Friday, August 8, 2008

INDRA IS KINNG

Lord Indra was whiling away his time, as usual ,in Indralok,by watching the dance of Menaka ,Urvashi and co. Just at that point of time Narada entered the hall ,with his characteristic chant of "Narayan,Narayan." Indra knew by the tenor of Narada's voice that something was amiss. After all he had known Narada for thousands of centuries , and was well acquainted with his activities.
" What's wrong , Narada?", Indra enquired.
"Lord ,How did you know?", Narada was surprised , since he expected nothing intelligent from the King of Gods . After all , if the Gods were so intelligent , would they have created Earth along with its inhabitants.
"Elementary, my dear Narada", Indra had evidently been brushing up on the novels of Sherlock Holmes, "The sweat on your face and the contorted eyebrows ,convey a sense of worry," Indra sounded pleased with himself .
"Amazing!!" Narada was duly impressed , and mighty cross with his under estimation of the Lord's abilities.
" So , tell me about your worries", Indra went on , "We cannot have Narada worried for long , can we ?"
Narada had by now, been completely taken in by this new Avtaar of Indra , and went on, " Lord , I had been visiting this Goddamn place on the planet earth, called India,and was present in an invisible form , in a place known as the Supreme Court , where these people dispense justice, when I heard something sacrilegious. My mind has been swirling ever since . Lord , has Kalyug really arrived ? I mean we all know that it had arrived quite some time back , but I mean , is this really it ?"
Indra in the meanwhile, had reverted back to his original frame of mind, and could not anyway, make any sense of Narada's statement.
"What do you mean? Please clarify , for you sound nonsensical" Indra said to Narada . " What did you hear , which makes you speak like, when that vicious Asura pursued you, and you ran for your life , crying out for help all the time ." Indra sounded pleased while remembering the incident .
" Do not say so, my Lord , for I have heard something worse this time around," Narada said .
Indra was curious by now , " Stop beating around the bush like a Bureaucrat , and tell me exactly what you heard Narada."
Narada proceeded with his story.
" As I told you , Lord ,I was in the Supreme Court of India, ovehearing and watching the proceedings of the court .Apparently somebody had challenged the illegal occupation of Govt. bungalows . The Supreme Court had taken a serious view of the entire matter and asked the Central Govt. and the States to file affidavits ,as to whether Section 441 of the Indian Penal Code should be amended to make unauthorised occupation of Govt. bungalows a non bailable offence."
" Narada , please elaborate , what do you mean by unauthorised occupation of Govt. Bungalows , who occupies them? The homeless or some other such people?" Indra enquired .
" Lord , the Govt. would have imposed the National Security Act or the POTA, if the homeless would have dared to do such an act . It is the Govt. ministers who are no longer in power who indulge in such act . If need be , they convert such bungalows into memorials of their 'beloved' dead leaders, in order to justify this illegal occupation, or into party offices . No rent is paid , and these bungalows which are located in prime areas become the private property of these leaders.A situation has been reached where the recent ministers are still awaiting 'official' accommodation . Not that these people mind the wait , for once they get occupation of the bungalows , rest assured that they will also not vacate it , come hell or high water," Narada went on .
" Even the asuras were forced to vacate Indra Lok every time they forcibly occupied it ," Indra said,remembering the good old days of power struggle . Now that the asuras had been banished to Earth , he missed those days of fighting . Life was not the same anymore. " Please carry on , Narada."
" Well , the Central govt. and most of the State govts. took stand against this proposition ,meaning thereby that they did not want it to be declared an offence of this nature. After all the policy amongst all the parties remains , 'you scratch my back , I will scratch yours'. No body will want to make a law that might land them behind bars tomorrow. the supreme court was shocked by this approach of the Govts. towards such a sensitive issue,and O lord ,let me report the observations of the Judges ,ad verbatim.
Justice Agrawal------"There is no accountability and nobody bothers about law or guidelines. Nobody in the govt. works and the whole govt. has become non functional."
Justice Singhvi, added to this,"God alone will have to help this country."
Justice Agrawal , then observed," Even God will not be able to help this country. God is a mute spectator and he also feels helpless .Our contry's character is gone. We are helpless
."
Finishing his statement, Narada burst out into tears." Lord ,never did I believe that I will hear these words regarding the helplessness of Gods, again, after that evil demon Mahishasura was disposed off.Lord has Kalyug finally arrived , when people have started questioning the efficacy of Gods. Send down the Kalki avtaar , O Lord."
In all his interactions with Narada , never had Indra seen him in such a pitiable condition .
Narada kept on speaking , interspersed by his sobs, " I had seen the common people doubt the presence of Gods and their helplessness for centuries, but this is the first time ,I have heard a Judge , who I believe is the last bastion of civilization in the country , speak about God being a mute spectator and his helplessness. Lord , call for Kalki avtaar."
Indra was getting irritated by the minute." Arre , what Kalki avtaar? We did send him to Bharat around 40 years back . The fellow was a turncoat, seeing the fruits of political leadership, he joined .XYZWE.....political party , and is a minister for...ABCDF..... today.Now we have no more avtaars left."
Narada was shocked , " That minister, well he has been convicted of murder, loot and what not .He has built up assets worth hundreds of crores. He .....Kalki avtaar!!!!!!"
"Recent data provided by Chitrgupta, shows that he has also illegally occupied govt. land which was supposed to house the homeless,"
Indra sounded despondent.
" But then , my dear Narada, do not feel disheartened, the govt. is alive and all is not lost. Did you see the alarcity with which the govt. took back the 39.88 hectares of land provided to Amarnath Shrine board, to temporarily house pilgrims. Remarkable, I tell you, they might not be able to evict politicians , but at least they are able to evict devotees. So you see , the govt. does work," Indra tried to cheer up Narada.
But Narada was in one of his argumentative moods," What governance,Prabhoo? The entire state is afflame. The people of Jammu, who for long have resented the undue preference provided to Kashmir valley , have reacted violently. They want the entire land to be given back to the Amarnath shrine board , and have attacked police stations , govt. offices etc. Never before have the people in Jammu reacted like this ."
" But isn't this the message provided by successive govts. in the country .People are encouraged to take up violent means , to get their voices registered and their demands met. The peaceful demonstrators never get their grievances redressed.Besides this resentment had been building up for long . Apparently , 70% of the revenue to the J&K govt. is provided by the Jammu region , which in turn gets 30% of the govt. investment. Besides ,about 5 Lakhs of Kashmiri pandits have been forcibly driven away by terrorists from the Kashmir valley. Therefore , the land issue is just an explosion of long standing grievances. Call it the straw that broke the camel's back , if you can. Even Laddakh is simmering with dissent against the politicians from Srinagar, for they allege that Laddakhi youths have been denied opportunities , and discriminated against,in order to favour the Kashmiri youths. So do not be surprised if Laddakh also finds a reason to react violently," Indra observed.
" What about the lives lost , O Lord?" Narada would not give up.
" What of it , Narada? Hazards of governance, or so , as felt by the rulers. After all they are safe," Indra replied.
" Speaking of violent activities, did you hear that the ban on Student's Islamic Movement of India( SIMI) has been removed by a single Judge tribunal of the Delhi High Court, on grounds of 'Evidence not sufficient to ban it'. Apparently , the investigative agencies had put forward evidence from the Malegaon blast way back in 2006, which the esteemed judge found insufficient. As you might recall ,SIMI has been blamed for nearly all the blasts in the country subsequent to the Malegaon blast, but the govt. has no evidence in this regard.It shows the seriousness with which these rulers want to combat the scourge of these modern day asuras," Narada was showing his debating skills .
" But the Supreme court has stayed the judgement of the tribunal, hasn't it?" Indra sounded defensive, as he was finding it difficult to combat this new assretive Narada.
"Well the initial order was based on technical grounds and was liable to be struck down. But it goes to show the efficiency of the entire govt. machinery, and its will to fight terrorism. Furthermore, the 'liberals' in the country , will now get a handle to defend SIMI and its anti national activities. These fellows will never condole the death of a soldier , but look at them go , defending these terrorists," Narada sounded agitated.
Lord Indra realized that the issue was getting pretty sensitive , and like a true diplomat, tried to steer away from the topic, " Narada", he said jovially ," did you hear that Telgi has paid more Income Tax than Aziz Premzi in the previous financial year."
" Exactly my point about Kalyug , My Lord, imagine the king pin of the fake currency scandal paying more tax than an entrepreneur like Premzi. Maybe the Judges had also read the news reports about Telgi , before they cast aspersion about God. Did you also hear that 1 crore Rupees has been detected as fake, in the currency chest of a branch of State Bank of India, in the Siddharthnagar dist. of Uttar Pradesh , only yesterday.The discovery was made after the detection of Rs. 22 Lakh of fake currency from the same branch. The relationship between terrorism and fake currency needs no elaboration," Narada was by now sounding like a fire brand activist, there was no respite for Indra, " By the way , if Krishna, the compounder could be arrested for Arushi Talwar's murder, based on his Narco analysis, what action was taken against a very senior minister and other politicians , who were named by Telgi during his narco ananlysis. A classic example of 'show me the man and I will show you the rule', isn't it?"
Indra was by now getting restive . He was cursing himself for instigating this discussion , for if Narada was not here , he would be busy watching the Apsaras perform . How could he blame the present day rulers , when he , as the king of Gods had no worthwhile achievements. Hadn't he run to Brahma , Vishnu and Mahesh ,in times of distress, in the way these Indians rushed to U.S.A or U.S.S.R.
He pretended to be falling asleep, but Narada was not going to fall for it, " Ah, now I realise why the Judges called Gods as as mute spectators and helpless. Instead of acting like a God and alleviating the sufferings of the people of Bharat , you pretend to be asleep. I wish , I could tell the people of the country , not to entertain any hope of Gods appearing and saving them from this misery . Their fate is in their hands , and they must believe in the dictum, 'Vigilance is the price you pay for freedom'. You and You alone have the power to change your present and your tomorrow. So ARISE AWAKE and have faith in your abilities to combat the evils in the society."
Lord Indra , though embarrassed, had no patience for this activism ,"You and your Judges, Narada, now if you would permit me , Urvashi is waiting for me."
NARAYAN , NARAYAN........

17 comments:

vipin said...

A bit too long.Needs some editing.

Unknown said...

It would be worthwhile if remarks are passed about the issue being discussed.But it appears that we have a teacher amongst us.
The state of the Judiciary potrays the frustration which is slowly but steadily creeping in amongst the people. Jammu is a case in study.People feel that the politicians wil only play politics, so why not resolve the problems themselves. This slide into anarchy is dangerous.
Long or short , keep going.

Shikha said...

If this is long, then I'm Abe Lincoln...at the end of it, i was wishing it had gone on a bit more!

The gusto with which politicians play partisan politics is not funny...recently the maharsahtra chief minister announced a project for building chhatrapati shivaji's statue in the middle of the sea in mumbai, and when asked about some 100 crore investment for this project - he said "we have enough funds, money is not a problem". When it came to civil amenities in the same city & state they threw up their arms however. Recently due to lack of rains there was a water and electricity shortage in pune & thane, the government said "we do not have money for buying electricity and water from other states"

Politicians will use anything - great leaders, personalities, religion, poverty, bachwardness to meet their ends...to come to power and enjoy the spoils.

And we the people will pull each other down, but will never be able to pull these selfish politicians down!

I salute your spirit bro! keep it going

vipin said...

It is really silly to criticise the politicians all the times for all the ills of the country.Any democratic set up has to be run by the politicians-good,bad or ugly.We(read middle class)want best of all world without taking any pains.No one is willing to stake his/her job to join the(bad?)world of politics.The bad/criminal elements came into politics because the intelligent and honest people detested politics and the politicians.They aimed for cushioned jobs of the Government and of late MNC's.The resultant vaccum was filled by the politicians of today.And this did not happen in a day or two.The rot started soon after the independence;when talented youth of that time thought they had done enough to help country gain independence and shyed away from politics.They were perhaps tired or perhaps their family had struggled a lot ,so they might have felt a certain obligation towards them as well.
And there is nothing wrong if a teacher is offering his comments.Take it or leave it, it's your choice.

Bobby said...

It has also become fashionable in certain circles to blaim the Middle Class for all the ills plaguing the society. The genesis of criminal entering politics came about with the imposition of emergency in 1975 and the elections of 1977, when the Congress led by Mrs. Indira Gandhi lost the general elections. Criminals of all backgrounds were brought in , to counter the Janata Party government. The youth of that particular ere was enmeshed in the Hippy culture , and perhaps never gave this event any thought . But it is equally ridiculous to blame them ,as it is ridiculous to blame the middle class.
The rot starts at the top , and has to be cured at the top. If the legal system does not ensure quick justice, criminals are glorified the way they are in the movies,any talk of motivation is branded 'utopian', if casteist and communal politics is permitted in the name of social equality , we make life tough for ourselves , don't we?

Unknown said...

Apologies to the teacher. It seems that he is offended. Sir, please do continue with the teaching, but at least show us ignorant students the correct way of doing it.And Sir, no job in this competitive world is cushioned. All carry their own hazards.

vipin said...

1-The youth of each era is enmeshed in pervading culture of his times.If it was Hippy culture of that time, then it is Mall culture today.There is hardly any difference in attitudes.The Hippies were misguided Radicals,at the most.The wild youth parties in Pune,Bangalore,Delhi or any other upcoming city is no different From the Ganja joints of that era .
2-The politicians,who are being blamed these days,are all products of Janata Party experiment.

Bobby said...

The role of the late Sanjay Gandhi in criminalising politics ,needs no elaboration,although the students became better than the teachers.
Exactly my point about the youth.If the hippies were 'misguided radicals'(whatever that means), why blame the present day youth, who might be called the 'computerised radicals' ( not that it makes sense).
The point was that people like Telgi are emboldened because they can manipulate the entire politician -bureaucrat nexus in their favour.They know that the legal system works so slow that JUSTICE ,can never be ensured, except in certain cases like the Jessical Lal or the Priyadarshani Matoo case , where pressure from the much despised Middle Class ensured some modicum of Justice.Even in the Afzal Guru case ,pressure from the common people has kept him behind the bars . If the 'liberals' (we all know them) had their way, Afzal Guru would have been back on the streets , in a cloak of a much harassed and victimised individual. After all , the 'liberals' have called him ,' a victim of collective conscience of the society', haven't they?

vipin said...

xfyIn the case of Jessica Lal or Priyadarshini it was not the middle class that built the pressure ;it was the media.
Even if it is agreed that it was due to middle class awakening;it makes me wonder why the middle class turns blind,deaf and dumb to the plights of poor whose names/faces are not as glamourous as Jessicas of the day.
Labelling Sanjay Gandhi as sole perpetrator of criminalisation of Indian politics is perhaps not correct.Track record of many laudable names of different political parties are also not much better.
Agreed that our Judicial system is slow but we must also remember that we are one billion plus population which is gradually becoming intolerant to each other.We love to flock to the courts even for petty issues which should'nt have arisen at first instance and having arisen could have been solved amicably outside courts.An advocate(in lower court)has to attend no less than 20-25 cases each day,which is impossible for him so he takes a date(perhaps you can throw some light whether the word 'dating'owes its origin to our courts).
As regards politician-bureaucrat nexus;it is the bureaucrat who is running the show from behind.These bureucrats were once dreamy eyed very intelligent youths(majority from the middle class)who joined the administrative services with a jeal to change the system but in the process changed themselves.They are no longer middle class.The politician comes and goes but they remain to enjoy the spoils.

Unknown said...

The pressure in the Jessica lal and Priyadarshani Matoo case was built up by the middle class families,the media , again basically middle class simply joined in . Do glamourous faces not have the right of surviving?Or maybe being middle class, remember Jessica Lal working as a celebrity bar tender to earn a few bucks , and Priyadarshini , a student of humble origins, had no right to survive in the first place. Even lawyers are pleaded for , because the poor people have to take up 20-25 cases each day , but the middle class have to take up each and every case.
Perhaps we would also be enlightened about the work done by Teacher ji for the poor, as rest are all fools ,commenting about others?What say?

vipin said...

I think comments on blogs should not be personalised.It is a free medium where one has all the rights to express his/her views.Take it or leave it;the choice is entirely yours.

Bobby said...

Agree. It is best not to personalise comments,since it spoils the entire motive, and shifts the debate into the realms of negativity, which given the context of the society at present ,best be avoided.The decision is however in the hands of the readers, as to whether we remain like the politicians,throwing muck at each other ,while the country slips into chaos.
My advice is CHAK DE INDIA.

Unknown said...

Admittedly,every body has a right to express his /her opinion on the blog,but please do not justify the horrible killings of people like Jessica,for nobody else has justified the killing of the poor.As it is the country has been divided on communal and casteist lines ,so it would be better not to divide it further into 'middle class' and 'upper class' or whatever,just to gain an upper hand in any discussion.Certain values need to be respected ,if we want the society to be civil.

vipin said...

Killing of Jessica was not justified.The sentence was'...it makes me wonder why the middle class turns blind,deaf and dumb to the plights of poor whose names/faces are not as glamourous as Jessica's of the day...'
O yes it is very humane to gain an upper hand in any discussion. And this applies to all of us.

Shikha said...

I think at a fundamental level we need to understand that people's behavior is determined to a great extent by the "system" they live in or the "system" that governs them. For eg. if you penalize people for spitting on roads, they will tend to stop after a while. And if you do not penalize them for doing the same act, they will merrily consider the world their spittoon.

Politics (Framing policies of a nation), judiciary (monitoring its implementation) and administration (executing policies) largely build the "system" in any country...and that determines behavior of people in that nation.

Each one of these is needed.

So it isn’t about debating whether we do or do not need politicians. Sure we do. Question is what kind of politicians. Also it is not enough to say that if they are not good let us do it – is the path to getting into politics so easy? The general sentiment tends to be that you need lots of “muscle power” to get into politics. With propaganda like that it will be very difficult for a middle class professional, who gets education to be able to not just do work that he/she will feel some passion towards but also earn a living, to give up things and attempt to do something that he knows has impossible entry barriers.

Even when I’m working for an organization, and I don’t do the job as expected there are repercussions that I have to face. I’m accountable.

It’s fair by any means to expect a politician to face repercussions since they are directly impacting policies that impact us. And at the end of the day they are working for us. We have a right there! They’re accountable.

That’s my view.

India.killer said...

Well done all the commentators,i can see it is no longer a blog but a slinging match ,keep up the great indian tradition of Arguementation a.k.a as bickering ,keep up the good work commentators ,i can obviously see that you all have a personality ,going by the way you all get personal.I can see this is the advantage of blogging ,this is good man ,the whole world can see the enlightened personalities trying to win this slinging match ,oops sorry this argumentation effort . If this is what is the result of all the foolish hard work put in by the blogger ,who by my opinion has a trenchant wit . I request the blogger to just stop it man ,we are no good than this .It is a waste of effrot coz all it leads to is the increased resolve among the enlightened commentators to out wit each other , why else do you think the politicians are making merry with so many of you enlightened souls around . by the way ,how many of you have a voter i card and when is the last time you went to vote in an election, forget joining politics ,has anybody heard of one Shiv Khera ,another misguided man who instead of blogging has floated a political party and joined the political mainstream .Any comments there , i doubt that you will find him worthy of a comment.one M.K.Gandhi said "you must be the change you wish to see in the world " I can see why things dont change in this country despite so many enlightened commentators in this blogg ,sorry i meant country .Incidentally has anyone of you commentators thought of writing an RTI application ,may be it requires even fewer words than your prolific aptitude of commenting ,may be that is one reason it isnt worth it

vipin said...

India Killer has very aptly summed it up by quoting Gandhiji'...You must be the change you wish to see in the world.'
Only yesterday I was reading about a a muslim lady working in a MNC who during the lunch/free hours goes to the Masjid station and picks up the garbage thrown by the people on the platform.And she is doing this since last 11 years.By her simple efforts she has motivated/mobilised the people without uttering a single word.
On the eve of Independence Day such simple efforts should be saluted.