The Half-Full Half-Empty Glass Syndrome!

Some people always start with a ‘no’ to anything uttered or addressed to; of course, many of them don’t really mean ‘no’, it’s being somewhat a habit of saying so. However, for others a ‘no means no’ always to all matters under the sun, even if the most correct piece of news or development is reported to them for the first time. This is the germ of negativity that, if unchecked, eventually takes full control of the hapless human mind. Such negative vibes are often infectious, affecting all around adversely, let it be homes or offices or public places. This writer has experienced this syndrome in his various train journeys: yes, in India most people are woefully used to late running of the trains, but when a train in fact is doing great, running on time or ever before time, those souls continue to emit the negative vibes ‘no, it’s running late already or going to run late or will finally arrive three-four hours late’ and so on; and this writer has seen on many occasions how these negative vibes actually lead to the train losing on time due to a string of unforeseen goof-ups, and finally running late irrecoverably. We don’t need to submit scientific proofs on the negative-vibe-infection syndrome, because most the things in the human mind cannot in fact be proved.  

For the last few months, the waves of negative vibes are rising as worryingly as the COVID virus. Reasons for this are not far to seek. In the wake of the ‘new normal’ forced upon humanity by the killer virus people are getting deprived of things they always loved to do: they are unable to mix with friends or relatives even in the domestic environs; they are deprived of all parties, all social-cultural-religious events; they can no longer visit the movie houses or their most favorite restaurants; in some regions they cannot even take their morning or evening walks or jogs or strolls; all the women are getting tired of being in the kitchen continuously with no outings or outside food coming in, and even if the men try help them in cooking the ‘casualties’ turn out to be more than benefits; people living in congested or compressed spaces, particularly in the Indian slums and low-middle class homes, are getting suffocated and impatient; and no shopping ecstasies can be indulged in except for the tedious and repetitive online choices.

The negativity surge has been emerging as a socialistic phenomenon too sans class bias with even the celebrities of various fields in their spacious flats getting angry, frustrated and impatient. The film industry, particularly in India, seems to be affected the most, from the stars to the junior artists, technicians and small-time operators, the former being suffocated due to forced idleness and depression while the latter suffering due to lack of employment and financial difficulties. For example, the Bollywood (Hindi film industry in India) has been twisting and seething with suffocation so much so that this possibly led to one rising star, Sushant Singh Rajput, committing an alleged suicide which in turn has threatened to divide the industry into two, one side alleging mafia-rule and nepotism while the other side defending itself and facing grilling by the police.

Many have questioned the role of the media too in spreading negativity. ‘Why do they always highlight the negative stories’ has been the constant query on the minds of people. Videos of various stray incidents like keeping dead bodies for a long time along with recuperating patients in COVID treatment wards or patients dying due to alleged hospital denial to admit or total lack of dignified cremation for some dead patients are in fact being given repeated airtime in the Indian television channels at various times. The media, in the unusual crisis-laden cut-throat throes of competition, must be catering to the negativity that has mushroomed in the previous few months. Of course, good-news stories are also being shown, but in some cases even good-news stories get the negative tinge; for example, some channels tend to use somewhat negative words like ‘slump’ or ‘dip’ while dishing out a most positive story that new COVID cases are coming down in certain cities, and while showing COVID hospitals with lots of empty beds the impression that comes out from the structure of the story is that the hospitals should really be blamed for under-utilizing the beds. Such is the power of negativity.

As strong as the Corona surge, the negativity surge is finding an obvious outlet in the social media too. Instead of inspiring the users with positivity, most of the posts/videos are aimed at only terrorizing/misinforming/misleading them. The emotions expressed are always either ridicule or disdain or rumor-mongering or satire at best. With the digital existence becoming a reality now, constant exposure to such negative hammerings are bound to impact the human mind in an undesirable way, strengthening the negative surge further.

Like the COVID surge the negativity surge too must be contained with positive measures. Unfortunately, the authorities cannot do much on this front. The people must consider, reconsider and arm themselves with a strong positivity in everything they do, from even eating to watching, talking, listening or working, applying moderation and discretion everywhere. They must tune in only to genuine and confirmed sources of information; they must not blindly keep on forwarding posts/videos in the social media; and in short, they must learn to differentiate a half-full glass of water from a half-empty one. They must counter the word ‘no’ in a very practical way, unless it’s a matter of life and death. Good positive stories are indeed unfolding everywhere around the globe, you only need to behold these. As we talked of people living in congested slums, Asia’s biggest slum, Dharavi in Mumbai, has created a success story in containing the virus most effectively which got international praise and commendation. The will in people is all-powerful, if they just decide to win against a virus or negativity, they will surely win. Irrespective of being Corona negative or Corona positive, you must always be positive in life, against any challenge. No better time to accomplish positivity than the present. 

Congress Vs BJP: One More Indian Political Thriller!

The Indian National Congress (simply called the Congress), the oldest political party of India, was the single largest party in the legislative assembly election of Rajasthan in 2018 with just one seat less than simple majority and formed government with the support of independents and smaller parties. Thus, it had succeeded in snatching power from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who secured a landslide victory in 2013. This victory was one of the three major ones achieved by the Congress in 2018 with assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh also won—a tremendous performance for a party that was totally decimated by the BJP in the General Elections of 2014 and in the following assembly elections. However, the party’s persistence with its old guards alienated the young promising leaders, and as in Madhya Pradesh by Jyotiraditya Scindia in March this year dissidence grew in Rajasthan too with its dynamic leader Sachin Pilot breaking out in an open revolt on 12^th July 2020 after a series of reported attempts by the Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot, to sideline him, claiming support of 19-21 Congress legislators, reducing the ruling coalition to near minority And, the northern state of India was plunged into a political crisis—closely representing several political dramas that were witnessed in the last five years, basically engineered by the BJP’s power grab tactics.

Interestingly, in this crisis in Rajasthan the young rebellious leader Sachin Pilot had not joined the BJP immediately like Scindia, and canceled two press briefings planned by him in the last two days. The Congress party, in bonhomie with old guard Gehlot, sacked Pilot from the posts of Deputy Chief Minister and state Congress Chief along with two ministers and the legislators supporting him. Yet, Pilot had not made any counter move and reportedly said that he was being maligned by spreading the rumor about his joining the BJP; Pilot further said that he was still a Congressman and still stood with the Gandhi family in the party’s high command. Meanwhile, Rajasthan Congress moved the assembly Speaker for the disqualification of all dissident legislators which, if approved, would bar all of them from voting in a probable no-confidence motion in near future, favoring the Chief Minister prove his majority. Interestingly too, the BJP had not played its cards actively—particularly in view of the Rajasthan Chief Minister’s allegations that BJP had been poaching the Congress MLAs in connivance with Pilot, the way it was done in Madhya Pradesh with Scindia.

Irrespective of how the Rajasthan drama would finally turn out to be it is being viewed as one of the absolute political thrillers enacted by the BJP in its indomitable bid to win over as many states of India as possible. In the historic General Elections of 2014, for the first time since 1984 BJP emerged as the only single party to have achieved absolute majority in Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, with its tally of 282 seats out of 545 which further swelled to 336 after accommodating its allies in the National Democratic Alliance government formed. The Congress party lost the elections with pathetic numbers largely due to the corruption scams in its rule of ten years prior to 2014, and many political commentators predicted its obliteration from Indian politics hence. As if justifying this prediction, the BJP went on winning almost all the state assembly elections till 2017 including landslides in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat thus earning an invincible tag. Although it could not get the majority in Bihar in 2015 it enacted a thriller in 2017 by forming government in alliance with Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (Secular). Afterwards, in the state elections where it again could not get majority the party engineered alliances with regional parties to oust the Congress even as the latter was the single largest party on various occasions, like in the states of Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya. In other states like in Nagaland and Mizoram it included the regional parties in the NDA helping them win. In 2016 the BJP won landslide victory in Assam; in Tripura in 2018 when it snatched power in a state that was ruled by the left for decades. Thus, by 2018 it directly or indirectly established its authority in the whole of the North East India, a traditional bastion for the Congress apart from its absolute domination in northern, central and western India with the solitary exception of Punjab. In the south Karnataka was won back in 2019 from a Congress coalition government through another political drama after the BJP could not form government in 2018 assembly elections despite being the single largest party.

The venue for the very first, highly dramatic and prolonged political thriller was Arunachal Pradesh—another state of the North Eastern India. Congress won the assembly election in 2014 here and during the end of 2015 to end-2016 high drama ensued with unpredictable twists and turns till a BJP government was finally established. As usual, the trouble started with dissidence within Congress and with a proactive Governor things became explosive: assembly session being held in a hotel; Supreme Court intervention; President’s rule; suicide of a former Chief Minister; dismissal of the Governor and reigns of four Chief Ministers during the period with the fourth first sworn in as a Congress CM and later, on defecting to the BJP with all of his legislators to become a BJP CM. In 2019 assembly elections the BJP achieved a landslide victory in the state.

The NDA government, empowered by a huge majority, pursued an aggressive Hindu nationalist policy since 2014 which gave rise to extreme Hindu conservatism creating an atmosphere of intolerance and fear even over petty issues like food. As the mainstream and fringe Hindu organizations and forces got activated incidents of lynching started taking place at various parts of the country fueled basically by rumors on the social media. Although such incidents were not wholly targeted against any particular minority community, tensions became rife over issues like beef-eating and certain religious practices. The opposition and many in the intelligentsia termed the rule as ‘fascist’, and slowly the happenings started denting the absolute popularity the BJP enjoyed. This got reflected in state assembly elections in 2018 when a struggling Congress won convincingly in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan forming governments there. In political thrillers that ensued again Madhya Pradesh was won back in March 2020 through winning over a disillusioned Jyotiraditya Scindia, and then the drama shifted to Rajasthan; Chhattisgarh still safely with Congress. The BJP was also outsmarted in Maharashtra assembly elections in 2019 when ally Shiv Sena deserted the BJP and allied with Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to form government. Controversial decisions on Jammu and Kashmir and the Citizenship Amendment Act also ignited opposition—both on the public and political fronts.

However, at the national level the BJP-led government is still in full authority winning the 2019 General Elections with even more seats than 2014. People and experts feel that there is no alternative to the BJP at the national level till now, and bold measures and policies, particularly foreign policies, pursued by the NDA are supported by the majority despite the economic downswing since the last two years. For the Congress, they must learn to respect and depend on the new generation leaders if they at all aspire to be a force in national politics. The BJP’s fascination for bold measures, authority, power expansion, drama, sensation and unpredictability is insatiable, particularly with crucial elections due in Bihar in 2020, and in West Bengal and Assam next year. 

India: A Notorious Gangster Eliminated And Doubting Thomases!

It has been observed throughout the world at various times that when a criminal kills a cop the case assumes an altogether different dimension, and the elimination of the said criminal becomes a priority—by any means. Whatever connections or clout the criminal might be having with politicians or influential persons or even the police become secondary, irrespective of the elections the criminal might have fought and won with tickets of whatever political party. In the case of Vikas Dubey, a notorious criminal of Uttar Pradesh in India since the early nineties, as many as eight cops were killed on the 3^rd of July 2020 when a police party went to arrest him in Kanpur, and the police party was reportedly ambushed by Dubey’s goons, supposedly on a tip-off from inside the police, resulting in the brutal killings of eight policemen including a DSP (Dy. Superintendent of Police). The fate of the gangster was sealed then and there, and his elimination was only a matter of time.

The first crime against Vikas Dubey or Vikas Pandit was registered in the early 90s and over the decades more than 60 criminal cases were registered including murders, particularly of a minister of state in 2001. Several times he got arrested during the period up to 2017, but due to his political connections he got acquitted all the time. Yet, he remained a most wanted criminal in the state.

Now, it is a common fact in India that every political party in existence here is used to maintain private armies consisting of goons on direct payroll for the dirty work like arm-twisting rival businessmen or rival political leaders or garnering votes by intimidation during elections. Every locality, particularly crucial ones, of the northern states of the country has a ‘Bahubali’ (Strongman) who reigns in the area like a parallel government. SuchBahubalis are recruited by various political parties and at times, through negotiations areas get assigned to a particular strongman of a particular political party. They even have moles in the state police forces. The point being made here is that the allegation of a political nexus of a criminal cannot be made only against a particular political party, because in the case of Dubey he had been enjoying political patronage of various ruling parties over the decades. A huge quantity of movies and television films have been made on this ‘Bahubalinexus’, and we have to admit that some reality has to be there to justify so many reel-works including a few artistically serious projects.

After the July 3^rd escape Vikas Dubey roamed free for six days traveling through four states and finally landing up in Madhya Pradesh. On the morning of 9^th July 2020, the dreaded gangster visited a most famous temple of the city of Ujjain to offer prayers. A shopkeeper selling flowers recognized him and tipped off the temple security. On interrogation by temple security men the criminal became violent following which the security called the police. The police came immediately and marched him off to the local station, and in the afternoon handed him over to Uttar Pradesh police. There had been allegations by opposition political parties and the media of a ruling party nexus that created an intelligence failure and allowed the criminal travel undetected. However, in view of his links with various political parties and his ‘friends’ even in the state police force we cannot be too sure on the veracity of such allegations.

The doubting Thomases became berserk. Although the media had been criticizing the government relentlessly over the six-day ‘intelligence failure’ this action, supposedly a success, did not get any thumbs-up from them, but only created more doubts for them: had this been a ‘staged arrest’ or a ‘meek surrender’! Debates raged over this throughout that day and night. Nobody seemed to remember that the criminal killed eight cops, and that after that why would he surrender only to get encountered!

As was inevitable, early morning on the 10^th of July 2020, the dreaded gangster was killed in an encounter while he was transported to Kanpur in a police convoy. The police gave their version of having to kill him since he managed to snatch a gun from one of the policemen and tried to fire at them trying to escape. The doubting Thomases in the opposition political parties and the media again became berserk criticizing the police for a ‘staged encounter’ or an extra-judicial killing. From a logical point of view the opposition has no business to criticize another political party because of the simple reason that Vikas Dubey enjoyed political patronage from almost all the parties considering his ‘career’ over the decades. That the society has been freed from a dangerous criminal failed to get any attention from them. Of course, it is not considerate or even safe to support extra-judicial killings in a democracy; but exceptions must be considered in view of the circumstances like those brutal killer-rapists eliminated in a similar fashion in Hyderabad in 2019.

Ideally, we feel criminal-politician-police nexus must end as soon as possible. However, it is highly unrealistic to expect any change in the time-tested doctrines and ways of the largest democracy of the world in near future. Influence, clout and corruption go hand in hand in a democracy like India. Even the biggest ever crisis faced by humanity, the COVID-19 pandemic, has not yet been capable of uniting the country in its fight against the killer virus. Here too, tragically, the doubting Thomases are seeing a ‘scam sold to the world by the Chinese’ conspiracy angle! And, whenever elections are around everything falls into a set pattern, unfortunately, generating more redundant debates.