HO RAHA BHARAT NIRMAN

We all have seen this advertisement (I am generalizing that everybody watches DD News) released by Ministry of I & B on the occasion of 62^nd Republic Day celebrations.

I wonder from where the government got those smiling faces of villagers ploughing field and fetching water from well. The director of the ad must have been completely out of senses and I fail to understand if he was making a comedy movie or what in the whole world did he had in his mind while asking all the villagers (fake certainly) to keep smiling during the entire length of that hypothetical AD.

I think that there must have been an AD-Mad competition organized by I&B ministry and the winner would have been chosen for telecast. The government thinks that it can showcase anything no matter what the public would see it would certainly acknowledge it well.

H-R-B-N reminded me of the INDIA SHINING campaign kicked by BJP which finally got kicked over by the voters from the second term.

Congress got 2^nd term purely because its stars were good. BJP didn’t have a core issue to speak about in its campaign (this is because of poor homework done by the party) and the party quite overtly lacked a strong stance in front of public. Moreover, people were already pissed off by Godhra Riots and were not willing to vote a party just because of its Hindutva campaign. The riots have already assured all muslim votes to congress and other local parties for a large numbers of elections to come. Apart from a weak opposition, Congress was able to woo the people at large because of the 6^th Pay Commission. The pay commission fell in the last year of congress’ first term and people were in a high mood and it just rubbed off all the shortcomings of the ruling party (majorly price rise). In the rural areas NREGA was able to influence people to continue voting for the same party. NAREGA was definitely a shot-in-the-arm for the congress. It helped the party to dispel the burden of CPI(M) from its shoulders as a coalition.

Four years down the line, the price rise continues but the paychecks don’t swell anymore, NREGA has been renamed as MGNREGA and the minimum 100 Rupees wage rule is being curbed by the govt citing budget problems. To add to the colors, 2G scam, Balck money, Adarsh society scam, Wakf board land scam, Radia Tapes (barkhagate),CWG scam…...etc( I don’t remember the rest right now). According to Mulayam Singh-‘Each new born baby comes in this world (INDIA precisely) with a debt of Rs.2200 because of all these shoddy dealings’.

Apart from these scams above, govt. fails to provide justice and resolve issues like- Maoist, China Border issue, Dr. Binayak Sen, Aarushi murder, Telangana, Gorkhaland, Prasar Bharti (Mr.B.S Lalli), talks with Pakistan…..etc.

Our honorable P.M for whom I HAD immense respect, has been so moulded by politics that firstly he doesn’t dare to answer all such cases and secondly he calls for a press conference through video conferencing and that to with his favorite editors who must have been given a list of questions to be followed strictly and may have been directed aswell regarding who will ask what. That is why nobody raised an eerie over why govt is not ready to declare the names of all the people accused of hoarding money in foreign banks and why govt. is planning for an amnesty for such people. Dr. Singh certainly deserves a role in Hindi films for playing his scripted role well. That was certainly a role-well-played as a new comer in the industry.

And still the govt. wants us to hum H-R-B-N.

DILLI BAS......

Directors make movies based on their native places likewise I am writing this blog especially to pay a tribute to my birthplace………DELHI.

Delhi, better known as dilli, is a place where everybody can’t survive yet everybody throng this place from each part of India. Sometimes called cold-hearted….sometimes called cunning, this place leaves an indelible mark (not pleasing most of the times) on the memory of people visiting it.

I decided upon writing this when I was having a short stay at Trivandrum. Of all the things I missed Delhi the most.The title of my blog was the answer to my facebook status question('what's on your mind') in those days. This city has got something in its air or rather in its roads and may be its just that other places are too different from it.

To start with C.P is one place where I can go everyday. It is like the heart of the city from where arteries emerge and pump blood into the rest of the city. One can find top brand showrooms with higher than highest price tags and similar brand merchandise available at shocking price in the shops running just BENEATH the former. They work together in same place as if one is not aware of the other. This is the place where you can find the richest of the rich and at the same time poorest of the poor. This is the place to be where you can find prettiest of the girls, living in Delhi, any time any day. From pizzas to samosas everything is available here. It is one long circular place where people love to go round and round and round and so on and so forth. Surely, I have left my heart somewhere in this part of the city only.

Another most prolific part is Old Delhi. Its just one place in delhi where you would love the intensity of crowd. People here seem to be so much engrossed in themselves that they don’t even react if they get shouldered by someone while walking. From aunties who come in groups to shop around to uncles who are busy strategizing about their business to kids who come in search of books or projects, there is no one here without a purpose. You can see foreigners mounted on rickshaw and busy making a video of the organized mess around. On 15 August the place is abode to political top brass. During Dusshera the Ramlila ground is the mecca for whole city. If you want to taste from the best of chicken to the best of chole-bhature, you need to fix a date with this place.

Although CWG was surely a mess for most of the people but one has to appreciate the improvements in infrastructure done throughout the city. You can actually drive through the city in night with headlights turned off(I have experienced this thing). Roads not just only gleam but beam at night. Moreover, with around 20 flyovers constructed over the last two years makes up for a smooth ride in most parts of the city. Gradually, like Mumbai, Delhi has also developed a night life. You can have dinner as late as 1:00 am in the restaurants. There are many shops which now open for 24 hrs.

From posh areas to slums, Delhi has it all. But it does have an attitude which no other city can match. Its just that we don’t realize its capacity. It is the place where people gathered to bring justice to cases like Jessica Lal’s murder. It is this place which houses the best colleges in country. It is this place which boasts about some of the most religious places in the country. It is this place which has the highest judicial and administrative centers in the country. It is this place which is the capital of the largest democracy in the world. It is this place for which political parties are ready to kill each other.It is this place which gives 137,000,000 results in google search. It is this place which is the Heart and Soul of India. I feel elated for it is this place where I was born.

Busy Doing nothing...

Hey friends for the time being i am not able to maintain two blogs simultaneously, so i am currently playing my emotional atyachhars on Wen I was Boy..., hope to see you there...

Inidian Media- winged predators, public eyes, exploiters, pervert, watchdog.....and still counting!!

Well, the topic itself leaves every Indian with an opportunity to be an evaluator, the part which we enjoy the most “being a critic”.
And if in any case the subject being talked about is something INDIAN then we employ our right to criticize* (* right to express) most expeditiously.

So why to spare Indian Media!!! (The same media which cognize us of WHAT, WHEN, HOW was MISUSED…..)
Just to begin with how free Indian Media is, India is ranked 105 out of 168 countries in Worldwide Press Freedom Index. (We were at 80 in 2002).
And the much talked about freedom is the RIGHT TO EXPRESS. (Which every citizen of India enjoys)

Indian Media was questioned and much alleged of covering some sensitive, strategic actions of commandos during 26/11 attacks, well to be fair enough I think it was much of a mistake rather then misuse.

Then came the SWINE FLU, of which media was accused of over highlighting it and causing panic. Well just to remind at that time our health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had told reporters that school girl Reeda Shaikh, who died Aug 3 in a Pune hospital, had visited more than one hospital for treatment and thus could have spread the virus to about 80 others.(and later apologized for his comment). What could you expect from media when country’s health minister is in such an affright over the issue.And incomplete information can be as devastating as incorrect information, so over highlighting might be the need.
We say that there are more then 50 news channels in country, and they are more then 74000 (yeah actually it sounds a bit too vague, but INDIA have got more then 74000 news papers registered) and they all are resorting towards sensationalized journalism, it in fact is not false, if not all most of them are resorting towards the commercial aspects of media. But isn’t it all we enjoy reading and watching..!!
So I infer it much as the MISUSE OF THE TRUST OF AUDIENCE RATHER THEN FREEDOM, misuse of the blind way we believe in them.

Indian Media and advertising- media accused of showing surreptitious advertisements, well when we can not shun the manufacture or use of some commodities how can we censor media for advertising or promoting them.(But still there some qualitative restrictions on advertising, with the list of norms available at http://presscouncil.nic.in/norms.htm ).

Same is the case of STING OPERATIONS. So as long as viewers are interested in strings they will continue to happen, as soon as the audience becomes bore of them, string operations will disappear.(Supreme court had already made some guidelines to carry out
string operation, as it could hamper an individual’s right to PRIVACY)

With three unstable democratic pillars, the executive, the legislature, the judiciary there is always an immense need of fourth pillar which could be a conscious watchdog, and the purpose can be well served by a responsible free media.
How ever there are always two sides of a coin, so is with INDIAN MEDIA.
It’s not much about the misuse of the freedom, its about the realization of the power and the responsibility which comes with the freedom. Indian Media like any other institution have been irresponsible at number of instances, to mention “ media trial vs. right to free and fair trial”, some times certain aspects of case are so much highlighted by the press that the publicity gives rise to strong public emotions which successively could perilously intervene in the justice delivery system. And so is the case of PAID NEWS, where in some political parties got published and aired news favorable to them. But we can not accuse by large whole Indian Media of misusing its freedom. (And not to forget we came across all these scams and happenings just because media today is free, free to write , free to express, free to speak, and free to point out its own faults and flaws).

So it would not be just a euphemistic approach to call INDIAN MEDIA irresponsible rather then accusing it of misusing the freedom.

Whats needed today is an autonomous reforms body, free from the interference of Govt. , Media, Corporate, and other influences.The body which could keep a check on irresponsible media behavior and to protect these irresponsibilities in getting transmuted into misuse of freedom media enjoys.....