Sunday 15 April 2012

Didi o Didi... !!

‘Fall of Bastille’ took place on 13th May, 2011. No, I am not referring to the French Revolution which is still the ‘ most significant turn’ in world History, but I am talking about ‘Jasmine Revolution’ as told by many in Bengal led by firebrand Mamataa (this is her new spelling, may be for certain Numerological purpose) Banerjee. With the change of guard in West Bengal after 34-year, many people have believed now they can see the ‘change’ (in Bengali Paribartan).
Mamata led government is only 11-month old, and by this time as expected she is redefining the terminology of ‘democratic autocracy’. You may question, why I am taking the word ‘autocracy’, it is simply because her party is ‘one man army.’ Whatever ‘Didi’ will decide that will be final, if anyone tried to modify the script the fate will be either Dinesh Trivedis or Kabir Sumans!! The only thing count in this party of ‘Maa-Mati-Manush’ is loyalty points (towards Mamata of course)!!
I am not going into any details of the governance issue. Those who can see with or without glass can easily see the ‘change’ in the real sense of the term. So, no use wasting time here. Rather I would like to like to draw attention to the embedded nature of cartoon & politics.
Kutty, R K Lakshman and many others have earned their ‘bread & better’ only through political cartoons. Right from Nehru to Indira, Sonia, Rahul, Lalu, Vajpayee, Manmohan singh, Advani, Mayawati, Jayalalitha & almost all the politicians come regularly on the cartoons. There was time politicians used to feel sad had they missed the front page of the daily on that day’s cartoon! Take for example; Lalu Prasad Yadav-he is probably the politicians who had been caricatured, cartooned maximum no. of time both in regional & print media. Critics say, he also ruled Bihar in an autocratic manner, but did he put anyone behind the bar for making his cartoons?
So, what made didi so angry? Why didn’t she tolerate this kind of simple joke? For that matter, the cartoon those who have seen is not at all abusive, it is a line from Satyajit Ray’s ‘Sonar Kella’ where it was discussed how to get rid of ‘Dushtu Lok’ ( Evil person)! In the cartoon Indian Railways have been depicted as ‘Sonar Kella’ (Golden Fort) which was shown by Mamata to Mukul (present Railways minister) & Mukul was asking about ‘Dushtu Lok’ Dinesh Trivedi who was vanished & Mukul would get it (assumed)!!
Actually, the problem is not in the cartoon, it is the problem of Narcissism. Mamata is so pompous that whoever even jokingly saying anything against her, he/she is becoming her target. She is driven by the aphorism ‘I can’t be wrong!’ But she knows she has been doing so many things which are not right, so it is actually a battle within. Thus, she has become so intolerant.
Just before West Bengal Assembly Election, city intelligentsia rallied against Left Government with the-then CM Budhhadev Bhattacharya’s pictures on hand where it was written “ I am a man-eater” ( Ami Manush Kheko)” “I have done no wrong by killing people” (Merechhi besh korechhi), “My hands are stained in blood” (Amar Duhat Rakte makha) etc, (& many of these slogans were either exaggeration or wrong), still no one was put behind the bar as our Constitution has given us the Fundamental Rights of Freedom of Speech & Expression (Artcle. 19A).
Didi, who I always believed is a very good actress on the political stage, actually is not able to act anymore. Her true self is unfolding before the people & she is losing temper every now & then. Once she was storming the police station for releasing her party goons, calling rape a ‘framed incident’, demolishing ghettos for expansion of roads and justifying her acts, painting the city blue etc. etc. She has told ‘Ganatantra (Democracy) in place of Dalatantra (Party diktat), what she is doing now? No, I am little wrong , her’s is not even party-driven, it is almost the rule of ‘Great Dictator!’
Some years back when Left went for ‘Operation Sunshine’ (driving out the hawker from pavements), she sat at Gariahat crossing to beg for them, now when she is doing the same thing, and no one is there to say anything! Before coming to power she told ‘No Mao-Fao’, now she only has instructed the joint force to continue and as a result there were some success too!! There is plenty of such kind of examples.
I believe, this toon-tamasha has actually made her scared, because she is slowly understanding her frantic remarks, eccentricity is not at all going well with the public, and this is a high time to consolidate power. And how to that? The answer is witch-hunt!!
This has to bear in mind; she is actually running a state government single handedly. 11 months is a long time in politics and naturally she has become tired. Fear, insecurity coupled with narcissism she is running the state as her household.
The cartoon is just the beginning; to cover her shortcoming and failure to deliver the election promises plethora of things are waiting for us! Indeed West Bengal now is in real danger! Didi justifies all her act through Rabindranath Tagore, I don’t know which lines will be suitable for her now. I would rather suggest her to read ‘Samanya Khati’ (Little Loss) to understand the condition of the state!
Those who are telling ‘Mamata has changed after coming to power’ they are wrong. She was never a different person, her pretensions gone well with the mass and to get rid of the Left they have voted her to the power! Now, by taking the self-destructing route, Mamata is actually making a statement for future why sometimes democracy is not very useful tool in a state like India!
Didi, this is high time to change yourself or else there will be similar war-cry for ‘Paribartan’ may be less than 5 years of time.

PS: I might be put behind the bars for this article

Thursday 12 April 2012

Ordeal of being a Woman

The opening line of the conversation was “… I strongly believe my husband is the only person who can touch me or so to say I would allow that person only for any kind of physical contact…”. The listener on the other side of the table interrupted the speaker in between, “…unless you also like the person who wants to touch you…” At that point of time the speaker said, even if that’s the case, no physical contact please!!
Dear readers don’t draw your conclusion at once; kindly bear with me for some more time.
The conversation was between a senior colleague and a junior one. The junior colleague had been ‘harassed’ by one of her senior colleagues & to get the right direction she stated the whole thing to another of her senior colleagues who happened to be a male. The explanation by the male colleague was “it is rampant in work place, many of the employees might approve of this situation… avoid that person at your best and what I believe you must have misunderstood him.” Naturally, that girl didn’t get any justice in this issue and had to settle everything ‘amicably’ and forced to believe “it was just a touch for consolation, no other intention was there”.
The second incident is followed by this one. Within few months, that junior colleague’s character has been questioned, morality was raped and expectedly she had not been given any chance to defend her. And who was responsible for this, no one but that senior colleague who knew the previous incident. Just for his own benefit he didn’t waste to take the route of character assassination. The girl didn’t continue there as she was mentally destroyed & was tired fighting a lone battle.
The essential lessons from these are, girls are always vulnerable & targeted.
Now we are shedding tears for baby Afreen and want to give the cruelest punishment to her father, who didn’t even deserve to be called a ‘human being’, but unfortunately in every parts of this country, be it rural or urban, this is a regular phenomenon, most of the stories are buried deep under.
In name of honour killing, innocent girls are killed mercilessly. Khap Panchayats are giving the verdict in this regard and without a word of protest rest of the people are accepting and following their dictum. Less we talk about infanticide, better for India as well as Bharat which boasts of being a super power!
Girls are not safe any where, be it home, on street, work place; name it you will get several examples to justify your points. At home she gets abused in various ways; many times she has to accept ‘being a girl is a sin’. On street, some jobless youth and some frustrated men want to fulfill their sexual strive by eve-teasing or harassing them and at work place if one doesn’t agree to be office spouse, she always faces the consequence (though sometimes girls themselves approach mostly to their seniors for easy promotions.) Single girls are the easiest victim and soft targets if she is of marriageable age. Men, mostly married, would show their ‘commitment’ to their families and would frame the girl, if she doesn’t agree with him. Actually these ‘wife-lovers’ are nothing but perverted souls who needs a ‘partner’ outside of his home to satisfy his lust & desire and they believe ‘single’ means ‘available on the bed’…
Can we really say India is changing? There might be some examples where women are super achievers, but what is the percentage of that success? Indian patriarchy still believes and spread, girls are ‘burden’ girls means ‘dowry’ etc, educating them is a futile exercise, if girls are not married within a particular age she will ‘bring down her family status’!!
‘Rising India’ is ‘advancing’ with this baggage. No one questions, those who question, they cannot change and those who can change they won’t do.
Let me go back to the conversation I have referred to. Had the last sentence been different (read yes, if there is mutual likings for each other, physical contact is welcome) that junior might not (won’t have faced) face some of the consequences…
So, girls/women are still nothing but an object for play, pleasure and…
Women are bearing for more than a century, degree might be different, but the status remains same.. so in no time explosion has to happen.. not the ‘feminist’ explosion but for ‘equality’ in the real sense of the term!!