Tista SenguptaWHOSE INDIA IS IT ANYWAY?
Yes Telangana, no Telangana! See the power to create confusion by interchanging yes and no, like the placing of the comma in the classic sentence, ‘Hang him not spare him’. On the slender thread of a comma hangs the life of a convict. Placed after him, the hapless man dies; but after not, the man is set free. Perhaps an anecdote of two squabbling women on a railway compartment explains the situation better. One of them wanted the window to be shut because she said she would die of cold otherwise. The other woman said she would die of suffocation if the window is shut. Up came the peacemaker among the fellow passengers, who suggested to keep the window open for five minutes so that one of the contenders would die and then keep it shut for five minutes so that the other would follow suit. Deny statehood, and Telangana would burn; grant statehood, and the rest of Andhra would burn.
Ours is a democracy where decisions are taken on the street; you hijack a city, and all your political demands are met. Where will you find such a democracy in the whole world; and the marvel is that it works and all the anarchy it generates finally brings some semblance of order and merit. So we have discovered an economic wizard, Sardar Manmohan Singh, mummy Sonia Gandhi, and for a change a home minister who speaks sense, and a trouble-shooter Pranab Mukherjee, who knows what India needs. The marvel that is Mayawati can cut the trunk of the tree she is standing on into three pieces if not four, as she has been demanding the truncation of her own state.
In the final analysis, the root of India’s problems are two: its underemployed politicians, and unemployed youth. It’s heartbreaking but true that agitations employ our unemployed youth – which is happening in Kashmir and the North-East – and give meaning to our politicians’ existence. Imagine a Raj Thackeray without vandalism or agitation. Our politicians are now entering into a state of competitive madness to divide India into as many districts as the country has. Remember, we were once a conglomerate of 500-and odd princely states before the British came and ruled over us. We shall soon be back to square one. Who cares? Whose India is it anyway!
Ours is a democracy where decisions are taken on the street; you hijack a city, and all your political demands are met. Where will you find such a democracy in the whole world; and the marvel is that it works and all the anarchy it generates finally brings some semblance of order and merit. So we have discovered an economic wizard, Sardar Manmohan Singh, mummy Sonia Gandhi, and for a change a home minister who speaks sense, and a trouble-shooter Pranab Mukherjee, who knows what India needs. The marvel that is Mayawati can cut the trunk of the tree she is standing on into three pieces if not four, as she has been demanding the truncation of her own state.
In the final analysis, the root of India’s problems are two: its underemployed politicians, and unemployed youth. It’s heartbreaking but true that agitations employ our unemployed youth – which is happening in Kashmir and the North-East – and give meaning to our politicians’ existence. Imagine a Raj Thackeray without vandalism or agitation. Our politicians are now entering into a state of competitive madness to divide India into as many districts as the country has. Remember, we were once a conglomerate of 500-and odd princely states before the British came and ruled over us. We shall soon be back to square one. Who cares? Whose India is it anyway!
It is a really nice article which depicts where we stand , as of now , as Indians.Indeed, this is gradually turning into a burning issue..... god knows when and how these problems would be solved!!!!!!
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