Election 2014: What Is There For A Common Man?

Year 2014 came with the promise of giving the chance to choose the government for the next five years. People from all over the country are more active and excited this time as compare to last election in 2009, atleast on social media, as many of them wants to exercise their voting right. The conventional political fight has become more interesting with the entry of AAP and activation of some regional parties. People are joining some party or other in an attempt to make an impact in the development of the country which is not bad. Couple of months ago, I failed to understand when Kiran Bedi said that people too can work a lot from the outside. Is there anything for the common man to do in the current politics? Can he/she participate from outside?

There are three types of people in the elections; one, political parties and their leaders who will be the direct beneficiary for victory in the election, two, volunteers of these political parties, which are seen as supporters, are the indirect beneficiary of these election as they KNOW SOMEBODY who is in the power, third, the common man, who is always at the at the mercy of their leaders for whom they voted for.

Let us see what common people are doing right now; they have some preferences for some political party like BJP, Congress, AAP or any other region party. They think these parties can do something good for them, which is not wrong. They post everything for the support of these parties on Facebook and tweets in the favour of this party, they want to win every discussion which is related with the party of their interest. People are searching and researching material to post on their wall and if any one comments anything against it then there are exchanges of news articles, youtube links, reports and anything and everything which is in favour of his/her party or against the other party. Isn’t it happening right now?

“Whatever is good, it is for me, whoever says”, may be the another strategy of this common man but when they commit to some political parties, they have to prove everything right, inside he may be feeling it wrong. Do they have any obligation to prove their leaders correct in all respect? No political party can be envisaged as free-from-doubt and has the magical stick that will change everything. Biasedness is our greatest enemy. All political leaders are delivering their speeches, although it’s political, and one can judge it correctly if he/she is unbiased. Our leaders, most of them if not all, are very good students of marketing and they know the power of positive and negative branding. They give us the spectacles of negative brand from which we 

see our opponent leader with.

Time and again we blame them for their arrogance, autocracy, nepotism and cronyism but we have also contributed in some way or another to make them powerful, we prefer to defend them by giving the examples of opponents that they are more wrong-doers than mine. Let negative criticism leave onto these leader and their paid-agents we need to adopt positive criticism from all the depths of our wisdom, which is the required most at this time.

Kashmir: Not a Black and White Problem

In the cozy living rooms of middle class India news from Kashmir excites the people and gives them the chance to prove themselves as the great lover of the country by saying few line about it like ‘Dooth Mangoge to Kheer Dange, Kashmir mangogay to cheer dange’ (we will give you anything you want but if you want Kashmir then we will tear you), ‘Why don’t we attack Pakistan to solve the problem of Kashmir’, ‘The people of Kashmir don’t want to be in India and army is teaching them nice lesson’, ‘When we are giving them so special rights like article 370 then what else they want’. ‘Those who are helping the terrorists should be killed’ so on and so forth’. These casual comments on Kashmir try to make the issue black and white which hints that the solution is very easy and why not the Government of India is showing its intention to solve the issue.

Time and again the hue and cry for Plebiscite is asked by the people from some parts of the society considering that it will solve their problem. There are three sections of the people in J&K, one, who wants to remain with India, second, who want to go with Pakistan and third, who wants them to be independent and not to be ruled by India or Pakistan. We can sense that the majority of them don’t want to be with Pakistan but skewness of the graph tilted toward India and Independent Kashmir from time to time. Let us say, majority of the people want to be Independent, what answer do we have? Before jumping in to the conclusion and imagined-theories we first understand how this segment of the people looks towards India.

This section of Kashmiris never likes India, because they always have seen India with guns in CRPF jawans or in army men. Outside they are been treated as terrorist and in Kashmir they think they have been treated as slave. The history has created their memory the way it is and Pakistan continued fueling the issues to create a hostile environment against India.

Parveena Ahangar achieved international attention in 1994 when she formed Association of Parents of Disappeared People (APDP). On 18 August 1990, Javed Ahmad Ahangar, then a 17-year-old student, was allegedly picked up by the army for a militant. She started an agonising search for her son. She informed the local police station about his arrest and staged a sit-in on the road for a full day. After a six- month search for her son, she finally approached the court which ordered an inquiry into her missing son's case. For four years nothing substantial happened in her case. The state government's request for sanction to prosecute the accused Army officers was not granted by the central government. In 1994, determined to continue her struggle, Parveena formed the Association of Parents of Disappeared People (APDP). The APDP believes 8,000 to10,000 people are missing.

On 21 August 2011, the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) confirms that 2,156 unidentified bodies lay in unmarked graves in 30 locations in north Kashmir. The SHRC had ordered the investigation after taking cognisance of a December 2009 report on mass graves titled “Buried Evidence” by the International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir (IPTK).

Now there are two versions of truths; one version says that these are the bodies of militants who were killed by armed forced and another version says that these bodies are from 10,000 missing people.

The incident that further strengthened the memory of this section of the people is Kunan Poshspora incident occurred on February 23, 1991. An army unit launched a search and interrogation operation in Kunan Poshspora, Kupwara district and 53 women were allegedly gang raped by soldiers that night. Villagers claimed that a police investigation never took place in the region. Wajahat Habibullah, former DC, asked why not the incident was first reported and answer was not easy. Some women don’t want them to be publicize as the raped victim in the conservative society and others who wanted to come up were not heard.

After much criticism Press Council of India investigate the incident and medical examination conducted on 32 women nearly one month after incident, confirmed that the women had wounds on their chests and abdomens, and that the hymens of three of the unmarried women had been torn. But the team claimed that that such delayed examination proved nothing.

Once again there are two versions of statements; one states that the charges against army were bundle of fabricated lies and a massive hoax orchestrated by militant groups and all allegations are grossly exaggerated or invented. Another version, from Asia Watch, in its 1991 stated, ‘The alacrity with which military and government authorities in Kashmir discredited the allegations of rape and their failure to follow through with procedures that would provide critical evidence for any prosecution’.

The plight of soldier fighting in the Kashmir valley is not less critical than the people of Kashmir. If he is asked to kill the enemy in battlefield, he doesn’t have to give the second thought but to shoot. But if he is landed in the place where he is surrounded by his own people but some of them can be his enemy whom he has to kill to save him and his country. Thousands of the solders have given their lives in the valley.  Nearly 4,000 soldiers have been killed in the country after the Kargil operations in 1999 while more than 390 Army troops have committed suicide in the last three years, Lok Sabha was informed on 25 November 2012.

Minority hindu and majority muslims believed and created ‘Kashmiriyat’ in the long past was ruined by the crackdown in 1990’s, when a number of forces started playing together; ISI’s role in Kashmir, Political right of Kashmiris, Mujahideen Influence, religion and human rights violation by militants and by armed forces. The people in Kashmir, whether participated with any force or not, remain the only victim.

An Experiment With Democracy

The democratic power of India creates its distinction and many countries approach India to study democracy and how it works. India is not only the world’s largest democracy but has shown its robustness in unifying the countless differentiation that exists in the country in the name of religion, caste, language, region, beliefs and idiosyncrasies.

A successful democracy needs to weed out the archaic concepts and introduce the new to fulfill the demands of the people. The system that has been created in the long time needs an overhauling to benefit its stakeholders. People are the owner of the country and of its resources and they choose some people amongst them for its governance which constitutes a ruling party or the government. All is well so far, the ideal version of democracy is in place and people are happy as they are ruling their own country. But the satisfaction goes to an end when the representatives become the owner of the country and people, helplessly, have to look at them for their shares. People, through the constitution of India, give power to their representatives to work effectively for them but distribution of resources are based on favouratism and cronyism and this is called ‘Corruption’.

Such type of system is all prevalent in the country where people are not participating in the decision-making for the country and they are left with agitations. When people are reminded of their responsibility in casting their vote and sit back to see the drama in the parliament, they feel cheated on the name of democracy.

Something needs to be change, people have to be asked their wishes from time to time; direct democracy is required where people’s participation is encouraged. Atleast something is to be experimented. For a big country like India, direct democracy seems impossible but it can be encouraged and experimented in small parts and find out the ways that how it can be organized. It is easy to say, if people don’t cast vote then they don’t have the right to ask any question but when they feel themselves participative they surely come forward. In direct democracy citizens can oppose any law legislated by their representatives or ask for a referendum to be hold.

Countries, like Switzerland, can be studied where direct democracy exists and working successfully and what we can adopt from them to make it applicable in India. It is first time in the history of India when people are asked their opinion after the elections are over. The step AAP (Aam Admi Party) has taken can be seen with the spectacles of doubt and which is not wrong; it may be their drama for the already accepted decision of forming the government or they are showing that they are different from the current political parties. Democracy gives the right to its citizens to doubt the intentions of any political party but that doubt should not block our vision so that we would not see something that is good for them.

India’s position at 94 in the world’s corruption index means that there are 93 countries in the world that have less corruption than us, we need to find out where they are good at and some political parties have to take the initiative and experiment in India to maintain the sanctity of the Indian democracy.

Dogma of Homosexuality

The SC’s verdict on article 377 provoke hue and cry from all sections of the society where some welcome and others consider it as the violation of fundamental right.

However, the dubious decision shoved in the court of parliament stating that parliamentarians are free to consider the desirability and proprietary of deleting or amending section 377 from constitution.

Before going into the perception of the denial to these people, we must understand the anatomy of ‘Sexual Orientation’ on which all perception depends. Sexual Orientation refers to the identity of the individual that endures the pattern of emotional, romantic and sexual attraction to men, women or both sexes.

Is homosexuality a mental disorder?

Researches have shown that there is no association between any of these sexual orientation and psychopathology. All mainstream organization long ago abandoned classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder. Some self-acclaimed medical wizard claims it to be as mental disorder but to date, there has been no scientifically adequate research to show that therapy aimed at changing sexual orientation.

Is it unnatural?

Whatever follows the principles of the nature and does not harm anybody is natural. But our awareness about anything also makes us to feel what is natural and what is unnatural. Couple of years back surrogacy, in-vitro fertilization, cloning, genetic fertilization were considered as unnatural whereas after long studies it is now considered as natural and lawful.

As of date, no study has proved homosexuality as unnatural and cause any harm to anybody.

Is it anti-religion?

I can’t say what all religious scriptures say about the notion of homosexuality but I do know that all religions spread the message of love in the mankind and eliminate the differences if there is any. There are 2.5 million gays/lesbians known in India and  many estimates if there includes unknown the number goes to 5 million.

If people are born in this way and homosexuality has become their identity then no religion can ignore what god has given, only the prejudiced custodian of the religion can deny the existence of such people’s identity.

Will it harm the society?

Social prejudice about homosexuality has closed all the doors of thinking and already made the decision that it will create imbalance in the society. Is it really?

We accept it or not but sexual orientation is the part of personality but society demands it to be changed via various means. In India, that means is marriage ‘Iski Shadi Karwa do Sab Theek Ho Jayega” (get him/her married everything will be alright), but does that really happen? When such people are forced to marry, it not only destroys the life of this person but also the life of the one who is now enslaved with this person.

Societies within society emerge out with time and all societies have to be respected. For eg. If we take India as a big society then hindu-society or muslim-society etc are the societies within India-society. And the laws are not made on the basis of society in majority and ignoring the minority.

Gay/Lesbians also form a society, although very small, that depends on the mercy of large societies.

Ours is the pluralist society and non-acceptance of homosexuals in the society is the denial of fundamental right to the people.

Sachin - The God of Cricket

Although a handful, but there are some who question the legendary contribution of Sachin R. Tendulkar in Indian cricket. I understand, emotions speak more than our words when it comes to Sachin Tendulkar.

The adulation of the people from all over the world, not only from India, stamps the great work of the Little Master to the Cricket as a game. He has been the institution for many, those who are currently playing cricket for Indian Cricket Team.

Critics have every right to put their say but when somebody hears that Sachin is playing for his own records, doesn’t contribute much to the Indian team, he is privileged from BCCI, his century is never fruitful for India, so on and so forth.

I don’t want to throw back my emotion to enchant the noble qualities of the Sachin Tendulkar but I would like to put forward some numbers that unbiasedly unfolds the secret of his greatness.

Few myths about Sachin:-

Myth 1: Sachin’s century is not helpful to India

Since 1974-2013 (till Nov 30), India played 841 ODI matches out of which it won in 423 matches with success rate is 52.9%, but when Sachin hit century, the success rate goes up to 67%, when he score more than 50 and less than 100 the success rate is 61%.

                               

To link the India’s rate of winning when Sachin score less than 20, the graph depicts that only the success rate is 41%. In simple words when Sachin score less than 20 runs there are only 41% of the matches where India won.

Myth 2: Sachin’s maximum centuries are against weak countries.

Sachin score centuries against all the opponents (not considering some countries like UAE, Bermuda etc.) and to the surprise maximum centuries had been scored against the world’s strongest team i.e Australia and success rate is close to 80%.

He scored 38 centuries against strong opponents whereas only 11 centuries against weak opponents. When I say weak opponents or strong opponents, this is only my understanding of cricket played by these countries, if you want to change some countries, still it does not make much difference in the result. 

Myth 3: He plays good on home pitches than outside.

Of his total 463 matches, he played 164 in India and 299 matches Not in India (147 away and 152 neutral). Sachin hit 20 centuries in India and rest 29 outside India.

Myth 4: He is not useful in chasing or in second innings.

Sachin scored fewer numbers of centuries while chasing as compare to batting in the first innings but here the catch is when he score century in the second innings there are 82% matches where India wins.

Besides these numbers, Sachin’s indomitable spirit with humble smile disarms the opponent. He devoted himself to give his best not only in his batting but there has been occasions where he has bowled an outstanding spell and has even surprised the world with his master fielding.  There were times when he got injured and it was nearly impossible for him to continue his cricket career but he defeated the luck with his integrity towards cricket and the nation at large.

And that’s why even opponents honour him as follows:

“If there is a better batsman than Sachin then he hasn’t arrived yet” -  Viv Richards (June 2011)

“There are boxers with better records than Muhammad Ali, but if you mention the word boxing, you have to mention Muhammad Ali. When you talk of basketball, you have to mention Michael Jordan. When you speak about cricket, I’d speak of Tendulkar “– Brian Lara (Nov. 2013).

“I have seen God. He bats at no. 4 in India in Tests” – Mathew Hayden (1998)

                                         ---------------------------------------------------

Has ‘dropout’ become the pre-requisite for success?

Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Brad Pitt, Ted Turner, Subhash Chandra, Sandeep Maheshwari are dropouts from formal education and made their mark in their fields. But does it mean that ‘dropout’ has become the pre-requisite for success?

I, recently, looked at the cover page of the Robert Kiyosaki’s new book which is telling ‘If You Want to Be Rich and Happy, Don't Go to School?’ It made me curious to study more about the ‘Dropout Theory’ and know the fact.

While researching on the relationship between the success and dropouts, I landed on the research of The Atlantic newspapers which tells that the majority of America’s 30 million dropouts are more likely than graduates to be unemployed, poor, and in deficit.

Names like Jobs, Gates, Dell, and others spreads the myth about the relationship between a successful entrepreneurs and dropout from the college. These are exceptional individuals whose hard work, determination, and intelligence make up for the lack of a college degree.

Those who are able to achieve such success often rely on a set of skills already developed before they get to college. They know how to educate themselves, get a bank loan, and manage their time and their money. They may benefit from a network of family, friends and acquaintances who open doors and provide a safety net.

But what happens to young people without access to these important resources? For them, skipping college to pursue business success is like investing their savings in lottery tickets in the hopes they will be a multimillion-dollar winner.

The reality is that the next college dropout will not be Bill Gates, James Cameron, or Mark Zuckerberg. He will likely belong to the millions of college drop-outs who struggled to earn his livelihood. Nearly as large as the state of California, this group is 71 percent more likely to be unemployed and four times more likely to default on student loans. Far from being millionaires, they earn 32 percent less than college graduates, on average.

The vast majority of students, especially from disadvantaged family, need formal education to know the way that how to avail the available resources for their upliftment. For them, college is not a choice but a necessary and vital stepping-stone toward a future of opportunity. It is the platform from which whole families can be lifted to better prospects.

Irrespective of any education system, schools and colleges provide intellectual capital to succeed and the social capital to help them make connections, build networks, and establish life-long relationships.

It provides them with skills in analysis and reasoning combined with confidence that will lead them boldly to articulate and embrace new ideas. It transforms their perspectives, opening them up to different cultures, different world views, and different ways of seeing -- and solving -- some of the world's most complex problems.

‘Dropout by choice’ having necessary skills to succeed can never be generalized to the weak general mass of people who are not born with talents or resources, their only hope is to get enlightened through education and schools and colleges are one of the ideal places to achieve that.