Kartikey Sehgal

It is absolutely fine if you do not vote in the coming elections. Asking you to vote compulsorily is like enforcing a caste system.

Consider the Jaago Re ad on television in which a ‘young’ man and his friend offer tea to people who have not cast their vote. You are sleeping-he tells them. When they retort that they are awake, the man says that if on Election Day people are not voting then they are obviously sleeping. The embarrassed/awakened people then accept the cup of tea as the two young men walk confidently amidst the crowd.

Compulsory voting is subterfuge. It is a marketing gimmick. It is setting a low benchmark for people; so that people feel glad by just voting. Never mind that most people won’t know whom to vote for. Does the Prime Minister of this country appear on television and announce in clear terms his plans for education to girls from the Doda tribe? People are not wise about any candidate and yet asked to vote or to hang their head in shame.

How the voting caste system works: people who have voted can identify and then blame the people who have not voted during elections. This is the burden of responsibility; it is telling the non-voters that the country gets lazy politicians because of their non-decision; it is feeling happy to have done your responsible bit for the country. Should anybody question your patriotism you can announce that you voted like a responsible Indian. 
It is finding the goats who did not vote for a butcher.

Why should anybody be compelled to vote? The willingness to vote should be personal willingness. People should be self-inspired to vote for a particular candidate. In India, many people don’t know much about the candidate and they know little about their leadership skills. So why should they spend their resources on the politician?

To know a country is to identify its problems. When India was attacked by the British, the kings and the princes passed the buck on one another. The caste system got rigid. To be like the British, the Brahmins relegated the shudras to lowliness. None had the courage to get together and take the outsiders head on. Similarly, unless the country is attacked by terrorists, people don’t get together or even write about urgent issues. Never mind that hundreds are killed in Mumbai Local Trains (deserves the first letter capital status) every month. Nobody is going to take the politicians to task. That, is tough. Very tough. It is easier to blame the people. “You voted” and “You never voted” and “your kind of people voted for…” Create rifts. So that today residents of Andheri fight with residents of Virar for seat sharing at 9 A.M every morning and every day of the year. They will not get together and tell the government to look beyond allotting land to Mr. Nano. Similarly, through advertisements like the Jaago Re and now Shut Up and Vote ad, divisions are being created between the people. Shut Up and Vote. Unless you do that, you have no role in questioning the government. This is easy. Easier than telling the government to Shut Up and Govern. So that people vote in the next elections.

These advertisements, in addition, will show non-voters in a negative light. They will also be non-relevant to the people in rural areas who are anyway eager to vote and believe that they have some political options. Over 50% people voted in Kashmir (State Elections) without any prodding. They travelled on cold streets and cast their votes without bothering about their morning kavah. Just because they wanted to vote. They felt that they have some options. The will to vote was self-will.

We are now 60-plus years post independence. People have realised that they have been voting because they were lied to about policies. These people are not the internet surfing populace. They are villagers and those belonging to road-less rural India. They vote not for any concern for the nation but concern for their self. It was expected and hoped by Mr. Nehru that with impetus to education, people in India’s villages would adopt an all-India view of politics. Unfortunately, till this day, people are voting because of blankets and chappals and promised electricity and free rice.

So what has always happened is happening now. For the last 60 years, Indians have had no real knowledge and education about elections. People are parochial and divided over basic issues like water (example).

And people in cities are under the impression that they are aware of the needs of the nation. “I want a young politician. They should be educated and computer savvy….” 

—-You want nothing. You want what you are told to want.
A precedent: remember the last elections. ‘Young politicians’ was the keyword. The Pilots and the Gandhis. This was the mantra fed to voters. So that five more years pass by without many questions asked. Vote so that young people come into politics. If you don’t vote for them, then you have no right to complain that the country is not led by bright politicians. Elections over. Good night and good luck.

People must wake up to marketing inventions and determine whether voting is being encouraged or tea is being sold; if campaigns for voting are opportunities for brand selling.

It is nobody’s duty to vote. If at all there is any iota of responsibility, it is to vote correctly. Correctly. Let the politicians come to the people and tell them to regain trust in the electoral process. Le them reach out to the villagers and promise them no more lies but a better life. And people should vote only when they feel convinced. When they feel like entering the polling station despite the heat and ill-health. And not because of any obligation.

Kartikey Sehgal

Omar Abdullah could not become the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir through honest means. So Omar Abdullah went to the parliament and stated that he would fight for “every inch of Kashmir’s land” and “we will fight till we die.”

And Omar made the Muslims of the state feel that he is with them in fending off the ‘aggressive Hindus’.

Let us quickly relive that glorious period in Omar’s political career which redefined his status as protector of the Muslims.

It so happened that last year, some politician asked the J&K Governemnt for 39.88 hectares of land to make arrangements for pilgrims to the Amarnath cave. You see, every year we have lakhs of people going to Amarnath and praying to lord Shiva and Parvati among other Gods. The politician asked for the land so that some makeshift arrangements could be made for the pilgrims (both Hindus and Muslims).

Enter the educated and ‘suave’ Omar. Along with other politicians from other political parties, he told the people of Kashmir that valuable land was being snatched from them and made available to the Hindus. Muslims got angry and started protesting against ‘Hindu aggression’. Then some politicians told the Hindus that Muslims were hampering with the Amarnath pilgrimage. So the Hindus started protesting against Muslims.

Of course, Omar never told the people that the proposed land transfer was temporary in nature and required only till the duration of the pilgrimage. Instead, he entered the parliament and declared that he would fight for “every inch of Kashmir’s land” and “we will fight till we die.” Notice the ‘we’ in his speech. It implies ‘Muslims’. Omar told India that Muslims would fight till they died. And whom would they fight? The Hindus, of course.

[Detailed Explanation of the event]

Such a determined human being is the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Unfortunately he would also have to lead the Hindus of the state. The same Hindus he had vowed to “… fight till we die.”

The Early Omar

Till he burnt his imagination and integrity in the Amarnath land issue, Omar was considered wise and mature; a rising politician; an enigmatic youngster and etcetra. He attended the well-known Sydenham College in Mumbai. Sydenham is (was) proud of Omar. I have heard teachers and students of the college talk proudly about their former student. Never, never, never did they say that ‘Muslim Omar’ is a product of Sydenham or ‘Omar, who is a Muslim’ studied at Sydenham. And the people who told me about him were Hindus or Christians. I am sure his “we will fight till we die” must have disturbed his teachers and peers.

Omar has got elected. Not by a clear majority but still, he is looked upon as the most acceptable face in the sea of coalition politics.

His divisive politics have helped him become the chief minister of India’s probably most troubled state. He has Muslim support with him. And the Hindus may have voted for him for lack of a better candidate or because Omar’s father is still a popular political personality.

Perhaps, in his private chambers, he will regret his religious tones and vow to never repeat them. Maybe he has sure ideas for economic and social prosperity of the state. Vowing to kill a community that is considered very tolerant was perhaps just his plan to get ahead and later improve the political system.

Conclusion

The abysmal education level of the people from Jammu and Kashmir has also helped Omar’s ambition. People in the valley are guided by religious passions. These passions submerge the pain of living without enough food and security. Of course, religion will take a back seat when bullets pelt the brick houses and when the body is too weak to carry a blanket.

Whatever praise Omar earns from hereon would pale in face of the imagined ideal leader; an ideal Omar would never reach. It would also be in relation to the deficiencies of other politicians. Omar would be better because others would be worse. And that shall be the bane of being Omar Abdullah.

This is your work, Omar

Young children on the streets in Jammu asking the Governement to not go back in it’s decision to provide some land for Amarnath pilgrimage arrangements

Photograph: Jaipal Singh

And this too…

Women from Kashmir protesting against the Governemnt decision to temporarily provide land to the Amarnath pilgrims. They were not told by Omar and other politicians that this was a makeshift arrangement and that nobody was losing anything.

For this result

Photo Source

Kartikey Sehgal

[The author visits the sites affected by terror and meets a Naval Officer.]

More about the incident: One, Two, Three

“I could hear the blasts all night long. I shut the windows and bolted the doors. After all, they had just passed the lanes near my home. They could have come to this building and taken entire residents as hostages.”

She is the wife of an Indian Naval Commander who missed her husband on the night terrorists attacked Mumbai at various places.

Her home falls on the route that the terrorists may have taken on their route to the Taj and café Leopold. Her husband is candid about the public outrage about the attacks.

“Just because it’s the Taj,” he pauses and adds calmly, “had it been just the C.S.T, the public would have reacted softly.”

He is fortunate that the unarmed building guard was not sighted and attacked by the gunmen. As I stepped into the building, the guard stopped me for inspection. He was wearing a bullet-proof jacket and carrying a loaded machine gun. His name is Surya Pratap Singh.

“I was given the jacket and the gun after the Taj Mahal and Trident-Oberoi siege. Earlier, I stood guard without a revolver.”

Surya Pratap is determined as he tells me about his anger. “How long will we see this madness? The people will protest today and tomorrow, politicians will start dividing the people on regional and religious grounds.”

Surya Pratap is despondent about politicians.
“We must attack the militant camps in Pakistan.”

A Police guard stopped me from going near hotel Taj Mahal.
“The President is coming.”

I waded through the traffic and felt that I am a better person to be near this iconic structure than any politician.  

Fortunately, the President had spared Oberoi-Trident any such embarrassment and allowed the citizens to marvel at the destruction. While the severely damaged portions were covered by the police, the people could watch broken windows and shattered glasses.

“I wonder if there is anybody upstairs and how that person must be feeling about Mumbai looking down from there,” said a lady while making photographs with her mobile camera.

I don’t know about the people up there, but somebody in the sky was surely smiling at the city. A sign of change? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

A smile formed by two stars and the moon

Does anybody stay here?

Broken Windows of Oberoi

Lone Tower of Taj

Suddenly Armed

From the Commander’s Window. Route to Terror?

Ananth Venkatesh

Employees and guests of the Taj Mahal hotel, site of one of the shootouts with terrorists, are recued by firefighters as fire engulfs the top floor on late November 26, 2008. (LORENZO TUGNOLI/AFP/Getty Images)

Terrorism, a poison that has historically maimed a plenteous number of blameless Indians, rocked India once more for nearly 3 days. Mumbai’s Taj Hotel, a legendary symbol of architectural splendour, was targeted by Islamic bigots. The Oberoi-Trident was also brutalised by the bloody insaneness of the terrorists. Mumbai, familiar with such bigotry, had to endure the chilling ramifications of another intelligence blunder and the ineptitude of the law-enforcement machinery. Nariman House, mostly inhabited by Hasidic Jews, was also in the line of fire. The frequency of terror in India, with its inherent demoralisation, must alarm even the most optimistic Indian.

The terrorists, with a plenitude of deadly ammunition, journeyed through the sea to Mumbai. The inability of the police personnel and the Coast Guard members to hunt down these merchants of death before the formalisation of their devious designs is another addition to the lengthy list of incompetence of our security system.

The meticulous terrorists had eyed overseas nationals as well and their murder provides an international dimension to this issue. The attack on Jews in Nariman House is another lugubrious facet of this tragic episode of terrorism perpetrated against India. It only demonstrates the necessity of solidifying the Indo-Israeli alliance to forge a more efficient co-operation between the two sides, especially on the issue of counter-terrorism measures. The military relationship with Israel also needs to be deepened determinedly.

Indigenisation of terrorism is a mournful reality, which needs to be countered with fierceness since these venomous terrorists only understand the language of forcefulness.

Our political category has abysmally failed to supply relief to the Indian citizenry. The relentlessly inane squabbling between the political parties has enfeebled this federal government diametrically. A severe counter-terrorism law needs to be passed legislatively, which will serve as an appropriate counter to the evilness of terrorists. The notion of stringent laws to corner terror is always deemed as unacceptable by the pseudo-secular branches of the media and the polity. The rationale for the rejection of such legislative decrees is the possible brutalisation of the minority community. It is such small-minded politics–which refuses to understand the meanness of the temperament of terrorism–that is constricting India from confronting terrorism.

The ire of the citizenry has steadily expanded over the past four years during which several terrorist punches have bled India. The inaction of the national and provincial governments on the issue of terrorism could result in an electoral downslide for the governing coalition. The politicians have been incapable of acknowledging the indigestible facets of the terror hitting India 

Pakistan, which has mastered the art of disingenuousness, is the basis of all the terrorism directed against India. The mendacity of Pakistan has been divulged in the past. The joint anti-terror mechanism between India and Pakistan, an irksomely romantic vision, has become dysfunctional.

The barbaric ISI, which has provided schooling to the youthful terrorists, will never allow the instalment of trustworthiness in the Indo-Pakistan association. Pakistan, while adopting an aggressive stance on the matter of confronting Al-Qaeda and its ghastly cronies in the tribal areas of Western Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, has treated the primarily anti- India terrorist outfits such as Luhshker Tayyaba, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen weakly.

The stratagem of Pakistan and its espionage machinery remains the same, which is the terrorization of the Indian populace. India must call off the peace course that it has travelled on with Pakistan since 2003. As long as terrorism continues to be used as a weapon against India, India must not engage with Pakistan in any way.

India must interestedly consider the possibility of obliterating terror companies in PoK. This might seem an outrageous suggestion but India has been abused by Pak-endorsed terrorism for too long. Pictographic evidence along with material evidence exists with the national military and the central Home Ministry, which unmistakably determine the connivance of Pakistan’s infamous ISI with the anti-India malefactors.

Finally, the empathy of most of the globe will be on the side of India. India must strengthen its union with America in order to be able to tackle Pakistan and its terror zones aggressively. 

Timeline of Mumbai Terror Attacks 

Santa Singh

Indian Politicians: Spot the middle finger.

[Gunmen have carried out a series of co-ordinated attacks across the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay), killing *** people and injuring *** more.] Source

God bless terrorists! Without them, the country is plunged into darkness. Maharashtra is fighting Bihar and Karnataka is fighting Tamil Nadu. Or somewhere in north-east India, separatists are killing tribals. In Orissa, Christians and Hindus are blaming each other for communal tension. When terrorists strike, all these factions become united for a short time. So God bless terrorists.

India is a pitiful country. Like in the past, its people are bent on destroying it internally. The British or the Muslims would never have conquered us if the native kings were united. Similarly, no terrorist can bother us if we work united. But the nation is still soaked in caste and religion; every day there are reports of caste based politics and religious hatred. My self-made sample of daily news that defines India:

• MBA graduate harasses wife for dowry

• IAS officer under scanner for corruption

• Brahmin youth attack Dalit village

• Christians convert Dalit causing riots

• DGP arrested for bribery

Even India’s most popular sport is not spared from corruption. It is common news that many players in the Indian cricket team are selected on regional biases.

But all these conflicts disappear when terrorists strike. The message is clear; when you are not destroying us, we are destroying ourselves.  

All this nonsense about terrorists affecting our moral and social fibre will disappear in a few weeks time and the country will get back to its usual pettiness. Let us not be blinded by news channels asking us to be united and spirited; it just doesn’t work in this country.

The only people who should be sad are those who lost their loved one in the attacks. I don’t think they will say that the politicians must be united in tackling terror. They will also not go about preaching harmony. They will spend time recovering and while doing so, hear shrill voices of communal faith.

Tomorrow: For those who lost someone…

Kartikey Sehgal

If you have read the articles on Jammu and Kashmir (here and here), then you’d know that the Kashmir land issue was political fabrication. While political parties were wasting time in preparing for elections in the state, and provoking people to kill, a bunch of people were preparing to plant some bombs in Delhi.

The politicians and the bomb planters achieved their aim.

The politicians succeeded in dividing people in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) along religious lines but the bomb planters united many religions on September 13 when the survivors and family of victims cursed terrorism despite any prior religious bias.

Perhaps it can be inferred that had the bombs been planted in empty places, with the blasts not hurting or killing people, the event would have been more meaningful than the wasteful exercise of the government and its rivals in J&K.

The elected representatives of ‘We the People’ spent months over an infertile stretch of land when they could have planned to start thinking about public safety. And therefore, should we not tell the aggrieved families–if they ask us– that the source of their anguish lies in the minds of decorative kurtas and seamless cotton saris?

It can be expected that the thrust of politicians would be towards managing people and soothing their fears instead of generating ideas to prevent future killings.

A solution that has taken centre stage is the formulation of a ‘Federal Agency’ to deal with terrorism or religious killings. If this idea, floated some years back, had force and purpose behind it, then it would have been implemented immediately. It was rejected by the political opposition that is now keen to accept it since it is in power.

This is an apt example of the usage, ‘playing with lives’.

A solution that I propose has assumed a sense of cliché among the non thinking section of the people who are bored or discouraged by promises of social change. Education.

I have mentioned about education in my earlier story on ‘Orrisa Riots‘.

“While you are building nuclear missiles, the country may be bustling with riots.
Make some libraries and schools. Include sex education in every curriculum.”

Open public libraries and stop censorship. Let people indulge themselves in subjects of their choice and do away with the importance given to religious identity. Let children and adults unite under the pretext of thought. If a thought has any potency, then it will not advocate murder or injury. A human thought that is allowed unhindered exploration of the self generates ideas for its betterment.

Understand this.

The number of religious killings may reduce if we allow education to anybody who seeks it. The unlettered masses must be set free from adopting the thoughts of the politicians and they must think for their self.

Illustration: Kartikey Sehgal