Social Media’s Impact on Society..

Can there be more emphatic a statement about the Importance of social media than the fact that Prime Minister of the country has 12million followers on a single SM platform, Union cabinet ministers engage with public regularly on SM.despite this Plenty has been spoken and written about social media in the past few years.

What is social media? Web definitions : Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. There are 13 most popular social networking sites.  My focus is going to be solely on Twitter, this is the platform which has emerged as the one that. Media and it’s venerable personnel are often heard complaining about. Before proceeding further I wish to thank my dear friend as raghunath for providing the historic inputs on conventional media which enables me present the subject matter in proper perspective.

We started 235years ago with print with Hicky’s Benegal gazette published in 1780 ,this first mover advantage has been lost by print media.India heard it’s first radio broadcast in 1930,(85yrsold) then ceylone broadcasting corporation took away bulk of the listners. Now FM channels are trying hard to regain those listners.

Next was TV started in 1959, regular telecast began in 1965, It was the 80’s saw a national channel, 90’s witnessed a proliferation of of satellite tv’s by 2012 823 channel of which 184 were pay channels existed in India. This conventional media still did not satiate the appitite of the public for information.

Net was launched in India in 1995 it’s only 20years old, youngest of the sibling. Low internet penetration in India, yet #2 when it comes to twitter usage globally after USA, ahead of Japan, Germany & UK! Presence in social media is a matter of personal choice, in my case26/11 /2008 was the inflection point, when we watched in impotent rage as India was held hostage for 72hours by half a score terrorists from across the border, started to comment extensively on newspaper sites and tv website, found comments at times were edited or held back on pretext of moderation. This lead to my taking to blogging in a very serious way and then investing a lot of time on twitter to make my views on issue public, challenge the narrative of GOI and main strem Media.

Consumer profile in India is no longer the passive consumer of 60’s,70’s,80’s &90’s. present consumer is very active & discerning, he invests heavily into shifting thru the information & getting to the facts at the earliest. What is Twitter? Normally described as social media platform! The meaning differs from person to person some use it for selling, some for connecting with the world, a few for fun and some for sharing knowledge, views and debate facebook enjoys the number status in terms of registered users in India, followed by Twitter, this is the forum that I personally favour and will speak about it at length.

Twitter is also the altar Ego for many, Twitter is the sounding board, Twitter is for attracting others, personalities from Entertainment Industry announce forthcoming releases, Socialites their pet themes and of course media personalities invite you to view their show on TV and pose questions, more importantly they mock and challenge. Twitter has become a personal pigeonhole for Tweeple who block the journalistic fraternity, pelt them with tweets to which the recipients cannot retort directly, this is a role reversal to the utter dismay of the media, has not yet been able to come to terms with.  It is reported that a show hostess last week on air in the course of show stated that she was a hated figure on Twitter, question is? Did she elaborate on her own contributions for attaining such a cult status

An indisputable fact is that people on this forum have tremendous knowledge on almost all subjects are vocal and quick to correct any misrepresentation by the media folks, this leads to debates and often heated exchanges largely civil in nature often ending in Tweeple being labeled by media folks as Internet Hindus, Right wingers, Khakhi Chaddi Brigade, Trolls etc etc.

There are stray incidents of abusive language being employed by a few, blocking is normal. Irreverent Tweets are also a norm, rumors by media, as also misinformation is tried to be inflicted on us, such Tweets are duly deleted with promptness that the mischief does not return to haunt the perpetrator, by way of retweet or be used as evidence to confront the culprit. Tech savvy Tweeple ensure that such tweets are instantly captured and re-posted to the dismay and discomfort of these individuals who tried to be cute on this forum. There is a recent instance of a journo from Economic Times going overboard and posting hateful tweets, cruelly attempting to later justify them as a joke, we did not detect any humor what so ever in those tweets,.

With the passage of time, presence on twitter lead to experimentation into areas which I had not previously traversed,when an atlete faced paucity of funds totake a coach of choice to London Olympics a hjoint effort was launched with others on twitter under the banner of ek Aur Prayaas to raise funds. This was a surprising success, all funds were directly remitted to the athlete’s account.this was followed up with raising funds for Assam riot victims, here againg the funds were directly remitted to those organization which were working on the ground in Assam, was personally targeted by the then UPA govt, which got my handle blocked by local ISPs, however twitter insisted on court order to block my handle from their end.  UPA cud not furnish that. Next when state of Maharastra  faced serious drought again we employed twitter to gather funds & volunteers for on ground work. During the serial bombblast in Mumbai in 2011 again it was the tweeple who organized to have details of blood banks, hospital, names list of the injured & organizing car pools, this was done in a very organized manner,Social Media has empowered the public & is being extensively used for various activities other than commercial or chit chatting. Story of twitter & social media will remain incomplete without going into details of ALAKH2011.  on 13 april I was tweeting pictures of jallianwalan bagh, when shailesh kumar pandey a resident of varanasi got into a conversation with me & expressed his desire to traverse the entire country on his motor cycle & specially visit the sites & homes of those who sacrificed their lives for the country, but were unknown to Indians. He named this mission of his his as  ALAKH2011 THE UNSUNG HEROES.During his entire jouney he was constantly in touch with us on Twitter regardless of the  city/village OR state he was traveling thru or the time of day or night. When his motorcycle stopped working in kerela at about midnight, this was not something which cud not be overcome, tweeple nearest to him were contacted who in turn got hold of a mechanic who reached the sport where shailesh K pandey was, motocycle repaired without much loss of time & stress, he managed to complete his journey successfully & reached home safely, without any mishap any where enroute.

During the natural calamity in uttrakhand it was again social media, tweeple in particular who once again joined hands without any call from any authority, name list were compiled, funds collected, rope bridges built, Mr alok bhatt from dheradoon took the lead in this effort. He also went ahead & collected sufficient funds to provide cattle to villagers & procured refrigerated vehicle to transport milk from those villages, providing employment is as important as rescuing people in case of calamity.

Social media twitter in particular also played a significant role in the gen elxn of 2014, we did conduct several meets in different cities under the banner of ‘EK aur Prayaas’

These were calledc  as transition beyond twitter, since these were offline interaction.

Media in the meantime came up with a theory that Social Media could influence between 165 to 210 seats in forthcoming General Elections. This was not a finding of media’s own but from a Knowledge foundation body and the study was backed by the Internet & Mobile Association body. This study shows that that Social media users may be the new island of new vote bank that conventional political class has to worry about. The report suggested that by the time India went to poll in 2014 the SM users number would remain close to 80Mn. Add to that 25Mn NRIs those who now have voting rights. Even if they are not present physically to press the voting button, they still remain huge influencing block.

Based on the SM users intensity, the study details there are 160-High impacting constituencies, 67 medium constituencies and 60 other low or no impacting constituencies!

Scope of social media being employed for social causes is a big plus. With the ever increasing number of users.social media may very soon play a crucial role in how the govts will run in this country.  In conclusion give me great pleasure to inshare with you Chittaranjan Kar ‏ of Barbil, Orissa

was honored by Barbil MunicipalityOdisha on IndependenceDay 2015 for SwachhBharatAbhiyan signature drive.

PM redeems his image let public be the judge!!!

                    

           

 

India is probably the only democracy in which the public has to take on the main stream English media on a daily basis if not on an hourly basis. Coupled with unprecedented levels of corruption that Congress party has perpetrated on us!

Yes we have met with limited success, we hope to continue and bring about changes in the way our country will be governed. Today’s post is in response to “PM redeems his image” by Mr. Pankaj Vohra, Hindustan Times.

“There has been an unseen, but unquestioned power which has been exercising a compulsive influence on decision-making in important matters. This compulsive influence is quite evident in the case of the appointment of the CVC. Whether in matters relating to his appointment despite his facing an incomplete enquiry or the defence of his appointment before the Supreme Court everyone from the Prime Minister downwards has been acting as if they were acting at the instance of an invisible force that could not be resisted. Such an invisible force could be only that of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi.” "The Sphinx In The Room" by Mr.B.Raman This make for interesting reading.


Hindu's editorial - “Yes, but what led to the ‘error'?”

The other interesting aspect of the article by Mr.Raman is it completely and totally debunks the claims of Mr. Pankaj Vohra. Who starts his piece as under.

“By accepting responsibility for the decision to appoint PJ Thomas as the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) following the apex court’s ruling that the appointment was illegal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has exhibited statesmanship of the highest order.” Dear Mr. Pankaj Vohra every single day there are judgments being pronounced by the courts in India and those convicted are displaying similar levels of statesmanship by accepting the verdicts of the courts of law.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has done nothing extra-ordinary that should be trumpeted in the manner that you are doing. Your actions reek of sycophancy of the highest order and also raise questions if you are indeed the replacement for disgraced Vir Sanghvi of Hindustan Times.

Images are formed and recalled according to the actions of an individual. For example Eklavya literally means ‘a person who keeps his words’. On hearing this name, the image that it conjures up in the mind’s eye is what? Most definitely not that of Manmohan Singh! 

Country is governed on the basis of actions and not by images built by PR companies or paid media reports. A compulsion and a necessity is being project as a virtue by you in the present case. Without getting into tu tu mein mein with you let us explore the various images that Dr.Manmohan Singh has, which one of these in your view has he redeemed.

1. Dr Manmohan Singh premiership suffers from an acute deficiency of legitimacy. Simply because he is not a popular choice and has not contested or won an election. “As per the Westminster model, which we follow, the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj should be treated as the shadow prime minister.” These are your words in  "The starlight is not there for Modi " in Hindustan Times of 19th Sept 2010. Which clearly establish that the Prime Minister should be an elected representative of the people from Lok Sabha. 

2. He is not in control of his Cabinet.

3. He has not selected his team of Ministers.

4. Decisions are first taken at 10Janpath he merely works to implement them.

5. Dr. Manmohan Singh is the weakest Prime Minister of India till date.

6. Dr. Manmohan Singh heads the most corrupt Government in Independent India. "This is the most dishonest govt ever:" Jaitley   

7. Dr. Manmohan Singh has failed India as an economist. Prices were to be brought down in 100day post 2009 elections.

8. Dr. Manmohan Singh has failed India in Foreign affairs. Sharm el Sheikh

9. Dr. Manhoman Singh has failed to deliver justice to victims of 26/11.

10. Poverty in India has grown under Dr. Manmohan Singh

11. Naxal threat has increased. 

Now let us turn our attention to the claim made in this article by Mr. Vohra. One would have tended to agree with the assessment had our Prime Minister who was singularly focused in appointing Mr. P.J Thomas as the CVC even in the face of dissenting note placed on record by the leader of the opposition. Unfortunately display of similar faith in his own conviction is missing; he has not challenged the verdict of the Supreme Court in the appointment of CVC.  If the Prime Minster was so convinced about the correctness of his choice why has he not stood up like a man and contested it to the very end?

The decision was patently wrong, Prime Minister had more than ample opportunity to avoid this situation, yet he chose to defend the indefensible. Therefore now for the media to project this as a virtue and redemption of an image is rather misplaced and misleading the nation. 

In conclusion I wonder which of the three images posted above has our Prime Minister been able to redeem. I let this choice rest with the readers. 

SAY 'NO' TO INDIA'S BLOGGER CONTROL ACT DONT LET THIS EVER HAPPEN TO YOU

Latest post on this issue as on 8^th March 2011

The prime minister cannot plead innocence. Even if Dr Singh had been misled by the censored bio-data -- prepared by a department directly under him -- he was aware of the charges against P J Thomas because the current Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj [ Images ], told him so in plain words. But can you feel sorry for Dr Singh? J M Lyngdoh, the former chief election commissioner, was one of those that challenged P J Thomas's appointment in the Supreme Court. After the verdict he put it bluntly, 'It is not an indictment of Thomas, it is an indictment of the prime minister and the home minister.'  "Who doctored P J Thomas's bio-data?"   by T.V.R Shenoy

I welcome a debate and discussion on this…As always, please keep your tone civil, your language polite…no sweeping generalisations please and no personal abuse.  Thank you.

Who is holding back the Prime Minister from working? Not us.

Bemused by this article, 2G scam: Let the PM work freely - Who has or is holding back the PM not us.  by Mr. Pankaj Vohra in Hindustan Times 22^nd Nov 2010

There are broadly 10 assertions that are made by the author in the course of his write up. I will try and examine each one of them on their merit. Before we get down to doing that, there also another interesting article in the Indian Express by Mr. Mihir S Sharma "Less Mud Please" Once upon a time, India’s middle class seemed to have made a bargain with its politicians  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh does not speak to us other than on 15^th August and 26^th January. Maybe we are to be blamed for it, because we did not elect him to the parliament ultimately to the office of Prime Minister. He tends to speak to those who are responsible for him being in the seat of power.

Interactions of Prime Minister with the media are also rare, as it is since the last few day credibility of the media is under great amount of scrutiny and stress former on account of role of a few that have been exposed in allegedly murky dealing, latter on account of complete and deafening silence on the issue of role of its fraternity in murky dealings.

Now that we know where we figure in the scheme of things vis a vis our Prime Minister. It becomes that much easier to dispassionately deal with the issues raised by Mr. Vohra. “Let the P. M. work freely” we always thought as head of the government he was free to work, who or what is holding him back? Why and to whom is Mr.Vohra addressing? Surely it could not be the people of this country. Would it not have been proper if this plea by Mr.Vohra was made at the just concluded session of the AICC in New Delhi. We have our own complaint that the Prime Minister is not working.

“The possibility of a mid-term poll may arise if the Congress-led UPA government is unable to take stringent measures against those involved in large- scale corruption not only in the 2G scam but also in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games and the Adarsh Housing scandal in Mumbai.” I do not think we need to be employing any sort of rocket science to arrive at this conclusion. The moot point is nothing significant has happened in public perception to give us any hope. We do not want to see a few junior members being punished, people demand the entire range of individuals involved regardless of position, post or seniority be dealt with in an expeditious visible manner.

“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh indicated during the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit. That the guilty will not be spared.” We have been down this road repeatedly it is kind of worn out needs serious repairs. The mismatch between words and actions compels us not to take them at face value, we chose to ignore such rhetoric even when it come from the Prime Minister lacks weight and credibility.

“The credibility of the government is at its lowest and unless the PM is allowed to set things right by all the constituents of the UPA including his party.” This must surely rank  as the biggest understatement of 63years of independent India’s history facts are not just speaking they are screaming out not just at India, the world at large. We are the laughing stock of this world at this point of time.

“It is a crisis that has several dimensions.”  This is where conspiracy theories and the internal power struggle of the Congress comes into play. Sycophancy rules supreme, change of guard, all this is at the expense of India. We cannot be held hostage to these machinations of a party. Inaction on corruption cannot be justified on these grounds.

“Commonly felt that a no- confidence motion could put the fear of God into the government.” Why should such a move be contemplated at all? When the issue is corruption, the focus has to be on punishing those responsible. Why should we digress nothing would be achieved by such a move? It would self defeating, incase UPA sails through which it will given the tricks that it can employ for this purpose. Once that happens nothing will move on corruption!

“If the government and the party have to face the challenge and come out of it, the PM must be fully empowered to deal with various aspects of the issue.” This precisely validated the claims made by opposition parties that the incumbent Prime Minister is weak, it not on physical strength basis, the ability to act on issues which are prime importance to the nation.

“For that to happen, all the constituents of the UPA must stop putting pressure on him and allow him to take his own decisions and run the government the way he wants to.” Mr.Vohra what are you trying to tell us, that the national interest is being compromised for the sake of power that is available by virtue of being in the government. This is a very scary scenario that all constituents are working for thei benefit and not for the nation. What happened to the Aam Aadmi who was the main plank of this Congress lead government? Where does he figure in all this?

“The PM must also take a leaf from Indira Gandhi's experience in dealing with corrupt and irrelevant politicians in 1969.” Please refresh our memories on this. I am a little lost with this statement of yours. When and who has ever confronted corruption seriously in this country least of all is the Congress? Track record available with us speaks volumes contrary to your assertion.

“Manmohan Singh has started well by putting Kapil Sibal in charge of the telecom ministry.” The first interview given by the gentle man has anything but reassured us that corruption will be dealt with, with the serious intent and purpose. The impression gained is he was more concerned about deflecting blame from the government then tackling the issue head on. Let me state this candidly Mr. Sibal for all practical purposes told the citizen that his value is zilch when it comes to preserving the government. Pointer “The Prime Minister should have thrown the petition into the dust bin.” “Every common man cannot get up and ask for permission to probe.”

Does this leave any doubt with you as to where we are heading?

This takes the cake: 2G Government hides behind people's mandate, thumbs nose at Opposition.

Idiom "All is fair in love and war" reconstructed by media

“All is fair in love and war.” This is how we know the idiom! A new dimension has been added by the mainstream English media, expanded version reads as “All is fair in love, war and politics.”

"The starlight is not there for Modi " By Mr.Pankaj Vohra in Hindustan Times of 19th Sept 2010 is the motivating factor for this latest blog.


Undoubtedly, Congress, RJD, LJP and the friendly mainstream English media would want to present us a picture favorable to their formulations. Yet if Bihar has been reclaimed from the Jurassic park where it had been firmly placed by RJD-Congress combine the credit must be placed at the doorsteps of NDA government.


Chinks in the NDA are not visible, need for that is urgent, so why not employ fiction and manufacture a few if not a whole lot of them.


Election time debates will move away from Secular Vs Communal if and only if the media permits it. While nobody tires of stating that India has moved on yet the shackles of this paradigm are not being allowed to be shed.


In a democratic setup more than one aspirant for the top job does not amount to anarchy or dissensions within the party or a coalition. Yes it may seem so to all those who are followers of Congress party and its peculiar brand of democracy.


Pyramid is narrowest at the top and only a select few reach the pinnacle. It is a puerile argument that minority support for Bihar government is due to Mr. Nitish Kumar, he is not a one man army, BJP does have its ministers in that government and are holding portfolios of significance unless ofcourse in your opinion that is unimportant.


Bihar and Gujarat are the 2 best performing states of this country among many others, incidentally all of these have BJP or NDA Governments in place, benefits of the development are not being regulated in a manner that the effects are limited to any particular community; recent result of by elections in Gujarat is a testimony to that. Ayub Chauhan, 35, is one of the Muslim voters of Kathlal constituency in Central Gujarat who voted for the BJP. It's for the first time BJP won the Assembly constituency and Chauhan does not want to be left out of Gujarat's development story being scripted by Modi."We thought it's our Congress and kept voting for it. But the BJP is in Gujarat and everybody is benefiting. We thought why we should be left out," said Ayub Chauhan. This is as reported by CNNIBN Modi on a high after winning in Cong bastion


Why the media wishes to stay in its time warp of 2002 events? Mainstream English media is not the sole opinion maker in this country, vernacular press can be ignored at your own peril; besides word of mouth is far more effective, with a deeper reach and longer duration. Can it be denied that people of these 2 states are moving for employment from one to the other, will not NDA highlight its achievement with statistical data?

2014 is fair distance away, performance of all the aspirant over the next 3 years or so will determine who would get to the coveted office of the Prime Minister.

Somehow the irony of this article is the severe indictment of UPA. Deficiency in legitimacy of the incumbent UPA and Prime Minister is so stark that could not help noticing it “ As per the Westminster model, which we follow, the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj should be treated as the shadow prime minister.”

Congress friendly media propounds three new myths.

A couple of weeks back our Prime Minister met with a select group of editors, described by many as a rare occurrence. He is a man of few words; reticence is his strength so we are told. Post that meeting as expected there were some new facts uncovered, or should one say 3 important new discoveries made.

This is at best left in the realm of fiction that the media is creating, naturally with its power and reach, the media has enormous influence over the collective psyche of the people. This enormous influence ensures that the sentiment is always controlled -- mostly favorably, but if need be negatively -- by sections of the media. There can be nothing further from truth than the below supposition it is indeed ingenious, yet would be extremely hard to digest.


"He had a mandate to be prime minister for five years especially because he was projected as the PM candidate during the 2009 parliamentary poll" This is the second point that political analyst believe the PM was trying to deliver. There is a phrase "Basking in reflected Glory" now a new phrase has been added to our vocabulary and that is reflected mandate, by means of this one could legitimize holding any constitutional office in India, and it could possibly also become heredity using the same logic PM's wife hence why not the next PM.

There is a serious deficiency of legitimacy in this our incumbent PM’s case.

Third point, “by citing examples of Morarji and Sardar Patel, both deputy prime ministers, he pre-empted any possible move to appoint a deputy PM.” This has been very adequately dealt with by Mr. M.J.Akbar in his article  “Memo to PM: Ego is unflattering”  dated 12th sept 2010 in Times of India needless to repeat here.

This is the first point as per the political analysts. “One was that there was nothing wrong with his government and if there was any perception about things not being in control it was because of elements within the party”

The questions that we have are, what is right with this Government?

1.Food Price are they in check…No the PM has been unable to exert and display his prowess in the area of his core competence.

2. The PM for effect may issue a statement negating the directive from the Supreme Court of India; fact of the matter is food grains are rotting nearly 60,000mt. While this country has nearly 400million people who are starving and this grain could have easily helped their cause.

3.Corruption…Again the answer is in the negative..It has reached unprecedented levels under his very nose. 2G telecom scam, CWG, and Mining etc more may be uncovered as we go along.

4.Internal security…… negative.

5.External security….. negative

6. Foreign policy……..abject failure needless to recount all the past events.

What good is a brilliant master when all pupil fail? What good is policeman if crime continuously increases? What good is general under whose command the territorial integrity is lost?

It is perhaps time to stop flaunting personal honesty and unimpeachable integrity of our PM as the fulcrum of this government, when clearly all is not well with it.


Finally it is an established fact that he has been appointed and not elected to the post of PM. In our model of democracy Convention and written Laws have an equal weightage. The Prime Minister in our scheme of democracy is a directly elected representative of the people of this country. A Prime Minister from Rajya Sabha is legal as per statuette, however is in contravention of the convention that the Prime Minister should be from the largest party block in Lok Sabha.

Indians responsible for the rot in democracy

09th Nov 2009. There were three significant incidents which occurred, all three were connected to the politicians of India. The new depths that this class is discovering on an almost daily basis, speak volumes of their ability to ignore propriety in public life, offer inane and insensitive arguments, subvert, tarnish and diminish what ever they touch other than their personal assets, which multiply @ of Mach 7 or more.
We had just about digested the news that Mr. R.R. Patil re-appointed as the Home Minister in Maharashtra, he had done a wonderful job during terror strike on Nov 26th 2008. After all did he not make light of this attack, as a minor incident in a major metropolis of India, we should learn to live with it. 190 lives lost, no consequence we are a nation of billion plus, few lives lost should not galvanize or impel us to rile the political class or demand upgrading of security systems and equipment. The man was removed from this very post on 1st Dec 2008, what has changed now that the person in question is back at the helm of the same ministry. Did the political bosses make a wrong decision on 1st Dec 2008 or is it now? Guess both premise are wrong, the fact of the matter is new mandate has washed away all previous sins. We the electorate, have pardoned all the acts of omission and commission by re-electing the same persons. Who should bear the burden of this act? Naturally, we the people of Maharashtra. We had the opportunity and the choice we were decisive in our action, unlike the politicians. Let us wait for our fortunes to multiply at a similar rate as do those of the political class.
Manu Sharma out on parole! so what? Convicts are entitled to parole, victims have no such rights. We are a democratic country with well defined laws and laid down procedures to be followed. The catch is, the foot note that is appended to each and every law “Except the framers” We do claim that rule of law is prevalent in India and often hear “Law shall take it own course”. Travesty of this statement is the common man suffers all his life for want of action, the rich and famous escape the long arms of law for the rest of their life for the same want of action. Law shall take it own course, please do explain which is this course, that will ensure justice to the common citizen in this country.The CM of Delhi went to great lengths to explain the how the system works, yet she did not explain how on earth the basis of parole for a murder convict could be to attend to his Business needs. Bizarre that the state! Should be more concerned about the health of the convict’s business? rather than the sentence that he must undergo, for a heinous crime such as murder. Here again the politician cannot be held accountable, the people of Delhi after all re-elected the same government for the 3rd time in succession, so all previous sins were washed away and a fresh start.
What transpired in the late afternoon in the Maharashtra State Assembly, is best described as “Mobocracy” democracy is all about debate and reaching consensus. This was all about physical violence and intimidation. Guess what we the people are again the culprits we had the opportunity, we exercised it after due diligence and gave our verdict in favor of what we witnessed in the state assembly. The politicians are not to be blamed after all one set was engaged in protecting the Marathi Pride and Culture, the other taking oath in Hindi which is permitted under the constitution of India, was demeaning the Marathi Pride and Culture. India seems to be passing thru a period of relative calm and hence the need for excitement, what could be better after the fatwas against the national song “Vande Mataram”. A bit of indulgence in linguistic chauvinism and divide the country along those lines after all the division along religious lines is not offering the high returns that one used to witness previously. The states in India were demarcated linguistically. The trend is dangerous, disintegration of the country is a possibility that cannot be ignored. After all equal and opposite reaction, a law from Physics, would come into play sooner than later. Is suspension of 4 MLA of MNS for 4 years sufficient?
The common thread that has run thru all the three events is the role of the political class. The ultimate responsibility can only be laid at the door step of the people since it is us who elect these individuals repeatedly to govern, that mandate is conveniently transformed into an agreement to Rule us with no accountability on their part. Suffering is our share of the deal.

Religion or Nation First

The suggestion or a premise that singing of Vande Mataram would amount to affirming ones patriotism, conversely lack of it, is ludicrous and absurd.

What was the purpose of the fatwa? If it was to object the coercion or compulsion to sing the national song, then what is being done, is exactly the same, coercion is employed prohibiting a section of the Indian society from singing the national song. If the former is unacceptable, is communal, how on earth can the latter be acceptable and secular.

However there are larger points which need to be visited and should not be glossed over in our usual hope this will fade away. The benevolent attitude, of the Union Government, the accompanying pontification is a cause for serious concern.

A fatwa in the presence of ¼ to ½ a million Indians of common faith, carrying the message back to a nuclear family of 4 at the very minimum we are looking at a million plus people who receive the message first hand, the Geometric Progression impact would be much larger.


Was this an aggressive assertion of religious identity, and ability to influence elections or change the course of history of this Nation!

Has India not paid a heavy price or do the clerics feel cost has not been paid in full and more is due.
Contentious issues raised by the minorities are secular, become communal when raised by the majority community.

1. Was there a tacit nod from the Union Government, the Congress party to exhume this issue after nearly 5 decades?
2. Should sub identities over ride Nationality?
3. What does secularism mean?
4. Why the need for a religious identity by a minority which is the largest group?
5. Was this done to provoke an aggressive and opposite reaction from the majority?
6. How should the common man answer to his young ones who are the future of this country what comes first Religion or Nation!
7. Does the Constitution permit this Fatwa, opinion, decree or edict what ever one may wish to call it!
8. Would it be acceptable to the Union Government if some Sadhus and Sants gave a clarion call for construction of a temple or prohibiting an act or performance to the member of their community?
9. Where is all this going to end and when?
10. When are we going to activate the process of healing?
11. Winning election and garnering votes more important than unity of this Nation.

The door has been prized open for further such fatwas towards other national symbols, should this not be nipped now, the price exacted could be far heavier. What would the Government do incase this religious group was to demand that the passports issued to them should be written in Urdu?

Did the very Congress perform its duty of protecting the minority group in 1984 when there were large scale killings on the street of Delhi between 1st to the 3rd of Nov? Is this duty enshrined in the constitution of India? What are the duties of the minorities? Where are they enumerated?

Those who are in a position to influence their co-religionists would serve them and the Nation by adopting a positive approach towards, empowering the people thru education, employment, tolerance and providing space for other religions by engaging in a constructive dialogue to overcome all out standing contentious issues.

Needless to say we are a large family of diverse religion, languages etc etc, we are also civilized, capable of discussing and resolving matters.

I welcome a debate and discussion on this…As always, please keep your tone civil, your language polite…no sweeping generalisations please and no personal abuse.  Thank you.