नेताजी ठेंगा राम और उद्घाटन का शौक

ठेंगा रामजी नेता हैं और नेता उद्घाटन न करे तो वो कैसा नेता। शायद उन जैसे नेताओं के लिए ही भगवद गीता में लिखा गया है

कर्मण्ये वाधिकारस्ते मां फलेषु कदाचन ।

आप उद्घाटन किये जाऐं, काम समाप्त होगा या नहीं इसकी चिंता न करें। सौभाग्यवश काम पूरा हो गया चाहे वो किसी के भी द्वारा किया गया हो तो आप वापस उसका उद्घाटन करने जरूर पहुँच जायें।

शहर के हालत ऐसे हैं की पुल तो बनते नहीं, शिलान्यास के पथरों की कतारें खड़ी हो जाती हैं। इतने शिलान्यास पत्थरों से ही दो चार पुल बन जाएँ । अगर पुल बन भी जाता है तो उसका अलग अलग नेता अपने रसूख के हिसाब से उद्घाटन कर देते हैं । कई बार तो पुल का उद्घाटन एक नेता बायीं ओर से करता है और दूसरा दाईं और से और एक ही समय पर।

ठेंगा रामजी भी उद्घाटन के बड़े शौक़ीन है। दिन में दो चार उद्घाटन तो कर ही लेते हैं। प्रशासन को सख्त निर्देश हैं की कोई भी काम  शुरू होने से पहले उसका उद्घाटन ठेंगा रामजी के हाथों होना बेहद जरूरी है।  चुनाव नजदीक आने लगते हैं तो उद्घाटन करने की रफ़्तार तेज हो जाती है। कभी कभी तो शिलान्यास के पत्थरों की कमी की वजह से ब्लैकबोर्ड में ही लिख कर उद्घाटन कर दिया जाता है। इससे सहूलियत ये हो जाती है की अगली बार दुबारा उद्घाटन करने में केवल तारीख को बदलना पड़ता है। नेताजी का बस चले तो हर दिन वो सूरज और चाँद के उगने का भी उद्घाटन कर दें।

कभी कभी कर्मचारियों का उतावलापन भी अजीब परिस्थितियां पैदा कर देता है। एक दिन नेताजी के दफ्तर में फ़ोन आया

"नेताजी ठेंगा राम से बात हो सकती है ," फ़ोन के दूसरी तरफ़ एक महिला थी।

फ़ोन ऑपरेटर ने पुछा , "आपको किस सिलसिले में बात करनी है? "

"जी, नेताजी के हाथों उद्घाटन करवाना है ," महिला ने उत्तर दिया।

चुनाव का समय नजदीक है। उद्घाटन शब्द शहद की तरह फ़ोन ऑपरेटर के हलक से उतर गया। शीघ्र महिला के फ़ोन को नेताजी के पर्सनल सेक्रेटरी के पास ट्रांसफर कर दिया गया।

"जी कहिये, कहाँ और क्या उद्घाटन करना है?" सेक्रेटरी साहब ने भरे पान मुँह से पुछा।
"जी हम लोग मैराथन का आयोजन कर रहे हैं और चाहते हैं की नेताजी उसे हरी झंडी दिखाएँ ," महिला ने अपनी बात रखी।
"देखिये उद्घाटन के लिए पार्टी फण्ड में एक लाख रूपये देने होंगे।" सेक्रेटरी बोले।
"सर, एक लाख तो हम दे नहीं पाएंगे।  बजट नहीं है।  अगर नेताजी नहीं आ पाएंगे तो हम नेताजी भुल्लकड़ राम को बुला लेंगे। अब ठेंगा रामजी बड़े नेता हैं मगर हमें भी अपनी हैसियत के हिसाब से चलना पड़ेगा। " चुनाव के मौसम में विपक्ष का नाम लेना दुखती रग को पकड़ने जैसा हो जाता है।
"ठीक है,नेताजी आ जायेंगे।  अब खेल  प्रतियोगिता है और नेताजी खेलों के बहुत शौक़ीन हैं तो उन्हें मैं मना लूँगा।" सेक्रेटरी चुनाव के समय किसी भी जन संपर्क के मौके को गवाना नहीं चाहते।  "लेकिन ध्यान रखियेगा, की कम से कम दस हज़ार की भीड़ होनी चाहिए। और खाने पीने का बढ़िया इंतज़ाम।" सेक्रेटरी साहब अपने गुम्बद जैसी तोंद पर हाथ फेरते हुए बोले।  "और हाँ कूलर का स्टेज पर बंदोबस्त होना चाहिए। " सेक्रेटरी साहब ने शर्तों का चिट्ठा पकड़ा दिया।
"जी सर, चिंता मत कीजियेगा।  भीड़ कम से कम बीस हजार की होगी। हम काफी विज्ञापन कर रहे हैं।" महिला ने जवाब दिया। बीस हजार सुन कर सेक्रेटरी के चेहरे पर मुस्कान आ गयी।

तय दिन मंत्रीजी अपने सेक्रेटरी और बाकी ताम झाम के साथ उस जगह पहुँच गए जहाँ से मैराथन शुरू होनी थी। वहां पर कहीं दूर दूर तक किसी भी तरह के आयोजन का कोई नामो निशान नजर नहीं आ रहा था। सेक्रेटरी के माथे में पसीना आ गया। नेताजी भी गुस्से में आ गए। सेक्रेटरी ने आयोजकों के नंबर में कॉल  किया मगर हर नंबर पर एक ही मैसेज "यह नंबर पहुँच से बहार है। "

तभी सेक्रेटरी के फ़ोन बजने लगा।  दूसरी ओर से वही महिला की आवाज थी।
"सर, नेताजी पहुँच गए उद्घाटन के लिए। " महिला ने पूछा।
"ये क्या बेहूदा मजाक है?" सेक्रेटरी गुस्से से तमतमा उठे। "आप लोगों को टीम कहाँ है?" इस बीच नेताजी ने भांप लिया की फ़ोन आयोजकों का है और उन्होंने फ़ोन को स्पीकर में डालने का इशारा किया।
"सर, हम माफ़ी चाहते हैं। " महिला ने वापस शालीनता से जवाब दिया। "हम तो मैराथन कराना चाहते थे मगर मैदान मिला ही नहीं। नेताजी ने पिछले चुनावों में वादा किया था की वह जिस आयोजन स्थल पर आप खड़े हैं, वहां एक बड़ा सा खेल का मैदान बनाएंगे। हम आज सवेरे तक भी मैदान का इंतज़ार करते रहे मगर मैदान नहीं बना तो हमें प्रोग्राम को कैंसिल करना पड़ा।"

सेक्रेटरी और नेताजी एक दुसरे का मुँह ताकने लगे। अगल बगल भी अब तक काफी भीड़ इकठ्ठा हो गयी थी।

नेताजी ने अपने चेलों को इशारा किया और नेताजी की जय जयकार शुरू हो गयी। आनन फानन में एक स्टेज तैयार कर  दिया गया और नेताजी ने खेल के महत्व पर एक लम्बा भाषण भी दे डाला। वो बात अलग है की स्टेज में चढ़ने के लिए नेताजी की कमर को चार लोगों का सहारा लेना पड़ा। जय लोकतंत्र। 

मिज़ाज राजनीती का

शांतचित्त होकर जनता देख रही है। जनता सुबह उठती है। पानी भरना होता है क्योंकि पानी घंटे भर के लिए ही आता है। साथ ही चाय की केतली में भी उबाल आ रहा होता है। दूध भी पतीले से बहार निकलने को उतावला हो रहा होता है। नाश्ता भी बनाना है और टिफ़िन भी तैयार करने हैं। नहाने के लिए पानी गर्म करना  है। पहले बच्चे तैयार होते हैं फिर बड़े होंगे। जिस दिन बिजली नहीं उस दिन गैस के ऊपर ही पानी गर्म करना पड़ेगा। उसे बाथरूम तक पहुँचाना भी अपने में कला है।

संसद में बहस

संसद में बहस चलती है, शायद। संसद का जब निर्माण हुआ तो इसमें बैठने की अच्छी व्यवस्था की गई ताकि चुने हुए प्रतिनिधि देश के महत्वपूर्ण विषयों पर बहस कर सकें। मगर संसद के निर्माताओं को कहाँ पता था की यहाँ शब्दों के अलावा हर चीज उड़ाई जाएगी। आजकल जैसे कागज के प्लेन उड़ रहे हैं संसद में। नहीं, नहीं ये कोई सुरक्षा के लिए ड्रोन वगैरह नहीं है, ये तो कागज़ के प्लेन हैं जो हम और आप बचपन में उड़ाते थे। कई बार क्लास में उन प्लेनों को उड़ाने के चक्कर में मास्टरजी की डाँट भी खायी होगी। मगर हमारे नेताओं को कौन डाँटेगा।ऊपर से ऐसी हरकतों पर पब्लिक ताली बजाती हो तो क्या उम्मीद की जा सकती है।

शिक्षा है मौलिक अधिकार

इस बार भी चुनावों में गहमा गहमी है। ठेंगा राम और भुल्लकड़ राम, दोनों ने अपनी पुरी ताकत झोंक दी है। हर दिन छोटी बड़ी सभाओं का आयोजन। बड़े बड़े वादे। नागरिकों ने दरख्वास्त की कि शहर के एक क्षेत्र में स्कूल नहीं है तो आनन फानन में दोनों नेताओं ने स्कूल का वादा कर डाला।

चुनाव खत्म हुए। इससे फर्क नहीं पड़ता कि कौन जीता। मगर कहानी को आगे बढ़ाने के लिए हम भुल्लकड़ राम को विजेता घोषित कर देते हैं। वैसे दुबारा याद दिला देता हूँ कि इससे कोई फर्क नहीं पड़ता कि कौन जीता।

Elections 2019 - Who will win?

To understand how 2019 elections will be fought, let's look back at the run-up for 2014 elections. The story starts a little early. In 2009, UPA govt. unexpectedly got the second stint on power and rather a more comfortable majority compared to 2004 and gave them better control in running the government. Gandhi scion Rahul still not sure if politics is his career and he was happier to remain on the side lanes. Sonia was not keeping well. The other leaders of Congress with the second back to back win were complacent. BJP as an opposition was not as sharp apart from making the parliament to not to function. Anyways, people in power also had no big motivation to sit in parliament day in day out. It suited them. 

My Lord! How do you judge?

India has seen some high profile decisions from the Supreme court. Notable of them are the following

• Section 377 - Decriminalisation of consensual sex between homosexuals (Score: 5-0)
• Section 497 - Adultery is not a criminal offense. (Score: 5-0)
• Sabarimala verdict - Allowing woman in Sabarimala temple (Score: 4-1)
• Aadhar verdict - Aadhar is valid and government can use it for identification (Score: 4-1)

These are some of the high profile cases that got judgments recently. Apart from the first two cases which got the judgment unanimously, the last two cases did not have the same clean sweep. It's not important that what you or I think about it. A judgment from SC is binding and has to be followed independently of our inclinations.

I am a Truck

Trucks are not born. We don't have parents. There is no father and mother who taught me how to run on roads. In fact I cannot run on roads without someone with biological parents handling me. Though I cannot do things on my own, but I do carry a lot of power. More powerful than any of the living being with biological parents.

A truck is a complicated piece of machinery. There is a variety of material that is used to make me. I have got steel in me, a lot of steel. This steel might have come from India or UK or god knows from where. Someone Narendra in India or Theresa in UK would have run the plant to make the steel. The steel itself comes from one of the iron ore mines, may be Kiruna Mines. Stefan would have worked to excavate the mines to get the iron ore.

Pineapple vs Coconut

The politics knows no boundaries. There is an old saying that "Where Sun can't reach, poets can". This however has become more relevant and all the wrong way with the modern day politicians. One politician says something about pineapple juice and other one presumable overhearing it wrongly, starts talking as if the first one has talked about coconut. Names are not important in this debate. Exchange the individuals, or replace them randomly with any other political characters, the result will be same. Sometime back one of them raked donkey and the whole world followed that like a donkey. And when I say "Followed that like a donkey", I want to be clear that it's the notion of donkey as in human's mind and nothing to do with actual donkey. They are one of the most harmless animals and have been helping human race in carrying their chores. 

Jallikattu

Once one of my friend told me about USA that it's a country run by lawyers. India has still not reached to that state but slowly moving towards it. There is an effort to regulate everything in society. Regulations either enforced by law or in the name of culture. I do understand the need of regulating to an extent as humans are selfish and because of their ability to think in bad ways, they can harm others. But is there a boundary line about how much regulation is good. The people not in power wants very less controls and those in power want complete control. Run the society completely governed by laws and by-laws.

Trumpomania

Being in USA for a week trip, I could feel the intensity of emotions with Trump elected as President. See Fox news and you can believe that everything is going to be great, the American dream is going to be realized. America will be a self asserting country, which has been undermined lately. Switch the CNN and you can feel as the world is going down. This is the most unheard of the catastrophy that the world is going to face.

I was wondering where the truth lies? And for sure, truth is never extreme on either sides. It always has a shade of gray but we conveniently make it black and white as it is easier to get comfortable with our inner inclinations. How Trump regime will unfold, is a question which we can only answer in future. Yes, he is not one of those run of the mill president. He has his own set of controversies and some of them not of something which can be ignored. But at the end of the day, he is elected by America to lead the country. This fact cannot be denied.

UP - The meaningless fight of election symbol

Symbolism is important in society. It provides a convenient way to propagate ideas and concepts to the masses.  The national or religious symbols in itself don't carry any meaning but they still carry a lot of meanings with them. It's an instrument to convey the abstract thoughts and give them a concrete shape. However just holding the symbols may not qualify one to be the torch bearer of the concept. That needs justification in various other ways. An extreme follower of one religion if holds the symbols of another religion, would people of the religion representing the symbol start following him or her? The symbols just represent the culmination of ideas in a convenient form and in itself don't represent the epitome of power.

In the same context, the feud between Samajwadi factions is not really the fight of symbol but is the fight for legacy. It does not matter who wins the ownership of election symbol, the legacy has been squarely put under the ownership of Akhilesh. It's an irony also that one of the two stakeholders of Mulayam Yadav's legacy is Mulayam Yadav itself. It's not first of it's kind also in Indian politics. Not long ago, NT Ramarao's legacy was taken by N Chandrababu Naidu from NTR.

With the show of strength that Akhilesh did on 1st of Jan, it was clear that the war of legacy is over and Akhilesh is a winner. With most of the Samajwadi party leaders and cadres following him, Mulayam Singh Yadav is alone to put a stake on his own legacy. In this turn of events, Shivpal Yadav and Amar Singh have no powerful role to play after Akhilesh got most of the leaders and cadres rallying behind him.

Mulayam Singh with Shivpal and Amar Singh are going to EC to put a stake over election symbol. They might get it also but the battle of supremacy is already won by Akhilesh. Symbols would have carried a lot of meaning in older days when the speed of news was very slow. It would have been a herculean task to tell about new symbol, in case Akhilesh had to choose one. In the world of whatsapp, twitter, facebook and 24 hours channel it's a matter of minutes. Here news get propagated before it's even created.

What will be the future of Mulayam Singh Yadav. Being a veteran of Indian politics, I am sure he has his own aces up his sleeves. But this fight is also difficult for him. Fighting an enemy is way easier than fighting own son. It has been clearly evident also that Mulayam Singh is still not convinced that Akhilesh is doing this on his own. A typical father is still saying "My son can never be wrong".

The other remote possibility is that everything is scripted. Everything is fair in politics as long as it helps in gaining power. But whatever it is, the legacy for sure is now with Akhilesh.

UP - The coup is on

Finally Akhilesh has called it a day. Though the final nail is driven by Mulayam by expelling Akhilesh and Ramgopal from SP for six years, it was the only move left with Mulayam. He is the final actor but Akhilesh made sure to take it to the climax. For history, it's not new. Similar coups has happened for centuries. What changes is the actual execution which is a function of the forms of governments.  It's a father and son story and Mughal and many old empire is full of such. 

Akhilesh Yadav - The son becoming father

A lot is at stake in UP politics. It's the battleground for BSP and Congress revival. It will be a signature for Modi and BJP's future. However the biggest drama is unfolding in the clan of Yadav's and Samajwadi Party. Few months back, the tussle for power came at the forefront. The two sides of the coin being Shivpal Yadam and Akhilesh Yadav. Most of the people thought it to be orchestrated to bolster the image of Akhilesh Yadav. A neat scripted show.

Political fanaticism

Open any news channel and you will find people yelling and fighting with each other. Looks like everyone is just interested in putting his view point without understanding any other possible viewpoint. Ask any inconvenient question to one of the panelist, they will soon start drawing a circle and at a certain point on the circumference,  shoot a tangent out of it. Also the news are colored based on the goggles one is wearing. Reporting is not a statement of facts but a take on how it should be looked at. The other interesting thing is that now everyone is a journalist via their Facebook and Twitter account. Everyone has take on the issue, which is not wrong, but that take has no place for competing viewpoints. 

Indian politics at crossroads

In the continued downfall of Congress, the vacuum that is getting created is sucking everyone in Indian politics. Congress at the moment looks so listless that it does not even know, how to react.?Any issue they get in their hand, they are letting it slip. It does not seems like their heart is in the politics. The sign of being old is very visible and there is no emphatic assertion by the next generation to show the zeal to lead. They do have the the most celebrated strategist in the form of PK, but a strategies can provide strategies. The key as always is the execution. Take for example Lalit Modi saga. They could have easily taken it to some strong conclusions in terms of damaging BJP reputation, but they let it wither. 

New normal in politics

Last couple of years has been defined by sweeping changes in Indian politics. The primary theme of that change is driven by a weakning Congress and a not so willing Congress future leadership to take control and drive the organization. This is leading to major vacuum in the Indian political landscape and is getting filled fast by other players, notably BJP and AAP. Equally strong are many major regional players.

Optics in Politics

Perception is the most important thing to make a judgement. How we visualize about certain things and what kind of optics we use to see to them, shapes our judgement. The current Indian political perception is going from a high hope to despair. A big promise for development is getting replaced with a notion of being directionless. Country is facing acute water shortage and if monsoon does not happens this year, god knows what is going to happen. The scar on the parched fields reflects in the face of a farmer. The cracks in the social structure of the society is reflected in the social media. The worst of this is the way our political leaders are setting their priorities. It seems they have no issues to reflect on.

What is development?

In 1971, Indira Gandhi gave "Garibi Hatoa (Remove poverty)" as the election war cry. The slogan has been used since then by various political leaders, in a bid to hit the bull's eye.  The cliche recently has been replace by "Vikas (Development)".  Atleast, in a sarcastic sense, we have gone from a more negative connotation of removing something to doing something. What a positive change. And then there is more positivity added by saying "Vikas, tej gati se Vikas aur charo taraf Vikas" (Development, Faster development, All round development). 

What is Patriotism?

There is a rushing desire by everyone to prove that I am more patriot than you, or may be I am the only patriot and you are not. Everyone is carrying their definition of patriotism in their sleeves and ready to display it in a whizzy. 

With the word patriotism flying all around, I introspected to understand how I define patriotism. As usual the first resort is Google dada and wikipedia nana. Wikipedia says "Patriotism is an emotional attachment to a nation which an individual recognizes as their homeland. This attachment, also known as national feeling or national pride, can be viewed in terms of different features relating to one's own nation, including ethnic, cultural, political or historical aspects. It encompasses a set of concepts closely related to those of nationalism"

Indian Political Stalemate

The politics of India seems to be settled for a while with the election of Narendra Modi as the prime minister of India. Arvind Kejriwal also found his footing with a win over Delhi. Rahul Gandhi back on drawing board to reinvent itself. 

From BJP's perspective the national win and subsequent state wins did put the Modi-Shah duo in the commanding position. The dissenting voices were silenced in various ways, and the duo became the