Why no politician protests about Manu Sharma being granted parole?

Firstly, I was not aware that convicted criminals could be granted parole because their mother was sick. Thanks to Manu Sharma, the convicted murderer of Jessica Lal, I know that now. A little research informed me that, "under Section 3 of the Temporary Release Act, 1988", the State Government has the authority to release prisoners temporarily on some basic grounds as stated in jail manuals. We all know that Manu Sharma's father is a Congressman and its Congress government in Delhi as well as centre. So it didn't come as a surprise that he was granted parole for visiting his supposedly 'sick' mother who looked quite hale and hearty.

But what took me by surprise was why I did not hear a murmur of protest from any politicians about this move. Obviously the move was a standing ovation to the corruption in India. Then why no MNS, SS, BJP came forward to create a ruckus over it and raise slogans? Manu Sharma was quietly released on a parole, right under our media's vigil nose and we didn't even hear a whisper until the reports of his late partying surfaced. And yet no politician thinks its a worthy enough topic to be raised in parliament. Probably it doesn't evoke sentiments of emotional Indians like religion and linguistic issues do.

Is religion losing its appeal?

I recently watched a CNN-IBN debate on the fatwa issued against Vande Matram by Darul Uloom. The supporter of the fatwa insisted that bowing to one's nation is unIslamic as one can bow only in front of Allah. The one against fatwa (also a Muslim) accused the Darul Uloom of misinterpretation of Vande Matram. Then there were accusations that it was Shiv Sena - BJP who triggered the fire by making Vande Matram compulsory, knowing that it was against Islamic principals. Few argued that when Muslim children could sing Prayers to Lord in Convent schools then why not Vande Matram. Suddenly the debate shifted to how innocent Muslims are made victims of police terrorism hunt. The role of Home Minister Chidambaram was also debated because he had gone to Darul's convention as they had passed a fatwa against terrorism too. Poor HM was accused of pseudo secularism and by the saffrons and not doing enough for Muslims by the Islam hardliners.

And all this made my head reel. I don't want to take sides because I don't have any opinion on this. The whole debate seems pointless. Didn't religion originate to civilize people? To give them sense of right or wrong and make them love their fellow humans. If this is what religion has transcended to, do we need a religion? If it teaches us to only look at the negatives in other religions and has just become a tool in the hands of the leaders to manipulate the naive, hasn't it lost its original purpose?

Yet history shows us that anarchy mostly prevailed in countries that didn't follow religion and civilization came earlier to the ones that did. But sadly a handful of leaders at the top have changed the course of religion. I thought the whole debate was pointless when there was so much that needs to be done for the upliftment of poor in the society, when everyday number of Muslims are being killed by Islamic militants and Hindus by Maoist militants. Ultimately the terrorists will unite to form a religion of their own, one that will terminate the world contrary to the religion that helped the human evolution.

A song about 26/11....how about hanging Qasab first?

Indians are an emotional lot and many a times we look like emotional fools in the eyes of the world. The following news items does makes us look foolish. A song is being prepared which will be sung by Sonu Nigam and will also have the voice of Amitabh Bachchan, dedicated to the victims of the 26/11 terrorist attack at a day long function commemorating the victims. Now, I am not against the song or dedication but the fact that Qasab is still alive and kicking and has made our judiciary look like a circus is much more crucial issue to be resolved that making a song.

Many innocent lives are lost in terrorist attacks every year. Be it Maoism or Islamic militant groups or LTTE or ALFA or any other group, we as a nation have not been able to do much about tackling the menace. Should we then go around making a song for every attack or make it a yearly process dedicating to all? Making a song, lighting a few candles, giving an emotional lecture and making a few speeches looks silly when the accused is still not convicted. Its similar to making an emotional video when our cricketers go for the World Cup and playing it again and again on air while India gets kicked out in the Prelims itself. Its very irritating and just highlights our incompetency even more.

Won't our police look foolish while arranging a function when the main assassin is asking for mutton biryanis and deodorants?

Why dont we have good roads in India?

Recently, on a car journey in Melbourne, I was admiring the roads of Australia. Being a Mumbaikar, I am not used to smooth roads devoid of potholes that are not dug every few centimeters. Australia, is the first country I have traveled to outside India and hence I have only the Mumbai roads to compare with. Seeing the poor conditions of the roads in our country, I always thought that probably it was a soil issue that supposedly good quality roads were full of potholes during rainy season and that most of the roads were forever going through repair work.

This time I was traveling with a civil engineer who has worked on road construction projects in US, Pune and now in Melbourne. I asked him is corruption really the reason for our roads to be so bad or it has something to do with the texture of our soil or any such technicality? I always like to give a person the benefit of doubt and though I know that road construction projects involve huge kickbacks between contractors and politicians, I still believed that probably something was naturally wrong with our roads. He said that corruption is the only reason for poor roads in India. He says he was exasperated with the corruption while working in India and didn't want to continue in such an environment. In most of the cases, there are under the table deals while rewarding the contracts and probably the contractors lose so much money in bribing that they compensate by using sub standard material for building the roads. And more repair work means more revenue for them, so more the number of repairs needed, better the business.

Other than this, I think there is no reason that why Mumbai, which is the financial capital of India should have such a poor infrastructure and be challenged by rains year after year. Its sad that corruption takes away so much of the taxpayer's money and we have to forcefully accept such conditions. Sometimes I wish I would have done law. I would sue the government and contractor for every poor road in Mumbai and for causing irreversible damage to my back by traveling on them.

Deciphering Arundhati Roy

The list of causes that writer and activist Arundhati Roy supports goes like this, against Narmada dam project, support of a separate state of Kashmir, supports the Maoist struggle, supports not hanging of Afzal Guru(man convicted of attacking the parliament, anti India's nuclear weaponisation, blames Mumbai 26/11 attacks on Gujarat 2002 riots and ongoing struggle in Kashmir etc. Undoubtedly she has remarkable credentials as a writer and activist, but she looks like a rebellion without a cause to me.

She comes across as a hardcore socialist and idealist with noble intentions at heart for the poor. But she also has an outlook and opinion that take more prominence over the interests of the people she is fighting for. Many a times she looks like a self indulgent activist who is hell bent on imposing her thoughts on the poor in her fight against the state. Looking at her current diatribe against the government and in favour of Maoists just illustrates the point.

Roy holds the government responsible for the rise of Maoist movement in the backward states of India (which is true) and also supports the violence adopted by the Maoists as she terms it as their last resort. She accused the government of taking active interest in these areas because it has signed deals with corporate houses to vacate the land and wants to remove its local habitants from there.

Firstly, no one becomes terrorist for fun. If Maoist are justified like this for taking up arms, then so should be Islamic terrorist. Oppressed and poor are always easy targets for recruitment by terrorist groups but that cannot justify killing of innocent people. Every terrorist is fighting for a cause and has a tale of oppression behind him/her. If you justify one, you justify all. Secondly, government is undoubtedly to be blamed for the backwardness of these states. But isn't industrialization necessary for development of these areas? Its equally important to keep a check that naive locals are not cheated by the nexus of politicians and corporates, as has been the case in the past. Here is where activists like Roy can play a major role. Instead of fighting against every development activity that the state undertakes, why can't they use that energy in ensuring that every such development activity is inclusive of the growth of local people? Yes, India needs activists like Roy to take up the cause of oppressed but not someone whose ideologies overshadow the core purpose of upliftment.

Dynasty Politics......Congress has company

Congress versus BJP has always been a topic of hot debate between my grandfather and myself. He, being a strong BJP supporter, and me being a Congress supporter. Over the time I realised that it was not true. He was actually an anti Congress man and me an anti BJP woman. His stand aroused from his anger against the Congress during partition which made him leave his land in Pakistan (erstwhile Punjab in undivided India) and my stand was largely due to the unsecular stand of BJP. There were many points on which we fought, but one of his points often stopped me in my tracks. The accusation of Congress being a dynasty party. I had to agree with it because it was always shamelessly demonstrated by the party.

But nowadays I do have a counterpoint. BJP itself is turning to dynasty for finding leaders at state level and it is absolutely clueless at the centre to find a heir. If one looks at the recent elections in Maharashtra, every single party boosted of family connections. The Congress CM, Ashok Chavan is the son of a former CM, BJP is a family affair with the Munde family, Shiv Sena of course is a party split up between two brothers, NCP is a stronghold of the Pawars and Bhujbals. And ironically Rahul Gandhi, the poster boy of dynasty politics, is trying to usher in the era of democratic elections within the party(so says the media atleast).

Coming to Maharashtra elections, I feel Congress has not won due to good governance (that would be the understatement of the year) nor due to the MNS factor but because of lack of formidable opposition to the ruling party. Over the years I have realised, that most of the people don't vote for a particular party but against one. No wonder that most of the elections are won due to anti incumbency factor. One of the few bucking this trend in India is Narendra Modi. You may hate the man for a variety of factors but you cannot deny that he has been voted again and again in power because of his good governance in Gujarat. That is a vote in the favour of good governance not the one just rolled out in Maharstra.

Parvez Rasool - A victim of the new media obsession of our Police??

A hot debate has ensued in our country, on whether Parvez is a victim or not? Many like me agree that the police was just doing its job. They received an information which they had to check out. When the nation is under security threat, this doesn't look like a big deal. But this doesn't justify the police's dance in front of the camera terming Parvez as a terrorist. I havent seen any of the TV reports (thankfully am spared of the 24/7 inane news onslaught) but after reading about Karnataka Police's eagerness in branding Parvez as a terrorist, I feel that Police does owe an apology. Not for arresting Parvez for investigation but for trying to show off their media suaveness.

I remember the Aarushi murder case and each time the police/CBI arrested some one under suspicion, the whole media circus would start playing. It would start with police's declaration in front of the camera about branding the suspect as almost a convicted criminal, then media further pronouncing their verdict and showing stupid role plays to demonstrate how the suspect killed the victim. To date CBI has not found a shred of evidence to implicate any of the suspects, but the media has almost branded each of them as accused. I can only imagine the kind of ignominy the accused and their family have to go through due to the media circus. Whatever happened to the old fashioned way of letting the court giving the verdict? With the courts taking eons to decide on a case, the media trial seems to be the new way of serving justice (rather injustice) to most of the accused. Parvez is thus, a victim of the new media savvy brand of policemen and politicians our country has developed.

Next in step, I can imagine police following Shashi Tharoor footsteps and twitting away to glory each time they catch a suspect. ( @2P.M.4 men arrstd, think thy r terrorists......@4P.M.No thy r not......@5P.M. V found rdx traces, thy r....... @6P.M......m/c faulty, thy r not, request sent for new m/cs & new terrorists.......)