An open letter to Justice Markandeya Katju

Dear Markandeya katju,

            Nowadays writing an open letter to dignitaries has become a fashion. Every Tom, Dick and Harry writes letter to Sonia Gandhi, Narendra Modi, Manmohan Singh and in worst case to Digvijay singh. Until now I let the golden opportunity of getting instant fame go in vain. However your recent blog post on Delhi gang rape compelled me to write this letter.

           While expressing your opinion on Delhi gang rape you condemned this crime and asked court of law to give harsh punishment to guilty. However you also casted a doubt whether this same hue and cry had been raised had this incident taken place in rural India. Strangely, without waiting for the people to respond you yourself answered in negative and also added that Delhi is not the whole of India. 

            I know you were trying to hint that media and parliament are apathetic to the agony of poor and rural India. Why not, after all in the eyes of great intelligentsia of this country it is nothing less than a sin to ask for the rights of urban or middle class people. No matter how much wounded you are you have a right to scream only if you are a poor person according to the standards set by our very holy planning commission or if you live in a hut in some remote tribal area where Rahul Gandhi can come and have a dinner once in a blue moon. Otherwise all your cries are fake, your call for your right is bigotry of neo rich middle class.

           Well let me first tell you that rape is a rape whether it takes place in any remote part of India or in the national capital. However what makes Delhi gang rape more serious and perturbing (it is not an isolated case) is that it took place below the very nose of corridors of power. Delhi which is the capital of this country, the place where the Parliament, the Supreme Court and the Rashtrapati Bhuwan are situated. Where Police, para military forces, elite forces like S.P.G and N.S.G are stationed, which is supposed to be secure and guarded like a fort. If women are unsafe in Delhi then where else can they remain safe.

        You also blamed that 2,50,000 farmers have done suicide in last 10-15 years but there has hardly been any uproar. It really amazes me that how our so called intellectuals resonate in support of their blabbering. Every farmer, engineer, doctor or teacher indulging in suicide is not doing it because of professional reasons. There may be several reasons like extra marital affairs, enmity, alcoholism, mental sickness and so on behind a person’s suicide. Now naturally because India is still an under developing economy 2/3 people in this country are farmers and because of that if you look at suicide figures profession wise you will always find large number of farmers committing suicide.  I am not saying that all farmers committing suicide are doing it because of above mentioned unprofessional reason but claiming all these deaths are because of misery and poverty of farmers and then pinching each and everyone that unless and until problem of farmer's suicide is not solved no other issue can be raised is stupidity.

          You are saying that everyday 45 farmers commit suicide but you must be knowing that every minute 23 women are raped and this is official figure which must be lower than actual figures since in our patriarchal society it is really difficult for woman to come out and complaint that she has been raped. Even if she does that, in many instances police denies writing their complaint since it unnecessarily increases their burden of work. I am not saying that issue of farmer’s suicide is less important than gang rape. Actually both problems are different than each other and should be dealt separately rather than mingling it with each other. However everyone will agree that because of huge vote bank of farmers they are being helped in various ways in the form of subsidy, minimum support prices, waiver of debt, cheap debt(7% per anum and if farmer pays it promptly then next time he’ll get it at the rate of 4% per anum) and tax free income. Of course because of corruption many of these benefits don’t reach to farmers but corruption is not only hurting farmers it is equally painful for urban middle class also whom you are blaming.

       You are blaming the people that they are not raising enough voice over the issue of massive unemployment, skyrocketing inflation and shabby condition of primary education, but do you have slightest of idea that it is these very people whom you are blaming for not being serious enough are the victims of unemployment and double digit inflation. There is lot of anger among people over these issues but people understand that these problems are not created by someone with criminal intentions like rape rather some of them are global phenomena, hence it will take some time to reduce unemployment and inflation and making furor over every issue will not solve the problem.

       You are saying that section 376 of Indian penal code already contains life sentence for rape and hence there is no need of raising demand for capital punishment on rape. But, can you tell me in how many cases rapists have been awarded life term. Had our legal system seriously sentenced people with strict punishment then menace of rape wouldn’t have grown up to such an extent (I know there are other reasons too). In most of the cases accused get acquitted because of shabby legal process. Criminals get bail in few days and then roam freely but victim suffers the life term of ignominy, social boycott and mental harassment. Cases take decades to reach the climax and if victim is fortunate to get the conviction of criminal, punishment in such cases is very trivial. In fact Pratibha Patilhas made another record by pardoning many rapists cum murderers in wholesale.

       Finally if you believe that some issue requires people’s attention then you can raise that issue separately but you have no right to ask people who raise some important issues that why are you showing outburst on particular issue when you didn’t raise your voice over other issue. Different people have different priorities, no one can fight for all the issues in the world. Rape is not the only national problem in the country, but rape certainly is a national problem in the country. Rather than issuing useless statements and making controversies do some real job. 

                                                      A common man of India

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First Blog Anniversary

       In October 2010 when I created this Blog, I didn’t know much about blogging. Because of this I wasn’t sure how much I would be able to sustain in the blogging. Still I decide to go for it because there was no loss in indulging in this experience even if it fails. However I wasn’t even aware how to create blog. So I went to the refuge of Google and asked the same question how to create blog? After all Google is a newly incarnated god of our generation. In fact Google is more merciful than our traditional god because it provides us everything within a faction of second without much penance.

             Google directed me to the BlogSpot.com where I could create my new blog. I filled up the information asked by it and hurray the blog was born! Destiny has shaped many important decision of my life, choosing BlogSpot as blogging platform was one of them. Although Blogger is not as great as Word press, as it lacks in design, plug-ins and professionalism of Word press but still Blogger is of great use for a novice like me as it is very simple to use. Had it not been so simple to use I would have quit very soon from blogging. 

          After creating a blog it took me few days to learn how to write post, understand various features available on dashboard and inside the blog. Now I started thinking about topic to write my first post. Thousands of ideas flooded my mind out of which, thanks to U.P.A government I finally chose corruption as it is the hottest issue in UPA regime.

           My first post Corruption:The Cancer of India was published on exactly 30th November 2010, that is exactly one year ago. It took me almost one and half month to write my first post as I wasn’t habituated of writing on computer and since this was my first post I was over excited about it, hence I published this post only after editing 4 to 5 times. As you can learn from the length of the article I didn’t want to leave anything related to corruption uncovered hence I wrote very long 2700 words long article. After that I wrote two articles on debacle of India’s intelligence network, that is Intelligence Failure-1 and Intelligence Failure-2. Both these article were as vast as my first article and covered almost all aspect of the issue which I discussed in the post. For this I got some applaud from friends and readers however everyone admonished me against writing too much lengthy article. 

             During same time I read an article on net which said that people have very low attention span online hence it is advisable to write small posts so that people read more posts on your blog and come again to read other posts. I found this advice worth following and decide to reduce the size of my post up to 1500 words without compromising the quality of my post. Although still my post are very long as compared to other blogs but I can't compromise with content in pursuit of writing small article. 

          In last one year 17 posts are published on my blog. Out of which Lokpal to Jan Lokpal became most popular post of my blog. It was recommended by newspaper DNA in its 11^th April issue. Another post Government V/S Anna- Caution: danger is ahead written on Anna’s movement was selected for Tangy Tuesday contest of Blogadda. Before that my first and only satire post till now A secret Letter to party high command was also selected for Tangy Tuesday contest. My post Marital Suicide- Causes and Analysis was recommended by Blogadda on Twitter. Incidentally it became my second most popular post. My analysis in this post on the psychology of married woman committing suicide was applauded by my Psychology teacher also. Out of 17 posts ATTITUDINAL CHANGES IN YOUTH - ‘Jiyo Zindagi Yaro! Is guest post written by Dr. Shankar Modak. 

            In this one year I wrote posts on variety of topics like Politics, Defence, Psychology, Terrorism, History, Women’s issues, Social issues and National Issues. Every work has two aspects quality and quantity. I am happy that my readers liked the quality of my content. Till now whatever feedback I have got from the readers via comments, e-mail and ratings they are very satisfying and encouraging for me as a blogger. I know there are some complaints about frequency of posting. In 12 months I have written just 16 posts which means average 1 post per month. Some months have gone bare without any post. This has happened because of my busy schedule due to my own studies and that of my student’s studies. Apart from this my unwell health also created hindrance in the path of regular writing. However this is my new blogging year resolution, from now I will write if not more at least 3 posts per month.

           As I said earlier when I started blogging I didn’t know anything about it but as my knowledge grew about it I have brought many changes in my blog. First of all I shifted from sub domain to custom domain. I changed the name of my blog because I found that the earlier name wasn’t reflecting my own personality and that of my blog. Hence I chose this new name Argumentative Indian, because people says that I argue a lot and this blog is also about my arguments for the cause of better India.

            I have also changed the template of my blog. I have installed few widgets on my blog like recently I installed Apture. Apture provides instantaneous access to information with its in-page search technology. Suppose while reading the post you don’t understand the meaning of any technical word than you just select that word and within a second that meaning of that word, videos and images related to that word will appear in Apture pop-up window. You will also find list of all the posts from my blog in which this word has been used. When you’ll click on any Wikipedia link it will appear in Apture pop-up window. Apart from this I have put E-mail subscription box in the top of sidebar. Through E-mail subscription you can get my new posts directly delivered in your inbox. I have also installed Wibia toolbar on blog. You can see it in bottom, it will help you share posts on social networking sites, and you can read announcements of upcoming articles by clicking on small icon of man near twitter tab.

           I will like to receive your feedback via comments. If you want to give personal feedback, you can send me e-mail or can use contact form in the header. Some time we like the post but we don’t have anything to say. In such case you can let me know your feelings by clicking on comments, when Disqus comment platform opens, you can click on like tab. I have found many people read my blog, but they remain hidden I would be pleased if you join my blog via any social networking platform like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or Google fan widget in the sidebar. 

             Apart from love and respect of readers Blogging has earned me some very good friends in online world, whom perhaps I would have never met had I not started blogging. I also found some very good blog, two of which I would specifically like to mention are Law and Society by Ravi Kumar and My World My Perception by Restless. 

           That’s it for now. Thank you all for your love and support, will try to do much better in next year. Your comments are welcome about your experience with this blog.

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Muammar Gaddafi- Devil Dictators part-I

Muammar Gaddafi

            Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi was born in Sirte(Libya) in 1942. He belonged to a poor family of Libya. His childhood passed in poverty and struggle. Like most Libyans he too lived in a tent house in the desert of Libya. In 1951 H e joined The Libyan military service as it was the only opportunity for an average Libyan to live life luxuriously and see the world. This was the most important period of his life. The lessons which he learned during this time changed his future course of life. During this time Gamal Abdel Nasser lead a revolution in Egypt which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan. Nasser modernized Egypt, ended Suez crisis, built Dam Aswan and developed the sense and pride Nationalism in people of Egypt. Because of all this he was seen with respect in the Arab world, Gaddafi was no exception to this. He was inspired from Nasser’s revolution and also considered him as his ideal. Egypt’s defeat in six day war with Israel in 1965 saddened Gaddafi. Being a supporter of Arab nationalism Israel was natural enemy to him and now U.S was also added to his black list because Israel couldn’t have survived against collective forces of Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Badin and Jordan if it wasn’t supported by U.S.

          After his completion of military training and his Graduation in History he went to U.K for further studies. There became an incident which planted the seeds of oil politics in his brain. Once he went to a casino in London with some of his Arab and British friends. There he saw King Idris’ personal adviser spending millions of $ on gambling. His blood boiled since an average Libyan was compelled to live a miserable life of poverty and King and his aides were spending millions and billions on there lavish life style. The main cause of this situation was vast Oil reserves in Libya. Geographically Libya was situated in the desert of Africa, having no other natural resources except plenty of oil underneath its land. In spite of blessed with significant oil reserves Libya remained poor because multi-national oil companies achieved contracts for extracting oil on throw away prices from King Idris. He got another reason to fight against U.S. Next few years Gaddafi spend in studying lives and times of great military commanders like Field Marshall Rommel, Field Marshall Montgomery etc. very carefully. During this period he also meticulously planned strategies regarding how to use oil as a weapon in his war against western world.

         In1969 Gaddafi became Colonel in the Libyan Army. During the same year Occidental Oil Company of U.S completed the construction of oil pipeline on the northern coast of Libya. For its inauguration ceremony Armand hamer the chairman of Occidental Oil Company himself came to Libya. He was given “Guard of Honor” on his arrival. Incidentally Colonel Gaddafi was the commanding officer of that marching contingent. He couldn’t tolerate this humiliation that Libyan Army was giving Guard of Honor to a chairman of U.S’ Oil Company. He decided to end this slavery by dethroning King Idris.

         When King Idris was out of Libya, Gaddafi with some of his trusted allies carried on coup and captured the power. Neither superior officers of Gaddafi nor people opposed this rebellion since everyone was tired of Idris. Initially the world thought that Gaddafi and his boys have indulged in blind dare. Since king Idris was puppet of U.S, by deposing him in this manner Gaddafi has thrown direct challenge to the supremacy of U.S. However Gaddafi proved to be smarter than all the political analysts who forecasted premature end of his rule.

       Immediately after acquiring power Gaddafi abolished the old constitution of 1951 and instead formed 12 members directorate called Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) which acted as government in the Libya. RCC declared Libya as “Libyan Arab Republic” and announced bringing freedom, unity, and social justice, guaranteeing the right of equality to its citizens, and opening before them the doors of honorable work as its main objective. Thus he won the hearts of Libyan people. He also affirmed that treaties and agreements signed by ousted monarch would be respected and property and lives of foreign nationals would be protected. This helped him to earn recognition of not only Libyan people but also of the other countries of the world. In this condition U.S was left with no excuse to topple Gaddafi, hence soon U.S recognized Gaddafi as a genuine leader of Libya.

         After consolidating his power he began the game for which he had arranged this coup. He sent notice to U.S and U.K to shut down their military bases operating on the land of Libya. Now U.S was trapped since being a leader of Libya he had every right to tell foreign powers to wind up their military bases from his land. After driving off foreign military Gaddafi increased the oil prices. This technique was called as ‘participation’ in which neither oil companies are nationalized nor are private companies given complete free hand. In participation oil companies are allowed to work in oil producing nations however greater control remains in the hands of government of host nation and they can increase the price of oil at their will. 

          Because of greater control over oil assets and growing oil prices Libya prospered economically. Libya became the nation with highest nominal per capita GDP in Africa. Literacy rate in Libya rose from 10% to 90%. As there was no river in Libya Gaddafi also completed the development of artificial river Great Manmade River, without any foreign financial assistance.

 

                 Later on rulers like Saddam Hussein of Iraq and ruling Saud family of Saudi Arabia too utilized the weapon of price rise to achieve their political ends. King Fahad of Saudi Arabia used oil embargo to prevent U.S from rendering military assistance to Israel during Yom Kippur war fought between Egypt and Syria on one side and Israel on the other. King Fahad also convinced OPEC countries about the effectiveness of this weapon. Because of which members of OPEC countries revived this dormant organization once again to exploit the benefits of collective bargaining in oil prices. Use of oil as a weapon not only harmed U.S but also dazzled other developing economies of the world. India itself is spending 1/3 of its For-ex reserves to import oil.

 

Saddam Hussein

          Even after repetitive efforts when he failed to hurl any serious blow to U.S or Israel, he started sponsoring terrorist activities in Europe, Australia, U.S and middle -East. Later on countries like Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia also started walking on his path. Ruling Saud family used money earned through oil to spread radical Islam in the world. They also sponsored Sunni Iraq against Shea Iran in the Iran-Iraq war of 1980 in which more than 10,00,000 people on both the sides lost their lives. Trails of direct involvement of Saud family in the 9/11 attack on World Trade Center were also found later wards.

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi

             Although Gaddafi was involved in many terrorist activities but serious evidence about his involvement in terrorist activities came out during investigation of Lockerbie bombing case. Pan Am Flight 103 of Pan American World Airways was blown off b y bomb on 21 December 1988 in the sky of Lockerbie town of southern Scotland. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi who was the secret agent of Gaddafi was main culprit in this case. He was convicted and sentenced for life imprisonment.

            He also wanted to make nuclear bomb to destroy U.S and Israel. Over the years his obsession with nuclear bomb grew so much that a legend says once he went to China at 2 P.M in the night, without informing Chinese authorities in advance about his arrival. When asked about such sudden visit he showed them two big suitcase full of $ and told them “take all this money but give me one atom bomb I want to hurl it on U.S.”. He also openly supported and sponsored Pakistan’s nuclear weapon program. In recognition of his help Pakistan renamed cricket stadium in Lahore as Gaddafi stadium in 1974. 

               Absolute power and unquestionable authority turned him into a narcissistic jerk. He had acquired personal wealth worth of approximately 70 billion U.S $. He started spending money earned through oil for his personal luxuries. He had undergone several plastic and cosmetic surgeries to remain young forever. He liked to be surrounded by beautiful women bodyguards and nurses. There are many legends about his and his son’s relationships with his lady bodyguards and nurses.

               Gaddafi abducted power in Libya on the name of fighting tyranny of King Idris but he himself proved to be a greater evil then Idris. In his rule Libyan people were devoid of their fundamental rights like Right to speech and freedom of expression. Price rise of petroleum only initially helped Libya later on all this money was spent on Gaddafi’s luxuries and in executing his utopian ideas. People wanted change however unlike democracy in autocratic states change of rule is possible only by either death or retirement of dictator(read -Revolution in India? No way!!!!!!).  

Dead body of Gaddafi

     Since 2010 uprising took place in many Arab countries like Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia etc. this revolts also sparked off rebellion in Libya. In the initial stage people’s movement was non violent however Gaddafi’s soldiers opened fire on protesters and rape d women to crush the anti Gaddafi movement ruthlessly. This ignited the anger of people and they took arms against Gaddafi. Such inhuman response to protesters also cost him the loss of international recognition. In the month of August 2011 Arab league declared NTC as legitimate representative of Libya. His overseas accounts were freezed by western countries. NATO forces led by U.S and France supported rebellion National Transitional Council (NTC) in the war. Finally Gaddafi was captured alive on 20 October 2011 and was given brutal death.

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ATTITUDINAL CHANGES IN YOUTH - ‘Jiyo Zindagi Yaro!

This is a guest post written by Dr. S.K.Modak

         
Are our educational planners giving some serious thought to the changes in the overall attitude of present day youth towards life? ‘Jiyo Zindagi Yaro’(Enjoy Life Friends!) appears to be the new age philosophy of our youth today. Drastic changes have been noticed in recent years in their approach towards education, career, entertainment and relationships. It is therefore difficult to predict which way they may drift in future.

  

   Virtual classrooms are replacing the normal lectures. Laptops, e-books, notebooks, i-pads are taking the place of books and notebooks. It appears that no one is interested in writing letters in long hand any more. The art of letter writing seems to be fading away, its place being taken by communication using cell phones, wall posts, social networking sites and status messages. Networking sites are as if competing with each other to entice the youth to chat and remain glued to the internet. Along with films there are a variety of reality shows on television channels these days to provide a different kind of entertainment. Face book, Twitter, Orkut, Netlog have effectively reduced the distances and to give frivolous and short-lived relationships a global dimension. Computers have as if become an addiction giving rise to a variety of body and mind related problems and ailments.

   How are our educationists reacting to this attitudinal transformation? The behavioral changes among the modern youth today have both psychological and sociological implications. The new age boys and girls therefore need to be observed and treated with great care and sympathy. They are intelligent and sensible and are willing to listen, provided the voice that speaks to them is sincere and convincing. They cannot be browbeaten to follow fiats or directives.

   In our country, the governments, both at the center and the states, are in the habit of appointing committees/ commissions to deliberate and make recommendations on a variety of educational problems and issues. Why not appoint one more committee to give serious thought to this qualitatively very different phenomenon of attitudinal change among our youth so as to throw up some new ideas to motivate them towards more fruitful objectives. The youth are very precious for us. They are a powerhouse of energy and enthusiasm and are eager to participate to bring about a change in social fabric. All they need is an inspiring systemic frame which will operate impartially and be free of nepotism and corruption. If we can create a healthy educational environment, our youth can be depended upon to redefine the future of our society and the country. Let us therefore bequeath to them a better educational ambiance.

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