Ukraine Crisis: World Rulers Are Still Driven By Primitive Instincts!

According to Sigmund Freud’s theory of ‘Id, Ego and Superego’ the Id trait of a personality was present in the first primitive humans, but not as a part of the brain; in fact, the Freudian tripartite components had nothing to do with the grey cells. The Id trait includes the basic survival, sexual and aggressive instincts/impulses, and it acts unconsciously. Over the centuries the primitive humans started living in communities and societies, and at that time the Ego trait became important as a conscious part of a personality able to distinguish between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ acts in terms of good or harm such acts could cause to the others. With more maturity the Superego trait had emerged as the ethical ‘conscience’ of human beings, always sending correcting messages to Ego whenever the Id trait overpowered it. Freud indicated that any imbalances in these three traits are bound to lead to personality disorders, like if the Id impulses totally dominate the personality that human being turns overtly aggressive, greedy and even into a criminal. The ideal condition, according him, is when Ego effectively mediates between Id and Superego.

 

It’s the ‘imbalances’ part that we are interested in. The inherent greed and aggression components contained in the Id drove human beings progressing from local lordship to regional lords/fiefdoms or small kings or bigger kings and to the emperors. This progression had been based essentially on human’s craze or greed for power manifested in plain greed for land, forests, water sources, livestock and even women of the conquered lands. There is no dearth of expansionist invaders from the times of Alexander the Great to the murderous invaders of the Turks, Muslims, Persians and others. Along this trail of history planet earth has seen thousands of bloody skirmishes, battles and wars, all of which were naturally driven by the overpowering Id component.

 

From Ego there developed monsters like egoist or egotists and super egoists who had demonstrated no ‘guilt’ complexes as explained by Freud in any immoral or inhuman eventuality. Feelings of supremacy also grew in some communities or races who considered theirs as the best, and therefore, wanted to dominate the lesser humans. The planet earth had witnessed devastating ‘supremacy nationalism’ of the Ottoman, the Austro-Hungarians, the Italians and the Germans which led to World War-1 and World War-2 during which millions of soldiers and civilians perished and which in a way led to the murderous Spanish Flu during the first world war that also took a toll in millions.

 

It was hoped that with the tremendous growth and progress of human civilization in terms of technology, scientific exploration, socio-economic, the intelligentsia and benevolent leaders in mostly the emerging of democracies, the world had learned enough lessons from the horrific world wars. But no, the ‘greed for power’ factor as basic imbalances in the personality theory continued unabated. The wars between the two clear superpowers only became secret or undercover that is to say, cold. One of the superpowers, USSR, dissolved itself in 1991 and the other superpower, the US with its western allies, became all powerful which was not at all welcome for the other ‘powers’ like Russian, China and others. Cold war ended, but ‘operations’ continued. Aggressive nationalism again grew for strategic alliances and presence, military bases or deployment of forces and military operations as was thought to be very necessary.  

 

The strength of having nuclear weapons seemed to increase the craze for power more. It was like some diseased persons looking greedily at the stocks of mouth-watering food or piles of money, but not able to devour or use them. The temptations remained permanently. The super imbalances in the Superego kept up the threats of a nuclear war anytime anywhere. The hapless but peace-loving global citizens continued to live in morbid fear, not knowing when and what their monstrously ‘imbalanced’ rulers would do next. Trade and business flourished in manufacturing a wide range of weaponry and the consequent export or import of those to like-minded allied countries or ‘friends’.

 

Apparently, the age-defining spread of higher education and digital literacy had no positive impact on the rulers who continued to suffer from the imbalances, totally neutralizing the Freudian Superego personality trait from generating some ‘conscience’ in them. They still greed for more and more power; want more arsenals of weaponry, preferably nuclear and want to damage that of others; they try to activate a fear psychosis among their subjects saying that their national security is threatened; they want to destroy any indication of a possible growth of patriotism or nationalism in some countries they don’t prefer; they eagerly wait for a demonstration of their supremacy, even not caring if it could involve use of nuclear weapons; and the supposedly benevolent rulers of the democracies or milder dictatorships land up with no choices depending on who happen to be their ‘friends’ or ‘allies’.

 

The COVID-19 Pandemic did indeed make the world a much more closely-knit entity with a common objective of its eradication. However, even before the pandemic officially ended the same old habits started anew. No hope then for humankind? Well, we don’t know. We, the global citizens, have changed ourselves for friendship and everlasting peace; but still, it’s the toughest ask to try change the mindset of our rulers. Hope, in some miraculous way, the Ukraine invasion gets stopped and all kinds of wars/battles/rivalries in future get stopped too, to save our little world.

(Images Source: simplypsychology.org )

Assembly Election Dates Announced By The ECI: Step Aside, Omicron!

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has today, a day when the country logged 1,41,986 new COVID-19 cases, announced the dates for assembly elections in 5 states of India, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa, starting from February 10, 2022. The polling in all five states will be completed between 10^th February and 7^th March in seven phases while the counting is to take place on 10^th March for all five states. UP election will be spread over all the seven phases till 7^th March; Uttarakhand, Punjab and Goa will have single phase polls on 14^th February; and Manipur will have two-phase polling due to security concerns in the state on 27^thFebruary and March 3, 2022. More than 180 million citizens are set to exercise their voting rights during this what is often referred as festival of democracy.

 

The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Sushil Chandra, assured while addressing a press conference in the national capital Delhi that the elections would be fully COVID-19 safe for all stakeholders—the authorities, the polling officials and the voters. He said that the ECI has held consultations with the concerned authorities in all the states taking stock of the situation and asked them to ramp up vaccination to have all the voters fully vaccinated by next month.  The polling officials will be given the double doses and the booster dose too as far as possible. The voting hours have also been increased by an hour.

 

The CEC further said that the number of polling stations and booths has been jacked up for easy and safe polling with the number of voters per polling booth being reduced from 1500 to 1250. All COVID appropriate measures will be enforced in all polling stations with masks, sanitizers made available there, he added. Asked about the exponential Omicron spread across the country Chandra quickly pointed out that elections are not taking place in the worst affected states like Maharashtra, West Bengal and Delhi. However, he assured, that the ECI will keep on monitoring the situations in all the poll-bound states and adopt measures as necessary.

 

The biggest positive point about the ECI briefing is that all political rallies, roadshows and processions of any sort are banned till January 15, 2022, after which the Commission would review the situation for further action, and that there shall be no victory marches after counting. The normal regulation declared during the assembly elections amid the second wave last year will continue which is that there will no rallies or gatherings of any kind from 8 pm to 8 am daily till the end of the poll schedule. Secondly, the 80+ senior citizens and COVID positive patients can vote through the postal ballots from their homes where the ECI teams would supervise. The logistics for this operation could become unmanageable depending on the situation of active cases in the concerned states. Thirdly, candidates from all parties will have to declare their criminal records publicly on newspapers and news channels and their respective political parties would require to furnish reasons to the ECI as to why tickets are given to such candidates. If implemented without government interference this may result in a most positive development to a persistent issue.

 

Another provision could’ve been a positive takeaway had the ECI made it mandatory to file nominations online. But unfortunately, the ECI has made this mode of filing nomination only optional. The CEC Sushil Chandra also said that any delay in holding the elections would’ve been undemocratic. Well, the love for democracy in our country is becoming quite selective nowadays. During the elections held last year amid the raging second wave when the vaccination was not at all adequate, a large number of polling officials and other frontline officials succumbed to COVID-19 infections. Perhaps, they all sacrificed their lives for this love for democracy. Nevertheless, this time the ECI has shown some promising moves and it’d all depend on how much guts it has to implement all these.

 

About the Omicron-led COVID-19 situation in the country it seems certain now that all the governments/authorities have accepted gratefully that Omicron is a mild virus and cannot cause any medical needs in the fully vaccinated citizens. Many states have pointed out that most medical admissions, that too not serious, have been of that of the unvaccinated while some cities boast that there has not been a single ICU case. Well, with the hospital beds still empty, medical oxygen in full supply and jabs in full swing plus booster doses already starting, they can legitimately be complacent and boast. 

No wonder, the sate of Maharashtra that registered more than 40,000 new cases in the last 24 hours, is still sitting pretty and contented. We fervently hope that they are indeed doing the right thing and that the Omicron scare disappear soon and the warnings of the supreme health authority, WHO, prove totally unwarranted. In any case, why to blame the elections only while religious festivals like the Ganga Sagar Melain West Bengal being allowed where millions of devotees across the country are taking holy dips, like they did during the Kumbh Mela last year in the peak of the second wave.

The Year-Long Farmers’ Movement In India Ends!

In a huge relief for the whole of India, the Government and the farming community the year-long Farmers’ Movement has come to an end today after the Joint Farmers Front leaders announced in Delhi that the Government had accepted all their demands that prominently included the promulgation of a law guarantying Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for their crops and the withdrawal of all charges against the agitating farmers. The leaders described this as a historic victory against an arrogant government further saying that their peaceful movement was unprecedented in India as well as in the world. The farmers would start leaving the Delhi borders from the 11^th of this month, after the state funeral tomorrow of the CDS Gen. Bipin Rawat who died in a tragic chopper crash yesterday, with a victory march to their respective home states, they added. The leaders also said that the Joint Farmers Front which was formed with the constituents of all farm unions across the country to steer the movement would be kept active to monitor the steps taken by the government in the coming weeks and there will a review meeting on 15^th January 2022 for this purpose.

 

Most of the farmers of the country, the food-givers, fought for the repeal of the three Farm Laws and a guaranteed MSP, and after more than 11 rounds of talks with the Government of India the Prime Minister had to bow down to their demands announcing the repeal of the laws on November 19, 2021, with the ongoing winter session of the Parliament having already effected the same without any debate as the opposition political parties have been fighting too on behalf of the farmers for the same objective. The farmers spent days and nights on the grounds bordering the capital of Delhi for more than a year defying the challenges of all the four seasons and the pandemic. In the process they lost around 750 farmers languishing and perishing in the camps. There have been various protest demonstrations, road-rail blockades, protest and tractor marches throughout the year. The final historic victory proves that the food-givers of any country cannot be ignored for long and cannot be left unhappy and agitating—be it for the ‘roti’ or for the elections or for whatever.

 

We extend our hearty welcome for their decision and stand with them, as always, for the future. Now, the ball is in the Government’s court and it’d be interesting to watch what follows next. The Government knows fully well that they cannot go back on their promises and can never afford one more movement by the community upon whom the economy of the country depends to a large extent. The Government must take all the steps now to reduce and then eliminate fully the trust deficit that has been building up in the hearts of the farmers against the government thanks to various dubious actions taken by the latter during the period to derail the movement. It is good time now to go for the much-needed agricultural reforms in a positive and proactive frame of mind taking all stakeholders on board.

Prime Minister Speaks: And Then The Three Farm Laws To Be Repealed!

In a totally unexpected development, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi in an address to the nation early morning today has, on the occasion of Guru Nanak Birth anniversary called Guru Purab or Prakash Parv (a holy festival observed by the Sikhs on the birth/demise anniversaries of the their Saints/Gurus), announced the Government’s decision to repeal the three controversial Farm Laws the constitutional formalities of which are going to be completed in the winter session of the Indian Parliament starting from 29^th November 2021. The Prime Minister, though, stoutly defended the Farm Laws saying that these reforms were brought in favor of the farmers, particularly the small and marginal farmers; however, he admitted that the laws could not convince sections of the farmers and dissatisfied cultivators cannot be left behind. Narendra Modi added that perhaps the government’s ‘dedication’ to uplift the cultivators of the country was not enough. The Prime Minister also promised to revamp and strengthen the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) of crops mechanism by appointing a committee of state representatives, farmers, agricultural experts and economists, and this step was also to be decided in the Parliament session.

 

The Farmers’ Movement has been going on for nearly a year with thousands of them camping in the outskirts of capital Delhi and suffering through all four seasons, many of them perishing in the camps. They have been observing various programs of highway blockades; rail blockades; Delhi marches during one of which on the Republic Day of 26^th January this year there was a burst of unprecedented, arguably unintended, violence in the capital; marches to the Parliament; Bharat Bandhs; and so on. Around 11 rounds of talks with the Modi government failed to resolve the issue and the government allegedly tried to repress the movement in various ways like trying to win over factions to support the laws or taking tough measures in the areas of the camps and so on. The trust-deficit of the farmers in the Government of India has worsened so much that even now, at this welcome announcement, the top leadership of the farmers says that the movement will continue till the last nail on the cancelation of the three laws gets hammered in during the Parliament as promised.

 

Be it for the forthcoming assembly elections in five states including the crucial states of the definitive (for General Elections) Uttar Pradesh and Punjab where the BJP is still a minor player even after the Amarinder Singh defection from the Congress, or be it the final realization of the Prime Minister about the intrinsic fears lurking in the provisions of the laws this huge announcement is indeed very welcome—basically because no nation can survive for long keeping the food-givers unhappy and agitating; for the farmers it comes as the final victory; the success of democratic movements; and for the BJP a favorable factor to seal the assembly elections. As has been hailed all around the decision is indeed a political ‘masterstroke’ on the eve of the assembly elections early next year, suddenly taking away the main vote plank from the opposition political parties, particularly for the Congress tactics in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. The opposition has largely welcomed the step calling it a victory for the farmers and that it marks the end of the ruling party’s ‘arrogance’.

 

Agrarian reforms have always been a contentious issue in most of the nations of the world, particularly India where agriculture is still the mainstay of the country’s economy. Attempts at reforming the farming sector have been going on since the British period and the post-independence era in India where many of the reforms proved to be big blunders while some of these seemed to have benefited the farmers. Most of the nations of the world have been following a capitalist form of agriculture with a regular mechanism of giving subsidies to help the land-holding phenomena of farming survive, and the concept of ‘cooperative farming’ in the most inclusive sense still remains a dream.

 

The Prime Minister while stoutly defending the three Farm Laws failed to mention the fact that many of the top Indian economists and agriculturists were bitterly divided over the issue—the main fear being the big capitalists taking over farming putting the farmers at their mercy for the MSPs or guaranteed prices and ending the land ownership cultivation of the small and marginal farmers. Yet, inequalities in the farming community continue to exist with some of them being affluent enjoying the benefits of technology while most of the small and marginal farmers continue to struggle at a subsistence level. Therefore, truly convincing and inclusive reforms are always welcome.

 

In any case, we heartily welcome this big announcement by the Prime Minister largely for the fact that one of the longest ever agitations, particularly by the food-givers, is finally going to end. Debates must go on for reforms and one of the main allegations of the opposition parties and other experts and leaders had been the fact that there was no debate before passing these crucial Farm Laws in Parliament. The target or the task is extremely difficult no doubt, because in a democracy it is well-nigh impossible to satisfy all stakeholders with a particular policy; however as we have said the efforts must be intensified democratically taking all into consideration.

Welcome President Biden! Long Live Democracy!

Joseph R Biden or popularly known as Joe Biden, the 46^th President of the United States of America, was sworn in a modest inauguration event on the 20^th of January 2021 held in the premises of Capitol Hill which was invaded by Trump supporterstwo weeks back. At 78, he is the oldest ever President of the country to be sworn in: however, his arrival at this juncture is seen by many as momentous and much-needed in view of the aftermath of Trumpism.

 

Not surprisingly, considering the bitterly divided American society, President Biden pleaded for national unity and the end of the uncivil war with the slogan ‘shun division, embrace unity’. He explained that ‘unity’ is required in view of the paramount need, which he termed as ‘a desperate call for survival coming from the planet earth itself’, of countering the challenges of rising political extremism, white supremacy racism, domestic terrorism and the pandemic that caused more damage in one year than the whole of the World War-2 did to America. He declared that he was the President for all Americans including those who did not or still do not support him. The President said, ‘democracy is precious, democracy is fragile’, but went on optimistically by saying that ‘today is democracy’s day’ and that ‘democracy has prevailed’. There was much to heal and more to build, he pleaded.

 

The event was not attended by the outgoing President Donald Trump as announced by him a few days back, he became only the fourth President to do so in USA’s presidential history, and the first to do so in last more than one hundred and fifty years. However, Trump’s Vice President Mike Pence attended the ceremony, and significantly was not around when Trump delivered his farewell speech at an airbase before taking Airforce-1- to fly home to Florida. Trump has also earned the unique distinction of becoming the first ever US President to get impeached twice in the US House. With the Democrats establishing their presence in the Senate their next moves in permanently depriving Trump of all post-presidential privileges would be keenly observed.

 

Earlier, Kamala Harris was sworn in as the Vice President of USA, becoming the first ever woman VP, the first ever black person to rise to this post and the first ever person of Asiatic (Indian) origins to assume this privileged office of the country. People of her original village in Tamil Nadu, India celebrated this huge occasion by prayers in the temples and distributing sweets in large gatherings. However, Kamala Harris being a liberal democrat is unlikely to take her India-origins seriously and mix with the people as well as with some of the most aggressively Hindu nationalist governments of the country. More good news comes in the wake of Kamala Harris’s rise, in terms of appointing more than 20 Indian-Americans in Biden Administration out of which 17 are in key positions. In fact, Biden had already strengthened his COVID-19 team with quite a few Indian-Americans who had the expertise, and his call of ‘set aside politics, fight the pandemic’ augurs well for future of a country where around four hundred thousand people have lost their lives so far due to the Coronavirus infections.

 

President Joe Biden’s mission at the moment is clearly to end the legacy of Trump as soon as possible, and as he said in his speech, to start engaging with the world for peace and democracy. To lead by examples the President got into action on the very first day of his office. He signed around 15 executive orders reversing some of the crucial foreign policies and national security decisions taken by his predecessor Trump. These orders include, significantly, America rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change, revoking the country’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization, making wearing of masks mandatory and rescinding a travel ban imposed on visitors from several Muslim-majority countries.

 

The President of the Democrats, basically the cynosure of all democracy-spirited people of the globe, had said in his inauguration speech, ‘Together we shall write an American story of hope, not fear, of unity, not division, of light, not darkness. A story of decency and dignity, love and healing and goodness’. We hope Joe Biden succeeds in his mission of making democracy secure and permanent in his country as well as on planet earth. We also hope that this American story would inspire many in several major countries of the globe where democracy has been coming under serious and ever-increasing threat. 

US Capitol Shame: Unprecedented Assault On Democracy Even As The US Congress Certifies Biden Victory!

Just when the bicameral United States Congress was to sit in a rare joint session to certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory mobs descended on Capitol Hill, the celebrated seat of the US Government, and drafted a black chapter not only in the country’s democratic history but also in the world’s democratic traditions. Supporters of the outgoing President Donald Trump gathered in large numbers and breached the security to carry out an unprecedented act of desecration and vandalism. At least four people were killed in the violence, and the security personnel, totally overwhelmed by the surging mob, arrested around fifty rioters. Coming in as a light at the end of the tunnel the US Congress had met later and certified Joe Biden’s electoral victory which means that Biden is now the rightful official President of the country set to take over on the 20^th of this month. As per the latest news reports Trump has finally conceded his defeat and acknowledged Biden’s democratic victory.

 

The horrific part of the attack was that it was almost state-sponsored with Trump, still the head of the government, inciting his supporters for the act in a rally held prior to the joint session and putting incendiary social media posts. The social media posts were removed eventually, but a shade too late. We think Donald Trump has become the first ever head of a government in a democratic country to try cling to power in spite of a convincing electoral defeat, and egg on or even congratulate his supporters upstaging sort of a coup of an unprecedented order.

 

In fact, such acts are not unexpected. The US election of 2020 has divided the country almost into two halves—the Republicans, empowered by a populist and aggressive nationalism, and the Democrats, in the true spirit of democratic traditions to save democracy. Experts and political commentators have been warning about the inevitable repercussions of the divisions in the American society, and that right-wing nationalist Trumpism would outlast the Biden regime. Besides, Trump had refused to concede defeat from the beginning claiming ridiculously that he had won the Elections, demanding repolls and alleging that the Elections had in fact been stolen by Biden. The fact that many Trump supporters in the attack on Wednesday, the 6^th of January 2021, mouthing the slogan ‘stop the steal’ in an insane obsession says the sordid story that makes one ashamed of it all, and also fearful of democracy coming under serious global threat.

 

The growth of aggressive nationalism and intolerance in several frontline countries of the world including India corroborates the fear that democracy is indeed coming under increasing threat, globally. These openly right-wing forces in power propagate their ideologies bulldozing the government machineries, winning over a sizeable segment of the mainstream media through lucrative deals or even coercion, reigning supreme in the social media thanks to their ‘dedicated’ expert IT cells, passing controversial legislations to pander to the majority, repressing democratic movements with brutal force and creating in the process a foolish majority, blindly supporting anything that the ruling forces do or say. Elections are no longer democratic exercises; these are wars to be won at any cost, going to any extent of dividing or instigating or terrorizing the prospective voters. Accepting defeat with humility is a thing of the distant past, and the old saying needs to be revised to ‘everything is fair in war, love and (elections)’.

 

Donald Trump finally conceding defeat is indeed good news at this despairing juncture, whatever be the eventual outcome. Besides, a whole lot of the Americans still greatly value their democratic traditions with, in fact, some of the Republican legislators and strong supporters of Trumpism voicing against this assault on democracy and cherished institutions. Then of course, a vast chunk of the world’s citizens is still in favor of preserving democratic values and institutions. Therefore, should the fascist forces, disguised as genuine representatives of the people, try bulldoze democracy it would not be without a potent resistance movement across the globe. Save Democracy!

An Ode To Arrogance!

Arrogance is one of the defining characteristics of human beings. Arrogance can be easily discerned or felt by us in every word or act or posture or gait displayed by the inflicted persons. We confront them everywhere—at home where the arrogance of the head of the household is as ancient as the homo sapiens; at workplace where the arrogance of the boss percolates down the line very often apart from the others in various sycophantic roles; at educational institutions where the most scholarly often displays the most arrogance apart from the others in various emphatic roles; in the ruling class hierarchy arrogance has been a trademark notwithstanding the transformation from monarchy/dictatorship to democracy in many nations of the world; and so on. Of course, no generalization has been attempted here: else, how on earth can we have the magnanimity of discussing it!

The word ‘arrogance’ has, logically, numerous synonyms. Here we’ll mention a few examples so that our discourse is easier to understand. These are: Haughtiness, Condescension, Egotism, Swagger, Snobbishness, Superciliousness, Mocking, Sneering, and Big-headedness. Based largely on these we can list out a few characteristic features of the arrogant as below:

·    The ideology or the ideals they adhere to are the perfect which everybody should follow unquestioningly. They know everything, and are absolute scholars, philosophers and writers.

·            What they do or say or imply is always right and no living soul should ever vouch on the contrary.

·         What they eat, what they wear and what styles or standards they adopt are the most discrete ones, and no one should ever think disobey.

·         They are extremely intolerant of others’ opinions, forget about dissent which you only think is the hallmark of a democracy, and anyone who dares to contest gets condemned as unfaithful or criminals or traitors.

·          They are also extremely capable of making fun of others—that they possess an indomitable appetite to go on mocking others with an omnipresent all-knowing grin; if they are forced by circumstances to give befitting replies to daringly democratic voices.

As we had mentioned earlier we meet arrogant people at every walk of life. At best, we can get over them with slight inconveniences; at worst, we get affected by them so grievously that our life gets derailed or even damaged—all such situations being at a personal level though. However, if arrogance takes over at the macro level, meaning at the level of state administration or governance then it’s a recipe for absolute disaster. Unfortunately, such kind of ‘governance with arrogance’ has been happening in many places across the world: bulldozing public opinion or protests or democratic traditions or basic principles of humanity. The tragic consequences are all there to behold: use of the time-tested divide-and-rule policy, particularly during elections; unparalleled display, preaching and spread of hatred; racist and communal violence; mob fury, lynching and riots; and of course, tragic loss of innocent lives—so unnecessary and so eminently preventable.

Why then ‘an ode’ to such an undeserving phenomenon? Well, democratic sentiments are still embedded in numerous souls of numerous hapless subjects like this writer, and so, we, some of the people, still strive to respect the spirit of a democracy. We’d earlier said about the unfortunate phenomenon of  ‘governance with arrogance’ seen in quite a few countries of the world, and what is doubly unfortunate is the fact that large chunks of subjects tend to support or vote for the phenomenon. These large chunks often prove to be the majority in respective countries. In a democracy we respect all sections of the society—their needs, interests and opinions, and therefore, if the majorities themselves are with the ‘change’ then how on earth could we ignore such overwhelmingly democratic spontaneity!

It’s altogether a different matter if the majorities fail miserably to distinguish the ‘right’ from the ‘wrong’. And, it’s altogether a very justifiable matter if we decide to use the ‘an ode’ prefix.

Kolkata College Violence: Politicians Of Future?

Times of West Bengal, a state of eastern India, seem to be marching step-in-step with the increasing intolerance shown by its Chief Minister Mamata Bannerji to almost everybody living in her state—from writers, journalists, cartoonists, rape victims to even foreign investors. As we have often referred to her in these pages ‘merciless’ Mamata promised a new beginning by uprooting the 34-year-old stagnant and autocratic rule of the Left in May, 2011 and by bringing her Trinamool(grass-roots) Congress (TMC) overwhelmingly into power. But over time she has managed exactly to shake up those very grass-roots of West Bengal. She has managed to antagonize political parties and citizens alike thus creating an unhealthy atmosphere of mistrust, doubt and malevolence. Today we have witnessed another shame happening to this state known once for having a most literate, cultured and sensitive population. 

It was just a college in prime Kolkata that like any other college is supposed to impart education on the students. And it was just a day when nominations were to be finalized for the college union elections. But maybe discarding education completely and taking lessons from the political behavior rampant in this country called the largest democracy of the world students came well prepared for the occasion—with guns, crude bombs and all other ‘political’ weapons.

The rival unions had to be the student wings of the TMC and the Congress for the simple reason that Congress could not manage to come to power last time and that Mamata walked out of the Congress led ruling coalition of India in apparently utter disgust. The role of the Left union could not be put in the ‘right’ perspective till the last reports came in. The students though were in the right political perspective and their ‘dedicated’ and ‘inspired’ behavior must have made Indian politics proud. And violence was the only possible result. .

It was the most shameful and ugly outburst of violence coming from none other than the students—the future of India. They lunged for each other’s blood and there was absolute chaos with smoke, fires and brickbats piercing the broad daylight. The shame was complete when a police sub-inspector on duty got the bullet and was declared brought dead at the nearby hospital. Scores of others got injured in the mindless violence. And what followed was equally shamefully political—passing the buck and more blame game.

Future politicians of the largest democracy of the world in the making? Grief!   

Dismal Voting in Mumbai

Today, in the third phase of General Elections 2009 and the last phase in Maharashtra, Mumbai recorded only about 45 per cent of voting. Only seen in large numbers were the celebrities, politicians and the Bollywood stars. And why not, they will only be grateful for the bonus doses of publicity.

There was total apathy from the common man. Maybe because of the fact that their problems remain always. Or maybe because of the soaring mercury. Or maybe because of the casualness of the Mumbaikars who like to plan weekends with this extra holiday on account of election.

But the terror trauma of 26/11 may be the real dampener too.

Most urban places of Maharashtra had poor turnouts and moderate polling in the rest. Many other states of India too recorded pathetic turnouts. This may really be ominous in terms of the possibility of a hung parliament.

Indian democracy at the crossroads?