The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Thursday 31 March 2016

INDIAN DEMOCRACY: A DILEMMA..

REFLECTIONS

"Indian democracy..
..is a dilemma..
..between being..
..politically correct v politically relevant..
..between being..
..politically apolitical v apolitically political!"


INDIAN DEMOCRACY: A DILEMMA..

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

VIPISM - FUNERAL PYRES!

COLORES INFINITUM

Sample this.

Funeral pyre is said to be the only decided event that comes inevitably to every life - irrespective of your caste, religion, community, sect or ethnicity.

And it is very rightly said that we all are equal in death - even if we spend our whole life with lofty ideals, with gaudy ostentations, with bawdy deliberations, with audacious aggrandizements, with synthetic ethos, with filthy exaggerations, and with everything else extravagant.

What happens to the body of a billionaire also happens with a beggar - either buried or burnt on a funeral pyre.

Yet, VIPism runs deep even here - and is spreading its tentacles fast.

If you chance visit any cemetery or cremation place on riverbanks, in most towns, cities and metro cities, you can see a separate section, with or without a raised platform - the so-called VIP section - that is available either to VVIPs or VIPs - or for a higher charge.

And mind you - people do lobbying - like getting some influential person to call - even while in the heaviness of death - if they don't get the VIP option available. Likewise, the people manning the crematorium have their behaviours modified.

With increasing levels of income, sophistication (and obviously consumerism, that is otherwise a good trend for a growing economy), the VIPism to show your clout or to simply to quench your inner urge to feel above from others, is becoming a regular feature even at our final resting places.

When - the eternal and the only truth is - we all are same in death - even if we lived different lives.

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/  

Wednesday 30 March 2016

VIPISM - FROM TEMPLES TO FUNERAL PYRES!

REFLECTIONS

"We are so sucked in this VIP culture -
- in life -
- and in death -
- from the VIP queues in temples -
- to the VIP arrangement for funeral pyres!!"


VIPISM - FROM TEMPLES TO FUNERAL PYRES! 

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/  

Tuesday 29 March 2016

VIPISM – TEMPLES

COLORES INFINITUM

Temples are probably the best examples to see how deeply ingrained is the VIP culture in our society in India, something that a rational and logical mind instantly disapproves.

But then what can you do?

Nothing!

But to keep you straight, up according to the norms - as humanity desires and as God decrees – and not as some of us, so called rulers or the ruling elite, lay out.

My first experience to this VIPism was some 10 years ago – back in Chennai – when I was in queue to the famous Ashtalakshmi Temple near some beach – when I saw this VIP line – for people who would pay some amount to bypass the longish queues of sinners like us to get nearer to God.

Now only they can tell or the priests can vouch for if getting in a VIP queue at all helps the purpose – in feeling God – in going near to Him.

What can you achieve by saving some moments by rushing to have your presence in that Sanctum Sanctorum when you cannot toil to see even God?

And this is when our scriptures say that it takes ages of Tapasya (austerity, penance, strict meditation, whatever you want to say) to meet the Almighty in any possible form.

Our scriptures say, our tradition says, the Hindu codes of worship say – that even Goddess Parvati had to do Tapasya for ages to marry Shiva.

But this VIPism has only got worse. From some temples, it is now becoming a regular feature of large temples across the country.

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/  

Monday 28 March 2016

WHY TWO STATE GOVERNMENTS HAVE BEEN DISMISSED? WHY MORE IS UPCOMING?

Simply, because it has been the political culture in India.

Congress was always notorious for dismissing/sacking elected governments in states and the party has exercised/exploited this option innumerable times during its long reign in India - some  55 years of India's 68 independent years.  

And like the Congress party is complaining now - is crying now - all those parties did so when their governments were thrown out of the power.

So, in a way, it should be kind of sweet revenge - that Congress is facing something that it so conveniently did when it had the power.

A very famous poem that is taught in school curriculum says that those who have seen defeats in life can only know the taste of victory.

And it applies to the both parties here - the state run by BJP led NDA government in Centre and the states run by Congress governments - first Arunachal Pradesh, now Uttarakhand - and there are murmurs of same fate about Himachal Pradesh and Manipur.

Going by the poem, and going by the proverbial wisdom, Congress is now facing the brunt of defeats, first electorally, and now in the name of the Constitution, and we should rightly expect that it will do all to taste the sweet 'taste' of victory once it regains the power in Delhi - either in 2019 or some other time. 

But first about the erstwhile losers - or the parties that have had very little say in running the affairs of India - and except BJP, the only party that has had so far only any full-term government (in fact, only single full-term government) - will certainly be feeling more 'justified' in exercising this Constitutional provision while running the country with their government installed in Delhi. 

Because, when it was its term, even Congress was always Constitutionally right - irrespective of what the common sense' political wisdom said - irrespective of what the experts said - and irrespective of what the Constitutional custodians, the courts, said. 

To continue..

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 


Sunday 27 March 2016

SOME 'THOUGHTFUL EJACULATIONS' ON GEC PROGRAMMING :)

Obviously in the Indian context!

Is there any limit to the shit being run on GEC TV channels?

Has story-writing become dead as an art for storywriters/screenwriters/dialogue-writers for television writers?

Either the screenwriters of these 'wisdom-operas' are so brave that they can write the same stuff again and again - without getting bored and bottlenecked - for same television serial or for some other.

Or they are so naive they cannot think beyond the routine sob-and-conspiracy stuff that makes families look like coming from Mars.

Or they are such chauvinists (considering they are males) that they do not want to think beyond sobbing or robbing women - a kind of gender discrimination and thus exploitation - portraying women in a closet.

The counterpoint - what about female screenwriters, producers, directors and actors?

Or - do they have the wisdom of common sense?

Or - why they so adamantly stuff the viewers with such boredom operas so much so that they like to think that they are contributing to the lucid flow of wisdom operas on the entertainment television channels in India.

Or - they are simply dumb to come with innovations and experiments in their writings?

Why it is such an obsession (or fad) with the production houses or the television channels to paint the ordinary Indian family in such a derogatory skew - multiple affairs - extramarital affairs - sibling rivalry to extent that a brother kills a brothers, a sister conspires against a sister, relatives try to kill each other?

Whatever that is left is dumped with fillers like grand parties, film songs and lavish events.

An increasing trend these days is the increasing population of superstition-based, supernatural or fantasy television shows that look horribly shabby in the absence of proper story and character development and totally unacceptable regard for aesthetics.

They work so questionably that they convert even the good storylines into worn-out, bizarre spectacles! 

They simply tell why television is still called the 'Idiot Box' - in spite of being the most powerful communication tool in the mainstream media.

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

Saturday 26 March 2016

THE SYRIAN HOLOCAUST

After the Holocaust, Syria is the biggest horror humanity has seen and to make the matters even worse, it is still ongoing with no end in sight.

On one side, an emboldened dictator-cum-mercenary-cum-warlord-cum-butcher, after the Russian support (courtesy another dictator), is slaying his own countrymen in flocks, using even the chemical weapons.

Then there are terror outfits like the Islamic State or the Al Qaeda affiliates or even the Syrian rebel factions.

They have sandwiched the common Syrians – killing them, forcing them to live under siege or forcing them to flee the country – to a place where they can see the dawn of next day.

And this ongoing horror has given us another event that once again raises questions on us being the members of a globalized world run by a globalized code with a unifying organization like the United Nations. Almost the whole globe is member of the UN.

Events like Syria say the UN is failing; the world community is failing – because the Syrian crisis/civil war is now in its sixth year while the major police nations of the world, who invade an Afghanistan, an Iraq or a Libya, have let that happen.

As a result, in this globalized world, Syria has become the only war-torn/civil-war-hit country to see a decline in its population – with hundreds of thousands killed and millions displaced. Syrians are the biggest migrants group in Europe – those who have got asylum – those who are still waiting in ‘nowhere’ zone – and those who lost their lives while trying to reach those elusive borders of the European continent.

According to the reports, since the crisis began in 2011, Syria has seen some 11.5% decline in its population. From this assessment, if the pre-conflict Syrian population, in 2010, was 21.5 million, it should be around 19 million now. According to the Syrian Centre for Policy Research, the five years of Syrian civil war has killed some 470,000 Syrians while some 480,000 are forced to live under siege.

But when we count in the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe or the Syrian refugee crisis in totality, the inland Syrian population looks even thinner. Some 5 to 6 million Syrians are in different refugee camps – in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan and in many European countries.

This – the population decline – has not been seen even in the war-torn nations and the crisis hotbeds like Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have died. Hundreds of thousands are in danger zones, facing imminent threat to their lives. Hundreds of thousands are starving to death. Millions in refugee camps are stuck with their lives. Majority of schools and hospitals in Syria are gone, ruined or annihilated in the ongoing war.

And we, in the larger world community, are to blame for it. We are letting the Syrian Holocaust happen.

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

Friday 25 March 2016

WASHING, KISSING FEET OF MUSLIM MIGRANTS: SYMBOLISM OF POPE FRANCIS’S GESTURE

It is one of those rare images that make profound policy statements – yet, will it change anything?

What Pope Francis did today could not have been better than it – and could not have come at a more opportune time than this.

The Pope chose the Holy Thursday rite to convey the message that we all so desperately need – that we all are same – in joy – in pain – that we all are brothers – be it the European residents – or the migrants from Asia and Africa that have created the biggest human crisis in the Europe since the World War II.

When he washed and kissed the feet of refugees, including Muslims, Christians and even Hindus, it was a strong counter-statement to those who are out there to exploit the xenophobic mindsets to score political mileage.

Remember the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany – who exploited the nationalist sentiments of Germans after the loss and humiliation of Germany in the World War I to create his brand of ultra-nationalism that ultimately gave the world the World War II and the Holocaust and millions dead across the continents!

Yes, it is not going to be the World War III – but again, human lives are at stake – and millions of them.  

Thousands have been killed in the ongoing war theatres in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Nigeria, Libya, Yemen, Lebanon and many other Asian, African and Central American countries.

And the war-torn nation states have left millions of displaced – desperate to find some shelter – desperate to find the next day of their lives.

And the exodus is coming mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

We talk of universal nature and values of the human rights.

We have a world body for it – the United Nations.

We have a global agency dedicated to look after the affairs of the refugees – the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

We have an International Criminal Court – we have an international police organization (Interpol) – and we have many strategic and trade bodies panning across the globe.

That directly tells we all are global citizens with similar rights to live and grow.

Now, when there are domestic war theaters forcing people out of their homes, of their cities, of their countries – isn’t it the responsibility of everyone – including those in Europe – to give them shelter – to give them a place to live – to preserve their right to live and grow?

Yes, these are utopian propositions – but have always been true – and will always be – even if the ground realities are starkly different.

When Pope Francis delivered his message of ‘brotherhood’ by embracing the Muslim refugees, he just did that.

It was a humane attempt to convey the message of seeing the God in everyone, be it a Christian or a Muslim, in the times of war rhetoric and increasing anti-migrant voices in the European establishments after the spate of terror attacks in European nations, especially France and Belgium.

Let’s hope sense prevails – because the millions – displaced from their houses – and trying to pick the thread of their existences in Europe - need it desperately. 

Image Courtesy: Vatican Radio’s Facebook Page (see the video here – https://www.facebook.com/VaticanRadioEnglish)

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

Wednesday 23 March 2016

HOLI DAYS..

That blue of ball pen refill
That violet of maddening thrill
That green of a hazy sheen
That red of a messy sixteen
That yellow of permanence
And that black appearance
That white of a subdued peace
And that mix of splashed piece
It would always be a family time
When Holi would be at its prime
Though I didn't love chemicals
But as there were no herbals
There was no other way out
But to give in their bout
Yes, they were the traction
The guys from my location
Refusing to leave my trail
Until I joined their rainbow rail
And once I would be on board
I would be one in the hoard
Be it a ball pen refill
Or even the chemical bill
It was an annual spectacle
That I viewed as debacle
It was an annual struggle
That I won like some truffle
Those were the Holi days
Their umpteen mundane ways
When it was a bit Kafkaesque
And it was a bit Supermanesque
When I would say no to say yes
And I would finally find my brush
To spend some time together
To think on its 'ifs and buts' later
Yes, it would finally be my time
When Holi would be at its prime

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

Tuesday 22 March 2016

#HOLI IT :)

Colours – to bathe you :) 
Colours – to lift you :)
Colours – to tell your tales :)
Colours – to go places :)
Colours – to make you friends :)

Colours – to read you red :)
Colours – to colour your blue :)
Colours – to paint you aura indigo :)
Colours – to purple your violet :)
Colours – to culture your yellow :)
Colours – to shine your orange :)
Colours – to jazz you green :)



Colours – to rain your rainbow :)
Colours – to kaleidoscope your life :)

Splash the day – soak it in colours - #Holi it :)
#HOLI IT
:)

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

Monday 21 March 2016

WORDS RHYME IN SOLITUDE

WORLD POETRY DAY: MARCH 21

Words come and stay
They know their way
Words play in moments
With their reverberations
Words rhyme in solitude
Speaking their mind
Words flow inside
Making my days alive
Words tell me who I am
Resuming the dialogue
Accepting what I say
Words come to tell me
Of nights and days
When it was all so gone
When words almost failed
Words still speak to me
On why it had happened
And how they got me again
I was a writer I didn't know
I was a poet I can't say
Writing liberates me now
Poetry lets me croon
I know my senses now
In my nights and days
Words come and stay
To weave new stories
And to tell all those tales
That I so deeply lived
That I so often write
Words rhyme in solitude
To help me reach out
To the life I need to be
Giving me the reasons
To begin every 'new' day 

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

Sunday 20 March 2016

WHAT ACTUALLY IS GOD FOR US..

REFLECTIONS

"What actually is God for us..
- and -
..what actually are we for God?"
WHAT ACTUALLY IS GOD FOR US..

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

WHY LOVE IS CALLED CHEMISTRY.. :)

REFLECTIONS

"Why love is called chemistry..
..when it is actually psychology?
And pursuant to that..
can observational learning say..
..when love really sucks??"
:) 


WHY LOVE IS CALLED CHEMISTRY.. 
:) 

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

Saturday 19 March 2016

I LIKE THIS BLUE

I like this blue
You keep the red
There is this virtue
Beyond that thread
The gloom is long gone
My madness is back
From a dark beacon
It’s that wild pack
From the days in life
Bathed in restlessness
To the moment in life
Steeped in freshness
I like this blue
You keep the red
It told me what’s true
Beyond that thread 

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

Friday 18 March 2016

MR. RAVI SHANKAR IS STILL NOT REALISING!

In a newspaper interview published today, Mr. Ravi Shankar again reiterated that he would never pay a fine. He said he agreed to pay the compensation to develop the Yamuna floodplains. He also said that the farmers were happy with the compensation amount given by his Art of Living Foundation.

He lashed out at his critics for trying to paint his event in a negative light. He said the successful management of the World Culture Festival (WCF), which was even bigger than the Olympics and the FIFA soccer world cup events, should silence everyone. He said the place where the event was organised was a dumping ground and his Foundation would develop it into a beautiful biopark.

So, in a way, Mr. Ravi Shankar has further toughened his stand from what he was earlier saying.

But he is not realizing that this stand is so anti-middle class – ‘audacity of privilege’ – as one article described it. It is a well-established fact that popular sentiments tend to be with the weaker sections. Here Mr. Ravi Shankar sounded like an adamant powerbroker while those who were opposing his event were seen as working for a just cause. The sentiment was further augmented by the hostile comments that the WCF got from the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal.

Mr. Ravi Shankar may have pure intent but when you address masses to convey your viewpoints, it is not your intent, but your words that echo.

And the impression that have had loud echoes during all this WCF row is that Mr. Ravi Shankar acted as if he was above all – above the rule of law – above those activists crying hoarse – and above the common men who bore the brunt of incessant traffic nightmares in a city that is already reeling under the intense chaos of some 80 lakh vehicles making traffic snarls a daily routine.  

That has not gone down well with masses, especially the target group that forms the support base of sages or religious gurus like Mr. Ravi Shankar – the urban middle class, the educated youth and the middle-age professionals.

The great Indian middle class that is projected to become the largest middle class base in the world by 2030 – a market of some 450 million people, as BBC and Harvard Business Review reports put it.

Just scroll through social media platforms and you can see the anger there.

Also, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is not Baba Ramdev.

The brand appeal that Mr. Ravi Shankar has is for classes while Ramdev has become a mass phenomenon. We need to accept that with the rapid strides his Patanjali brand of household products are making.

And another development that lends more justifications to the questions raised on the event is the cropping up of advertisements of Sri Sri Ayurveda products with the WCF. There is nothing wrong in trying to build outreach for your products but what about timing? The ‘purely’ marketing exercise just doesn’t gel with the tall claims of ‘world peace and humanitarianism’.

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

Wednesday 16 March 2016

OWAISI MAY BE TECHNICALLY CORRECT BUT HE IS SOCIALLY AND POLITICALLY INCORRECT!

'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' (Hail Mother India) has finally exploded and the way the level of discourse has deteriorated, it really leaves the rationally thinking souls in a bitter taste.

Today, the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly unanimously passed a resolution to suspend AIMIM MLA from Mumbai, Waris Pathan, from the House for the remaining days of the Budget session after he reiterated what his party chief Asaduddin Owaisi had said three days ago - that he will never say 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'.

It is true that the Indian Constitution doesn't ask anyone to chant 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' to prove his/her patriotism/nationality - something rightly pointed out - first by Asaduddin Owaisi - and then by his party MLAs.

But the row begins here.

He has added another contentious point to the already intensified 'nationalism Vs anti-nationalism' debate - as if the beef politics, the sedition row or the 'award-wapsi' over the tolerance Vs intolerance debate or the ' religious conversion or Ghar-wapsi' episodes were not enough. The row has taken over the airwaves and has become the main news agenda of the day. And as the polls have been announced in five state assemblies, the polarization politics would do all to keep the row alive. 

What Asaduddin Owaisi and others are saying is technically correct and they are rightly entitled to have their views.

But being a political person, and being a member of the Parliament and above all, being a people's representative, he has to be socially and politically correct here. 


And he is socially and politically incorrect - literally (and not pejoratively as the phrase 'politically correct' has been a subject of linguistic discourse)! 

We have the Constitutional guarantee on our fundamental rights including the right to free speech but while exploiting this right, we must also keep in mind that our Constitution also expects us to use our discretion in performing fundamental duties it lays down.

Yes, the fundamental duties are discretionary, voluntary in nature but that doesn't mean we should blatantly disregard them.

Something that Mr. Owaisi and his partymen have done.

If Mr. Owaisi and some others don't want to say 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai', it is their prerogative - but only in private - or as private members - not when you are in public life - and certainly not the way Mr. Owaisi has chosen to express his rant - while addressing a public gathering.

When communication goes on mass level, no one sees the intent but the words you speak - the words that have stirred a hornet's nest here. In order to score political advantage, he has given avenues to others engage in some votebank politics that ultimately disrupts social balance. 

If the Constitution gives us the fundamental right to speak our mind, it also expects us to respect others' feelings and other thoughts - as it says - " to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities".

Mr. Owaisi and his party's tirades on 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' belie the spirit of this notion.

It is not about RSS or some other outfit asking us to swear by 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' , it is about our right to feel so and say so as Javed Akhtar very emphatically expressed it yesterday in the Parliament putting Asaduddin Owaisis in the doc.

Asaduddin Owaisi may try to score some political mileage by uttering a cheap political expression that would certainly hurt Indians across the communities. But if Mr. Owaisi thinks he will score some brownie points politically by using such inflammable words, it is really a dangerous precedent, a new low in political discourse in the country - something that has been mostly been crass or 'politically incorrect' for social harmony.

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

Tuesday 15 March 2016

JNUSU PROTEST MARCH: THE EXPECTED CLIMBDOWN - AND IT IS FOR GOOD

It was expected to happen this way and thankfully it did happen this way - the response to the protest march called by the JNU Students Union (JNUSU) - that did not set the news agenda today.

And much of it has to do with the rapid climbdown the 'Kanhaiya Kumar hopes' saw - after his bail on March 3.

March 3 and 4 were crucial - for Kanhaiya Kumar to understand and act that he was not a fulltime politician but mere a student activist who had got people's sympathy and support because people felt he was being wronged, because people felt that he and others in JNU were being victimized.

Newsrooms and the nation saw a surcharged atmosphere even during the breaking developments centred on Umar Khalid and Aniraban Bhattacharya disappearance, reappearance and surrender.  

Being students was the significant brand equity every JNU student had when police, politicians and administration started making mess of a university matter. Their activism, ideological affiliation and sense of fighting it out only amplified the appeal. It worked well with the popular sentiment that tends to be with the people who are perceived as being victimized.

Kanhaiya Kumar and other JNU students lost these advantages after Kanhaiya Kumar started doing rounds of personal interviews and started making unnecessary verbal attacks that didn't spare even the defence establishment including the Indian Army.

When communication goes on mass level, no one sees the intent but the words you ejaculate. The 'Kanhaiya Kumar fined for obscene behaviour against a woman' episode further added to it. Then there were additionals like talks of Kanhaiya Kumar slated to campaign for the Left-wing parties in the upcoming assembly polls.

So, a mess that had given a window, an opportunity to revive student politics and activism in India was being reduced to a mere political opportunity that could conveniently be labelled anti-BJP and thus could be dismissed.

Everyone saw through it - including those who had rushed to support JNU students. Certainly there has been a disenchantment and it reflected today when no national news channel made it a point to beam Kanhaiya Kumar and others while they were organizing the protest march.

It was third in a series of solidarity marches to raise voice for democratization of academic  institutions in the country and was about JNUSU's  and JNUTA's demand of releasing Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya. And sane, neutral voices want them released though their judicial custody was extended for another 14 days today. Hope, they get bail tomorrow when their bail plea hearing is expected.

But as the overall issue is important - that how some students of a particular institution were targeted and are still being targeted - beyond what should have been a justified punishment/disciplinary action meted out to them - so was the attention given to the issue today. Almost every news carrier carried the developments on the JNU protest march later in the day - with relevant pointers from Kanhaiya Kumar's speech today.

Student politics and activism are imperatives for any democratic society but within the confines of academic environment. Yes, universities must be the first places for voices of dissent but it is the responsibility of everyone to keep the culture of debate healthy and democratic. And they must be within the Constitutional norms that run a democracy. You have to practice the fact that only your ideology cannot be sacrosanct - be it Leftist - or the Centrist - or the Rightist. 

If you have to get engaged in fulltime activism or politics, pass the confines of the academic institutions first.  While still being a student, it is not your job to raise voices, indulge in sloganeering and organize events to rid the country of this or that ideology. Keep your leanings intact for the time when you will be out in the open to take on what you believed was wrong and unjustified when you were building the activist in you during your days in your academic institution.

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

Monday 14 March 2016

KANHAIYA AND OTHERS TO BE RUSTICATED? TOMORROW IS AGAIN A STORMY DAY IN DELHI.

The inquiry committee constituted by JNU has submitted its report. The day finally came today after the three extensions the committee was granted. And going by the information leaked so far, its findings and recommendations are going to make for headlines.

It has already begun and tomorrow, when there is a big agitation march planned by the JNU Students Union (JNUSU) - Parliament Chalo, it is going to figure prominently. The findings of this probe committee will certainly reflect on how stormy the day is going to be tomorrow.

JNUSU is demanding removal of sedition charges and other cases slapped on Kanhaiya Kumar and others. The Left-wing students unions are backing the move. JNUSU has appealed to the students in Delhi's different colleges and universities to join the protest tomorrow.

And given the response that Kanhaiya Kumar and other students got after the administration and police made the mess of a simple university issue, the protestors will try to mobilize more support for Kanhaiya Kumar and other students when they take to roads tomorrow.

Kanhaiya Kumar is out on 'interim bail' with some tough words by the presiding Delhi High Court judge who delivered the order. Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya are still in jail after they failed to secure bail.

So, even after the blitzkrieg that Kanhaiya tried to unleash after his bail on March 3, they, from JNUSU and those under scanner including Kanhaiya, are not going to say anything acidic or hostile to the law of the land - that will further affect their case. Yes, a sort of speech delivered earlier in JNU is expected tomorrow - but it is not going to get same eyeballs - because, since March 3, Kanhaiya Kumar last lost much of his currency that made him relevant for a cause. 

Some deft political manoeuvring has to be there then - that conveys what the JNUSU wants to say - and convinces people of its intent and substance. JNUSU opposed this probe committee, demanded a fresh one. Those under investigation didn't appear before it. And students had support of many faculty members as well. And it was certainly not restricted to the university campus. And that has to be sustained. 

A well coordinated movement fanning across the capital city or a significant presence in the heart of Delhi to catch media attention and social media pull will serve the purpose. Yes, a speech is ok - but with the intent that reflects sincerity and commitment to a cause. 

If tomorrow has to be a stormy day - it has to be within the confines of the law - like the protests of the hugely successful anti-corruption movement of 2011. And if JNUSU has learnt any lessons, it will try to follow the suit.

Hope sense will prevail tomorrow - unlike what happened on February 9 - when anti-India slogans were raised in JNU. Yes, Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and others say they did not raise them and those who shouted those slogans were outsiders and we would love to go with that but with the obvious questions that if all these JNU students were present there, when these slogans were raised, they why none of them bothered to stop such anti-nationals or behaved like responsible citizens by informing the authorities of what had happened.

If there had to be any punishment in this case, it was about this - a disciplinary action by the university administration. 

And it is expected that the action taken on the recommendations of inquiry committee would be in line with this spirit - with no expulsions - but clear warnings. Police did not go on hunting for two more students named after Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya surrendered indicates that.

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/