Who says we are independent?

We boast of our status being the largest democracy in the world. But the fact is not exactly what we show in pen and paper. We still have 2 classes in the society as was during the rule of Britishers, Moghuls and other invaders. We do not have groups of SHASHAK(the rulers) and SASHITA(The ruled) but the SHOSHAK(the exploiters) and SHOSHITA(the exploited).

Someone who does not use a helmet while riding a 2 wheeler or one who touches the zebra crossing at traffic squares is fined as per rules. But those who carry deadly weapons and kill people mercilessly without discrimination are allowed to move freely and do whatever they wish. A person who is honest is put to a number of troubles at every steps as he can not please the concerned person by offering bribe for petty matters but a dishonest man manages to get anticipatory bail when he is caught by the vigilance for all his misdeeds. It is my personal experience which may sound unbelievable to most of the persons. I was badly injured in a road accident and turned orthopaeodically handicapped in the year 1988. A case claiming compensation of Rs.1.5 lakhs with the MACT was filed within a week. But my case is yet to be settled after 22 years. I was made to believe that I have to pay a certain amount to the concerned persons out of the compensation amount. As I refused to oblige them my case is still in the condition of TRISHANKU. My question is this that there must be someone in the office who discharges the duty as the overall in charge. Is it not his moral duty to see what for my case is not settled till now? This is just a handful of sand out of the vast sea shore on the country. One can very well imagine how and why people are deprived of justice in this country. Some of my friends advised me to meet the higher authorities in the case. But I know that the higher I go the amount of commission to be paid would be on the rise. In spite of this we continue to singing in praise of our democracy and raise slogans like MERA BHARAT MAHAN. I agree that our BHARAT is definitely MAHAN but with our rotten behaviour we are spoiling the name of the country. I must add here that some of my friends who are connected with the profession of journalism also did not take any interest to highlight the matter. Please think are we really independent till now?

Fact and Truth

It has been my habit since my schooldays to say"You see, it is a true fact". Most of my schoolmates and colleagues after I entered into public life regularly raised objection to my comment. They used to tell " Try to learn good English , why do you always tell TRUE FACT, because fact is always true. But due to my perception of the life and the human behaviour in the present day society, I could never agree to their views and continued to tell TRUE FACT.

One day one of my good friends told, yar, either you abstain from using this vague term or I am going to leave you for ever.I was stunned at his reaction and had to tell him what for I say TRUE FACT. I told him;

1. We are made to believe that we have made progress in every sphere of life, after independence and that is a fact. But we still have a lot of villages in the country which do not have roads, water and electricity supply, schools and hospital and that is the true.
2. We are made to believe that the market price is under control & people are happy and that is a fact. But even a higher middle class family thinks a hundred times while going to the market & loses balance in making a balanced budget for his household ,parents have to sell their off-springs for small amounts so that they can feed their family and that is true.
3. Whenever there is some disturbances & a law & order situation arises somewhere, the media tells situation is very much under control and that is fact. But the killing of innocent people continues,who have have no one to lament over their death and that is true.
4. We are made to believe that the Doctors are serving the suffering humanity and that is a fact. But most of the Doctors, barring a negligible few are found most of the time in Nursing homes only to earn money, that too unaccounted and that is true.
5. We boast of our progress in the field of education , show our respect to the teachers on September 5th every year stating that they are the makers of the nation and that is a fact. But most of the teachers at all level pass their time in coaching centers and that is true.
6. We celebrate the anniversary of Bank nationalization every year and present figures relating to the socio economic development of the country to pat our own back and that is a fact. But the Banks are still under the control of the capitalist class and the benefit meant for the common-men are channelized to the pocket of middlemen and dishonest Bank personnel and that is true.
7. We are made to believe that the COURTS OF JUSTICE are NYAY KA MANDIR and that is a fact. But there are several instances when persons are set free even after committing numerous crimes with the help of their power, position & of course money and that is true.
8. The champions of democracy claim that HUMNE RAJTANTRA KO KHATAM KAR DIYA and that is a fact. But in each and every party you can easily find people who had been the rulers of princely states in the past and that is true.
9. Every party pretend to be the follower of Gandhiji in public and that is a fact. But every party keeps itself miles apart from the principles of Gandhiji, i.e Swadeshi, Prohibition etc and that is true.
10. All politicians say that our country is the largest democracy and that is a fact. But the percentage of polling in various election shows how many persons believe in democracy and that is true.
11. Our constitution says that we have got a right to equality & there would be no discrimination on the ground of caste,color,sex, religion and that is a fact. But at each and every step of our day to day life we have to face discriminatory attitude at all places and that is true.
12. We have accepted Hindi and other languages recognized by the Constitution as our Official Language and that is a fact. But our responsibility ends with the celebration of Hindi Divas once every year and trying to prove our supremacy with our WRONG usage of English and that is true

My friend interrupted, hugged me and told, " My dear friend now I am convinced that what ever is fact may not be true but whatever is true is bound to be fact. Yes, fact is the outcome of documentary evidences and proof but TRUTH is eternal and it can not be distorted". I was happy that at least someone on this earth accepted my views. Do you agree friends ?

showing a mirror to a blind

For the past 2 days all the news channels and newspapers are over-busy on reporting of the irregularities connected with the Commonwealth Games. The readers and viewers are also very much interested to discuss the matter as if they are going to change the whole scenario in a moment. But what is the use of sowing seeds in the desert and wasting water to nourish it?

If we go through the records of the past there have been a number of scams and financial irregularity ion the country after independence. Much hue and cry is made on the issue for a certain period of time and once another scam comes to light, not only the people but also the Govt. very easily forget the older issues. You may appropriately say that it is thrown in to dustbins.The list of such blacklisted persons is very long but we still accept them as the crusader for reasons best known to us.Whenever a new Govt. is formed the first thing it tries to do is to find the irregularities of the earlier Govt., inquiry commission is set up, joint parliamentary committee is formed and after a few years the result is a BIG ZERO. Can any one tell me whether any stringent action has yet been taken against the erring persons? Wasting of precious time and public money is the only aim of these commissions and committees. Had this money and time been utilised for some productive purpose the situation of the country would have turned much better by now.I still remember the recommendations of the JPC on the Hawala case was not implemented in spite of the fact that the members of the JPC were from different political parties.

So would not be prudent for the public, the press and the GOVERNMENT AS WELL to overlook this episode connected with the Commonwealth Games, because we have already set a trend that misuse of public money is the birth right of a handful of people in this country. After all they have been granted boon by the Almighty.

Lastly, who says that the concerned persons have done anything wrong, after all it is COMMONWEALTH and they are COMMONERS, so they have a right over the funds of the commonwealth. Oh God, did not you say "Yada yada ho dharmasya-----" How long would you rest in peace in VAIKUNTHA, after so much GLANI of DHARMA in the country? God, are you listening to me or you have turned deaf in the noise of bullets and bombs in the land?

Is Hindi really our National Language ?

It is a pity that even after 6 decades of independence we can hardly find a person who uses his mother tongue in the country with pride. We very well know that the percentage of English knowing persons in the country is very less, but we are not in a position to make our heart free from the fascination most of us have for English language. Hardly we can find someone who puts his/her signature in his own language. You may not believe me but I have seen a person putting his signature in English and that too in CAPITAL Letters. I was working in a Bank. One day while passing a cheque for payment I found that the specimen signature of the account holder was in ODIA but he had signed th Cheque in ENGLISH. On inquiry I was told that he did not know English when he opened the account and now that he has learned how to sign in English he thought it would be wise for him to SHINE by SIGNING in English. This is the mindset of our people and our leaders keep on preaching sermons on DESHBHAKTI. A community,clan or nation is identified with its language, culture and way of life. When we lack sincerity and honesty in all these aspect is it not foolish on our part to expect DESHPREM from the common people?

The Official Language Policy,Act and Rules were framed long back. White elephants in the name of implementation of these policies are being patronised by the Government at all Govt Offices and PSUs, but the development is restricted to the files and reports only. The Parliamentary Committee on Official Language visits offices throughout the country but the inspection is made

complete after going through fabricated reports in Air conditioned Conference Halls of Star Hotels of the locality. No one takes the pain to inspect the actual position at offices, where sincere Official Language Officers are treated like bonded laborers. I have come across a number of persons who are forced to look after other departments, neglecting their own duty as per the order of their so called BOSSES. Is it not violation of Constitution? Parliament is the apex body in our democracy but how many of our leaders use Hindi or their own language in the house. On the other hand we have noticed MPs raising objection on the use of Hindi.

Their is saying in Sanskrit"Mahajana Jena Gata Sah Panthah". According to this unless those people whom we consider or treat as our ideals in the society should take initiative for popularisation of the languages of the country or else we would continue to be ruled by DESHI SAHEBS in place of the ex-rulers GORI CHAMDIWALE SAHEBS. Should we not think seriously over the matter?

Lastly I want to make a point clear. Someone may think that how is that I have written the BLOG in English. So it is my ill luck that in spite of trying several times I could not find any way to write the BLOG in Hindi. Secondly I do not oppose English or any other language but I condemn the attitude of accepting English as a superior language and treating our own language as the language of the rustic lot. JAGO DESHVASIYON JAGO.

How vigilant is our vigilance?

Every now and then our leaders and other prominent personalities keep on preaching the masses to be honest and truthful. But have they ever thought whether they practise what they preach?

We have a vigilance department at the centre and at all state level but the cases of corruption is going on day by day. If the vigilance agencies are working properly how come that so many cases of corruption are coming to light with a lot of more cases remaining behind the curtain.

It is also a fact that the number of corrupt people are very few. But it is unfortunate that they dominate the scene. The personality of a man is judged by his financial status and not by his character. During our school days we were taught that "If wealth is lost nothing is lost, if health is lost something is lost and if character is lost everything is lost". But in this modern era the vehicle is running in the reverse gear. Nobody bothers for maintaining a good ideal character and very few people think of honesty,integrity and sincerity as an integral part of human character.

A couple of days back one watchman of the state Government was found to have property disproportionate to his assets. He owns 3 buildings in the capital city of Bhubaneshwar apart from a farm house of several acres, a posh and modern guest house in Puri leased out to some company. He is also the owner of 3 luxury cars and has got several lakhs of rupees in various banks. Though it is unbelievable but is it not true that he did not create these assets overnight. When he was busy in accumulating all these assets what were those people doing who are supposed to keep a watch over such people. I suppose they were also having their share in this process. We may think of Madhu Koda who was in the headlines for such cause sometime back. Should we not think why he was not exposed when he was in power?

This is a solitary example, we may come across many such incidents throughout the country everyday. This clearly proves that our Vigilance agencies are either not working properly or alternatively working under pressure. Only GOD knows who is responsible for such state of affairs, which endangers the country's economy. When we think of this disastrous action of a handful of people, who have firm belief that they can escape with money power, as has been seen a number of times, we can only sing a old Hindi film song- "KISE DOSH DEN JAB MALI HI APNA CHAMAN JALAE" Oh God save our garden from such treacherous people. Amen......