Monday, January 26, 2009

Happy Republic Day... but how republic are we???

It's Republic Day today, it has been 59 years since India was declared a republic nation (surprisingly many of us don't even know that and think it was in 1947; 1947 was when India got independence & in 1950 we were declared a republic with adoption of the constitution); since then we are officially known as 'Republic of India'. Many of you may or may not know (yeah, like you all are supposed to know) but I am very nationalist ( don't even know that it means but sounds good), I don't write much about my great patriotic & social thoughts and just keep blabbering about stuff (but i guess still better than BS of many other bloggers talk about; when they woke up, what they ate, who they ate or dated & how was there damn day. Those are the blogs I encounter except the other ones, lol). But some thoughts definitely kept striking my mind this R-Day (sounds cool like V-Day)... I mean Republic Day. All I remember about this day actually is how we used to run to school for being part of the R-Day prayer & flag-hosting ceremony as we used to get sweets afterwards. I being a member of Scouts in school, used to manage to get more packs of sweets & share it with friends (& be the Hero). Also the day used to be special to watch the R-Day parade on TV, I loved it as a kid and I guess most of us did (except being asked to write an essay about it, ugh!!). I always thought & still think that I love my India and am really proud of being an Indian, however there are few questions & concerns which come to my mind today. And they have been prompted due to some recent events & incidents around us...

The first and most disgusting is the recent attacks on girls by so called morale police of Ramsena in Karnataka claiming indecency. Previously also we have been hearing about such attacks and bans by moral police of Shivsena, ABVP, SIMI, maulavi n mullas & other such groups; on young girls & boys for there own stupid reasons. In a republic like India, how can such organizations and groups have rights to make such rules, who are they to tell us that how are we to dress or how are we to behave? You can't even safely roam around with a girl or without the questioning eyes of such people staring at you all the time. Just some time back I saw pictures of young girls & boys being man-handled and even beaten by police themselves in the name of moral actions (they were found drinking & partying). Who gives the right to police for beating up people in public (or even in private); they are not criminals or terrorists to be treated as such. Police or such organizations hardly show up when it comes to fighting crime or terror, but try to become the bosses to teach morale to us. It's disgusting to see the way a policeman or even government officials behave with normal public. Doesn't a common man has a right to some self respect in a republic. Why is he supposed to be treated like an animal or even worse in this human society?

Every person who has certain power tries to molest others and take advantage of that power. Starting from politicians, police, bureaucrats, government officials, social organizations & even media/press. On the worst of occasions, we just see the media/press covering that event (like youngsters being beaten or someone committing suicide etc) & creating sensational news out of it (taking pictures & videos and asking dumb questions such as how do you feel about it) and they never come forward to stop it from happening. Some stupid set of people with corrupt mind try to tell us how to lead our lives and we just watch it, being tortured and still try to be thankful to them that they are letting us live.

I recently heard that the High Court has lifted the ban on showing smoking in Cinema & TV. Again a moral police in the form of Central Health Minister Mr. A. Ramdaus was trying to guide entertainment industry by telling them not to show smoking onscreen because it will provoke people to smoke more. I am not saying that it is impossible seeing that the heroes are even smoking now and people may try to follow it as a style statement. But there is a thing called as creative independence, and we are a republic who have right to decide what we do to/for ourselves. There is so much bull-shit shown in cinema starting from crime, rape, drugs, terrorism to sheer fantasy like ghosts, spirits, black magic to scientific fiction like flying, time machines, androids & lot more. If people just start believing what they see on screen then what do we expect of this world to happen. We don't just act on what we see in cinema or TV; that definitely influences us in some way but does not guides us. And that's why we have some regulations & censorship on what can be shown to what kind of audience. I am not even a full supporter of this dump censorship which we try to follow in India, which does not even allows adults to see what they want (which could be violence, blood, sex, crude language or anything else) in the name of censorship. Why don't we let the people decide what they want to see and what they want to follow. Certain moderation is definitely required in a society but dumb restrictions can never be appreciated.

Which brings me to another incident I saw on TV.
Ashutosh Gowarikar got mad on Sajid Khan for making fun of films & film-stars in Star Screen Awards 2008. Seems we have still not learnt to even take humor on face (if we cant appreciate it). We are living in a society of humans and a republic country where people have right to free speech. It does not means that we start abusing or insulting people but certain level of fun and humor is part of a civilized culture. Either it's about flopping of big films like Yuvraaj, Drona, Tashan, Love Story 2050 & others (there's a huge list of flops for 2008, a bad year for our bollywood) or failure of big actors & directors like Yashraj, Subhash Ghai, Salman, Abhishek etc (I know you would like to add lot more, but we better don't even count them); all these things can be and should be made fun of. But somehow some people are not able to understand or appreciate it. I haven't seen much that, strong comments being made on big politicians or celebrities (it started to happen to certain extent now though through laughter shows & comedians). Humor can be sarcastic at times but that just means that there is some truth in that humor. That gives us an opportunity to see the mistakes & flaws and gives us a chance to rectify them. In place of getting offended by humor, shouldn't we just try to enjoy & appreciate it.

So much to complain about this republic where the public is not free yet. Not free of inhibitions, the conservative thoughts, the dumb morale codes and not free of themselves. It may have been just 62 years to
independence or 59 years to republic but we are hundreds or thousands years old country, culture & society. These flaws have been incorporated into us recently by some dumb & numb minds trying to force us out of our greatness and demean ourselves. But we have to fight against all of them and prove to the whole world that we are not just one of the biggest republic of the world but we have the biggest heart, strength and power to be the greatest nation of this world. We have it in us and we can do it, we just have to go ahead and do it... NOW!!!

Alright boys n girls and dear friends, that's it for now. Please keep blogging & keep reading my blogs (please COMMENT to let me know of your views too). This is RAHUL again saying, Good Bye & Good Luck... JAI BHARAT, JAI HIND!!!

(I would also like to congratulate Mr Barack H Obama for becoming the 44th President of USA, he's riding high on the cloud of expectations and hopefully it rains well as & when needed. I liked it when he said USA is a country of Hindus as well. VHP must be happy for it's work/contribution which maybe actually NIL or negative. Buddhists, Jains & Sikhs maybe angry as hell; I don't see a very bright future for Motels & Taxis in USA now, LOL!! BTW do you know what number Prime Minister is Manmohan Singh, everybody seems to know Obama is 44th? Do you know which are the largest wheat, rice & sugarcane producing states in India? Don't google these & tell me the honest answers, lets see how much we know about our dearest India...)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, I agree my friend that we have a long way to go b4 we become a mature society....but I still feel that we have a lot of independence in India....lastly, I feel that nthing harm in expressing your unhappiness towards what is happending around u in society, there can b difference of opinions, but it should b in a peaceful manner and voilence is no way acceptable....

Rahul T. said...

I agree, I have been too harsh in the post here and there is definitely a lot to appreciate as well. We all should be free to express our opinions even if its different, better to have an opinion and speak than to have nothing in mind. We have lots of independence & maturity now as compared to earlier times and things will definitely change for better as we grow. However we need to realize what is wrong and what we need to do and then go ahead & do it...
Thanks a lot for reading the blog & commenting, keep visiting!!