Ayodhya – the road to ‘move on’

The Shameful Day

They say, “It’s better late than never.” They thus justify the 48 extensions and 17 long years Justice Liberhan’s Commision took to present its report on one of the most shameful incidents of independent India – the demolition of the Babri Masjid which was standing tall on the “disputed land” before December 6, 1992. It seems that everything in Ayodhya is disputed – the disputed land, the disputed structure, the disputed demolition, the disputed history and more recently, the disputed report. The aam aadmi ka budget delayed the tabling of this report dealing with ‘not-so-aam’ Hindus and Muslims in the Parliament but now it’s only a matter of time when the communal stalwarts of the country jump into the political ring for yet another round of increasing TRPs for the ‘breaking’ news channels.

Every school and college goer, who has burnt midnight oil for 2-3 months to submit his/her project report before the deadline would agree would me that Justice Liberhan would surely have completed his homework conscientiously and the report would bring out the real culprits behind the demolition and the bloody riots that followed (Amen!). But the point which i want to raise is “What next?”

Yes, the question is What Next??? Will this report do any good to the debates over the disputed land, disputed…………………………., allow me to skip the reiteration. The obvious answer which every Indian knows is a simple ‘No’! But concluding these debates is definitely of prime importance for our country, or in contemporary words – rashtrahit.

There are many theories behind the disputed land. The most common one and which is also accepted by the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) is that before the Mughal Rule, there stood a temple of Lord Rama at Ayodhya to commemorate his birthplace, that is, janmbhoomi. When the first Mughal Emperor Babur invaded India, his general Mir Baqi ordered razing of the temple and building of a mosque which was originally referred to as masjid-e-janmsthaan. This theory is based on historical texts and evidences found by the ASI. There are numerous opposition to this theory with some Muslim organisations and even some historians like Prof. Ram Sharan Sharma claiming that a temple never existed at the site. The Jain school of thought claims that before the construction of the mosque, a Jain temple existed at the site.

Ok ok ok!!! Agreed! I believe that no more scientific or historical research can bring out the real truth behind the disputed………………………….. so i find it better to agree (or disagree!) with every theory because in modern India, it doesn’t actually matter! I don’t find any necessity of any study or research (or maybe another commission to maybe enquire what took Justice Liberhan 17 years!) as howsoever exhaustive the study maybe and howsoever befitting be its report, there will be some or the other group of insatiable people who would register their protest against it. At a time when India has to compete with the global economies and mark it’s presence as a global superpower, the government has to bring an end to such staling political games and focus its attention on more significant aspects of rashtrahit. In other words, we need to ‘move on’!

Governments will come and governments will go. Generations will come and generations will go. Going by the current trends, the disputed site would always remain disputed until we do something for it and that something is something very simple. I suggest the Home Ministry to bring about a proposal of construction of an All Religion Community Prayer Centre for the masses at the site. After consultations with the cabinet, state government, various religious bodies like the VHP, RSS and All India Muslim Personal Law Board, a law should be passed in the Parliament for the construction of the Prayer Centre. Needless to say, it will not be an easy road to trudge but considering the message it would send out to the world about India’s true secular status is again, needless to mention. In a country whose image is frequently tarnished at the world stage by Godhras and Kandhmals, such an initiative by the Central Government would a small step towards achieving communal harmony all over the country.

For those doubting the feasibility of this plan, let me quote historian P. Carnegy, “………. up to that time (the Revolt of 1857) the Hindus and Mohamedans alike used to worship in the mosque temple (at Ayodhya).” Sources from the British Government records also confirm this fact. The bitterness that crept in, or rather made to creep in by the British Government, between Hindus and Muslims after the Revolt of 1857 saw them fighting over claim to the structure. Times have surely changes, and they have changed for the good. If you think they have not, then we have to make them change for the good. Lingering issues like these need to be solved by our country for ensuring a sustained development. Anybody listening…….

P.S.: 1. The government is advised to refrain from naming this Centre as yet another ‘Rajiv Gandhi Community Centre………………….’

2. I request the Home Ministry to act fast, before Behen Kumari Mayawati inaugurates yet another statue of hers; this time at the disputed site!!!

Fire

Fire

Many regard it as the earliest and one of the greatest invention of man along with the wheel. The invention of fire was the turning point in the history of human civilization. All of us use fire, in one or the other form in our lives, every single day. This usage is not restricted to merely the chemical phenomena, but has numerous other disambiguations. Let’s explore it in detail.

Chemically, fire is the rapid oxidation of a combustible substance to produce heat, light and other reaction products. A combustible substance, oxygen, a chain reaction and the required kindling temperature is what is required for a fire to start. These are collectively referred to as the fire tetrahedron. Extinguishing a fire requires the removal of any one of the above four requisites.

The Gujarat riots

The real life is not as simple as the chemical phenomena described above. In this world, a lot more other than the above four constituents of the tetrahedron are required to start a fire and even more is necessary to extinguish one. The communal fire that started in Kashmir and Punjab during the 1947 partition was fuelled by dirty political ambitions and the greed for power of some of the political brains back then. Since then, the fire has spread to other parts of this country and all attempts made to extinguish it have proved to be futile. The Godhra Train burning incident and the following riots in Gujarat were an extension of the same fire. Such violence and riots are symbolised by scenes of fire in every corner of the street as well as by sounds of gun fire. Gun fire is a synonym for death. It is an indication of war; of scenes of profusely bleeding men and women running helter-skelter for their lives and sometimes, in the process, achieving immortality, like the hundreds of martyrs of the infamous Jalliawalah Bagh massacre of 1919.

The Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate

But gun fire is not always so horrifying and deadly. A few months back, a few accurate fires from the gun of Abhinav Bindra won India her first ever individual gold medal in the Olympics while those from the gun of Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore had already given India a silver about four years ago. The flame of the fire of the Olympic torch bore a testimony to the achievements of these great sons of the soil. Lighting fire like the Amar Jawan Jyoti at Delhi is a means to pay homage to our valiant soldiers who dedicate their lives to the nation fighting enemy gun fire to guard our country’s borders.

Fire created controversy in many parts of India

No Hindu marriage is complete without fire

Fire is an integral part of many of the ancient cultures, notably the Greek, Roman, Chinese and our Indian culture. It is one of the five basic elements that make up the human life and it is the fire within a person that determines his/her passion for anything and everything that s/he does in life. Fire is also linked to the sexual energy possessed by a person. The Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das starring lesbian themed 1996 movie was hence aptly named Fire by Deepa Mehta. This is also one of the possible explanations of the usage of the adjective hot for the sexually attractive ones. For Hindus, no religious custom is complete without fire. All sacrifices are made to Agni or fire as it is considered as the messenger of other gods.

Fire - the IM Client for Mac OS X

In commercial organisations, fire is used in a totally different context. No employee would ever like to face the disgrace of getting fired by his/her employer. There have been exceptional examples like the current CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs who, after getting fired from Apple, used this energy from that fire to reignite his passion for his work and get back his position and status. I wonder if Fire – the first Instant Messaging client for Mac OS X that could access IRC, Jabber, AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger and Bonjour – had any such similar history behind its name!

I was a bit busy with my college activities for the past few days so couldn’t blog anything but now that i’m free, i’m back to business as usual and hope that every reader likes my writings and very soon this blog spreads like wildfire on the web.

My Election Manifesto

While going through the pages of the national daily this morning, i came across the news of the Election Commission planning to announce the 2009 General Elections for the Lok Sabha in and around the months of April – May next year. As the election scene in Jammu & Kashmir wrapped up yesterday with another coalition government looking very much evident in the valley, all political parties are now gearing up for the coveted throne in Delhi. The BJP and the whole of NDA would be in revenge mode as they would be looking towards making inflation and terrorism as the main issues in their campaign. The current UPA government is basking under the glory of the successful nuclear deal but the issues of inflation and national security will constantly be haunting the Congress led alliance. I won’t be surprised if Mayawati comes out to be the kingmaker when the largest democracy of the world declares its verdict somewhere in May or June next year.

It's up to us to decide who goes here.

But my point here is that, will the election result be a verdict of the people? We have seen the Election Commission declaring very proudly the figure of some 65 – 70 % voting in most of the general and assembly elections. 65 – 70 % people coming out to cast their vote is mostly, if not always, the maximum turnout in nearly all the elections of our country! On an average, the average voter turnout of all the general elections held so far in independent India is a shocking 59.63%. Here is a link to a table showing the voter turn outs for all the general elections held so far. Is the result of votes by a mere 59% of the country’s adult population, the verdict of the entire country? Definitely, no! More importantly, we all know that who is responsible for this. We, the citizens of India are the biggest culprits for this democratic debacle.

This is the point where every non-voter has a ready answer, “There is no political leader or party that can do any good for this country. Sab chor hain. So there is no point in voting!” I ask them, is not going to vote a solution for your country’s problems, or is your ‘logical reason’ a mere excuse for escaping long queues at the polling booth and thus ‘spoiling’ your holiday which the government has given to you to take a long awaited afternoon nap or checking out the nearest multiplex for a movie or two? The jaagore campaign of a leading tea manufacturer is doing its bit in enabling easy voter registration for us. But the point is, are such campaigns and numerous advertisements by the Election Commission enough for waking up the millions of sleeping Indians who are often seen crediting their lack of interest in politics for their presence at the shopping mall or the multiplex on election day.

Voting is a national duty not merely a fundamental right.

My answer is no. The only resort for ensuring that the large electorate of over a 700 million people turns up at the polling booths on election day is making voting compulsory. Voting in India is a fundamental right of all the citizens of the country above 18 years of age. This very concept has to be understood in a different manner by us. Voting is not only a fundamental right but a national duty of every citizen of the country. But as it is not easy to make people understand this basic fact, there is every reason with the legislature to make voting in India compulsory. It is not that there have not been any attempts for this is the past. In my recent memory, the president of the Uttarakhand BJP, Bachi Singh Rawat moved this bill in the Lok Sabha in the year 2004 but it was rejected by a voice vote. Rajya Sabha MP Jai Prakash Aggarwal also moved the Compulsory Voting Bill in the Upper House in 2006; again with no positive outcome.

India's politicians rely on vote bank politics.

The rejection of Compulsory Voting Bill by our leaders, every time it is moved in the Parliament, points to only one hard fact – our leaders do not want every one of us to vote! Voting by every educated citizen of the country goes against the very principles of the Vote Bank Politics followed by the political parties of our country. These parties know that it is not easy to mould the thoughts and ideas of the educated masses by the dirty politics of regionalism, communalism and false promises, and we very gracefully accept their ways and means of running our country.

Now let me talk some facts. This is a portion of the Compulsory Voting Bill, 2006 moved by MP Jai Prakash Aggarwal.

Any eligible citizen, who fails to cast his vote in any election –

(i) shall be liable to a fine of rupees five hundred; or

(ii) shall be punishable with imprisonment for two days; or

(iii) shall be punishable with forfeiture of his ration card; or

(iv) shall be debarred from contesting any election for a period of ten years from the date of his conviction; or

(v) shall be debarred from allotment of any plot or house in a Central/State Government owned organisation; or

(vi) shall be debarred from taking loan of any kind in all the Central/State Government owned financial institutions; or

(vii)shall be debarred from entitlement to any welfare scheme announced by the Central/State Governments from time to time.

Provided that if such a person is an employee of the Central or the State Government or any public sector undertaking owned by Central/State Government, he shall be punished with—

(a) forfeiture of ten days salary; and

(b) delay in promotion for a period of two years.

There may be many exceptions to these rules, the discussion of the details of which is irrelevant here. Such a system is, in my opinion, very necessary for ensuring that people do come out and exercise their Universal Adult Franchisee. But this is surely not the solution towards a true democracy. True democracy is when people willingly come out to vote on every election day. But the relevance of such a system is that it will play the role of educating the younger generation about the necessity of voting and after a period of time, say 30-40 years, it can subsequently be abolished by a Constitutional Amendment Act.

It’s not that good politicians or good leaders are sent directly from heaven. If the politicians and ministers would know that they have been sent to work by the entire population of the country and not by a mere 50-60 % of the electorate, and this population, the second largest in the world is keeping a strict watch on them, they will work for the people (they will run out of options, isn’t it?).

India is not merely a country where we live. It is our home. It is our duty to make our home shine (i mean truly shine, unlike the farce called ‘India Shining’) among all the other countries of the world. As the punchline of a famous paint manufacturing company goes, Har ghar chupchaap se ye kehta hai, ki andar isme kaun rehta hai (meaning: a home is built by the people who live in), every country too is built and is recognised by the people who live there. We have to be responsible citizens, and for this, the first duty is to vote, whether it’s compulsory or not.

May the government after the 2009 general elections be truly by the people, because then only it can be of the people and more importantly, for the people.

Suggested link: wikipedia