We want an Indian Prime Minister !

About two decades ago and earlier an Indian could raise his head in pride but today if looking at the political drama being played by our politicians, there is substantial documentation to highlight the nexus between politicians and some of the most lumpen of criminals, men of straw squabble for the opportunity to occupy ministerial berths which were once graced by statesmen of vision and dignity. Today, in the name of religion and divisive politics, our country is faced with the grave threat of terrorists not from outside but from within our country.
Today, the country is faced with the gravest moral and ethical crisis in history. Yet, the blame for this state of affair is sought to be placed on the shoulders of the people. Thus has every Prime Minister who succeeded Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru used every occasion to mouth lofty ideals and motivate the people to greater degrees of nationalism and patriotism? In other words, it was always the fault of the people, never that of the leaders.
Today, India if it has to march ahead has to achieve a lot. The way the country is moving there are fears that India will become a land of bribery, corruption, nepotism and other such evils which can ruin a country's financial, administrative and social fabric. These problems have only one cause. It is not our over-population, corruption or even lack of education. It is attitude. To change and improve a country, the people must change, and people change if their attitudes change: attitudes to work, the country, the man next door, the sleazy bureaucrats, politicians, the west and life in general. To achieve something we must have a fixed objective and we must set our sights firmly on our goal and strive towards it, because the following years ahead can make or break India.
India is not a land of super trains; it is a land of more than 1,150,000,000 (1.15 billion) people. India is currently the world's second largest country. Demographers expect India's population to surpass the population of China, currently the most populous country in the world, by 2030. We are our biggest resource. A resource which has long been wasting, a resource which has been neglected and been regarded as a liability, and a resource which will lead the way for us into the next decade. But, politics will play a large role in how our nation will shape up. We live in a time when a politician can say, “I came, I saw and I conquered power be it by hook or by crook.” And get away with it.
Indian politics should undergo a sea change to meet the challenges and demands of modern India. What naughty, dirty politics required is a whack in the right place and a good clean system where corrupt politicians are thrown out of power. And that can be done only by us, we citizens. We require a new breed of leaders with new thoughts and ideas to grease the wheels and not the palms, of this nation. However, our purpose would be better served if we honestly fulfilled our duties and exercised our rights, and if we made ourselves aware of the factors and faces which will effect our country, so that when election time comes along every five years, when the politicians are brought back down to earth, when power is snatched from their hands and is thrust into ours, then we can ensure a future we do not regret living in.
If we do not act now, we will repent later. Today 'patriotism' which our leaders sacrificed their lives for is no more in the hearts of our politicians. In the name of religion and caste these leaders are trying to divide our nation and if we do not nip this in the bud, it wouldn't be far away when India will be a nation of bits and tatters. Today, we have more leaders aspiring to be Prime Minister than a patriotic leader. They had ambitions and strived only to occupy the highest chair of this country. Sharad Pawar, looked upon himself as a 'Maharasthrian PM'; Mayawati as a 'Dalit PM'; L.K.Advani as a 'Hindutva PM'. Balasaheb Thackeray, too keeps shouting aloud of supporting a Marathi 'manoos' as the country’s Prime Minister. But none of them have a feeling of patriotism for the country and say, we want an Indian Prime Minister. But, as citizens of this glorious nation, we can proudly say “We want an Indian Prime Minister who will strive for the welfare of the people instead of only striving for power.” We have to make this day happen.
When will this day come? When will it transpire into a reality? When will we see this day when food is not a luxury, liquor is not a necessity and peace is not a rare and expensive commodity. A day when travel is not a torture, bribery is not a part of administrative procedure and poverty is not a prerequisite for Indian citizenship.

Is BJP on the verge of a coma?

Nitin Gadkari addresing a meeting after taking charge as BJP President. Other prominent BJP leaders attended the meeting

The ‘Bhartiya Janata Party’(BJP) or described by many as ‘Bhartiya Junglee Party’ is steeped in crisis such as it has never known before. Vacillating from an identity crisis to a leadership crisis, the party is on the verge of being wiped off from the national scene. It may sound an exaggeration but the reality is - the BJP faced upsets in the last two Lok Sabha elections and is in danger of losing power in majority of states it has been ruling. The possibility is still that - simply a 'possibility', many feel. But talk to any BJP worker and your worst fears are bound to get confirmed. Most are not sure of getting into the Lok Sabha again in the immediate future. What the future will bring no one knows. The unfortunate part of the whole story is that the top leadership is oblivious of the writing on the wall. Perhaps they feel that the old style of manipulating issues, splitting parties, bribing the elected members and strengthening the vote bank will yield results and will retain the party's position in power. While all this has worked in the past, it may not now.
The problem with the BJP is that it has been in power since Independence for a short period of six years, in a coalition government (NDA) in the past 62 years-barring two brief spells of the Atal Vajpayee's rule. Any political party, which sees power for a short period of time, is bound to develop inherent structural abrasions and contradictions. Similarly, the Congress developed several but they managed to keep their house in order. The BJP assigned to neither itself the image of 'Hindutva' but it was neither Hindutva, nor secular nor socialist in action. It disillusioned the majority as well as the minority, labour as well as the entrepreneurial class. While promising to remove corruption in public life, each successive BJP and its allies led government in states as well as the centre, became more and more corrupt.
Today, every BJP or its allies worker believes that only 'he' has the right to rule the country and therefore justifies every means to remain in power. The first principle of power which the BJP leaders have to learn is that power is transitory. The more you try and adhere to it, the more unpopular you are likely to be. It is sad fact that in India, politics and corruption have almost become synonymous. The drama created by BJP on the vote of confidence cannot be forgotten. The world watching cannot forget how some MPs took out bundles of currency. It shows the sorry state of politics of the BJP, where the power-hungry party is willing to stoop to any level. What had happened in Parliament is nothing short of prostitution! The only difference is: it was not the body but the nation's very soul that was being offered to the highest bidder!
The BJP has been moving away from the people gradually. Today, the party is totally alienated from the people and its leaders. The reason being the link between the people and the leader has disappeared. In the past, evolution of leadership was a gradual process. The most damaging fact is that the BJP has not been able to communicate a cogent politics to anyone, not even erstwhile fellow- travelers and supporters. And this new paranoid, inward-looking avatar is certainly unlikely to win it any more political ground. After, the party’s debacle in 2009 their leaders went into a ‘Chintan Baithak’ at Shimla as a bunch of losers trying to clean up their act. They re-emerged in the form of a bunch of self-destructive lunatics. BJP, in practice is frequently being revealed to be a party of people who have no idea what they are doing or where they want to go.
The BJP's brittleness is evident in the way it had disregarded institutional proprietary from Jaswant Singh's expulsion. Further, Arun Shourie's remark of BJP's leadership as 'Alice in blunder land', turmoil in Rajasthan and now Bihar and outburst of other leaders like Nitish Kumar, Jaswant Singh, Brajesh Mishra and Sudheendra Kulkarni, Uma Bharati have hit a nail in the coffin for the BJP. The moves made by the BJP leadership proved to be blunderous. And these moves are not carried out with a view to improve the administration in the leadership but to regain power.
With a weakening BJP, the Congress seems to be set to consolidate its position at the Centre and majority of states. Unless and until the mess created by the BJP is cleaned and the confidence of the masses is again re-stored, the BJP party appears to be slipping into coma. What happens in the next Lok Sabha and many State Assembly elections would be interesting to watch. If the writing on the wall was clear after the parliamentary elections this year, it became pronounced that the Congress continues on its revival path and the BJP which tasted power from the Hindutva belt- Uttar Pradesh, is nowhere in the recognition and continues its journey downhill. The Left is shrinking and the right is going nowhere. But the BJP is definitely slipping into a coma.
The Bharatiya Junglee Party (BJP) or the National Disaster Alliance (NDA), if, it ever has to come to power needs to wallow in the mire of astrology, palmistry, karmakand, abracadabra, Vedic slaughter, and shamanism. These induce them to keep looking for answers to their problems in the mist-enveloped regions of the occult and the obscure. That is the only way these usurpers can ensure their safety from the fury of the people. The degeneration of the BJP from the vibrant Hindu movement that it was in the 1990s, as a party with a vision and an agenda, to what it has become today – a vehicle for individual ambitions - can be best gauged by those whom the BJP has chosen as its face and voice, as its power-brokers, as its point-persons, and as its strategists. But in a society like India, these are viruses that poison the system and the ultimate result is a state of coma.

Rape, Can a dream of crime free society be possible?

Rapist belongs to all parties, castes and creed. It is not written on anyone’s forehead. In spite of the prosperity, globalization and education, we have failed to eliminate the violence against women. We worship woman as a Goddess, regard her as a mother, love her as a wife and she is most affectionate to us as a daughter but still we commit violence against her. As per the statistics available, every 3rd minute a case of violence against woman is registered in India. Every day 50 cases of dowry related violence are reported and every 29th minute a woman is raped. All rape cases are not reported to police but if you consider all rape cases, then probably a woman is raped in India every 15th minute. This shows the gravity of the problem. Laws are not very strict for such type of violence against woman. Sad part of the story is that in most of the cases culprits are either close relatives, friends or known persons.
Although these cases are seldom reported, it is a known fact that women are exploited at their work place, girls suffer as a student in their school, maid servant exploited by the house keeper, disable and handicap girls sexually used in the orphanages. Women are suffering in agony but in peace as there is nobody to complain to.
The rape of a maid servant by actor Shiney Ahuja had taken the country by shock and particularly the safety of women in the city of Mumbai which was once regarded a safe haven for women. In another shocking incident it took the country's legal system nearly 20 years to put behind bars the man former Haryana police Chief S.P.S. Rathore, who had molested budding teenaged tennis player Ruchika Girhotra in August 1990. She committed suicide three years later.
Despite women personalities like Pratibha Patil, Sonia Gandhi, Mayawati, Mamta Banerjee, Girija Vyas, Sushma Swaraj, Kiran Bedi and Ex-Mumbai police Addl. Commissioner like Archana Tyagi, being at the helm of affairs and a lot of NGOs fighting for women causes, the atrocities on women does not seem to stop and continues to be on the rise. Practically, every day we come across an incident of rape or atrocities on women in the media. When will the day come when women feel safe in our country?
There is an urgent need to clear the society from crime and criminals. The atrocities and rape on women is increasing at an alarming pace. Every woman is feeling insecure in herself. The nature of crime on women has touched various heights and newer methods are evolved day in and day out to save oneself from the clutches of law after committing the crime.
The alarming situation is that even children of low age have not been spared being raped by these bloody savages. The procedure of law and order are absurd and justice gets delayed which gives frustration to justice seekers. The cost of seeking justice is alarming. Rape is one of the least reported and least prosecuted of all-violent crimes. Yet it's after effects can be devastating for the victims. Rape is the most heinous in that it violates the women's dignity, body and mind, and ravages her psyche. Yet most rapes go unreported. There are many reasons why women suffer in silence. Fear, embarrassment, shame, stigma, the fear of not being guilt, the guilt of being typecast by the society as 'that type of woman who invited the rape' etc.
These misconceptions are further fuelled by society's unsympathetic attitude towards the victim, and the abrasive and brusque manner in which the crime is investigated by the authorities. It is a great shame that more than 15,000 women are raped every year in India. The present law in respect of rape cases is considered to be extremely antiquated and culprits use loopholes to go scot-free.
This heinous crime completely disorients the victim and changes their lives forever. The immediate aftermath of a rape for most victims is a feeling of being in a state of extreme shock and trauma. It is a complete fracturing of the victim's personality and psyche. Even survivors of trauma who reconstruct new lives and who have achieved a degree of normality will find that new life events will trigger memories and reactions of the trauma. Such is the gruesome effect of this offence on its victims. The total scenario of crime leaves no ray of hope, intelligentsia is helpless. The right citizen dares not come forward. In such a situation is there a ray of hope? Can justice sustain the hope of the victim? Can a dream of crime free society be possible? Can it be made a reality? What can and should be done? Will it succeed or the efforts go waste? What can I do? I am alone. My voice will be unheard. These are the most common questions been raised by the public and nobody dares to come forward to stop these heinous crimes.
This clearly gives the indication that unless like-minded people join hands, think, ponder and plan their schemes and strategies and monitor their implementation, all efforts are going to be ineffective. A concentrated concrete proposal needs to be formed with all loopholes plugged; otherwise all efforts will be wasted.
"SEXUAL ASSAULT CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE AT ANYTIME." Rapists look for someone who is vulnerable"...and available. RAPE IS A CRIME OF VIOLENCE AND CONTROL NOT PASSION."