Netaji vs the Queen's English

Mulayam Singh Yadav (Source: PTI)

HUNDREDS are spending sleepless nights in makeshift refugee homes after communal clashes broke out in Muzaffarnagar. 

The usual problems of poverty, electricity and water remain. The government has returned to gunda raj. 

And yet, 'the need of the hour' for Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is to promote Hindi. 

And that too not Hindi in Uttar Pradesh's schools or on television, but the use of a colonial bhasha in Parliament, which according to him is a threat to national integrity. 

These are the same politicians who wouldn't think of putting their children in a Hindimedium school. The same ones whose kids would have a hard time completing two sentences without slipping an angrezi word in. 

And yet, their concern is the use of English in Parliament - that too on the shocking grounds that it will interfere with the country's development. 

Yadav might have a point, although he would be reluctant to admit it this way. His anti-English tirades usually forget to mention the tiny little detail that his son, Uttar Pradesh's chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, got his college degree in Australia - where Hindi-medium universities are a bit hard to find.

But all the 'development' that was supposed to come with Akhilesh's regime has amounted to nothing. 

Maybe that's what triggered Mulayam's move to automatically magnify the importance of the Hindi language through an anti-English law in Parliament? With a population of 1.2 billion, India has over a hundred regional languages. 

Of these, there are 22 officially recognised languages. How are our politicians - who already have enough trouble being understood and getting things done - expected to hear each other out in the name of development if they can't speak a language that is common?

© 2013 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2511383/WHIPLASH-Netaji-vs-Queens-English.html

The Indian hypocrisy festival

A girl protesting against the December 16 gang rape in Delhi. 
(Source: Google)

WHEN an article entitled "The Assam Rape Festival" turned up on an American news portal, it sparked outrage among sons of the soil who believed it was a direct assault on Mother India. 

They quickly turned on the author, who had offered up scarce evidence of this 'festival' being a real event, with obviously preposterous claims and a picture of Naga Sadhus at the Kumbh Mela alongside it. 

Turns out, the piece was an attempt at 'satire,' which most missed.

But the article is not the point. What is much more notable is the contrast in the reaction to actual incidents of violence against women, versus the response to a piece written by an anonymous writer attempting to be humourous. 

As soon as the piece got attention in India, the Assam Director General of Police Jayanto Narayan Choudhury had already ordered a probe into the publication and distribution of the article - and they did it suo moto, without anyone complaining.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, meanwhile, came out with a statement that the piece was "demonic" and showed disrespect to the "humble and unsuspecting" people of Assam. 

If only the state could react as quickly when women are actually raped maybe India might not have as much of a reputation of being a place where sexual violence is so prevalent.

Most men turn a blind eye when a girl is molested on the street. And if the girl gathers the courage to report the matter to her family or the police, society ends up turning against her - often resorting to the "she asked for it, in those short clothes" explanation. 

I wonder what happens to Mother India's honour when a girl is raped every 20 minutes in the country. A total of 24,206 rape cases were registered in 2011 alone. 

How come it was a satirical article - not this - that registered outrage among the sons of the soil?

© 2013 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2501050/WHIPLASH-The-Indian-hypocrisy-festival.html

An electoral race to the bottom

PM Manmohan Singh and Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. ©PTI

AS the political discourse touches a new low in the race for power, the masks have finally come off. 

All the claimants to the 'Dilli ka takht' (throne of India) have been busy selling dreams to the people while sparing no efforts to vilify their opponents. 

Shahzada, Phenku, Vishwasghat, Pappu have been echoing at rallies and on TV screens, and recently even Lord Krishna was labelled a 'caste icon'.

The real issues of jobs, poverty, a border dispute, growth, infrastructure and food have been drowned out by this foolish, meaningless rhetoric. 

What should have been a debate of real issues has been brought down to a personal battle of one-upmanship. 

With ever-rising inflation, the only plan of action the national parties could come up with is to fight it out like 10-year-olds.

One can clearly see how the BJP and Congress are embroiled in a tussle over Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's legacy.

In a country where people die of hunger everyday and a chunk of the children still suffer from malnutrition, our politicians have money to splurge on a statue that would cost more than 2,500 crore. 

When the parties should have actually been opposing this colossal waste of money, the foundation stone of which was laid by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, they were busy fighting over the past. 

The evergreen mantra of mixing religion and regionalism with politics is being invoked again.

The Ram temple issue has been brought to the fore and, why not, when the voters fall for it every time. 

While there is no dearth of leaders per se, there is clearly no leadership that can pull the country out of this mess of corruption and sluggish growth. 

For the political class, the business of votes will pay dividends when they are in power. But for the rest of us, it seems, there is little hope for meaningful change from this decadent system.

© 2013 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2487405/WHIPLASH-An-electoral-race-bottom.html

Child labour... no end to it!

A young boy washes utensils outside a restaurant.
©Diptendu Dutta/AFP (Source: Google)

SHOBHA, an 11-year-old child, wakes up at 6 in the morning. Her chores start from making breakfast for a family of five.

By 9 she sweeps and mops the house, bathes and feeds the dog 'Laila', cleans the utensils and then bathes herself. 

She has to take care of the owner's mother ( a 78-year-old woman), who cannot even manage to feed herself let alone walk without human support. 

She makes sure, the elderly is bathed, well-dressed and fed. She is after all an 11-year-old girl, big enough to do all  the work. 

She then cooks lunch, rice, roti, dal and sabzi. Yes, she knows how to cook. All through the day she fetches water, the TV remote, fruits, wash clothes, dress people  and everything else she is asked to do.  

Her day ends when all those in the house sleep. She goes to a shady corner, spreads a sheet and dozes off. 

You ask her if she needs something and in return she stares at you with blank eyes. Eyes that will ask you why? You have a daughter too, almost the same age as mine, would you want her to grow up like this? 

All this in a house where the owner is the principal of a very reputed university and her husband is a doctor while one daughter is pursuing her Masters in English literature, the other is young and goes to school. 

A well educated family with surplus amount of money to splash out on three drivers, one child servant, three cars and a brand new house worth crores. 

Child labour, an issue which has been talked and written about to death. Each one of us is aware of what it is. I doubt there is a person around who would not have heard of it.

Yet we see children working from morning to night, in conditions which one can barely think of working in. 

You walk out in the morning and you see kids working on tea stalls, washing utensils and cleaning the place. Kids as young as six are forced into labour. 

Yes, it is an offence, we have laws but who implements these laws? How many people actually get punished and how many get away? 

Well roughly it can be said not even a few end up behind bars. And nearly thousands of children lose their childhood, days that were meant to put smiles across their faces and inspire their souls. 

If each one us make it a point to act against the wrong, you won't see empty eyes and lost smiles. 


© 2013 Nasreen Ghani 

I support Irom Sharmila..do you?

NOVEMBER 2, 2000 is the day she started fasting. It has been 11 years since then and she hasn't eaten a grain of food nor has she had a drop of water.

Irom Sharmila also called the Iron Lady of Manipur is protesting against the Armed Forces Secret Power Act, 1958 (AFSPA) which is equal to a military rule in Manipur (the north eastern zone of India).

The military has undisputed and unaccounted power to do anything they feel like doing.

The worst part of the Act is the fact that Human rights violations is permissible. When you say violations of human rights is not a problem then of course most of us can wonder what we are looking at.

“The AFSPA empowers the representative of the Central government, the governor to subsume the powers of the State government to declare “undefined” disturbed areas. It also empowers the non-commissioned officers of the armed forces to arrest without warrant, to destroy any structure that may be hiding absconders without any verification, to conduct search and seizure without warrant and to shoot even to the causing of death. No legal proceeding against abuse of such arbitrary powers can be initiated without the prior permission of the Central government. While introducing the AFSPA on 18 August 1958, the government accepted it as an emergency measure and it was supposed to have remained in operation only for one year.” (An analysis of Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 ^-- By The Asian Centre for Human Rights)

Manipur is under a military rule for more than 40 years now. To make it simple, it is like the emergency in India that was declared by Indira Gandhi in 1975. For two years, all of us know what India went through. These people in Manipur have been going through the same for some 40 years now.

Imagine your loved ones being shot in front of you, or say your sister or your daughter being raped and there is nothing you can do except watching. Imagine going to the authorities and they shoot you in return or throw you out or bash you up. Try and visualise the agony of a mother whose child is detained, tortured and thrown in some dark corner and forgotten about.

The woman has been fasting since years and none of us have the courage to stand up or her. Instead we prefer standing up for corruption. We prefer pointing fingers at others even though we ourselves are deep into it, covered from head to toe.

Once in a while, there is always a need to look inside your heart and question yourself whether what you are doing is right or are you just blindly copying or following someone.

Yes, we are all busy with our lives, all of us have to earn for a living but we always have time to stand up for a cause.

And by standing up for a cause I don't just mean I support, you need to show your support As we all know, actions speak more than words.

© 2011 Nasreen Ghani