Coffin for Corruption?

Lokpal~IAC~Anna Hazare~Baba Ramdev~MMS~Digvijay Singh~Jantarmantar~Ramlila~ Fasting~Tihar~Kalmadi~Kanimozhi~Raja~DMK - As per Google Zeitgeist, this wordlist constitutes the most typed words by an Indian citizen in the past few months. 

All the time, people are busy complaining about rotten politicians, politicians are busy in setting planning(?) commissions, and the fourth estate, media are busy in being the bird watcher, benefiting from disputes between people and politicians. In the mean time, The Sacred House of Parliament has become a warehouse filled with quibblers. 

Only few days ago, we celebrated 64th Independence day. What kind of freedom did we achieved? Freedom to democratic rule they say. But, the protectors of the people, the rulers of our country are celebrating independence behind a bullet-proof window with an army of police protection. Freedom to politcal rule they say. But, politicians take commission from the businesspeople and set commissions to overcome the legal disputes! Freedom to media they say. But, Media adding fuel to the fire, focusing on TRP more than facts. Freedom to vote they say. But, votes are traded in Election time with the vote price plotting a parabola, reaching the max at election time and droping at the midtime. What kind of freedom is this? Freedom to loot? Freedom to evade constitution? Freedom to manipulate? Or freedom to take steps for the public welfare?

At the same time, politicians are not to be the only sector to be blamed. It is we who made them to what they are at present. People bribe the officers and politicians for favours and they in turn get bribed by the politicians for the vote! Who is the most corrupt here? A Government formed by the sold public or the people who were bought by the solid politicians?

Public like to follow trends - whether it is ambition or agitation. If the educational trend is to do Engineering, people will follow that, irrespective of the pupil's talent criterion. If the political trend is to fight against corruption, they will follow that. Not to mention the young men and women who witnessed the freedom struggle only in Social Science books, they like to stand for a cause, probably for the first time in their life. But, irrespective of such petty analyses, after emergency, this is the first time people has united for a single cause.

People's power is like a falling apple obeying gravity. Neither you can stop it nor you can reverse it. As people started realize that the guy represented by him is looting his own pocket, hardtime began to politicians. Now that the whole India is fighting against corruption, an ombudsman is left with two options. Whether he can join the struggle or sit in his house imagining nothing is happening outside. If he chooses to fight, then he must remember that the next time he gets stuck in a lengthy bureaucratic process, he must obey the law and he should not try to evade rules for getting favours in the future. Our country's problem is the population, which is so dense such that there is not a single social/bureacratical process which doesn't involve queuing system. People who are on streets right now should not forget that their struggle doesn't end with the Lokpal bill; but it just starts there. Now, we say that it is corruption which destroyed our lives and charge the Government for not passing a strong Lokpal. But the truth is that by fighting corruption, we are fighting against the corrupt mentality which is ruling our ordinary people and businessmen. All those public-turned-reformist must digest the simple fact - 'Corruption is a two way street. Both the giver and taker are equally reprehensible'.

By getting Independence, we have amputated the infectious British arm, only to get a more proliferating cancer called corruption. We sacrificed so much to defeat one East India company, only to get multiple East India companies in the name of political parties, business tycoons, underworld dhadhas and so on. With this year, just like our politicians, even our Independence reached its retirement age of 64yrs! Now is not too late than never.

It all comes down to this - As usual, the requiem to corruption is not inside some bill, but it is in our minds. It is our duty to uproot the corruption and sow honest seeds to our future generations in order to reap the real independence. Let the knot which came down last Monday be the demonic craziness and the flag which went up be the democracy!

The adage goes - "Where there is a will, there is a way!". But, I say, "Where there is evil, there is unity and definitely there is a way!". Vande Maataram :-)

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Plastic pricing

Plastic covers are priced at all the FMCG and garment shops from past month. Though there are quite a number of customers feel oppressive and sulty against such a move, my personal conviction is that this is a very good move. As the economy of the Metropolitans changed in the past few decades, it brought many corresponding changes in the lifestyle of city dwellers. People started using disposable temporary items more than the long-life products. Their preference shifted largely towards the temporal things. Consumption of ephemeral goods increased rapidly which brought the social environmental welfare under scanner.

Plastic is one of those goods which are accounted for more than 40% of the land pollution. Regular use of plastic can cause stemcell cancer, In addition to that, thousands of cattles die every other day due to the unknown intake of plastic. Even the biodegradable plastics are not 100% recyclable.

Most of the people moved from wired bags to plastic covers mainly because of the fact that the latter is given for free. There are several steps taken by the Government in the past and present in order to curb the plastic usage. In addition, there are a few NGOs who actively participate in campaigns to remind people about the ill-effects caused from the usage of plastics. Since, Money is the primary stopcock for controlling our people's activities, such reduction control steps became a waste of space. Hence I hope that this plastic pricing will bear fruit to environment gradually.

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Buried Potential of The Rajnikanth

A thread of common sense distinguishes the ordinary leaders from the greatest leaders of this world. .  Some leaders are made for the people. Some leaders are made by the people. Nehru and Roosevelt fall in the first category whereas Gandhi and MG Ramachandran fall in the latter. Leaders made by people have always found a unique place in our history. 

A sequence from Maniratnam’s Iruvar made me to write about my all-time favorite actor – Superstar Rajnikanth. In this movie, Karunanidhi questions MGR about his people power as follows - “This is the power which is so rare in this world. This is the power blessed to only few of the people like Lenin, Stalin, and Churchill etc. This is the most powerful boon you will ever get. What are you gonna do in return to them?” 

When I watched this scene, I couldn’t help but compare MGR with our Superstar. But, if MGR were alive today, he would have proudly answered that question with a ‘Yes, I did improve the lifestyle of my fellow Tamizhan who stood by me with his blood and bone”. But, can Thalaivar Rajnikanth answer this question? Fact is that he didn’t make use of this boon given to him by our people. 

Rajni in MGR getup

There is a childhood story that I remember. A young man went to a theatre; he lost his purse there. He came to house, switched on the lights and started searching for his lost purse. When his neighbors questioned him, he replied that the theatre was dim and dark and hence he couldn’t search there properly. So, he is searching in his house where he got enough visibility. It may sound foolish to many of us. But this is exactly what Our Rajnikanth is trying to do. In almost all the epics, it is pointed out clearly that ‘Service to people is the real service to God’. Ironically, Thalaivar lost the Lord among his fellow men and traveling to Kailash in his quest to an unattainable spirituality. 

Some silences are long enough to be termed as ‘buried silences’. There was a time in Tamil Nadu history where every party was waiting for his words. But, Thalaivar kept his mouth shut with one of such buried silences. It is not just his silence which is buried, but it is the potential, public power which went to the drain. Rajnikanth is the one and only person to gain support among a vast sector of people in our contemporary world. When I talk about ‘using’ the power, it means to use it in a good way for the welfare of the people. Don’t forget that he rooted his career in a state where people are looking for an ideal candidate to replace the rotten Dravidian politics for almost two decades. Rajni will probably reply that he is not interested in politics. Okay fine. Point made.  But, still his opening songs in the movies will have lyrics which will suggest his entry to politics. Why? Just for getting his fans ticket money? In fact, you don’t have to enter the politics to do good to the people. Being a Thalaivar fan, I feel ashamed to compare him with people like Actor Surya, Vijay, Vijayakanth and Raghava Lawrence who stretch their limits for the people. Here, Rajni should have been the role model for them. He should have taken the initiative to show the path of public service to the upcoming generations of celebrities. 

Rajni film reception at Shanthi theatre

It is we, the people who are the sole responsibility for whatever mentioned. It is the mistake of our people to idolize a ordinary stage actor into some celestial God form. But, similar to falling in love, some things happen without any supportive reasons. Rajnikanth is one among such exceptions. He has been idolized. It cannot be reversed now. Love and affection of mass public is a definite form of positive energy. It is what a man does with such positive energy define him. Rajnikanth has already wasted his golden opportunities to do well like his predecessors NTR and MGR. 

Can Rajni make a surprise entry to our politics? Or can he start doing public service without indulging in politics? Can he pulverize the fan-heart-crunching allegations made by some half-baked writers like me? Yes he can! If it didn’t happen in 1996, then it may well happen in 2016!  But, I feel that the train is gone by a long way already!

“Don’t wait for the Last Judgment. It happens every day.”  - Albert Camus.

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