You must have noticed the name, MF Hussain, popping up on many news channels and sites these days. The reason? Because the guy got citizenship of Quatar.. So what? What we have to do with him.. well, according to some people.. it’s a matter of shame that India has not called him back to stay in India?
But why would India welcome him? Well, because in 90s, he had painted Hindu goddesses and mother India nude.. and he hurt sentiments of so many Hindus or I should say, Indians.. but that was just his freedom of expression and there was nothing wrong in it..
I am sorry, but I don’t buy the bullshit of freedom of expression. I am game for the freedom of speech or freedom of expression but not at the cost of hurting anyone’s sentiments.. what was the need to paint mother India or any goddess nude? What was he trying to achieve from it? I am really not sure about it..
And, if he actually feels it as a freedom of expression, then why can’t he try with prophet or any other Muslim gods? Well, he won’t.. he wants to live in this world
I have noticed that Indian media is always most interested in bringing up anti-hindu issues.. they never show the stuff on Kashmiri Pandits or other issues where Hindus are being attacked (or got injustice..) We are shown only one side of the story..
I am actually very much afraid by this “political” side of these news channels.. (Specially the English ones), these guys have got lot of power in their hand.. and they are misusing it..
I have nothing against any religion but the news or anything should not be judgmental based on the religion.. it should be balanced..
And I am yet to see that day..
Update: Following videos which will throw some light on the issue… (Excuse the poor guy’s English)
This post is inspired by recent happenings related to Marathi Manoos floating around.. I know, there are so many people angry on all these senas and all.. but in this, not many us thought beyond Marathi Manoos issue..
My thoughts are mainly roaming around the political angle of all these recent happenings and trying to understand the Congress is playing very very smart political game here.. obviously there is nothing bad in it, afterall, everything is fair in love and war..
So how does this whole thing work? If you have noticed in this general elections, the Congress acted very differently from the earlier elections.. earlier, the party had to take the support of others to remain as the central government but this time if you see, they have made sure that at almost all the places they have the strong hold and they do not have to go begging for the seats.. so basically, they want to make a point that, in the whole India, Congress should not be depending upon anyone.. they are reaching out to poor people to get the votes.. You must have seen how Rahul Gandhi was visiting the small villages throughout the year..
Now, the game plan is, the opponent should be crushed and should not be able to stand on it’s own feet.. on the larger scale the opponent is BJP and the last election they made sure that, BJP is almost crushed.. and now they have stronghold in very few places… (Gujarat, Bihar [With JDU], Karnataka etc..), they managed to crush BJP/ Shiv Sena in Maharashtra too..
But still in Maharashtra, Bal Thackeray’s word holds more importance than any other political leader and that’s the fact.. so now how to break that? Let’s start the divisional politics and bring in the personal wars in.. and then break the ice..
So what did they do.. In the first chapter, we saw MNS vs Shiv Sena.. they both started fighting to show the strength of each other, Congress watched the game quietly and laughed over it.. yeah, on the name of “taking action” they arrested MNS chief Raj Thackeray but we all know what happened to it.. so let’s keep that aside and stick to the main topic..
So, in the elections, you saw the votes getting divided, and it certainly helped Congress to win the seats very very comfortably..
But this did not affect the ties of BJP – Shiv Sena.. so now how to break that? But I think without pushing much, Congress just got what they were waiting for..
Marathi Manoos issue is back.. infact, back in full swing.. Senas targeting icons like Sachin Tendular, superstars like Shahrukh Khan, business tycoons like Ambanis.. Sena even threatens to stop screening of SRK starrer film, My Name is Khan.. BJP makes some statements which are not so in favor of Shiv Sena.. RSS makes statements which are again not in favor of Shiv Sena.. but what government is doing in this? Silent spectator.. Rahul Gandhi in Bihar, to get votes, makes some silly statements.. Shiv Sena strikes back on them in their own way.. Congress calls Shiv Sena leaders mental.. Shiv Sena sends notices to all theatre owners not to screen the movie.. Maharashtra government (kind of) tries to assures that no one can take law in their hands etc.. (Now that’s the different story that their statements do not carry much weight).. but in the middle of this, the war game does not stop.. sometimes it’s Shiv Sena or sometimes it’s MNS..
But if you notice.. Congress is not making any firm statements here.. they are letting these guys make the things worst, so people get angry and never bother voting these parties..
I am sure in all these things, a common man is least interested coz they are not bothered about what a superstar or a businessman is saying.. but after seeing these kind of acts by Senas I am sure, it’s hurting a common man somewhere and this is what helps the other parties.. the vote bank slowly moves towards the other party.. because Senas are not interested in development of Maharashtra, they are only interested in the communal fights between religions and languages.. (That’s what is being projected..)
So moral of the story.. at the cost of a common man’s sentiments, these political parties are playing games and dividing people.. I am sorry to say but we are divided.. we are moving backwards..
And yes, many people will say that, Congress is in power because it’s a good party and people have elected them.. my take is… people have elected them because they did not have any options..
*** Note: This one is gonna be pretty lengthy one ***
Yes, I am a pro BJP guy, I would always like to see BJP getting elected but at the same time, I don’t believe in following anyone blindly.
To be frank, in this election, I had high hopes for BJP, the way they started their online campaign was showing some good signs.. the good signs of stressing more on the development factor.. but as the day passed, the whole scenario changed and it turned into cat fights..
There were few incidents which I feel were given more importance and blown out of proportion by media and rivals.. e.g. being classic case of Varun Gandhi.. everyone said, his speech was inflammatory (Video), even he was slapped detention order under NSA. At the same time, Sanjay Dutt too gave in inflammatory speech, but no one bothered to care about it.. (I feel this was something not at all fair)
Before you jump to any conclusions… Let me make it clear.. I was NOT AT ALL serious about the title of this post.. I did not mean it.. haha
Couple of recent incidents forced me to write something about the policemen.. I am not trying to say that, every policeman is bad, but till now, I have not come across any good genuine policemen (Except from the Cybercell Mumbai guys, who left me impressed… that’s a different story all together)
The article talks about, a shop in Mulund named Karachi Sweets, which according to MNS, is anti-Indian and the shop owner should change the name within 10 days or face the consequences. (The shop’s brand is almost 30 year old)
No, I am not going to bash MNS here… the real action begins when the shop owner goes to the police for help…
The policemen agrees with MNS and asks the shop owner to change the name.. some of them even suggested names like “Mumbai Sweet House”.. the logic? Well, according to police, the name will help shop owner to attract more buyers.. haha
Here are the excerpts from the article:
The local police were informed but, instead of assuring protection, officials said it would be "better” if the shop changed its name and avoided any confrontation with MNS activists.
Residents of the area share the shop manager’s fears. "Change of name could be misleading. Many may think that the original shop has shut down and they may stop going there,” one of them said.
However, the police have a different view. "We suggested that the owner should rename his shop as Mumbai Sweet House,” a Mulund police station officer said. "That will attract more customers to the shop.” Another similarly helpful suggestion came from the policemen who met the owner; they asked him to apply to the BMC’s shops and establishments department for a change of name on a priority basis.
Another officer admitted the police station had received a letter from the MNS, informing them about an agitation against the signboard. "We wanted to prevent a problem and advised the shop owner to take a quick decision on renaming the shop,” he said.
I am not sure where a common man will go? Police is not ready to help him, he is forced to change the name.. I think it’s time that people will start keeping guns with them so they can fight back in these kind of issues.. (as police is not helping at all)
Here is another example:
This one is about the movie Deshdrohi, which was banned in Maharashtra but later got clearance from the court..
But, in Mumbai, no one is ready to screen it.. why? Well.. do I need to say again? haha..
Deshdrohi was to be screened in halls like Alankar in Grant Road and Nandi in Bandra. But Nandi had to instead screen Sarkar Raj. Sheru who manages both halls said, "A senior cop from VP Road police station asked us to avoid screening it saying it may create problems. I told my manager to go to the police station with the court order but they repeated the statement. Finally on Thursday we decided not to screen it. Some Shiv Sainiks came to Nandi and tore up posters of the film, warning us against showing it.”
Even Amar cinema, Chembur has been forced to screen Ghajini instead of Deshdrohi. Shabbir Sheikh, manager of the hall said, "The cops came here and told us not to screen the film. When I told them the court had lifted the ban, they said even if I asked for protection they would not be able to provide it as they were short-staffed.”
In this case also police washed off their hands saying, we are not going to help you.. you bow down to demands of these political parties..
I had personally faced couple of experiences few years back.. 1st one was when I had met with an accident.. I had to pay Rs. 5000 as bribe to policeman even if it was not my fault.. and on the top of it, they filed counter case on me.. (The whole experience was really pathetic and painful part.. will post about it some other time)
Another personal experience was when my car tape got stolen.. to get FIR report, the policeman asked me to pay Rs. 1,000 bribe and when we denied to pay, they kept us waiting for hours almost daily and gave it after a week..
All these experiences are certainly not helping to create a good impression of Policemen..
Again, I am not saying all the policemen are bad but if you look at the current scenario.. I don’t see any positive signs..
Aaah, this is gonna be a quick post… I am running out of time but this is something which was in my mind for quite sometime and finally… these chain mails about “no vote” made me write this little piece of thought… and Yea.. this post by one of my Twitter friends Danish Khan also helped me to write about it..
Okay… so, what is this no vote thing… well, according to section 49-O in our constitution, every voter has right to register a null vote or “no vote”. It means, you have registered in the election process but you haven’t voted for anything… logically it means, there is no party worth your vote…
Now, according to this chain mail, it is mentioned that is there are 100 no votes against 100 genuine votes, the party with that votes will be barred from the election… and there will be re-polling. Which is NOT TRUE. There is nothing like that, according to the law, when a note vote is registered, it will be REJECTED…
Yes, some of the sites are saying that it will be counted as negative vote but I am not sure about this.. I just went through “Handbook for Counting Agents” (PDF file) on Election Commission of India website and it clearly states that (18.8), “no votes” should be rejected… so I think it’s as good as not voting? But again, there is no proper information this.. .negative voting looks unreal to me as I could not find any information about it on the official site.
Also, No Vote thing might not be as easy we we are thinking, and it will also disclose your identity, as you will have to sign some document for no vote.. so the guys sitting over there will obviously know about your decision… A blogger has blogged about this experience about “no vote” thing here
Okay… Okay… so in short.. according to me “no vote” is not a good option as noting is clear about it and there is no point in wasting the vote without any clear info on the rules.
My personal view is.. basically it was told to me by my dad.. ALWAYS VOTE… all the political parties are bad… but some are worst and some are worse… so you vote for the worse party so that worst does not win….
In current scenario, out of 1000 people, if 999 go for “no vote” and 1 registers the vote for the worst party, then worst party will win.. so don’t make it happen.. and ALWAYS VOTE…
So, moral of the story is… don’t be stupid and you should definitely vote.. we know what all parties have done… and you can weigh them according to your judgment but DO VOTE… Vote smartly…
