Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Media Circus

I was going through CNN-IBN’s program 'Face The Nation' yesterday. The program discusses the main issue of the day. Yesterday it was about the changing face of the Terrorist and how it is observed that muslims youths are nervous about police resorting to area wise searches first in Jamia Nagar and than in Azamgarh.

Interestingly during a commercial break I switched to NDTV and I found that their topic of discussion is same!! The difference was ofcourse the host and the panel. As I watched Face the Nation I was wondering what really these news channels intend to come out with? Do they want some masala debate or do they really want to come out with a real solution to a particular problem?

Take the recent attacks on Christians for example. The media was more focused on collecting all sorts of abuses from around the country against the BJP and its so called ‘Communal’ actions. None of the news channels went to the people who were beaten or none of them went to those who had reasons to vandalize these churches. What they did instead was to sit in their studios and ask questions to ‘LEADERS’ who were not present at the ground.

Same is the case with Bihar floods. Media was more busy to take Nitish kumar’s reactions to Lalu’s allegations against the state government. What I mean to say is even when the flood has affected lakhs of people, the media was more interested to highlight the blame game. Sometime politics should take a backseat and it the media which can easily do so by not even asking questions which will lead to blame games.

When MNS workers attacked innocent north Indians on the streets of Maharasthra, the cameramen of different news channels were busy taking live footage of such actions knowing fully well that these offenders were beating innocents intentionally in front of the cameras so that their message goes out to the public.

The Media must understand that they are the tool for everyone to get publicity. Be it the political parties or be it the people who want to create instability. It is very important that these news channels should have a purpose behind reporting news.

Coming to the program, which I was watching I would like to say that as a news channel they have to decide what they want to telecast. A university student saying that “Probably the victim could have been shot on his leg” was something which according to me did not deserve to be aired. Same is the case with the report that “Muslims youths are nervous because of the police’s crackdown”.

In a democracy everyone has to express his/her views but we must understand that in the name of democracy we cannot afford to encourage anyone doing or saying anything they like.

Sometimes for the larger good not taking the middle path is the best option.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Uncle Sam goes for a Russian Lesson

Newspapers all over today are reporting US federal Reserve Bank’s bail out of American International Group(AIG). This is the 3rd time in last one month that the US govt had to bail out major investment firms.

The irony is that the pillar stone of a Capitalist economy is resorting to socialist tactics. The government is funding and rescuing these huge private enterprises. We Indians actually are watching all this in dismay and probably economic analyst are a bit confused with the policies to adopt at this point of time. Post 1990’s the Indian government started to throw open its economy to private players. We call it the the liberalization period. Congress as the principal party never supported socialism but it also never practiced the American way of doing business. Today as we see the Bush administration taking desperate measures to bail out companies, it is evident that Government even though less efficient and less progressive is after all more stable.

So for the Republicans it’s a bitter pill to take. India should take it as a lesson and role out its own economic policies much more cautiously in future. A need for a central control is necessary in whatever business is carried out in the country.

In our common language we say that if one gets a Government job, at least he will never be in danger of loosing it. But that’s not the case with private jobs. Thousands of pink slips are just an indication of that.

Are the Soviets laughing?

Thursday, September 11, 2008

East Bengal –Mohun Bagan Rivalry

Football rivalries are among the most passionate affairs which can ever take place among all other things under the sun. On their day they have the power of creating separate groups of people based on their loyalties for a particular club. In the soccer mad continents of Europe, South America there are many such famous rivalries which leaves us in awe.

Some of the famous rivalries are Manchester United –Liverpool, Barcelona-Real Madrid, AC Milan-Inter Milan, Celtic-Rangers, Boca Juniors-River Plate etc. Back home in India we have a rivalry which dates back to more than a 100 years. The East Bengal and Mohun Bagan rivalry is as much as at the same stage as the other mentioned ones in terms of passion, supporters, match day excitement and spectators.The Salt Lake stadium at Kolkata with a capacity crowd of 1,10,000 can match any other football theatre in the world. What lacks though in this rivalry is quality of football as compared to others ones. Sadly that’s because of the decline of Indian football over the years.

Being a lad from this city I have known what this match is all about in the life of a common Bengali. Sentiments dating back to pre independence period is attached with this match. I would not like to go into history of this rivalry. Instead I am giving you all this two links from where you can learn more about these clubs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohun_Bagan_AC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Bengal_Club

Coming to the present situation today’s match is very crucial as East Bengal although out of the Calcutta Football League title race will have a big role to play in the identification of the eventual winners. If the red and gold brigade(Jersey of East Bengal) beat the men in green and maroon(Mohun Bagan),than it will be left to Mohd Sporting(Another Big club with a history as old as the other two clubs) to win the title provided they win their match and go ahead of Mohun Bagan in goal difference. Also interestingly Mohun Bagan has defeated East Bengal in last 7 consecutive matches ! A reason strong enough for East Bengal to spoil their rivals party. All in all it has all the makings of a classic !

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Remembering 9/11


It’s been seven years since the dreaded Terrorist attack, which shook the world. The most powerful nation’s pride was reduced to the rubbles of the World Trade Center. The famous tourist spot of WTC turned into Ground Zero.

Today as we enter 11th September 2008 there is a need to analyze the situation and to what extent we have been able to curb the chances of yet another such attack. USA since 9/11 has been pursuing these terrorists with a single-minded objective of finding them and killing them. The war in Afghanistan was a right start according to me but it got distorted when Iraq’s invasion began. As we stand today even the Bush administration knows that Iraq was not needed. Instead getting a strong foothold in Afghanistan was necessary. Today the Taliban is making a strong comeback and that has caused Washington to sit up and take notice of the root cause of this development.

What will always remain surprising to me is why in spite of numerous CIA reports president Bush was more than happy to keep Musharraf as his ally? From his sources he must have known the reason behind Taliban’s regrouping. Yet Pakistan was Bush’s major ally. Barrack Obama recently claimed that much of the aid US gave to Pakistan has been utilized by the later in preparing itself for a war against India!! Close on the heels of this statement the US army launched an offensive against terrorist hideouts inside Pakistan.

So what we can see is a sharp change in the perception of who really is behind the menace. But what about Terrorism itself? What have we done to reduce it? According to me there are two ways to reduce terrorist activities. One is towards identifying the cause and one is towards preventing it from causing havoc with efficient handling.
If we need to identify the cause we have to understand the situation under which a human can resort to such work. Why is that certain organization with evil intentions are getting men who are prepared to die fighting against nation states? Poverty, lack of opportunity, long lasting hatred against his/her own country can be some of the main reasons. Its time we look into these issues.
The other way is to handle terrorism with strict hands like what USA has done. Why the US was able to do it? Because it feels that it has given everyone a chance to live happily, earn money. Than whosoever will work against it, it will crush them to death. Our country cannot adopt such a stance because we realize that we have not exercised the first option at all. Have we given J&k the kind of development, which a state like Maharashtra has seen? Have we allowed the people of Jammu & Kashmir to dream big staying at their homeland? I am afraid we have not. Same is the case for the north eastern states.

We have matured in our handling of terrorism and shown a lot of restraint against countries that promote such activities but with this maturity I expect that Terrorism should be treated as a problem of the nation just like other social problems like education, employment etc. The target should be to cut the supplies of these militant outfits by pulling away of youths from joining them.

I do hope that such incidents of 9/11 do not happen even again and our next generations can live in a world free of Terrorism.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Saurav Ganguly – Is this the end?


I was passionate for Cricket since my childhood and loved to play as well watch the game more so when the Indian Cricket team played. The English summer of 1996 and I had the privilege to watch two of the greatest Indian batsmen of all time making their debut at the same test match. Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly.

Both went on to become idols for the lakhs of supporters around the country. On one hand Rahul became an epitome of solid technical batting in Test matches and on the other Saurav took Indian cricket to another level with his charisma, flamboyance and fighting spirit. I was so happy to be able to live in this era of Sachin,Saurav &Rahul.
Things got even more sweeter when Dada was handed the Captaincy.

Do we remember the critical time when he took over? Some of the fancied Saurav bashers might not remember but it was the time when Cricket was going through the turmoil of Match Fixing. I would not like to talk about what he achieved as Captain as we all know that and probably all of us will salute him for that. I would rather like to talk about the reason why I as an individual started getting irritated with Indian Cricket and it went to a point where i even stopped watching them play.

The chapel era combined with Pawar coming to Power at BCCI made me upset. This was the beginning of the end of Saurav Ganguly. Many people squarely blame Greg Chappell for what he did to our Dada but I would like to believe that what he wanted to bring in to Indian cricket was a shift in attitude. He wanted to tell the selectors that look you got to shift out the elders and bring fresh blood. The politics of Shard Pawar came at this point when he and the rest of BCCI started treating this judgement of Greg only against Saurav. So thanks to BCCI Sachin,Rahul were treated on a different level compared to Saurav.

The exclusion of Saurav from the rest of India side is the final signal in his career. As a player I am sure he is not at all perturbed with the development. At 35 he has become an elder statement of this game and an inspiration for many from all walks of life. Dada fought back once before to prove it to the world that he still had the zeal to play cricket at the highest level. That comeback was completed when he got the award of Ceat Asian Cricketer of the year award.

Saurav Ganguly gave the Australians a run for their money,gave them back their own chin music. He changed the way Indian cricketers think and brought on this amazing believe that we can compete and beat teams like Australia at their own backyard. As an avid viewer of numerous India’s matches over the years I am delighted to see one of the great sons of Indian cricket.

Good luck Dada!

Friday, September 5, 2008

Mumbai Meri Jaan – A Learning Experience

Time and again Bollywood has come up with many movies which have created a lasting impression among movies viewers. Mumbai Meri Jaan is the most recent addition in that category. Hats off to PareshRawal,Madhavan,Irfan and Soha Ali Khan for giving power packed performances.

I would not like to go into the storyline as I am sure many have already seen it and a lot of other people are planning to see it. What I would like to stress instead is the powerful message which is carried along with the movie.

We often wonder as common people that is our country the number one target among these terrorist? Why is it that India is the most frequent victim of these crimes? A lot of the young educated people want to leave this country and live peacefully in countries like US,UK etc which are ‘Paradises’ in this world. The first message in this movie goes to them and makes it clear that Terrorism in the form of blasts, sucide attacks have become normal practices in almost many corners of the world and it is high time we understand that the threat looms large wherever we go. Characters like those played by Madhavan in the movie are hard to find nowadays but yes they do exists and it is a matter of time when our conscience will rise above our other senses and we shall find many more such Nikhil’s(Madhavan’s Character) who will be willing to fight the odds and will try to clean the system where he lives.

The second message comes with the Character of Suresh(Irrfan Khan) who has grown frustrated with these attacks and holds the Muslim community responsible for every heinous act so much so that as a businessman he is not willing to deal with them even in a situation where he needs money. We must remember that it is never the right thing to hold a community responsible for the act of some people. Yes most of the terrorist are muslims but we got to stop retaliating at them or look at them in a negative sense and instead try to find out whats the reason which prompts them to join such work. Economic upliftment of Muslims is a necessity. A lot of discrimination which are not visible from outside exists which we got to remove. You develop the state of Jammu& Kashmir,generate jobs for the youth,set up more and more industries and I am sure the number of Kashmiri youth turning militants will reduce drastically. Same is the case of the under developed areas of our country like North Eastern States. This group which are recruiting young people are promising them more money than what they are earning otherwise and preaching them hatred against the ruling state as well as the western powers. So stop wasting time fighting and instead focus on the root cause.

The third message is the face of the media and how it makes the story of everything and only cares about TRP and NOTHING ELSE. We all are aware of this and I think there should be a regulatory body which sets a mark or standard which needs to be followed.
The movie beautifully exposes the ruthless,story hungry media with the character of Rupali Joshi(Potrayed by Soha A Khan) who in the process of designing her TV channels TRP formula looses her fiancée.

The fourth message is to those who wants to change or who have not done the right thing but at least realized the importance of showing the right way to those following them. Paresh Rawal is a laid back police man happy to sit and watch the movie which goes on around him everyday during his duty but when he starts working with a junior officer and understands the frustration caused, he urges others to follow the right path.

Movies such as this should do more than a weekend entertainment to us. They should be able to ignite that human within all of us which is badly missing in today’ world. India needs it even more as she is desperate to break the taboos and march towards a brighter future. As human beings we should all know and understand that our deeds will create a lasting impression amongst the future generations.

I would give Mumbai Meri Jaan a 5 star for the message it carries.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The Singur Impasse

When Ratan Tata announced his ambitious plan to launch the World’s cheapest car little did he know that the site of Nano’s production will prove to be his nemesis. Call it a dangerous trend or a blind struggle against Industrialization the loss is imminent both ways.
Of late it has been observed that political parties have taken their rivalry to an unprecedented level which is threatening the growth story of India Inc. Land acquisitions have become a problem for many state governments in our country. Making it issue political parties are playing their cards and hammering blows at each other.

Coming to West Bengal, it can easily be understood that the Communist Government is trying to shade its traditional anti Industrialization image and pushing for industry oriented reforms. Firstly to make such a shift in policy without taking the farmers into confidence is the biggest mistake they have done. The same government, which was prepared to do anything for poor farmers, is trying to take their lands today. Yes these farmers are offered compensation but who is going to make them understand this shift in policy? For the poor farmer it is suddenly becoming gloomy and they are almost shocked to see their old friend leaving them. At this juncture Mamata Banerjee enters as the messiah and she is trying to bank upon these sentiments. Had the government taken these farmers into confidence and made them understand the reason behind acquiring the land and shown them the larger picture in future, this situation would have never taken place.

The role of Mamata Banerjee is nothing less than an opportunist politician who took this situation as her springboard to political success. Victory at Panchayat Election made her even more sure and now she is not looking back. Like every other time the problem with her is this over enthusiasm for an issue and this time she has not understood the balance between protest and unpopularity. She has extended her ‘DHARNA MANCHA’ beyond the tolerance of the masses and now she is turning rapidly into public enemy number No 1. Elections are not won by votes in one pocket; they are won by winning across the voting polity. Mamata has failed to understand that. Her stand is increasingly looking like Anti-Industrialization even though she is making a genuine effort for the poorest of the poor.
Amidst all this the Centre has played yet another dismal role in not mediating in this issue. Nano after all is a project of national importance. At this moment it should not have thought about the issue as an internal one of a Communist Ruled state.

As a common person and a native of West Bengal I would like to see a speedy solution to this problem and for once I would request the political parties to come out with a solution.