Snooze…coz it’s your birth right!

Yes folks, sound 'Sleep' is the fundamental right to life of every citizen says the Mai-Baap (Mom-Dad in English translation) of Indian democracy, the Supreme Court. Just like the right to breathe, to eat, to drink, to blink etc, the judge of the Supreme Court has broadened the ambit of right to life by including the right to sleep. And if the Supreme Court has said this, we can blindly take it as the last word. So henceforth, let’s not allow our parents, friends, spouse, in-laws, colleague and boss, to rob our fundamental right to sleep from us. In fact, we can legally dare anyone waking us up the next time.

To some extent we need to thank Baba Ramdev for prompting the Supreme Court judges for making sleep every citizen’s fundamental right. If it wasn't for Baba Ramdev and his supporter’s peaceful protests against countrywide corruption at Ramila Grounds, sleeping would continue to be considered an evil spell that Sleeping Beauty had to endure to, only to be awakened by a prince's kiss. So next time someone nicknames you 'Sleeping Beauty' or 'Kumbhakarna' (the interesting character in the Ramayana epic well-known for his love to sleep), we know how to challenge that taunt…don’t we?

Thousands of Baba Ramdev's followers sleeping at the Ramlila grounds that horrifying night were lathi charged by the Delhi Police to evict the Baba. In this surprise midnight police crackdown, an innocent woman, Rajbala, was among 30 people badly injured. Sadly, Rajbala succumbed to her injuries later in hospital. The Supreme Court rightfully lashed a whip on the New Delhi police for this unwarranted ghastly attack on innocent people, and subsequently introduced the landmark fundamental right to sleep.

Terming it as a birth right, the court said, "Sleep is essential for a human being to maintain the delicate balance of health necessary for its very existence and survival. Sleep is, therefore, a fundamental and basic requirement without which the existence of life itself would be in peril."

The Supreme Court fairly reprimanded the Delhi police to a large extent for the forced encounter on innocent lives. But, how can the police simply lathi-charge on people without any instructions or directions from the government? Why has the judiciary spared the government? After all, the police force is administered and accountable to the government…isn’t it?

Post script
Reminds me of my Chemistry Professor who once howled at me for entering late in class. He even scornfully advised me to empty a whole bucket of cold water over myself so that I never repeat that mistake again. Of course, at that time, I patiently listened to all that he said. Perhaps, I would certainly cry my right to sleep, had the same thing happened today. (Smiley).

Sleeping…Sadda Haq! (My right in English translation)!

C'mon Brand India, why can't we take a joke?

Popular TV show host, Jeremy Clarkson, well known for his role on the BBC TV show, Top Gear, left India fuming at his jokes, when he chided India for its scarce public toilet facilities. So hard did India react, that government officials filed a legal case against the television anchor for making an offending remark that supposedly hurt people’s sentiments. Leaving all crucial developmental work at hand, government officials approached the court for legal intervention and also demanded an apology from the anchor for making that unpalatable racist remark. Only if our officials had used the same energy to improve sanitary conditions in India and focussed on issues that are worth debating, a remark like this would have never been made in the first place.

Recently, the Government sued another prominent American television Anchor, Jay Leno, for portraying the holy shrine of the Sikhs, The Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple), as Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney’s vacation home. My question is, was this gag by Jay Leno offensive at all? In fact Jay Leno’s remark was a joke at the $250 million worth Mitt Romney, and it should be Mitt waging a war against Jay Leno, not India. And why are we taking these remarks so close to the heart. Just like India’s Constitution gives each one of us the freedom of speech and expression, America and the United Kingdom enjoy uniform Constitutional freedom. Why would a country which permits people to freely criticize their President left-right-and-centre, be any different to the rest of the world? In fact, in matters of freedom of speech, America walks the talk in the true sense. The freedom of speech and expression is fearlessly exercised by the people of the country, and as long as it does not threaten the national security of the country, public order, and morality, nobody really has the right to criminalise you in a democratic country.

Moreover, as made out to be, it is not the common man in India who is concerned or offended with remarks by these so-called eminent foreign celebrities. About 70% of India’s population is so busy making ends meet – both economically and socially - that they have no time to analyse what the rest of the world says or thinks about them. Rather, people who show deep disappointment and come knocking at the government’s door are Indians living overseas. Maybe the fear of being treated as outcast is what creates the anxiety. Additionally, extremists groups and fundamentalist in India wait for a chance to create brouhaha in the country, using occasions like these to get more visibility.

The recent Jaipur Literary Festival (JLF), the largest literary festival in Asia-Pacific, and the most prestigious celebration of national and international literature, banned eminent award winning author Salman Rushdie from attending this festival. One of Rushdie’s controversial books, The Satanic Verses, may have faced a ban in India since 1988, but that doesn’t allow authorities to prevent Salman from participating in events held in India. Ban the book, not the man! Protests outside the venue to stop Rushdie from visiting the fest or speaking through a video-conference is no reason for the oragnisers to cancel appointments with Salman Rushdie. In fact, looking at the fiasco at the JLF, the government should have intervened and taken control of the law and order situation, assuring the organisers of a safe and smooth program.

C’mon India, let’s not sit down grumpy and take things so seriously. Let’s learn to laugh at ourselves. And if there is someone poking a (not-so-funny) critical joke at us, we need to work towards that issue and try to resolve it. Of course, we might be battered with uncouth critics trying their best to pull us down. But who cares. Believe me it’s really-really tough to earn jealousy. So why waste our time trying to tape people’s mouth shut then.
Post script
As I’m writing, the Supreme Court of India ordered cancellations of 122 telecom licences in view of the corruption case against Telecom Minister, A. Raja, in the 2G spectrum legal inquiry. Well this has certainly left India no face to show in the global Telecom market. The verdict proclaiming the government responsible for corruption has stirred in the international market like fire. So much so that, a friend working in a telecom company overseas texted asking me what's really happening in India. So if tomorrow, someone somewhere mocks to highlight the corruption menace in India, we surely can't sue the person for poking fun at us right? Rather, we need to work on this issue of corruption, and try to resolve it before we the self-proclaimed largest democratic styled nation gets lost in the wilderness.

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Did just another Marathon!

At the start of the run

After two successful Half Marathons in two consecutive years (2011 and 2012), I’m just wondering whether I can now officially call myself a Marathoner. But then…aah…I don’t really think so yet. Perhaps the day I don’t complain of swelling, muscle pain, and difficulty in walking up and down the stairs after the run, will be the day when I can give myself that official status. Until then, I’m just an amateur runner.

The 9th edition of the 2012 International Mumbai Marathon got even bigger. Over 3,500 runners participated in the Full Marathon (42km), 11000 participated in the Half Marathon (21km) and over 22000 registered for the Dream run (6km) this year, making it the biggest blockbuster event ever. Personally, the pressure built up on me was even more, since I had set a benchmark of either repeating my last year run-time or at least do better than that. Whatever it is, I just wanted to complete the Half Marathon within the cutoff time as per the international standard. And thank God I did it this time as well. Of course, I was not alone. My group of 8 sporting running enthusiasts put our best foot forward and made this run a memorable one. So much was the excitement and on-top-of-the-world feeling that we're all set to take on the 2013 Marathon with an even bigger bang.

Nevertheless running is not about timing, it is more about will power and endurance. Runners who completed their Marathon stretch within the international marathon standards surely need a pat on their back. But the ones who continued their journey even after they crossed the time limit are no less. The never-say-die spirit is something that we need to learn from the ones who strived to reach the end point even after realizing that they had crossed the time limit. I perhaps would have taken a cab home if I had crossed my time limit. Finally, if you run, you are a winner!

As every year, the crowd was amazing even this year. There was not a single meter on the entire Half Marathon stretch that I felt I was alone. Along with runners, there were so many people standing on both sides of the running tracks cheering us all along the way. And how, I can’t forget this guy who came from nowhere to offer me his share of oranges, when he saw oranges slip from my hand during the run. Big hugs to the people of Mumbai who went all out to cheer runners, offering us biscuits, energy drinks, water, and one septuagenarian even serving lemon juice to runners. What more could anyone ask for huh? Even more, large musical stage shows put up by The Indian Navy, Maharashtrian folk dancers, Disk Jockeys kept runners charged up right till the end. 



At the end of the run

 The senior citizens' run was the cutest of them all. Loved to see the young at heart give in their best shot. Perhaps if I was in the selection committee, I would request many of our senior citizens to do the full Marathon, because some of them were really good. Additionally, there was a special wheelchair event organised for those physically challenged. All in all, the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon was inclusive, catering to the needs and wants of everyone in the community.

This year, the Mumbai Marathon churned out a whopping 12.2 crores in the form of charity. Indeed, it is one of the biggest fund raising events gaining immense popularity in India. As an individual, it certainly feels really-really good to be a part of this maximum event held in a maximum city (Mumbai) in which ‘Charity’ is the heart of it.

See you folks then in 2013!

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Censoring the Internet to protect my bosses

We all love Chinese food, don’t we? But that doesn’t mean, like the Chinese in China, we will forgo our freedom of speech and expression because the government of the world’s largest democracies, wants to control what we say and how we say it. It’s just impossible to believe that the man, who promoted and rolled out the landmark decree of giving every child their fundamental right to education, has proposed to control and monitor the fundamental right of speech and expression of the people. Despotic, I must say! But then, one can’t blame Kapil Sibal alone for this reckless proposal. He is only a messenger carrying the dictatorial message from his high command, which believes that censoring free content is the only way to silence people from public debate and criticism.

Citing reasons for his dictatorial verdict, Communication and IT Minister, Kapil Sibal defended his stand saying that he wants to put down guidelines to monitor content on social media platforms and remove ‘objectionable’ content from it. Now how does Kapil Sibal define objectionable content? Each individual has his/ her perspective of looking at things. What is objectionable for one, not necessarily is objectionable for the other. No doubt pornography is objectionable and should never be made legal in India, but expressing oneself cannot be measured with the same yardstick. It is our constitutional right for God sake.

To prove his point to social media giants like Facebook, Google, Twitter, and others, Kapil Sibal evidenced offensive photoshoped images and content of his bosses floating on the Internet. Well, big deal! Tomorrow if my pictures are offensively photoshoped by XYZ, will Kapil Sibal and his team of like-minded tyrants propose to pre-screen internet content then? And even if the pictures and content are malicious and objectionable, the Constitution of India under Act 19(2) allows individuals to invoke their right of Defamation. Why can’t Kapil Sibal’s bosses as responsible individuals exercise their right of defamation and sue people maligning their name on the internet. Nobody stops them from doing that!

Censoring the communication platform itself is an unconstitutional way to silence people. Rather, government needs to take lessons from the content being generated, and subsequently devise corrective and preventive actions to correct their administrative failure, which only gets worse every single passing day. Today the government has proposed to censor and pre-screen internet content...tomorrow Kapil Sibal may decide to ban shoes, because shoes are thrown at politicians to express anger and frustration. And then, our hands will be chopped to prevent Sharad Pawar slapgate like incident from reoccurring. Grow up my government servants. When an organ in a human body is diseased, the doctor operates upon that organ or gets rid of it...the practitioner does not put the patient to death.

Recently, even United Colors of Benetton’s new worldwide communication campaign had pictures of US President Obama and Chinese Prime Minister Wen photoshoped to lip-lock. The unhate campaigns are still displayed on the internet and have not faced the axe of censorship. Wonder when are we going to learn? The government of India needs to stop wasting its time throwing stones at every dog that barks.

The United Nations has strongly condemned Kapil Sibal’s proposal to pre-screen internet content and has said that, no one can take away people’s rights unless they allow them to. Just hope Kapil Sibal and his bosses have heard this message from the United Nations loud and clear. People must learn to protest loudly and stop taking it lying down. We can’t afford to allow history repeat itself. We cannot afford another Emergency like situation in India, similar to the one Madam Indira Gandhi imposed for two long years during her regime.

Post script:
Going by the internet censorship diktat proposed by Kapil Sibal, our tweets/ messages will first have to pass through pre-screening government filters before it is published on micro-blogging sites. And looking at the bureaucratic process that the government already has in place, even non-objectionable messages will enter the non-prohibited side of the filter only after the message has long lost its essence and timeliness. Phew! God save us!

Insha’Allah (God willing)

It was a Eureka movement for women not only in Saudi Arabia but women all over the world when Saudi King Abdullah declared that women in the Middle Eastern country will have the right to vote in municipal elections. Not only that, Saudi women will also be allowed to run in future municipal elections, and will be appointed as full members to the Kingdom's Shura Council, which is the King’s advisory board.

A pat on the back of King Abdullah who stunned the ultraconservative nation with a daring reform like this, that nobody ever expected for decades to come. Wish that, along with the right to vote, run for local office, and representation at the Advisory board, King Abdullah would also remove the ban imposed on women driving their vehicle. Recently the world was outraged when a Saudi court sentenced 10 lashes for a woman found driving her car. Well the King pitched in to overturn the courts order, but for how long can this go on? Hopefully with the recruitment of women in the Kings advisory board, this law would soon be scrapped, and women will be free from the bondage of being dependent on their drivers or male counterparts.

Reigning since year 2005, it must be really difficult for King Abdullah to make revolutionary reforms like this without upsetting conservative hardliners who oppose reform of any kind...sometimes even making women scapegoats of their prejudice. But this surely is a step forward in the right direction. In the rest of the world where women not only drive, but are also employed as drivers by car rental and public transport organisations, it is really difficult to assimilate this discrimination. Women make a huge contribution to society and it is women who can take up issues and causes concerning their lives and communities. The whole world welcomes King Abdullah’s decision of giving women the rights they deserve. But hope this decision last not only in King Abdullah’s supremacy but also for generations to come.

Since we are on the page of reviewing progress and development of women in different countries across the globe, it is very encouraging to know, how Australia has opened up their armed forces for women in combat roles. Australia joins Israel, Canada and New Zealand with this strategic move.

Even recently, the Indian army has broken this barrier by including the first woman in combat role. Although women have been a part of the Indian armed forces for a long time now, they are kept out from combative functions, being primarily recruited as officers in non-combat units. But recently 35yr old and mother of two, Sapper Shanti Tigga hit a sixer by outperforming her male colleagues displaying better fitness levels, better run timing, and better firing skills. The Indian armed forces couldn’t resists but recruit her in a combative role that Shanti was enthusiastic to join. With her dream of joining the armed forces coming true, Shanti credibly also won the title of being the first Indian woman recruit in a combative role.

With this credit in her name, Shanti has made the defence forces – army, navy, air force – to stand up and take notice of spirited and courageous women who believe in themselves and are yearning to join the defence forces on their own stem and strength.

Insha’Allah (God willing) that will also be thrown up to her very soon.

Post script:
Talking about women walking shoulder to shoulder with men in all walks of life, I don’t really think India should complain...because we can boast about so many women at the helm governing and making important administrative decisions for this country. Starting with Congress President, Sonia Gandhi and President of India, Pratibha Patil, to the Chief Ministers of four states – Jayalalitha, Sheila Dixit, Mamata Banerjee and Mayawati, among others.

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A rare faceoff

Although Julian Assange is famed for his timely and startling revelations of secretive cables exposing dishonest and unlawful acts perpetrated by nations across the globe...this mysterious stern looking man strangely also has a funny streak to him. In the midst of business as usual, Assange’s recently released US diplomatic cables on the Wikileaks website, makes one such revelation that the Chief Minister (CM) of Uttar Pradesh State in India, Mayawati, had sent an empty jet to Mumbai to pick her favorite pair of shoes.

Undoubtedly there is no strong evidence to anything that Julian Assange reveals. On the face of it, the world denies to believe them calling it fake and all cooked up stories. But deep down, we still tend to pay heed to these cables. The Mayawati cables published recently put the entire nation in shame except for Mayawati herself who retorted back abusing Assange to the hilt. Nevertheless, Mayawati’s political rivals obviously exploited this situation to gain political mileage.

How can the CM of a State splurge taxpayer’s hard earned money for her personal use…that too for a mere pair of shoes. Even if those shoes were embellished with gold and diamonds and worth more than the price of the jet plane, isn’t that a real shameful thing to do.

A person very well known for her antics, Mayawati has committed many a similar blunders in her career span as CM. From spending crores of Indian rupees for erecting statutes of herself…to being felicitated with cash garland on her birthday year after year, Mayawati has done it all.

On release of these cables by Wikileaks, acerbic Mayawati hit back at Assange calling him a lunatic in need of immediate psychiatric intervention at an asylum. In a fit of fury, Mayawati even bit back saying that in case of occupancy shortage abroad, Assange could seek admission at the Agra asylum in India for treatment. The unruffled Assange willingly accepted Mayawati’s proposal and even passionately spoke about his love for India. So cool was Assange that he offered to gift Mayawati a range of specialized British crafted shoes and even promised to deliver it to India, provided Mayawati sent across her jet plane to England to collect it.

So far, Mayawati has been targeted by her political rivals who criticized her for her penchant for corruption. But one would never have imagined a verbal spat between two unlike personalities. It is a rare faceoff between a power-hungry acerbic political personality like Mayawati versus a daredevil whistleblower, Julian Assange.

This cable on Mayawati released by Wikileaks is nothing new. There’s nothing really startling about it. Mayawati is just a symptom. On the behest of power, Mayawati fearlessly does everything in public purview and hence is singled out. Unlike most of our top politicians and public servants who covertly rob the nation of its wealth.

However, looks like the judgment hour is here. With credit to the Anna Hazare's ‘India against corruption’ movement and the Supreme Court intervention, many of these greedy netas and babus are booked behind bars today. Critics debate saying that it is impossible to wipe out corruption with one Lokpal bill. True that! but we need to begin somewhere right? And the good thing is that we have booted up the anti-corruption movement already. If this momentum continues and the government makes this its key point in the national agenda, we surely will reach our goal of a corruption free India.

~*~Bungalaw, gaadi, bank balance, zameen, sona kuch nahi sab moh Maya hai ~*~

On a lighter note
Sadly Mayawati didn’t respond to Assange’s kind hearted proposal. Only wish Assange would send those classy England crafted shoes to me instead. The only hitch is that like Mayawati I don’t own a jet plane.

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Turning a deaf ear to public opinion can awfully backfire

The 74yr old cheerful and optimistic Gandhian, Anna Hazare, has surely set a precedent not only for the people and governing institutions of India, but also for democratic nations across the globe, testifying that, if you have a will, and that will is lead with honestly and perseverance, no power play can really stop you from driving oneself and the masses towards realizing that noble cause. More importantly, who says that it is impossible to adopt non violent means of protest to exercise freedom of expression? Looking at the peaceful means adopted by Anna and his team, we certainly can conclude that the Gandhian method of Satyagraha works wonders even in this 21st century of modernization and capitalism.

Anna Hazare defied the government’s toothless Lokpal bill which was hastily tabled in the Parliament without considering the anti-corruption workable draft by the civil society group lead by Anna. This was not the first time that the civil society warned the government about the namesake bill. The tug-of-war between the government and civil society has been on for over six months now with the government not relenting an inch to even listen to what the civil society has proposed. This was the first goof up that the government committed.

This lead from one error to another leading to the biggest blunders of almost mysteriously kidnapping the anti-corruption crusader, whose only fault was that he wanted to protest against rampant corruption that was rotting our system and dwarfing growth of its people. Sadly, the government didn’t foresee what was coming with Anna Hazare’s detention in Tihar prison. In a democracy, the government simply can’t stifle opinions of people using arrogance of power. No matter how big or small, you just can’t ignore public outcry.

And this is what democracy is all about. International media has wrongly likened India’s anti-corruption movement with the Arab uprising and the jasmine revolution. When in reality, the anti-corruption protest in India only reinforces the power of our democracy. What Anna and the people are able to do today, is only because we are the world’s biggest democracies. The people of a totalitarian regime can’t even think of adopting these means of protest.

With the domino of errors that the government has committed, it missed out on the opportunity to engage in some intellectual debate on civil society’s version of the bill. No doubt Anna Hazare is a leader of the masses, but the bill drafted by his team certainly is not error proof. Even the Anna team has never said that their version of the bill needs to be tabled in the Parliament. All they requested was for a healthy discussion, a debate, and most importantly a referendum on the anti-corruption bill. Agree that the Constitution does not have a provision for a referendum and it would be unconstitutional to have one. But in the same breath, the Constitution is a living document and it can be amended.

As I am writing my opinion piece, Annaji who is on an indefinite fasting protest is making his way from Tihar prison towards the Ramlila grounds surrounded by huge people frenzy who can’t stop raving about the Anna metaphor. The government must be shamed right now looking at the mounting followers of Anna Hazare…but unfortunately they got themselves there by making those many ungrammatical errors. Had our respected Prime Minister used his wisdom to anticipate the upshot of his acts, he would have a face to show. Sadly our PM rather listened to his ill advising coterie who left him faceless.

A strong anti-corruption bill will certainly not bring an end to corruption in days or a few years from now. It is indeed a sustainable process which should not only monitor and punish the bribe taker but also the bribe giver, who is equally accountable. As stated by PM, we agree that, there certainly is no magic wand to eradicate corruption. But had Mr. Manmohan Singh whirled his anti corruption wand 3-4yrs back, the problem would not be as big as it is today.

The magnanimous India Against Corruption (IAC) movement spanned out by Anna (our hero) gives a message to each one of us to stop stomaching discrimination and exploitation, but rather exercise our right of freedom of expression. More importantly the movement also scribbles the fact that the right to freedom does not give anyone the right to riot. The peaceful and Gandhian methods of protest used before our independence is pretty much promising even today.

Looking at what this 74year crusader has done, it certainly is time for all our retired friends to stop living a withdrawn life... rather gather themselves to awaken the masses to fight evil the Anna Hazare way. The youth are too busy in their hectic day-to-day lives and it is only our retired folks who can motivate the youth to pause and act against the evils ingesting our system.

Post script

Folks, did you catch visuals of Anna Hazare’s marathon run to protect himself from the crowds? After seeing those visuals, I have ditched Milind Soman as my Marathon mentor. I’m now going to follow Annaji all the way to Marathon 2012. He surely can give anyone a run for his money :-) Even more Anna lost 3kgs in 3days of fasting and am planning to take this as my dieting tip. Anna Sir, way to go!

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