My scribble

As we go for elections 2009, there’s no dearth of issues in any part of the nation.

Maharashtra will be voting to stop farmers’ suicides, less price for Maharashtra’s favorite crops of sugar and cotton, power woes, uncontrolled migration and resulting ever increasing slums. The neighbor Karnataka suffering from attacks against Women, Christians will be fighting against imbalanced growth and increasing poverty also. Gujarat, still in phase of recovery from communal divisions, is facing a crisis of sorts with mediocre rehabilitation record for displaced due to various reasons like industrialization or the infamous Sardar Sarovar and the increasing divide between the rich and the poor. Tourism capital Goa has had its share of security woes with Marathi-Konkani locals’ widening angst against tourists and outsiders that has resulted in no co-operation.

Rajasthan, which managed to defeat one the most progressive chief ministers it ever had in assembly elections last year, has its own set of issues which include reducing female proportion, very poor HDI (human development index) and inward growth of deserts from west. State of Madhya Pradesh, with its two biggest problems being child deaths due to malnutrition and large number of unlicensed arms, has been deprived of power after creation of Chhattisgarh which in turn is suffering from Naxalites and withdrawal of some of energy projects. Same with Orissa, plagued by Naxalites and crazy Hindu movements, the state has suffered badly and lack of efforts to reduce poverty and beggary has resulted in higher count of sudden deaths across the Utkal.

Moving to the east, Bangala Bhoomi cannot still recover from the embarrassment of Nano ouster. The never-improving and poor centric Left rule has hampered Bengal’s dreams. Lack of decent education and scarcity of jobs have lead to Criminalization in northern part of the state. Moreover, almost all the eastern, north-eastern states, UP and Bihar share the plight of illegal insurgency from Bangladesh and Nepal. Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, containing the yet unresolved border with China, have grown enormous amount of jobless youths in past few years.

The southern state of Kerala, despite of being better placed on account of literacy and sex ratio, has problems a plenty. Emigration seems to be the key concern area for Kerala with educated young population continuing to move out to Gulf nations, Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore for jobs and career opportunities. The land of Tamil is probably bearing the consequences of lopsided development policies could suffer more due to tensions between lawyers and politicians. The neighbor on fire, Sri Lanka, could spell dooms for Tamilians with undesired infiltration. Andhra, the only non-Hindi state below the national average for literacy and Human development, has got its share of woes with huge number of beggars, Naxal problems and Telangana movement.

Then we move on to the northern part of the nation: Punjab and Haryana, the only well-to-do regions in the north, are still not visible on the global map, relying mostly on local industries. These anti-women states are still very much ruled by the religion and its fanatical followers. The national capital has to still undergo pains of crimes every minute and the scars it has inflicted are long lasting affecting Delhi’s quotient for global attraction. Shortage of English users could prove detrimental to Delhi’s dreams of successfully hosting CWG-2010.

Not much need be listed for UP and Bihar, which lag behind in every aspect of development and prosperity. These states have a lot to be fulfilled despite being two of the richest in terms of natural resources. Gorakhpur open border continues to be a headache for India while crime, poor education, lack of industries and lackluster infrastructure (where its difficult to even breathe) have hindered growth of these states. Jharkhand, despite its mineral richness has failed to put up good show. Uttarakhand with all freebies and tax rebates to industries is starting to lose its green look. Despite a decent presence of industries, Uttarakhand is not earning much and may well face bankruptcy issues affecting government servants.

The beautiful J&K has got bloodier by the day, the state is shattered after Amarnath land controversy and scrapping of Kashmir railway connection. Terrorism still crops its head up every now and then. As a result, we have jobless youths in Jammu and Angry youths in Kashmir after atrocities by Indian armed forces.

Tails up for a fight

It’s very difficult to settle down in a society where you think you’re radically different from others, you can no more relate to that society, that culture, that set of values. Similar, I think, is the plight of the Indian youth which resides in metros. Many of us have matured well before the average Indian age for ‘Indian maturity’, we relate to something that’s not generally accepted in our country. It is a severe deviation from streamlined India.

Realistically, Gandhi-Nehru are not our heroes, we don’t vie for government jobs, we don’t crave for Bollywood and its ‘running-around-the-trees’ movies, we are no more concerned about when our marriage is going to take place (or whether it’s going to happen at all), we don’t fight for gender equality coz we think it’s a given in our society, ‘Money’ is not the ultimate aim, we want we have everything available online and more importantly, we don’t think ‘Doing business with rest of the world is like slavery’. [P.S. – the traits are just to define the metro Indian youth categorically. More or less if not entirely, we are like this, most cases in-between]

However, there’s still a sizeable section of Indian youth that departs from this, in fact the majority differs from the above mentioned stratum.

1. Girls in pubs, girls in short clothes are attacked, molested time and again; moreover they are fed with some ‘useful and essential’ moral lectures

2. Politicians who rule us do not feel the need for an online social campaign, they can afford to ignore us

3. Most powerful medium yet in the country, Television, does not run even 10% of its time for something of our liking

4. Slum youths (belonging to some specifically poor and backward areas) attack us, our properties and get away with it very easily

5. Governments are generally sleepy towards us, with marginal budget allocation and major focus on keeping the majority in ‘backward classes’

Is this fair really? Why don’t we ever take out the anguish? Why don’t we ever express? Why don’t we vote?

The divide is ever increasing and severely widening; this could lead to clash of interests in the future alongwith continuation of imbalanced growth and extremity issues.

Is it our mistake that we are born in a well-off family, ‘Upper caste’ in a social hierarchy? We are suppressed when we fight against reservation.

Why we are not allowed to speak against people from slums? People from certain areas come to our places and build dirty and insecure slums around our habitats, yet we are made to share our cities with them (this is after paying loads of taxes which predominantly get directed to ‘development’ of ‘hamaare raajya’).

Mangalore pub attack is a recent shock. What is Shri Rama sene, who has given them the right to decide what should girls do and what should they drink or not drink?

Look no further, it’s you and me …… BJP is ruling Karnataka, ‘we’ have voted for them and that’s how they are in a position to take decisions on our behalf. Yediyurappa has not done enough against the hooligans and thus, they continue to haunt ‘us’. Now, next on the list is Bangalore pubs and V-day celebrations – as per SRS chief.

Even more shocking is the support SRS has garnered, many of the Indians are in favor of what SRS did, not expressing though. Majority of those who oppose the activity may go wordless if asked “What if your sister or wife would want to drink liquor or visit some pub?” You got it right, what’s around us is nurtured by our fellow Indians who ‘differ’ from us. India in a deeper conflict and further imbalance!

And here we are, talking about dogs and cats. All of us have more or less accepted stray animals as parts of our life. Now, it’s time to give it a serious thought, something that is related to lives of people. Recent hearing on stray dogs at Bombay High Court has come as a shocker for people who are concerned for people. Statement can be interpreted something like this: a dog has life, just like we humans. It also has an equally strong right to stay and move around in social habitat.

One more thing: No court in Indian judicial hierarchy has rights to create or manufacture a law. Court’s and thus judges’ job in India is strictly limited to only interpreting the law, exactly as written, for the citizens of India republic.

And what’s at stake? Human life!

Stray dogs have been involved and been responsible for accidents on roads; groups of stray dogs wander around slums and cause nuisances to ‘humans’ residing at such places. Not only to the people who stay in slums but can be detrimental to people driving as well. The number of accidents due to stray animals on roads has increased significantly and then ofcourse, not to forget number of diseases those come along. For long can we afford to let go human lives just like that? Why are we being suppressed by notion of ‘great accommodating culture’ and idiosyncratic ‘right to exist for everyone’?

Why don’t we have a law that can help ensure safety for our first priority: human life? Why can’t judges interpret laws which are sidelined for the sake of judicial wins?

We are on a mission to get brains for animal rights activists, until then stay cautious!