming back ...if only were our media more responsible and thought provocative ..god wishes... with all the hula goin on wit the Reservation i;m glad i heard of a stay... though the wrath is impending...as murali rightly pointed out if only 'x'measures of rice with plasma tv be offered thene even the dead sadam cud be the next Cm of TN... well as i say this my thought lingers on the lost kohinoor diamond of ours... donno y though...wat relevance to this donno...but stil//well Lord Dalhousie claims that the diamond was presented to the queen by the then prince (who was officially 13 yrs of age when he did tat and unofficially 11)... if we r talking abt pride of tricolor then we hav lost so much of it when we were ransacked by the british... if we belived dalhousie s saying then ,, we wud certainly do so now to the stpid politicians... if only our voice was to be heard a change might occur..so sandy rightly pointed out lets go paste posters in chennai walls and advertize ppl reading it wud get 5 measures of rice and color tv we can still contest the next elections... and btw what happnd to lok paritran??? ny news guyz...

z said...

@harvind: lok paritran has now officially split into THREE different parties..each CATERING TO ITS OWN "CASTE" people....:D

Mambalam Mani said...

all talk and no action..i am sick of all these politicians..
lets have a dictator...i am (we most Indians are) too tired and lazy to think by myself (ourselves)..anyways indians dont question politicians..so why not have someone who has everything laid out for us from what we should eat to what we should think and do?

MS said...

sandy, how abt an Idi-ameen like dictator?unakenna u r comfy in Ohio, its our asses that will burn :)-

Mambalam Mani said...

ok we dont want a genocide....and you dont need to drag idi-amin also...we have our own 'modi's to take care of those aspects (@ abhiram: haa aha aha, haa aha aha ahaa)
well, atleast a dictator wont need to distrubute free television sets to retain his incumbency :)