Plagiarism warning: “Yes we can” “Change”; I must congratulate Obama’s campaign manager for these very words brought about revolution, it helped bring about a black president in the white house (no the irony does not escape me); it helped bring about a ‘Hussein’ to the white house; if America a predominantly white supremacy state can change so drastically and create history well then lets use these words and try bringing about a historic change in our country. When he won the historic election the world cheered with him, the words “yes we can” struck a cord with one and all.
However this change will have to be for one and for all, the young the old, the rich the poor, the Hindu the Muslim the Christian. There have been many people who until now never knew that they could make a difference, the youth neither knew about voting nor who is standing for votes nor who their prime minister is and what his party represents. However these very orkut and facebook addicted teens are coming out of their shell and seeking change. They are rallying for change. Everyday I get many mails on different mails forwarded on speeches, pictures on 26/11.
Election season has come knocking and I can’t help but think that this incident and anti incumbency could effect the current party in charge chances of being re-elected, one political party for another does not seem to be the way out. We need to be reminded that a change in party is not what we are looking for, according to me this will achieve very little if nothing at all; what we are looking for is a change in this political status quo – whereby every party uses the same old tactics whether it be divide and rule or any other age old dirty communal trick up their sleeves. Remember this change will not be easy by far, we are up against corrupt ministers, corrupt bureaucracy, and mostly grass root lack of education. The norm has been that politicians that head India are put there because of their longevity in the Indian political scenario. Remember I say all this with utmost respect for our leader the great Manmohan Singh, he is by far one of the most intelligent men India has to offer, he is not a politician so lets stop making him one; I cannot help but wonder that had politics not come in the way of two extrememly brilliant men Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram maybe India would not be seeing the days we are currently seeing? We need to let our greats lead instead of attacking them and bringing their level down to playing dirty politics. However in the same breath I acknowledge that Indian politics is dirty politics, here it is acceptable to say anything and make as many false promises to win a vote, the youth are losing faith in this mass misleading but unfortunately we are not their target vote bank, so our lack of faith “ah well they give a damn about it”. The youth are no longer indifferent to the politics that uses Religion as wedge, politics that does not let us think, we are only allowed to think and vote within certain confines for certain people that supposedly represent us? I would like everyone to know that neither does Modi nor Chaggan Bhujpal nor any of the other conniving leaders that we ourselves have elected represent me. I am eager to see a young, dynamic leader. It is refreshing to observe that India is seeing a new generation of leaders – Pilot, Scindia, Deora or even Gandhi; however the pessimist in me does question whether they are just a new package for the same old thing? Let us hope not.
Media even though has the power, has played a dirty part in sensationalizing stories, the saddest story I heard was that these reporters on live tv let know the location of prominent people in Taj; then they showed on live tv operations at Nariman house giving information to those heaviliy armed terrorists inside as to how our brave men are entering – brilliant what coverage (if you detect sarcasm in what I said then you are bang on; as I watched this all that went through my head was “give me a bat so that I can break their camera’s”, they put innocent lives at stake for an ‘Exclusive’ story). Then during the peace march I noticed all the media channels taking credit for a movement the youth started, they had nothing to do with it apart from cover it. The media also covered Taj, Oberoi making them the landmarks of our city, Come on what about VT station (now CST) this station is magnificently beautiful the gargoyles, the magnificent bricks used to build it wow – what about this? How could they not think of this as a landmark and the 60+ people who died inside there, where was the coverage for them?
The politicians and the media tried to milk people’s grief; one for ‘Exclusive coverage’ the other for ‘exclusive votes’. I saw this Amul ad while I drove home it showed a politician in between a whole bunch of armed security men, and the slogan was “who are the real terrorists?”; hmm come to think of it I do not know. In India a country of over a billion, the amount spent on security of VIP’s is much more than the amount spent on the security of the rest of us.
When I went for the 3rd December Peace rally at Gateway of India I saw many many faces some old many young, some poor some rich; all these people coming together reminded me that we ourselves will have to fight and speak up for the change we are seeking as this change will not come easy. I think it is time we become more pro active instead of reactive, we do not need to wait for something bad to happen to us before we take action. There are options open to us; for instance we could pay less tax to the government and part of that tax should go to fund local security, then part of that tax should be used to fund local infrastructure, each of these bodies answerable to prominent locals – then maybe we cannot blame anyone but ourselves for the countries Infrastructure and Security woes. Also bombing another country will not solve problems, never start what you do not know how to finish, and we cannot preach to other countries to destroy their terrorists unless we practice and destroy our own, what about India’s religious fundamentalists? Was it not a mere few months back that we read about ethnic cleansing in states like Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka; where many minorities were slaughtered, raped, houses were burned…Introspection – we seriously lack it.
However this change will have to be for one and for all, the young the old, the rich the poor, the Hindu the Muslim the Christian. There have been many people who until now never knew that they could make a difference, the youth neither knew about voting nor who is standing for votes nor who their prime minister is and what his party represents. However these very orkut and facebook addicted teens are coming out of their shell and seeking change. They are rallying for change. Everyday I get many mails on different mails forwarded on speeches, pictures on 26/11.
Election season has come knocking and I can’t help but think that this incident and anti incumbency could effect the current party in charge chances of being re-elected, one political party for another does not seem to be the way out. We need to be reminded that a change in party is not what we are looking for, according to me this will achieve very little if nothing at all; what we are looking for is a change in this political status quo – whereby every party uses the same old tactics whether it be divide and rule or any other age old dirty communal trick up their sleeves. Remember this change will not be easy by far, we are up against corrupt ministers, corrupt bureaucracy, and mostly grass root lack of education. The norm has been that politicians that head India are put there because of their longevity in the Indian political scenario. Remember I say all this with utmost respect for our leader the great Manmohan Singh, he is by far one of the most intelligent men India has to offer, he is not a politician so lets stop making him one; I cannot help but wonder that had politics not come in the way of two extrememly brilliant men Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram maybe India would not be seeing the days we are currently seeing? We need to let our greats lead instead of attacking them and bringing their level down to playing dirty politics. However in the same breath I acknowledge that Indian politics is dirty politics, here it is acceptable to say anything and make as many false promises to win a vote, the youth are losing faith in this mass misleading but unfortunately we are not their target vote bank, so our lack of faith “ah well they give a damn about it”. The youth are no longer indifferent to the politics that uses Religion as wedge, politics that does not let us think, we are only allowed to think and vote within certain confines for certain people that supposedly represent us? I would like everyone to know that neither does Modi nor Chaggan Bhujpal nor any of the other conniving leaders that we ourselves have elected represent me. I am eager to see a young, dynamic leader. It is refreshing to observe that India is seeing a new generation of leaders – Pilot, Scindia, Deora or even Gandhi; however the pessimist in me does question whether they are just a new package for the same old thing? Let us hope not.
Media even though has the power, has played a dirty part in sensationalizing stories, the saddest story I heard was that these reporters on live tv let know the location of prominent people in Taj; then they showed on live tv operations at Nariman house giving information to those heaviliy armed terrorists inside as to how our brave men are entering – brilliant what coverage (if you detect sarcasm in what I said then you are bang on; as I watched this all that went through my head was “give me a bat so that I can break their camera’s”, they put innocent lives at stake for an ‘Exclusive’ story). Then during the peace march I noticed all the media channels taking credit for a movement the youth started, they had nothing to do with it apart from cover it. The media also covered Taj, Oberoi making them the landmarks of our city, Come on what about VT station (now CST) this station is magnificently beautiful the gargoyles, the magnificent bricks used to build it wow – what about this? How could they not think of this as a landmark and the 60+ people who died inside there, where was the coverage for them?
The politicians and the media tried to milk people’s grief; one for ‘Exclusive coverage’ the other for ‘exclusive votes’. I saw this Amul ad while I drove home it showed a politician in between a whole bunch of armed security men, and the slogan was “who are the real terrorists?”; hmm come to think of it I do not know. In India a country of over a billion, the amount spent on security of VIP’s is much more than the amount spent on the security of the rest of us.
When I went for the 3rd December Peace rally at Gateway of India I saw many many faces some old many young, some poor some rich; all these people coming together reminded me that we ourselves will have to fight and speak up for the change we are seeking as this change will not come easy. I think it is time we become more pro active instead of reactive, we do not need to wait for something bad to happen to us before we take action. There are options open to us; for instance we could pay less tax to the government and part of that tax should go to fund local security, then part of that tax should be used to fund local infrastructure, each of these bodies answerable to prominent locals – then maybe we cannot blame anyone but ourselves for the countries Infrastructure and Security woes. Also bombing another country will not solve problems, never start what you do not know how to finish, and we cannot preach to other countries to destroy their terrorists unless we practice and destroy our own, what about India’s religious fundamentalists? Was it not a mere few months back that we read about ethnic cleansing in states like Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka; where many minorities were slaughtered, raped, houses were burned…Introspection – we seriously lack it.
