What really matters!

An honest confession: I have restricted knowledge about the Govt. Lokpal and the Jan lokpal bill. All the knowledge I have about the two bills is from the different blogs and articles I have been reading since past few months. I am an ordinary citizen and all I know about the movement is that the huge corruption scams need to end. I do not know if the clauses in Jan Lokpal bill are that strict as Ms.Arundhati Roy mentions that even a poor lady street hawker will be summoned for paying bribe to let her shop be established in the streets where street hawking has been banned. Yes, Ms Roy because this is illegal. Since street hawking is banned in those streets it definitely calls for summon. Who better than us know about what illegal immigration is? Hence let’s not even go there.
My point here is the cynics who are trying to relate the anti-corruption movement with all the possible problems the country is facing. The irony of Irom Sharmila is not with the ignorance the country holds about her or the cause she is fighting against. The irony lies in the support her people are providing. Let Manipur unite and bind with her and let the roar be heard. Haven’t the then little known state of Assam in 1985 achieved the unachievable with Assam accord? I believe no state is neglected until we chose to do so. What is the population of Manipur/NE? How many are affected by the AFSPA? Do we then need a Ramlila maidan or a Jantar mantar to have our voices heard?  But nevertheless this is just my point of view in this issue.
Getting back to the Lokpal bill again, new developments have surfaced. I see even the corrupt lot has been joining the bandwagon. However, a sincere request to Mr.Deve gowda –Sir, please do not make a mockery of the system by holding I am Anna placard and shouting corruption must end. May be you haven’t yet read the anti-graft bill like the many of the ignorant yet supportive lot like me. Pranab Mukherjee is at the helm of affairs as per the latest development and I wish they reach a consensus. Bend a little Ms. Bedi, Mr. Kejriwal , we need something. (Though I feel traumatic to hear the 70%-90% quantification as it reminds me of my dissertation. 2/5 Research questions answered, 3 more to go…God knows how to answer them...) Nevertheless, this has been a long and historic protest which will be remembered by the generation. Let us be proud of the movement, let nothing come in between. If wikileaks is true I believe we will be able to rein Kanimozhis, Razas and Kalmadis well before their Swiss visits. This is my understanding of Lokpal bill. I want it because I do not want the valiant effort of all the people involved in CWG to be marred by corruption. I do not want a BBC or a CNN to mock the system. I do not want the relief cheques to bounce… I do not want Naxalism as I would never want a Koda or anyone at the helm of affairs to ever be given a chance. Yes this is what matters to me. If any of the bills can stop it I would happily be an Anna, Aruna Roy or a Kejriwal. Just let it not be an ego war.  

To the civil society!

There are certain issues with whom you would like to break your so-called hiatus...This is definitely not the one. 9^th August will remain as the day I would never like to forget. To see young teens making a mockery of the civil society and making everyone believe that whether you are under a glass ceiling or an asbestos roof the difference lies only in the view. Does this show us the fragility of the civil society that we boast of? Let me start by defining civil society. I will quote a commentator on BBC Manchester radio; he says the civil society is the one who doesn’t do things just because he/she would be put behind the bars and would bring a shame, a civil society is the one who just would never do it. Rightfully agree I would never put myself in a situation where just because I have nothing I would go and put Miss Selfridges on fire or loot the Apple store. I mean why on earth. To me if you fight for something you just fight not loot. There is a bigger name to things that you do for your society and it’s called ‘Revolution’. How Egypt showed to the world what revolution is, making the whole world stand as ‘Egypt’ is something that is civilisation to me.  History is made by these revolutions some still on for becoming one. I hope the lads looting the shops and putting some to flames knew more of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro than just being a popular face in their favourite tees.

It is never like I don’t have solidarity with kids having no work or haven’t ever been on a holiday in their life (which is actually an issue of grave concern in UK, unlike our country where all you need to do is just hop on a train and ‘pohuch gaye dilli’ [and you reach Delhi]). Nevertheless not losing focus like I always do, I will stick to my point. Thousands of foreign students come for the quality British higher education –the Oxford, the Cambridge and the LSE and within the same radius thousands of them deprived of education took on to the streets breaking the glass ceilings. I have a notion of society being ruminating due to certain things we tend to ignore, may be the notion of working early and earning bucks. Too early to even predict something like that...the issue I see here is the idea of the paper news-paper, the bookshops, the debates, the quizzes, and the cultural activities are limited. The stratification of society is huge. I can still find a child working in a local eatery in India with the morning local newspaper; the event looks small but for me it depicts a culture, a positive society. We may be lagging some 10-15 years well behind the developed nations, hurled by corruption and what not but all I want to say is that for a civilisation the true test lays in the generation the country brings out... to make them worthy of hurling an abuse instead of a stone is what civilisation is, as Sigmund Freud rightly puts in.

I hope the water cannons push you back young lads to something that you have left behind, to a society your ancestors have built; to the things you are and should be proud of, to the civilisation and being civil. 
...to traverse the horizon is never impossible neither is traversing back.