Musings about Hindutva and Secularism

It's been an amusing watching political reactions post the election results of 2019. On one side there is this repulsive Amar Singh, who changes colours faster than a chameleon, talking about how he kicked Manishankar Aiyyar's butt back in his hay days, and on the other side there are likes of Shashi Tharoor musing about the results in as honest terms as the suave diplomat in him allows himself to.

THE SHASHI THAROOR INTERVIEW

Just sometime back I watched Karan Thapar interviewing Shashi Tharoor about Congress' debacle in the 2019 election. 



I like Karan Thapar for the pointed questions and his ability to shoot point blank. It's a treat when you have an erudite like Tharoor responding from the other end. It makes for a very entertaining and a very thought-provoking discussion.

While for a long time I myself have been wishing to see a Congress lead by Shashi Tharoor as a capable and much needed opposition to Modi, as Karan Thapar kept suggesting all through the interview, I am as 'optimistic' about it happening, as either of them are. 

That aside, what troubled me towards the end of the interview was the standard hate-mongering about RSS and Hindutva. I have been hearing this for a long time, from this pariah-making industry, and this time I decided to note down my thoughts around this. 

HINDUTVA AND SECULARISM

In the interview, they sound so worried about how Hindutva is dangerous, how it will "destroy" this multi-cultural country, how it's against the Nehruvian ideas (while simultaneously being 'intolerant' to an alternative school of thought that Savarkar presented - and why). But at the same time they are either completely unaware of, or are unwilling to acknowledge, why so many people in the country, who, by the way, believe in live-and-let-live or 'वसुधैव कुटुंबकम्', and who would have voted BJP to power, do not associate Hindutva with the negative connotations that these people are so hellbent on projecting. 

The fact that Hindutva rose as a response to counter the hardline presented by political cults of Islam and Christianism, seems to be nowhere in their conscious. Neither does it seem to register with them that Congress' idea of 'secularism' - appeasing religious vote-banks - has been laid bare time and again, may that be way back in late 80's in the Shah Bano case or as recently as in defending triple talaq. They never seem to acknowledge that it's the RSS that's been pushing for common civil code for so many years, and it's the congress and the muslims who are opposing it, and having it their way for so long. The Indian populace may not be as big an 'intellectual' as they are, but they are smarter than what likes of Karan Thapar seem to assume. They catch these double standards and that's what they have rejected. 

That's also why people seem to resonate with Modi when he says 'the veil of secularism has been lifted from those who were hiding behind it'. Secularism, lately, has become the idea that pretentiously denounces everything that can cause even slight inconvenience to religious 'minorities' (Common Civil Code, Triple Talaq et al), and upholds everything that undermines Hinduism (Shabarimala, Hindu Terrorism et al). And while one can endlessly debate for or against it, people have acknowledged this disparity and double standards, and have expressed it through their votes. 

There are scores of intellectuals and journalists who wouldn't say a word about the train that was audaciously set on fire, burning scores of people, including women and kids, to death, but would endlessly go on denouncing the anger that boiled over into the unrest that followed. Remind me why there are hardly any 'intellectuals' or journalists who are critical of muslims when they commit a religious crime. For all the wrongs that you associate with Hindutva, it doesn't kill you for being critical of Hinduism 24x7, despite being a Hindu yourself. Try doing that with Islam, and in no time you will have to go hiding like a Salman Rushdie or a Taslima Nasreen. 

The moment you have muslims (and these so called 'seculars' or 'liberals') denouncing the wrongs that (other) muslims do, as vociferously as Hindus do when some overzealous Hindus commit a religious crime, the Hindutva that these people fear of so much, will dissolve in thin air. 

PARTING THOUGHTS

In this context, what's really dangerous is that these so called intellectuals, who look upon themselves so highly and who consider themselves as the torch-bearers of the secular cosmopolitan thought, either aren't cognisant of this, or are just plain unwilling to acknowledge it. 

So far as they keep up beating around the bush like this, Hindutva will keep gaining momentum, and people like me, despite being secular and liberal in our thoughts, will not find any fault with it. After all, if true secularism is never to see the light of the day, and if it has to be a political cult that rules India, I would much rather prefer it to be the one that I belong to, and one that I have confidence about in having scope for inclusiveness for any other religion. I definitely don't want to live in a Bangladesh or a Pakistan of yore, thank you very much. 

The Kasmir Conundrum

The recent situation in Kashmir had me intrigued and I wanted to find out if there is any base, other than the age old separatist rhetoric, behind the boil. Incidentally, I came across this purportedly facebook post by a young Kashmiri lady - Shazia Bakshi touting reasons about how she went on from being an Indian to being a Kashmiri - vis-a-vis her 'identity'. 

It had me concerned, not because her arguments held much water, they didn't as a matter of fact, and I will come to it, but more because that outlined how gullible even the educated Kashmiri youth is to anti-India calls and related brainwash. You would expect their education to have a say in determining right from wrong during their inner-voice debates, and lead them to choose a path to co-existence, peace and prosperity; over religious, regional and perceived-superior (and hence mistaken) identity. 

Since the writeup came from a girl who claimed to be an Indian before she became a Kashmiri, I decided that one writeup was from horse's mouth, and was enough to gauge the situation and the mindset there in Kashmir. 

One thing was crystal clear to me - the veil of her 'Indianness' was pretty thin. the vitriol was in your face. It was obvious she got brainwashed at the slightest of a bait. In fact, that write-up was probably not aimed at Indians, but at Kashmiris, who were/are sitting on the fence, recruiting them towards the Burhan-Wani-cause. After all, what better person to recruit sane minded people towards a path to destruction, than someone who claims to be 'one of them'. 

Initially I wanted to rip through each and every argument she had in her writeup; but then I realised many of the arguments were not worth the response anyway. They were not arguments, they more felt like her attempt at convincing herself. What needed response was the way she sympathized with Burhan Wani, claiming the guy had not even fired a bullet. It was a ludicrous premise, if not ridiculous. Should India/army have waited till he fired a few rounds and killed people in buckets? Nevertheless, I found it intriguing enough to check out more about Burhan Wani. 

The first image I found, was that of him wearing a kalashnikov and (Pakistani?) army fatigues. Then there was a neutral sounding article about Burhan Wani in Huffington Post (india), detailing his life. An interesting anecdote about why Burhan Wani became a Hizbul Mujahideen commander - mind you, commander of an organization that's declared a terrorist outfit by India, the EU and the USA - was the incident where an army patrol bullied him and his brother, friends in his late teens. And that was enough of a reason for him to join a state-fighting terrorist outfit. His father puts in a very convincing defence as to why his son joined a terrorist camp: his 'ghairat' (self-respect) made him retaliate. And I think this is thread most of the Kashmir-cause-champions hang on dearly to, most of the time - that 'you did it first and we are retaliating'. Playing victim is an excellent alibi to veil over your real intentions and deeds. Here is a wikipedia article that very succinctly explains the psychology behind abusers routinely engaging in self-victimization -

It is common for abusers to engage in victim playing. This serves two purposes:
1. justification to themselves – as a way of dealing with the cognitive dissonance that results from inconsistencies between the way they treat others and what they believe about themselves.
2. justification to others – as a way of escaping harsh judgment or condemnation they may fear from others.

Spot on, wiki! That explains most of these alibis, doesn't it? I sometimes wonder if the Kasmiri Pundits, who were driven out of their homes, if not killed, for staying in their motherland of Kashmir, had started retaliating violently, leaning on their 'ghairat' (self-respect), would these same Kashmir-cause-champions or Burhan-Wani sympathizers give credence to that 'ghairat'? 

Destruction, killing people or inciting mobs to go against a state/republic is not how you avenge/revenge or satisfy your 'ghairat'. At least not in this post barbarian era. There are better, diplomatic, social and evolved ways to address your concerns in this day and age. 

After all, we don't see people in rest of the India turning against the state and becoming terrorists because of overtures by army and police (unless they are resuscitated by the communist, who get funded, we know from where). There are so many examples of police overtures being fought in courts all over india. i am sure someone will quickly point out that kashmir situation is 'different'. Well, maybe it is. Any thoughts about who/what made it different? The pattern of arguments that follow this question are the same old Ruy Lopez with Sicilian Defense boilerplate: eventually ending at "we want to join Pakistan". Good, now you are talking. What follows is my, a proud Indian's, message to all those thinly-veiled 'Indian' Kashmiris (and their sympathizers) who advocate Kashmir joining Pakistan. A tough stance that I wish India takes, instead of soft-gloving Kashmir.

"""
Now that we have cut all the crap and arrived at the root cause, let's get one thing out of the way before we discuss any further: it's not happening - you are not taking Kashmir to Pakistan, no matter how hard you try. Get over it. It's been 50 years since Kashmir was merged with the then new born India, and while the details can be argued for and against till the end of the time, the Kashmir deed is done and dusted in the last century. India has spent way too much time and resources since then in building its defences and guarding Kashmir as its own territory. No one and nothing, not even a nuclear holocaust - in which India has higher chances of surviving than Pakistan, can change that fact now. 

One step further, it's definitely not happening on the basis of religion. India has never adhered-to/believed-in the two-nations theory - reason why the Hindu-rashtra theory is fought with tooth and nail. If Kashmir was to let off to Pakistan just because it's majority Muslim as of now, then the left and center won't have any face to fight against the right when it comes to the Hindu-rashtra theory. So forget the right, you can't get much of support even from the left or center for your cessation demands. 

As for a plebiscite, India will never accept one since Pakistan has worked overtime to increase its own settlements in the PoK to bias any future plebiscites; while India still gives you a special status through Article-370. You should hang on to it, rather than stretching it so much that the rest of India looses its patience and starts demanding the article be dropped for good. It's the taxes we Indians pay, that has sustained Kashmir and your life style over the last 50-60 years. Reference: here is the latest [2016-17 budget for J&K at a glance](http://jakfinance.nic.in/Budget16/budGlance.pdf) that shows 48% of your budgeted 'income' is out of the grants that the central government bestows upon you. Don't you forget that. 

Better be sane, stop brainwashing your kids, and learn to co-exist with Kashmiri Pundits and the rest of India. That's the path towards peace, prosperity and a better quality of life. 
"""

Nirvana

... a bass boosted Rehman unleashed through the 5-channels, typically focusing on the sub woofer and beating the shit out of it, sending you into a tizzy as you discover some beats, and some notes from the upper band, unheard so far, and the collective effect of the air and the floor subtly vibrating together due to the force the sub woofer beats at ..... boy o boy! What a morning! Pure nirvana!!

I say put these Islamist inhumans into a room, and make them listen to this Rehmanian bliss every morning on a well tuned system - anything from Roza to Bombay to Dil Se to Taal will do - and they will start to realize how beautiful life - that they are so intent on taking out in bulk - can actually be! Tie that up with Nusarat Fateh Ali with lunch and Ghulam Ali with dinner ... आणि वाल्याचा वाल्मिकी व्हायला वेळ नाही लागणार. I didn't even realise but all three of these gem of artists, incidentally are Muslims themselves. What an irony! 

5 top class artists taken out in one shot, what a loss Charlie Hebdo! Given the time it takes for an artist to learn the trade, groom himself, develop his individual style, develop his thinking and then collect all dots together - taking 5 of them out just like that, is a loss impossible to recover from ever. 

Civilians, sportsmen, scientists, businessmen, pregnant women, school girls, school children, historical art, artists ... nothing much left in the world now, is there? 

Why I support AAP and Kejariwal

For long, I had been etching to write about AAP and why it still matters despite all its misgivings in the recent past. This question on Quora - Why do AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) volunteers follow Arvind Kejriwal despite his taking so many U-turns? - just gave the right trigger that was necessary to pour those long held thoughts down.

Given the excessive emotions it raises, I had become a little reluctant these days talking about politics and especially about AAP. Those who think for themselves need not be convinced, and those who don't can't be anyway. So it's pointless talking or arguing about it sometimes. But since it was Quora, where I tend to love the answers from its thinking community, I felt I can expect a higher emotional quotient, and objective and decent opinions/arguments pro/against.

Not only did I answer that question there, but decided to share those same thoughts here as well. WARNING: It's quite lengthy. 

I can't say about others, but talking about myself, I can tell why I support AAP. 

At this point in time, irrespective of the follies, mistakes, U-turns (perceived and otherwise) of its leaders, AAP is the only party with a clear agenda to not allow any tainted/criminal elements in its politics. Even though those elements can bring them votes and money. This is the only party which (from what I know) raises all its funds through public participation, and hence doesn't need to fall for the quid-pro-quo that's inevitable when you get funded by lobbying industrialists. 

Why cleaning politics is necessary? Consider this - You overtake someone driving on the road, suddenly the guy gets worked up, beats you up, and you can't do anything because he has 'connections'. Powerful at that. This is a real incident that happened in Mumbai a month or so before Loksabha elections. Instead of guessing which party that guy might have belonged to, take a guess which party he most likely would *NOT* have belonged to - Congress, BJP or AAP? Your guess is as good as mine.

In a country where democracy is just another means to get voted to rule and loot people; in a country where political high-handedness and 'connection' power-mongering is rampant; in a country where wealth is concentrated with a select few, who, in turn can call the shots using the wealth and get richer; in a country where regional, religious, sectarian, caste-based propaganda can be successfully used to turn groups in vote-banks; in a country where the root the root of all evil *is* - being ruled by the evil itself, isn't it about time we clean our politics before anything else? 

The middle class is taught from childhood to stay away from politics; reason, and we have taken this for granted, - politics is for the crooks not for 'us'. We have had generations arguing 'if everyone say so, good people will never get in, and politics will always remain for crooks'. Everybody argues, nobody, including me, acts. Everybody wants someone else to wash the dirty laundry. "शिवाजी जन्माला यावा, पण शेजारच्या घरात; आपल्या नको." (Translation: Shivaji should be born again, but at the neighbors' house, not ours). 

In 2011-12, during the height of scams, movements, and Congress' high-handed attempts to crush those movements, the despair in the air was pretty palpable. "इस देश का कुछ नही हो सकता" (Translation: This country is never gonna change). The politicians who ruled the country will never take a step to clean the same system they thrive off. 

But then one man had the ambition and willingness to fight this one-sided battle to clean the system. He did take the plunge, built a party out of people with credible backgrounds and from the same middle class that used to run away from politics. The party won considerable seats on the basis of clean-politics agenda, in Delhi elections, and all of a sudden, those, like me, who were pessimistic about any change in Indian politics, started dreaming about a cleaner and fairer political system. 

But then Loksabha elections were closing in and both BJP and Congress, feeling nervous and threatened by AAP, used all their might to unleash systematic smear campaign, propaganda and FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) against AAP. That Kejariwal is another Congress, that Kejariwal 'took' Congress' support, that Congress is trying to divide BJP's votes through AAP, that AAP's game-plan is to bring Congress to power, that AAP is not fielding any candidates against Sonia Gandhi, and so on. So fierce was this blitzkrieg that even educated people who are supposed to discern true from false, fell for it wholeheartedly. Unfortunately Kejariwal and AAP being new to politics, and despite realizing that the 'system' will try every trick in the book to get rid of any attempt to cleanse it, fell prey to their own inexperience and mistakes that were immediately and effectively blown out of proportions, damaging their own cause and reputation further. Meanwhile all attempts to demean him/AAP were in full swing. Choking him from all sides, trapping him, and then calling him भगोडा, ridiculing him beyond decency, slapping him - they tried it all, and to a major extent succeeded in generating huge uncertainty and doubt about AAP. 

Though BJP got a majority in the elections, watching this FUD campaign from sidelines, I lost complete faith in them, and despite being a very pro-Modi, not more than an year ago, today I stand completely disillusioned by BJP. Those who are familiar with the history of Linux, will not find it difficult to draw parallels to the FUD campaign that Microsoft ran against Linux in late 90s. They did gain considerably in the short term, but Linux didn't go anywhere, and in fact thrived in the later years to this date - because the fundamentals and philosophy of opensource that it was based on, had the potential to survive the test of time, since it resonated with, and empowered people at large. 

AAP and its leaders made mistakes, did face foot-in-mouth many times, but nothing as serious as the amount of flak they receive/d. AAP didn't allow filth in, didn't let money power decide, and didn't play vote-bank politics - those are good enough reasons to look forward to better days for these fine folks who were trying to bring about a change, for which India probably was just not ready and patient enough. 


Good luck to Modi, at least he seems to have some quick-fix approach for the country back-broken over many years by Congress, and so far he seems to be making all the right noises. But for a long term, my support will always be for a party that tries to address the root of all evils in India - filth in politics. And with likes of Yedurappa embracing Modi openly, I don't have any willingness to park my hopes on BJP. 

The Two-Face and the Arm-twisting

India lately has been outraged by this Devayani Khobragade saga, and the in general high-handedness of US. A lot of people, even from the affluent IT sector, who hold almost daily interaction with their american counterparts, and hence nurture a soft-corner towards US if not a very pro-US mind-set, stand highly annoyed and disillusioned about the way this Indian diplomat is treated for paltry reasons.

The perception of fuck-the-business-if-no-respect-towards-India is quite palpable in at the people I observed. So i decided to pen down my own perspective vis-a-vis American arguments.

What's this visa fraud all about?

Here is a link, that details the 'fraud'. In short Khobragade promised ~$10/hr, paid about half of that and tried to suppress that afterwards. That's all there is to the 'fraud'.

What about the Blackmailing Angle?

Going by this timeline of the Khobragade case as published by Times of India, one is inclined to wonder if this is really a fraud as touted by holier-than-thou United States of America, or if this is a gross overstepping of jurisdiction by US authorities in general. Especially since the Indian HC had issued restraining order on the maid, while the US authorities kept neglecting complaints and information since July.

What treatment was she meted out?

• Handcuffed in front of her school-going children
• Strip searched
• Cavity searched
• Confined in the same cell as drug addicts

Doesn't she have diplomatic immunity?

Well, the US says she doesn't. To quote their state department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf -

"Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 
the Indian deputy consul general enjoys immunity from the jurisdiction of U.S. courts only with respect to 
acts performed in the exercise of consular functions. So, in this case, she fell under that specific kind 
of immunity and would be liable to arrest pending trial pursuant a felony arrest warrant."

Hold on a second there, lady. Raymond Allen Davis killed 3 pakistanis working under-cover sometime back. Yet, under the same Vienna Convension on Consular Relations, you argued he perfectly enjoyed diplomatic immunity, even though he had killed 3 people in a foreign country, despite being some administration attache to the embassy (or under-cover CIA agent?).

I take it - paying $6/hr less than promised by a Depuly Consul General of India, is a wayyy graver crime than merely killing a few here and there in a foreign country by some administration attache of US embassy.

So grave, that not only is she denied any diplomatic immunity, but is strip searched, cavity searched, and confined in the same cell as drug addicts.

What does US media say?

This WaPo author - Swati Sharma tries to tone it down saying similar/worse treatments were given to other Indian diplomats as well in the past. Then why so much noise this time? So past wrongdoings justify present ones? Is that what you are trying to say Ms Sharma?

She states drug-offenses are minor in US. And under-wage charges are as grave? Are you sure you guys have got your priorities right there?

This post in TOI quotes some NYT post about Indian reaction being unworthy of a democratic govt. Excuse me? Now you will teach us about what is democratic and what is undemocratic? The same people who disregarded the whole world, even the UN, and attacked a sovereign country of Iraq - destroyed the whole country, killed its people - for what? A baseless mirage of WMDs - that were never found there.

The same people who run Guantanamo Bay, are now lecturing the most tolerant country in the world (nothing to be proud of really), about human rights violation in underpaying of a maid by a diplomat.

Opportunist Indians, in the US itself, keen to prove how 'american' they are, are using this unfortunate incident to lecture India about how it's wrong about siding with the diplomat. What they seemingly fail to understand is it's not about the diplomat. It's about the country. A diplomat represents his/her country. Faceless. So insulting, humiliating a diplomat is like insulting, humiliating his/her country.

Under-currents in the Social and National Media

While the general perception is that of anger and outrage, there is this section of not only national, but even the social media, that's busy digging out Khobragade's and her family's alleged links to corruption. What is it that you are trying to prove? That she was all corrupt and hence deserved to be humiliated by some foreign country for the graft she committed here, while she was representing India as a diplomat?

If at all true, try her in the Indian courts for those charges. I don't see any point in confusing the humiliation with India's internal business.

What Next?

While initially people were quite happy with the Indian govt showing some spine and taking some strong actions, soon it's becoming clear how sincere they were. The Delhi elections have shown that the Indian electorate is not some fool that you can deceive by mere posturing before elections.

The banana republic, that India has become due to these spineless and corrupt rulers, busy siphoning out tax payer's money through whatever outlet available, doesn't have the willingness and guts to say and do what's necessary.

Over the time, the mellow govt will meekly surrender, accept these insults and will get back to what they are good at - money-making; while the self-respecting neo Indian youth will keep licking these invisible wounds resulting out of such uncalled for arm twisting. Sad thing it is, but a fact, that we are not an Israel yet.

Update [Thu, Dec 26, 2013]:

Further to this, here are a couple of more blogs that throw some light on different aspects of the story.

• Swagato Ganguly interprets Preet Bharara and his possible intentions in this interesting read - In Khobragade's hounding, an ambitious brown man assumes white man's burden

• Peter Van Buren, former US foreign service employee, and now a whistleblower, analyses graver wrongdoings by US Embassies around the world, including but not limited to underpayment and abuses of domestic help by their own diplomats; exposing yet again the double-standards of holier-than-thou US - Diplomatic Abuse of Servants: Not Just for Indians

Fuck the "Peace-Process", will you?

It was so infuriating to see Indian pride trampled at the hands of some stone-age barbarians ruling Pakistaan. What is absolutely horrific is that the Indian leadership still wants to continue "constructive-dialogue". Fuck the dialogue for god's sake. This is not a dialogue, but a monologue with the Pakistani leadership hell-bent on showing India down in whichever way possible. Even though that way involves trashing international protocol and behaving like teenage dorm-room bullies, with your guests. The message is loud and clear - THEY DON'T WANT A DIALOGUE - they just want to play with and insult India. They must be having such a fun. Dangle the peace-carrot towards India. India makes noise about terrorism, but then falls in line eventually and goes for the carrot, and presents them with an opportunity to slap her across the face. That too by a state like Pakistaan, which could never match the defence capabilities, let alone progress of India; a nation which is on the brink of bankruptcy due to failed attempts at matching India's military strength by borrowing funds and technology from anybody and everybody; a nation which has long nurtured a deep inferiority complex towards India, and hence is always on a lookout for an occasion for mud-slinging and bickering to pull India down anyhow. WHY THE FUCK DO WE NEED A DIALOGUE WITH SUCH A NATION?

Is that because we know Pakistaan is already a failed state and that it has got nothing to lose in a fight/war with India? Is that the reason we are being aggressively-defensive? Do we fear that a nuclear attack from a nothing-to-lose state will destroy our well-to-do cities? Then why don't we redirect all our energies towards a star-wars like project, rather than wasting millions on the doomed peace-process and J&K upkeep? If we can send a satellite to moon, we are very much capable of developing technology for defending ourselves from such an attack. Why are we under such a moral obligation to keep the peace-process going? Even at our own expense? Will we ever learn anything from Israel? Just because we are bigger and stronger than Pakistaan doesn't mean we have the moral responsibility to be understanding. This is not about inter-personal relationships. This is about inter-state inter-national relationships. One shouldn't apply moksha-centric inter-personal-relationship guidelines to international matters. As far as international relationships are concerned the whole world is still in the stone age, with nations bullying each other on the basis of their military strength (although every nation has it's own mask to hide such an instinct from others). So rather than trying to be a teacher's pet here (and we all know who the 'teacher' is), be the bully, show your might and take the dogs head on. India's pride is at stake here for god's sake!!

The idiots at the helm of India right now, need to understand this. Getting rebuked at the hands of dogs DOES undermine an elephant's pride. So either don't pay attention to the barking dogs; or if you do, then make sure that YOU dictate the terms, not the dogs. And if you can't do this, you don't deserve the power. Step down and leave for Himalayas.


PS:
In case the reason for this outburst is not clear to you, read these news items -
Agra again: Qureshi kills peace talks
Islamabad's 'recklessness' may've been part of script

अबू आझमी आणि विधानसभेतील राड़ा

अलीकडंच महाराष्ट्राच्या विधानसभेत झालेल्या राड्यानंतर अबू आझमींनी ठरवलं की झालं तेवढं खूप झालं, आता यापुढे मराठीतच बोलायचं. राजला वावगं पोलिटीकल माइलेज मिळू द्यायचं नाही. आणि मग काय विचारता एक-दोन दिवसात त्यांनी मराठीचा जोरदार अभ्यास केला अणि विधानसभेत झालेला राड़ा चक्क 'रेशमाच्या रेघांनी' च्या सुरात म्हणून दाखवला.

तर तोच हा राडा, शब्दबद्ध केला आहे अबू आझमींनी -

शपथ घेत होतो मोठ्या गुर्मीत
रोवण्या हिंदीचा झेंडा, मराठी मातीत ... मातीत बाई मातीत ...
सोनेरी वंजाळेनं, चकाकत्या हातांनी
स्टेजवरचा माइकच उपसून काढीला
हात नका लावू माझ्या माइकला ...

हिंदीवरती माझी पोळी भाजण्यासाठी
गरज होती मला, मराठी झिडकारायची ... बाई बाई, झिडकारायची ...
हिंदीतच शपथ घेतली, अणि वर चप्पल दाखवली
कुवे-के-मेंडक का तोरा कैसे जीरवला
हात लावून दाखवा माझ्या बॉडी ला ...

नवीकोरी चप्पल, माझ्या आझमगडची
मुलायम ने दिली, राजला दाखवायसाठी ... बाई बाई, दाखवायसाठी
शिंद्यांच्या शिशिरानं, महाराष्ट्राचा नकाशा,
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India Votes: My Experience With Section 49-O

With so many hopes, so many emotions, so many uncertainties and so many opinions going into this election in India, the dust has finally settled  on this leg of the election which covered most of the Maharashtra. For long their had been this talk about negative voting (which unfortunately hadn't been implemented in this election), and about the section 49-O of Conduction of Elections Rule 1961. The talk started gaining momentum especially after the mass public awaking due to the Mumbai attacks in November 2008. Those images of the majestic Taj burning helplessly, burnt many a hearts in India. People started being very vocal against the politicians. And then started many exchanges about this Section 49-O. Not many people were aware of existence of any such thing. There were many rumors as well about what exactly is this section and how one can use it. There were rumors about this being used against a candidate if the number of section 49-O votes exceeded the number of votes the winning candidate garnered.

So to get to the base of it, I went through lots of websites and links. I googled around here and there, through Indian government websites, and the likes of wikis; and finally I came to know for sure that, the section 49-O does exists, and though not as useful as has been rumored, it at least allows one to be a responsible citizen by letting him show the intention of casting his vote, but still making it possible for him to listen to his intellect and avoid committing a moral crime by voting for a criminal.

Even after all this brouhaha about this, I am sure, quite a lot people who are in the know, still doubt about existence of such a section. They confuse it with the negative-voting proposal and dismiss it saying it's still not implemented.

I had verified this section in the actual law text on an official Indian Govt website and wanted to rest all those doubts once and for all through a real voting experience. So here are the details of what happened in an election booth in Sangli, my home town, when I tried to actually use this section.

I went in the election booth, signed against my name, got my finger painted, and just before voting, I told them I wanted to speak to the election booth officer. The officer was not at his desk at that time, so they asked me exactly why I want to talk to the booth officer. I told them I wanted to use section 49-O. From their reaction, I realized I was first such 'case' there. After I explained to them what exactly it was, in as pure Marathi as much I could get out of my partially westernized tongue, few heads started turning, due to this unusual discussion in an election booth. Then once the whole thing sunk in, everybody around was on a mission to convince me that such thing just doesn't exist. I got a jolt when even the election booth officer outrightly refused knowing about any such thing as section 49-O. All this time, I was firm on my stand that there does exist this section which allows me not to vote for any of the candidates, and the booth officer/supervisor just needs to note my name down in some list. After around half an hour of discussions, and lots of rounds of convincing each other, they gave in and started going through their documents, instructions and booklets. And finally one of the smart guys there, found the section mentioned in the booklet. He was honest enough to read it aloud, even though that meant I being exactly right, and they all being totally wrong. While I don't want to blame those guys there, I really feel the need for these people being clearly briefed about existence of such a section, so that somebody who really wants to use this sections, doesnt get persuaded out of it.

Finally, there came a remark against my name on voter's list saying - 'Matadaan karanyas spashta nakaar' - 'Outright refusal to vote'!!
I was registered to have voted, my finger was painted, and still I didnt commit a moral crime by voting for a crook/a criminal.

I know people will be quick enough to dismiss this as juvenile, immature, and what not. They will be quick to tell me that this defeats the basic purpose of democracy if you refuse to vote. The wikipedia page on section 49-O mentions such criticisms by so-called 'experts' criticizing the negative voting proposal.

The first specific criticism is - "It is the duty of every citizen to educate himself/herself about the agenda of the candidates and to vote conscientiously for the candidate they think is better. The very purpose of an election is that a representative should be chosen by the people. Encouraging people not to express their preferred candidate goes against the intended purpose."

Think about it this way. In India, politics is by and large looked down upon. This is because of the presence of large number of crooks and criminals amongst the political masses. So the political spectrum remains devoid of the honests, capables and the 'good' guys. The general apathy of people towards voting speaks a lot for itself. So even in its current form, it will be very bold to say that people are 'choosing' their representatives, when the voting percentages are 40% and 50%. If negative voting is allowed, people will get a new, powerful and most importantly a >real< weapon in their hands, with which they can have a better go at having good leaders. As far as my information goes. the negative voting proposal also notes that if there happens a case where negative votes exceed the votes garnered by any of the candidates, those same candidates will not be allowed to appear for a re-election in that constituency. This makes perfect sense. This will teach the crooks a lesson and will give the deserving, well-educated leaders a new hope. So rather than going against the intended purpose, this negative voting proposal actually goes totally in line with the intended purpose.


The second criticism is that this will result in waste of public funds. How naive!!!
I mean what is costlier? Re-election? or choosing a criminal to guard and use the public fund?


They say, people get the kind of leaders they deserve. In India, getting the middle class to vote is key to 'deserving' better leaders and this radical step of allowing negative voting is a surefire way to make them feel positive about voting.

I just hope we are not kept waiting for this very important and much anticipated electoral reform, even in the next election.