Can you and I be the change ????

I was a little surprised when just a day after I posted my last blog on a voter's dilemma, I came across this website - http://www.freedomteam.in/.

Why I was surprised was becasue FTI ( Freedom team of India) popped up in front of me as an answer to all the innumerable questions I have been raising across different forums time and again. Once I visited their website to understand their ideology and where it came from I felt like being a part of this Freedom Team. Started by a set of committed people FTI's mission is to provide a co-ordinated platform, to ordinary, educated and motivated idividuals to contest elections in this country and usher in the change we all have been talking about, hoping, waiting and even praying for.
The Freedom team wants you and me to be the change. They challenge us to change the image of politics by coming forward. By giving up our cushy seats as spectators and entering the ring to fight!
What, I personally feel sets FTI apart from other similar initiatives is that it comes across as a honest effort to bring in the change we so desperately need, not just in the kind of governance we have today and people who govern us, but also in the policies and statutes, many of which have become redundent in the present times.
Also, I feel it is initiatives like these that need our honest support, for they are the small ray of hope in times such these, where we are forced to go backward in the name of religion, culture etc.

With the right kind of support and some great young minds who can lead, it gives me hope that maybe just maybe my tomorrow in this country would not be as bleak and scary as my today. Maybe, my children will be able to grow up in an India they can be proud of, maybe we will not be required to carry a tag on ourselves proclaiming our beliefs to be part of a group. Just maybe, I might be around to usher in a future, where everyone will have the equal right and opportunity to grow and prosper in this country.
I am not sure as an individual with several demands on my time how I will supprot FTI and be part of this process. But I am very sure of one thing, if there is an honest effort to bring in change I want to be a part of it.

A voter's dilemma!

The other day I joined a community called Jago re! - One billion votes - It is a nationwide movement launched by Janaagraha a (non-profit) NGO and Tata Tea. To enable and awaken the citizens of India, expecially the youth, to register for voting. 

Currently the community has more than 10,000 members and the main site Jago re.com is very prompt with providing with the voter registration forms and other info as, to which constituency you belong, where to submit the form etc. They also track your form for you once you have submitted. The effort is commendable and I wish them luck in completing their mission at the earliest.

However, i am bit sceptical about certain issues, problems etc. that plague our political system.

While we might all be coming together to mobilize 1 billion people to vote, what are our choices. Its still choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea. It is the same set of corrupt, old and power hungry politicians who stand for the elections every time. Our country's constitution also supports and in some ways encourages horse trading, which has become the back bone of coalition politics in India.

So how do we address this issue? It does not matter how many people we get to the voting counters, what matters is whether we can change the way we think when casting their vote and what are the choices available to them.

Today many people do not cast their vote because they feel they do not have a choice when left to choose between a party, that is communal, or one that is corrupt or another one which is manipulative and power hungry.

A year or two back, there was some hue and cry about educated people and youngsters floating a new political party, there was even news of some IITians coming together and floating a party, but then there has been no news since. In every election we end up seeing the same old candidates from the same old parties campaigning. Some parties might field a young and educated candidate, but that guy is hardly going to be at the helm of affairs. There is still an 80 year old man waiting to become the PM of our country.

The ruling government of this country is decided by states like UP, MP and Bihar, where people till today are exploited in the name of caste, religion etc. We need to think of ways and means, to change their perceptions and voting habits. We need to somehow show them that the very reason they have not progressed as compared to other states is because of caste and religious divides.

I feel unless an until we can create a platform for new and young leaders to voice their concerns, contest election and change these ancient perceptions that continue to decide and seal the fate of a billion people - this would be a lost cause.
I do not want to sound pessimistic but, I also do not want the efforts of Janaagraha to go waste. With millions of young educated thinking minds in our country, I am sure we can together come up with some ways to beat these problems and take our efforts a notch higher.

Is media abetting crime.......

                               

The moral police of our country are out again to teach us, right from wrong. To correct us from falling into temptations and ruining our thousands of year old Indian culture, of being submissive, divisive, of treating our women like cattle. What happened in Mangalore, is not the first time, we have seen something like this happen in our country and I can assure you it won't be the last.

Forgive me for being pessimistic, but then despite all the hue and cry over the incident in the media, from questioning the government and the politicians to holding chats and discussions with anyone who wanted to talk on moral policing and on the infringement of our fundamental right to freedom, there is not much that has been achieved, when it comes to punishing the real culprits.

And when I say culprits, I do not just mean the men who vandalized the pub and the women there on that day but also the media persons who were present at the venue to cover it live.Having worked as a television journalist and having often been in the thick of action, I am surprised by the state of affairs when it comes toTV news channels these days. Have we become so insensitive as a nation that for the sake of exclusive footage and higher TRP's we actually abet criminals and anti-social elements.

As a former journalist and as an individual I feel I would have felt more confident of the fourth estate in my country, had they covered on how they used the information and their powerful position to avert the heinous incident from happening in the first place, rather than being mute spectators and rerunning the horrors of the crime for days on their TV channels.

I understand sensationalism is the key to increased TRP's but then, where do we draw the line, at this rate the day is not far when we will see live murders being covered on television, when the distinction between fiction and reality would probably vanish.

We have seen how the media covered the Mumbai 26/11 terror attacks. Over the years several studies have stated, all criminals thrive on publicity. Instant fame and publicity of their gory crimes gives them the sense of power, for they succeed in creating fear in the masses. When terrorists or fundamentalist political parties attack or vandalize, it is to get publicity for their acts, the more the reruns the more their reach and influence. This is all the more reason why it is important for the media to be responsible when reporting crimes, riots etc.

I remember when we used to cover communal riots, their was an untold code of conduct of not mentioning the communities in our reports as there were chances of inciting more people..........but today I hardly see that kind of restrain in the media. While the media questions why certain minority communities are treated differently in our country, it is they who are largely responsible for creating this rift. The more inciting and emotional a comment or appeal the higher the TRPs.

A friend's 3 year old daughter who lives in Delhi, after seeing the Mumbai attack unfold in front of her eyes and hearing constant gunshots on Television, recently asked him, "papa will these terrorists shoot us also with their guns?" Mind it, this is a three year old kid, who barely knows her b's from her d's.

Freedom of press is the foundation of a successful democratic state, but a free and responsible press is the foundation of a diverse yet united democracy. Maybe it is time the fourth estate questioned itself, whether in their bid to outdo each other in this never ending race of TRPs,  are they compromising with the innocence and ideals of  our future generations.

I hope sanity prevails and wish my son can grow up in this country, believing in the goodness of every human life irrespective of their socio-economic strata or religious preferences.

Obama brings hope......

For the first time in my life, post Barrack Obama's election to the top most job in the world, I felt Americans are lucky. For the first time in my life, I wanted to go and live in the USA for a couple of years and experience the change Obama has promised the Americans and the world at large. For the first time, I am interested in knowing more about American president's policies and his way forward. For various reasons, like hundreds and thousands of Americans I feel, Obama can bring in the change we all have been hoping and waiting for. Not because he is a black president of a majority white country, not because he managed to unite a country divided over race and colour for centuries but because he is intelligent, he is a thinker, he is well educated and is qualified to hold the office, he was rightly elected to. The fact that he is black, only adds to his impeccable resume. He has seen, how it feels to be an underdog in your own country, what it means to be differentiated basis your colour than your caliber, his background makes him more humane.
Also, his election gives me hope that maybe, maybe we Indians would also be able to rise above the politics of caste, creed, religion, region etc. and cast a vote for change. Change in the way we are governed, change in the way we function, change in the way we think, change in the way we nurture our future generations. Maybe, we will vote for people who are educated and qualified to hold the most important posts in the country, rather than vote for candidates because they belong to a certain cast or family.
It was not just the incumbency factor of the Bush government and its failure to deal with the financial crisis which hit America, that helped in Obama's victory, but it was his genuineness which made him the ray of hope in such times of despair.
If only the Indian political system allowed genuine people to come up and lead the nation without getting entangled in partisan politics, we might have had better leaders and a more promising future.
"The Alchemist" A book by Paulo Coelho says, "When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream".
On this day, I wish and desire for change in my country. A change like America dared to usher in, a change which gives me hope for a better India, young and rational in its thoughts and honest in its efforts.

Change we can.........