Have we actually regressed?

For all those who are still living in fairy tale thinking about India progressing, especially in the Modi era, here are a few things which has happened in the entire year which has missed the mainstream media. I leave the judgement to you.

The finance bill passed this year actually removed the upper limit on political party donation from companies. Foreign funding of parties was legalised. For those who don't know the fulcrum of corruption in this country is political funding.

Till now not a single corrupt politician was imprisoned. In fact the much publicised 2G scam, either did not happen or the guilty found their way to escape. Corruption whistle blowers and RTI activists got a huge backstab as respective laws were changed to make life difficult for them. Read here.

Law and order took a disastrous turn, with 2017 being the deadliest year for cow lynchings with 152 recorded victims across the country. Oh BTW, talking of law and order and punishing the culprit there is a chief minister who has withdrawn a case against himself and 22000 other cases against other politicians. And the cases by his own affidavit in the election commission include charges of attempt to murder, criminal intimidation, rioting etc.

It is not that the government in power is looking after its own - every government we have ever had in living memory has done exactly the same, to a greater or lesser degree. What should worry is that unlike in the past, this government does not even feel the need to be covert about it - it is all done in the open , with a "so? what the eff are you going to do about it? bravado that is chilling to the mind.

Apart from the multi billion dollar rafale scam which nobody is willing to talk about, the comptroller and auditor general in a report says two union ministers have released grants of over 26000 crores in three years with no record of beneficiaries. You had to look very hard to find this story though as these news does not come on mainstream media anymore.

The other day the Delhi metro was inaugurated without inviting the Delhi chief minister. But two days before, on the list of VIPs invited for the chief minister Rupani's coronation, there was an invitee called Babu Bajrangi, for those who came in late, who has been convicted in a case relating to massacre of just 97 individuals and was apparently out on bail citing eye treatment. Remember the bravado I spoke about?

For once a legal marriage, of two consenting adults and in fact, of two consenting families, was disrupted because the local BJP district president decided that Hindus and muslims should not come together in marriage.

Oh ya, I forgot to mention the economy in shambles (with almost growth rate halving according the older criteria of calculations), and the foreign policy in disarray what with the number of soldiers losing life the highest in the last decade.

We cannot afford regressions anymore. Time the PM buckle up, but is there the political will? 

The reality called India!

As the dust settles down on the Gujarat elections and the PM modi and the opposition leader Rahul start thinking about the next elections, in the tiny hamlet in Jharkand, this family is still coming to terms with the loss of their dearest child.

Koili Devi has four children. The older two just entered their teens had been married off. The youngest was twleve. The husband was earning some Rs. 100 a day for five days a month till he descended rapidly in to mental illness some five years ago. But now he only sleeps or wanders about, and the burden fell on Koili Devi's thin shoulders to feed and tend to him apart from his children and his aged mother. 

Critically dependent on the subsidised rations they receive through the public distribution system to keep hunger at bay, catastrophe struck the family when the state administration made it mandatory for all ration cards to be linked to biometric identification through Aadhar. 

The subsidised grains were the thin thread that held the family aloft above hunger. And when that thread snapped, starvation became an inevitability. 

Even though the youngest kid, Santoshi, had dropped out of school she would still take a break from her cow grazing to eat the mid day meal served in school. But the school had closed for the festival season. Santoshi's health began to slide, and she whimpered all the time, begging for rice. But all they had in the hovel were tea leaves and salt. The child finally died crying for rice; 

This story somehow penetrated the customary indifference of the national press and nudged its way to the front pages of the national dailies, and it even briefly pricked our conscience.

Even as the family was mourning, the officials in that area were quick in their defence. Santhoshi died of malaria. The family is not saying the truth said they. The ruling BJP remonstrated that Koili Devi should abandon her claim that her child had died of salvation and accept that she succumbed to Malaria. They even promised rewards for agreeing to accept that. There were even threats. The chief minister said Koili Devi had brought bad name to the village by her claim of death by starvation. 

For those of you who think this is an one off incident, Koili Devi's was only one of the eleven lakh ration cards cancelled in the state for failing to link with aadhar. For those of you who think this is a story straight from Bollywood, believe me I  myself have walked in to many remote villages in the northern India, where poverty is a reality. 

This my dear friends is the reality called India. 

Tamil Nadu and the election drama conundrum!

I'm sorry Tamil Nadu, I'm sometimes embarrassed by your choice!

You have always confused me Tamil Nadu. Where do we even start to explain today's TTV win? I mean, I understand he paid a lot of money. But are you so honest that you will vote honestly only to one who paid the highest amount of money? Everybody paid money. Didn't they all?

Here is a man who was just a few months ago admonished by none other than the election commission themselves for bribing voters. He comes from the family who is famously called "The Mannargudi Mafia". "Mafia", is their pet name anyway. And how do we understand voting for a mafia?

Yes we have always supported a corrupt Jaya. But she had the charisma not many had and so you voted for her. Oh yes, Karunaanithi for all his allegations and the family problems was among the pioneers of the Dravidian movement and so you voted him for a long time.

Is lack of choice one major reason for going ahead with TTV? May be you didn't like going ahead with the EPS-OPS faction, but why not DMK? The more logical option. I understand you don't like the colour orange, but why not Seeman? That man has been shouting from rooftops for a long time.

Am I missing something here TN? Did TTV have a personality which I din't see. A Charisma which is making you select him even with his tainted image, which I could not see? May be so TN; May be so!

But to be honest, I think I'm a little embarrassed at your selection. For if you elect a clown you always expect a circus and so if you elect a known criminal you should know what to expect.