Arre bhai nikal ke aa ghar se : R. Juneja
December 25, 2008
A young girl gets pulled out of her car and beaten up; another gets raped in the middle of the road at peak hours, a executive engineer is beaten to death by a rude MLA; 27/67 MLA’s of Delhi have criminal records….and we continue to tolerate all this, saying we Indians are tolerant. So, whom are we kidding? We are not tolerant but are impotent and selfish. We are the least tolerant, and on the contrary specialize in intolerance…we kill people in our rage–be it the road rage or the BMW rage or the bar rage that killed Jessical Lal or the rage on the executive engineer, or the school teacher who puts a needle in a child’s eye for not answering a question……. Let’s own up the fact that we are no longer the Indian that we have been proud of. As of now the world doesn’t look up at us, it sees us lagging far behind (and going down) in every sphere of life. We have the highest number of poverty stricken people, we have the highest infant mortality rate, we have the highest number of people with drug resistant tuberculosis and rheumatic heart disease. The list is endless…Let’s start accepting these facts— the way things are going on, in another few years we will be scared to step out of our homes. At least this selfish thought should wake us up.
Why are all of us so outraged at the Mumbai shootout? We were never so concerned when hundreds were dying by bombs, in Kashmir, by blue line buses and what not. Perhaps one reason is the scare that it can now get us; we who mostly reside in such hotels We have always thought that this will not happen to us as this mostly occurs where the underprivileged are. The reaction to this shootout is even more ridiculous–candle lights, citizens charter etc etc…Do we really believe that these politicians are there for us? We gave our home to be run by ruthless businessmen who took this up as their profession. Why do we expect them to be truthful, honest and blah blah…..it is like any other business, be it our richest man of the world (at least for a few days when Bill Gates was in doldrums) or the one with the highest deposit in the Swiss bank/German bank…whatever. It’s high time we stand up and fight the system to give a better future to our children. Otherwise we send all of them to USA and UK, the way most of our colleagues have done. We can then be proud that the surgeon general of the US is an Indian!
Try to rake up the issue and the standard response of every ¶intelligent Indian¶ is what can we do. This is the government’s responsibility! Let us tell you what you can do!
There are probably hundreds of groups created by people who still believe in themselves and in India. Youth for equality (YFE) is one such group doing whatever little can be done. I am not a spokesman for YFE but that is the only group I know of and therefore attempting to link people through them. Let’s join hands and start a process.
The first thing to do is to get enrolled as a member of YFE and start logging into the site daily. Once you are in, the start doing a net search and find out other groups that already exist and at what stage they stand. Whether we join them or work independently and amalgamate later are some things that can be sorted later. We need to interact with the already existing groups and then decide upon a common platform.
I also appeal to the Times of India–you had started the Lead India campaign and got 30,000 applicants. Can we get the e mails of these people. Several of them have been doing seminal work and are our potential leaders. The TOI sent one of them to Harvard to become a leader. I believe most of they can lead us right now. Whoever can get this info from from TOI is a potential leader.
What is the plan/objective/possible strategy?
It is too early to define these but the way i foresee is to awaken the ¶educated middle class,¶ that always keeps away from politics as if it is some beast or an untouchable. We have to understand that unless we do it, things will gradually become even worse than the British Raj; and please remember, that we will not get another Bapu.
A simultaneous goal is to search for person/s who is/are willing to take this work as their profession. I wish I had the guts to quit my job and do what I am expecting others to do. We need these persons to spend time on the net and start this coordination. The long term aim is to try and get 50/100 or even more such groups to join together–the time frame is not very clear to me. Can we do this within 3-6 months?
Once this critical mass has been achieved or even before/now we have to start sharing our ideas and ways of going further. This is where the YFE chapter comes up again. We can use this site (or any other if someone can suggest) or make a new one, for interacting—post comments, blog or get to know each other in any other way the website managers permit.
In due course we find a face/faces to represent us, it can be the primary professional we have already identified, or a person of eminence or anyone else worthy for this. I feel some well known actor, cricketer etc., who thinks the same way and is willing to join, maybe the ideal person.
Please step out and look at and talk to your neighbor and start the process. Don’t keep this topic to your drawing rooms over a few drinks.
Dr R Juneja
