MANMOHAN SINGH WAS ANGRY! MANMOHAN SINGH WAS SPEAKING!

What if it was the similar story, the expression (in this case anger) forgot how to express itself!

But, anyway, it was a winning combination, both rare events – Manmohan Singh was speaking and the words he uttered in the Parliament on Friday (August 30) expressed he was angry.

It was just yet another characteristically dull and familiar day of the Indian Parliament in session when Manmohan, uncharacteristic of him, decided to take on the Opposition even if his flat, expressionless face and a flat voice, once again, killed the essence.

Whatever he says has stopped making any difference. Probably he knows it well and so he doesn’t look making efforts to speak regularly. That may be a reason that he speaks so less, until the reactions on his recruited silence (or reticence) become too extreme.

POLITICIANS VS THE REST OF ALL: WHY DEMOCRACY IN INDIA IS IN IMMINENT DANGER OF DISINTEGRATION?

The Indian Constitution, when adopted, mirrored the soul of Indian Democracy on a healthy balance of ‘a process of checks and balances’ that its different wings exercise on each-other, notably the Indian Parliament, the Judiciary and the autonomous constitutional entities like the Election Commission (EC) or the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) or the Central Information Commission (CIC).

There are many other institutions and functional establishments including the law and order apparatus but most of them either can’t keep the politicians in check or have been efficiently co-opted by the political class.

And there are really very few institutions that still matter as the forces ‘still able’ to take on the political class and have the lethal edge by their Constitutional guarantee and the positive public perception about them and so are in the hit-list of the politicians.

Here, when we talk of the institutions, we need to keep in mind that it is about the people running those institutions and how they have undermined the sanctity and authority of the institutions provided by the Constitution and so of the Constitution itself.

The situation in the country, at the moment, is more or less ‘politicians Vs the rest of all’ where on one side are the institutions controlled, manipulated and co-opted by the politicians and on the opposing side are the few institutions where not all but still many people refuse to be co-opted by the political class.

The different functional wings of the Indian Democracy have no visible lines of demarcation. On one side, there is corruption and their promoters – the corrupt politicians and the bureaucrats.

On the other side are the institutions that are seen as ‘still’ viable option to get some Constitutional remedy, to the problems that owe their genesis in the systemic failure of the System called Indian Administration.  

While the all-pervasive corruption has eaten into the credibility of almost every functional wing of Indian Democracy, its scale of imminence to cause a chronic and systemic problem varies.

A GOD NEVER ALLOWS VIOLENCE IN HIS NAME

My reflections on life – in quotes (LIX)

“A God, be of any religion, never allows violence in His name.

And so, the multitudes of us,

who indulge in violent activities in His name,

are not his followers but

traders of His name for our own benefits;

for our own selfish agendas.

And politicians acquire the highest place in

this category of traders, the mercenaries of Faith.”

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

DEMOCRATIC MUSINGS: THE KINGDOM OF POLITICIANS - TWO TOP POLITICIANS FROM INDIA AND US SPEAKING OVER HOTLINE

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DEMOCRATIC MUSINGS: TWO TOP POLITICIANS FROM INDIA AND US SPEAKING OVER HOTLINE

http://severallyalone.blogspot.in/2013/08/democratic-musings-two-top-politicians.html 

The US counterpart: Wow! Being a discerning reader, I know most of this India stuff from the different intelligence reports that our agencies prepare and keep on updating, but I must say I am awestruck to hear it from you that how efficiently and methodically you guys have carried it out and carrying it out, something that will be termed a democratic blasphemy here in the US.

What astonishes me is the impeccable sense of political camaraderie behind the scene and the ugly demonstration of political differences, though staged largely, on the scene. It’s simply amazing. Kudos to you folks!

The Indian counterpart: Thanks, I take that as compliment from the powerful person of the world’s only superpower. It is indeed a feat that, we too, can be the teaching ground for the world powers including the US.

The US counterpart: But, unfortunately, this teaching, though politically useful for many and like a lifeline for many others including you guys, cannot be of much use to us in the prevailing sociopolitical circumstances in our country.

Our masses have in-built classy classes that, too, act as masses. A higher level of intervention by the masses in the policy matters due to their better quality of living and high standards of social access works in their favour unlike in your country. You guys are lucky to have masses that are illiterate, quality illiterate, poor and largely ignorant. That should have made your work a hell lot easier.

RAM TEMPLE SHOULD NEVER BE AN ELECTORAL ISSUE BUT!

A media report quoting the original litigants in Ayodhya Ram Temple issue asked if the Ram Temple was the biggest issue in India.

Certainly it is not. And it should never be.

A God, be of any religion, never allows violence in His name. And so, the multitudes of us, who indulge in violent activities in His name, are not his followers but traders of His name for our own benefits; for our own selfish agendas. Politicians acquire the highest place in this category of traders, the mercenaries of Faith. And millions of us act as their stooges, the idiots!

Fortunately, it has not been an issue for over a decade now.

Unfortunately, in the prevailing political circumstances of the country when moral corruption has shadowed the ethical politics completely, it can emerge as ‘the principal issue’ or ‘one of the principal issues’ anytime.

MAJORITY APPEASEMENT POLITICS AND NARENDRA MODI

What Narendra Modi is doing is akin to tapping the neglected votebank of the majority Hindus.

Indian politics has had absolute shades of minority appeasement. The politicians enjoying the riches of a fractured majority votebank have crossed limits many a times in appeasing the minorities, clearly at the cost (risk) of inciting communal divide in the country.

It is foolhardy to ignore this fact. I am confident that I am free from religion and caste biases and I am not writing this because I am a Hindu. I am writing this because I am an Indian first. Hindus, Muslims or people of any other religion or faith are equal citizens of India and there must not be preferential treatments based on religious lines, as the politicians have been doing, to a particular religion.

In a democracy with staggering number of poor people, that India is, the only criteria that can be used to adopt a policy of preferential treatment are the prevailing social and economic conditions.

If the BJP has to come to power and if Narendra Modi has to become the next prime minister of the country, they need something to mobilize the votes that can match the huge (but not enough, as it may depose the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government but may not guarantee the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) the 7 RCR) anti-incumbency against the Manmohan Singh led UPA government.

84 KOSI YATRA – THE PURPOSE SERVED!

Who gained what from the failed ‘84 Kosi Yatra’ is a debatable issue. On surface, it seems it failed. But then given the lackadaisical attitude of Uttar Pradesh voters on Ram Temple as a political issue, it was never going to be big. It was certainly not a time for it. Yet it was tried. There would, then, certainly, be a purpose to serve.

And going by that, this experiment to rake-up religious sentiments on electoral lines in the name of the Ram Temple issue has been a successful effort, for the ‘unprecedented’ hurry of the Samajwadi Party government in UP to look and sound pro-Muslim pushed for an unprecedented security blanket across the state that made an otherwise dull (and avoidable) event a talking point across the whole nation for almost a week.

KRISHNA

The beauty of the Black that remembering You recalls

The light in the darkness that thinking of You brings

The simplicity of Shyam and the mysticism of Krishna

God, You are we know, and yet, so human You look

Telling us the essence of existence, of human conscience

The Perfect One You are, the voice of universal conscious

Telling us it’s Your creation and we are Your manifestation

O Krishna, You are the epitome of love, of its purest expression

O Krishna, Your ways are mysterious, its divinity transcendental

O Krishna, feeling You is like looking at life joyous with emotion

O Krishna, You show us the way to live, to love, and to be

O Krishna, show me the light to see the life as it has to be

O Krishna, give me the courage to become who I have to be

The revelation of life that the faith in You illuminates

O Krishna, let me have an evolved faith that reverberates

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

THE GREAT CONUNDRUM OF A GLOBALIZED WORLD

My reflections on life – in quotes (LVIII)

“The customization of social values',

the localization of 'geopolitics' and,

a human soul embedded with thoughts,

- the great conundrum -

of a globalized world,

of half-baked democracies,

of full-length autocracies, and,

of entities in-between and beyond.

The human lives managed and manipulated,

efficiently, subjectively and subversively.”

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

WHY DEMOCRACY IN INDIA IS IN IMMINENT DANGER OF DISINTEGRATION?

India is in imminent danger of disintegration. The fissures are getting clearer. The underlying reasons are getting more and more visible. This visibility looks sinister and sounds scary.

Political events and their sociopolitical and socioeconomic repercussions that are acidic to the health of social weaving and democratic principles are growing, in frequency and in corrosiveness.

IN THE MARGINALISED GHETTOS - CAREFREE JOYS OF CHILDHOOD (V)

CAREFREE JOYS OF CHILDHOOD - A PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES

IN THE MARGINALISED GHETTOS

CAREFREE JOYS OF CHILDHOOD 

(HUMAN EXPRESSIONS) 

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

CAREFREE JOYS OF CHILDHOOD

http://severallyalone.blogspot.in/2013/09/carefree-joys-of-childhood.html

“IF WE HAVE NO PEACE, IT IS BECAUSE WE HAVE FORGOTTEN THAT WE BELONG TO EACH OTHER.”

A digital sketch of the Mother by Ragini 

THE SAINT GUARDIAN - MOTHER TERESA

The Saint Guardian - Mother Teresa
26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997

Baptized August 27, 1910

1979 Nobel Prize for Peace

Beatified October 19, 2003

“As that man whom we picked up from the drain, half eaten with worms, and we brought him to the home. I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angel, loved and cared for. And it was so wonderful to see the greatness of that man who could speak like that, who could die like that without blaming anybody, without cursing anybody, without comparing anything. Like an angel - this is the greatness of our people.”

-- taken from her Nobel Speech (1979)

These words, they have been like a guiding spirit personified. Being the enlightening words to discipline your life, they always stay with you, making their presence even more personal for you when you find your ‘self’, your ‘soul’ haunted by the elements of darkness.

COMMUNAL OR SECULAR: THEY ALL ARE SAME

They all are from the same lot, exploiting the religious sentiments of this or that population group to further their political agenda.

Their only goal now is to manage somehow their presence in the power corridors and they can go to any extent for it.

The common man, be it a Hindu or a Muslim or a Sikh or a Christian or a Dalit or a Forward Caste or a Backward Caste, has been reduced to nothing but a pawn in their hands to manipulate the System to make their sub-System dominating over the larger System versioned and put in place 63 years ago by the Indian Constitution.

The poor, the dependent and the weak, from every religious and caste group face similar problems of survival.

But fools they are!

84 KOSI YATRA: WHAT LIES BENEATH?

Battle for perceptions dear! Perceptions!

It was naturally a political Yatra, no two opinions about that and the mileage that was sought is already in, even if it could not take off today.

If Narendra Modi is the prime-ministerial face of the largest opposition party, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), one must be prepared to come across such developments.

Modi is the most ‘skilled’ politician in India who can most ‘efficiently’ exploit the elements of communal politics for political gains.

And he is right on the job. This ‘84 Kosi Yatra’ that was to begin today was just an element in the grand scheme of things Modi would be working on.

ONION POLITICS: ONION IS THE WAY TO GO FURTHER

It is beyond understanding that why the political analysts and the pundits give undermining (and derogatory) epithets like ‘the humble onion’ to the evergreen vegetable of Indian cuisine, especially when it is having the singular achievement of creating a sense of fear in an otherwise insensitive, brazen, corrupt and ruthless political class in the country.

After all, a vegetable that has single handedly brought down elected governments, and that too, more than once in the political history of India, and has been regularly bringing tears to their eyes, should be given the respect it deserves.

The politicians and the pundits must realize it in the context of the fact that this ‘humble looking onion’ is ferocious enough to extort even from the hard-nut politicians.

Also, undermining onion is not aesthetic. Its ‘power politics potential’ when combined with its bright red shiny outer cover (the prevalent variety in India) makes it an aesthetically ominous symbol warning the stakeholders to beware and take stock of the situation.

Those who get it in time escape its wrath. Those who still ignore its lethal potential get the boot.

Why don’t the politicians and the pundits understand it? Why do they fail to understand it over and over again?

LIFE BLED LIVING BLASPHEMED

A PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES

Making a human life so miserable that it itself forgets it was born human is a sin that has no parallel.

Pushing a human life to such extremes that it starts believing in a life beyond resurrection is a sin that has become an epidemic.

Religion or no religion, science or no science, logic or no logic, faith or no faith, the Creation is driven by a System and for those who believe in God or an Almighty running this System, it is no less than Blasphemy to subject the fellow human beings to such a debasement, such a contempt and such a discrimination, forcing them to extreme exploitation.

If one believes in the concept of God, one must believe in the fundamentals of his Creation the founding principles of which say He is in us all, that we all come from Him and go to Him and that we all are equal in His eyes.

How can we colour our lives while our acts make some other lives blanched?

How can we call Humanity His creation when we don’t respect His values behind His Creation?  

How can we live peacefully when we see a life bleeding?

If any act is blasphemous then it is this.

LIFE BLED, LIVING BLASPHEMED - a themed photography series over these concerns, the concerns that symbolize a HUMANITY BLANCHED

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

LIFE BLED LIVING BLASPHEMED - HUMANITY BLANCHED (I)

A PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES

LIFE BLED LIVING BLASPHEMED

HUMANITY BLANCHED

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

LIFE BLED LIVING BLASPHEMED

A PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES

http://severallyalone.blogspot.in/2013/08/life-bled-living-blasphemed.html

DEMOCRATIC MUSINGS: TWO TOP POLITICIANS FROM INDIA AND US SPEAKING OVER HOTLINE

Two top politicians from India and US were communicating over hotline. During the course of conversation, the formal line of dialogue spontaneously gave way to the informal (can read personal) elements of deliberations as they were in comfort of the snoop-free zone and could take all the liberty to discuss whatever they wanted to.

The formal elements of conversation are of no interests (and so of no value) here. Out of the informal chatter over hotline, the following pointers of the conversation stand apart:

The US counterpart: It has been a chaotic time politically after the high of Osama’s successful manhunt two years ago. Economy is still unstable. Budgetary managements are giving nightmares. And security concerns add to that. The people act silly when they don’t understand the dynamics of the national security requirements. Thankfully, that fellow, the so-called WikiLeaks activist, the intelligence leaker Bradley Manning has been found guilty with a 35-year prison term. Though yet another so-called activist-but-fugitive-by-US-standards Edward Snowden remains a headache, the Manning outcome has come as a big relief, a sort of closure.

After all, unlike in your country where you guys have successfully manipulated and crushed dissenting voices from the masses, something that we cannot do here even if we try hard, and so, such favourable decisions (for us) from an independent institution like the US judiciary is an endorsement.

But I must congratulate you folks for manipulating and managing a democracy of over a billion people so well to keep the masses under control in your over-populated country.

CLOUDS..I WANT TO HOLD ONTO THEM..

Clouds, I want to hold onto them this time

Initiating the conversation of a lost thread

I take a leap forward, to bridge the gap

To fill the void, created by their flirtations

And to address my detachment of ages

They are flying, but they look scattered

They are floating, and they look in a misleading league

IN THE MARGINALISED GHETTOS - CAREFREE JOYS OF CHILDHOOD (IV)

CAREFREE JOYS OF CHILDHOOD - A PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES

IN THE MARGINALISED GHETTOS

CAREFREE JOYS OF CHILDHOOD 

(HUMAN EXPRESSIONS) 

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

CAREFREE JOYS OF CHILDHOOD

http://severallyalone.blogspot.in/2013/09/carefree-joys-of-childhood.html

WHERE HUNGER IS HUMILIATED BY OPULENCE

UNEQUAL CHILDREN OF EQUAL GODS (II)

Life traded, its living force emasculated

Men in several skins enervated

Existences berated, moments confiscated

Souls in several layers manipulated

In a world,

That is said to be your creation

In a world,

Where every element is said to be your manifestation

But, in a world,

Where the devil grows, threatens destruction

But, in a world,

Where the humanity is shadowed, increasingly mutilated

But, in a world,

Where a man is predator on a man

But, in a world,

Where a soul scavenges on a soul

In a world,

Where a life hunts a life

Where an existence kills an existence

Where an identity buries an identity

Where hunger is humiliated by opulence

Where misery is aggravated by abundance

Where humanity increasingly becomes inhuman

Why they say we all are born equal..
Who are they say we all are born equal..

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

IT IS NO BIG DEAL WHEN EVEN DEATH CASES ARE HANDLED EASILY WITH CASH COMPENSATION!

LIFE - COLORES INFINITUM (39)

“O Sahab, let’s us settle it between us, why to involve the police, tell us how much you need, after all it is just a small accident. It is no big deal when even death cases are handled easily with cash compensation.”  

An unwelcome suggestion, a disturbing tone and a menacing voice!

This was one of the suggestions (and the veiled threat) made by a goon looking guy to the person who had just met an accident when a commercial minivan run by one of the stooges of the guy had rammed into the standing bike of the person.

Though the person stood his ground, called the police, waited for them to come while getting veiled threats and suggestions from the cartel of the goons who were running that illegal minivan business near one of the busy Delhi Metro stations, the subsequent details of the incident were reflective of the overall deterioration in the society.

Deterioration of values in the society – it is not dystopian to write so, but it is about being realist.

How easily the fellow could say that loss of a life could be compensated easily with money?

A loss of life can never be compensated. The pain of separation never heals.

IN THE MARGINALISED GHETTOS - CAREFREE JOYS OF CHILDHOOD (III)

CAREFREE JOYS OF CHILDHOOD - A PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES

IN THE MARGINALISED GHETTOS

CAREFREE JOYS OF CHILDHOOD 

(HUMAN EXPRESSIONS) 

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

CAREFREE JOYS OF CHILDHOOD

http://severallyalone.blogspot.in/2013/09/carefree-joys-of-childhood.html

‘FEDERATION OF ANARCHISTS’ REMARK: MR. VICE-PRESIDENT, PLEASE, DON’T TAKE IT BACK

We were hoping against the hope that Hamid Ansari, the Vice-President of the nation would not take back his ‘harsh but justified comment’ about the parliamentarians when his frustration asked the members of the Indian Parliament if they wanted to make the highest elected body in the country a ‘federation of anarchists’.

Well, we had a disappointing development a day after (August 14) when the Vice-President and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the upper body of the Indian Parliament, asked his office to review the statement after the government and the opposition continued with the demand to withdraw the statement from the official records of the House.

Let’s see again what ‘his frustration’ had to say: “Please allow question hour to proceed. Every single rule in the rule book; every single etiquette is being violated. If the honorable members wish the House to become a federation of anarchists, then it is a different matter.”

Earlier, it seemed, Mr. Vice-President would not back-off from his stand. We had some reasons to believe so.

MANMOHAN SINGH ADDS ONE MORE CHAPTER OF EMPTY RHETORIC WITH HIS 10TH INDEPENDENCE DAY SPEECH

In the historic tradition of boring speechmaking of last 9 years, Manmohan Singh added one more chapter of empty rhetoric today with his 10^th Independence Day speech from the Red Fort.

10^th in row, that would have been achievement but for the reasons that the whole nation knows now and that Mr. Manmohan Singh wants to run away from!

10^th in row would be nothing more but one more statistical addition to his profile now.

During his earlier tenure, the boredom was largely due to his lifeless delivery of words, a flat voice, an unclear or highly accentuated diction and an expressionless face.

But he remained largely bearable due to his personal image when the nation saw in him a man of integrity.

That is not the case anymore.

In fact, that has not been the case anymore for the last four years.

He is no more seen as a man of words, a persona of integrity. He has lost all what he earned during his first term as the prime minister of the nation. The wash-out also includes the good name earned before becoming the prime minister.