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........
" 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........
