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Sunday, June 12, 2011

Are our Kings (or the ‘Queen’) Arrogant?




It was exciting to read the article (The link referred above) of Chetan Bhagat in Times of India (Hyderabad Edition) a few days back and it was exactly in line of my thought process and I had religiously shared this link in the facebook forum called ‘Jan Lokpal Bill’ as well!


However, I wanted to add a few additional points to this article to comprehend the entire perspective on the psyche of the modern day ‘Kings’ (or a Queen) and others.

We all have self – respect and those who don’t have it are considered losers in life and the society looked at them skeptically and often, would take advantage of their stature as much as possible! However, there are various support groups, who are working on such people exclusively to bring them out of their cocoon and make them confident about their potential as individuals.

Now, this term ‘self-respect’ is always little tricky as people mistake this very easily with their egos! The line between actual self-respect and ego is very thin and many of them fail to recognize this and act upon their egos and say that they don’t want to compromise on their self-respect?! Easy way to identify both of these, is to understand basically the ‘self – respect’ is purely within, whereas ‘ego’ is exhibitive. So when you strongly feel that you need to exhibit the self –respect (for the sake of anything), then it is the beginning of the ego and you really need to nip it at that stage for resisting it from growing big!

I was quoting this argument of mine, which I present in each forum I participate, with reference to the Govt. action at Ramlila Maidan recently. History reminds us that the people with power, who had been corrupt, were blinded by their egos since ages?! This is carried forward in the modern times, even in the so called Civilized Society as the civilization had by and large failed to handle these ballooned up egos of the human animals! Though the nature attempts to lash out and burst out these balloons of egos by various mammoth acts, the effect of such calamities/ lessons are short lived in the memories of the people and they move on to their ballooned up self, sooner than later!

Coming back to the context, what happened in Ramlila Maidan is nothing but an exhibition of egos of a few individuals (or a single individual?) who have power, on behalf of the ‘Government’ and they feel the future protesters will learn a lesson out of this episode. The statements by most of these foolish ministers of this country made it look like silly and had worsened the effect??!

There are few points, I wanted to underline in this context…

1)   I have been advocating all the politicos to realize the danger of public ire against each of them for their senseless and selfish actions to amass wealth and in the process, they marginalize sections of people who are waiting for a spark to burst out and attack, which will bring a bloody twist to the democratic values of this country, as a consequence.
2)   By keeping cool on such protests and engaging these protestors on dialogue to reach a common platform to amend, reform the necessary laws by understanding the pulse of the nation will enable the Government to project their transparent image and help in long term perspective.
3)   Actually, all these politicians were escaping the public ire due to the usual indifferent attitude of the middle class, who were always busy struggling to meet both the ends and next new breed of urban middle class, who are happy living their life on their own terms. However, post 26/11 attack in Mumbai, there had been a huge difference in the psyche of the people, thanks to media and the inevitable had been happening as given a platform, people from both the segments mentioned above, are coming out strong to express their ire and suppressed emotions against what they had undergone due to the indiscriminative pushing by all these politicos.

If the Government doesn’t do it now, obviously because there are many among them who will be affected if they give in, the people ire may not remain suppressed forever.

People evolve as they grow old and their wisdom shine eventually. Digvijay Singh was one of my old heroes as Chief Minister of MP along with Naidu of AP in late nineties as both were promisingly dynamic on their own terms and actions! When Naidu was advocating technology in Governance and a vision for AP, Digvijay was the one who took up a gutsy decision to implement Panchayat Raj strongly in most of the rural parts of MP and I remember reading articles on how he used to visit the most un-approached rural hamlets of MP, where even the local district collectors never bothered to visit. I also came across quotes of local leaders of BJP (then opposition in the state), vouching for his efforts in such villages, which was amazing!

Kapil Sibal was another very knowledgeable politician, who was considered by me as one of the dynamic and promising member in the cabinet and he had been convincing as congress spokesman as he used put across logic with lots of common sense.

Of late, I’m witnessing that not necessarily ageing should bring more wisdom to both these gentlemen as they are in news for all the wrong reasons of the world and it seemed like they speak and do so many things which do not suit their personalities at all! In the Baba Ramdev episode of events, it emerged as Digvijay, apart from all his idiotic comments early on, he peaked when he was seen hitting a journalist, who had shown shoes to Dwivedi like a rowdy who fights on the streets?! The funniest factor is this crazy journo, who was manhandled didn’t beat Dwivedi, instead he had just shown the shoes, despite having enough time on the stage to do the act before he was pulled down by two people who went up the stage to rescue Dwivedi!! Who’s smart and wise in this entire episode? Kapil Sibal was arrogantly justifying the Ramlila Maidan incident as a lesson to be learnt by other protestors in future…! Hey dude, what are you speaking? Are you in your senses?

However, as one of my friends suggested, I have a very strong feeling that these were not their ‘own’ selves reacting at all. It is centrally scripted and both these characters were playing their roles as they are directed/arm twisted to enact it. The end result is that they looked like fools and clowns in front of the entire nation!! Do we have a Home Minister to react on this issue? Why he had been silent so far and not making any comment on the Sunday night extravaganza? Even Pranab Mukherjee’s reactions were halfhearted and there were rumours on his dissent for being sent to airport to receive Baba Ramdev as well….! All these indicate that there is someone who is arrogant at the helm of power, who wanted these people to do whatever is dictated to them? The final question to ask ourselves is…Are we really living in a democracy?

To conclude, every arrogant people with power in the history had to meet a very sad end and it is not going to be different in our country as well!!

6 comments:

P B Shyam said...

Digvijay, when he was interviewed by Barkha 2 days ago couldn't stop laughing when he described himself as a loose cannon. He seems to be actually enjoying the new role he has been given in the drama. Hope the director will be able to handle the power and talent of the artists like Dig and Kap.... to the Climax.

Chandra S Menon said...

Dear Paddy
I read your post and would like to express my appreciation (and comments).

Self - Respect is applicable not only to self but respecting and "accepting" "other" is also important.
The last line of yours is worth repeating from your post.
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Yes we are seeing that in real time. In BG (Bhagavath Geetha) it is said that the real friend is one's own soul and the enemy also one's own soul. If we translate it into our own life, we are our own friends and enemies too. The enemy and friend live side by side, whether it is home, office, society or even at National level.
What Shri Ramdev did or presented was only a "show" and all other network publicized that was also a "show" on their part. We all are "living" in the world as "actors", again quoting from Bhagavath Geeetha, Karma Yoga, it is said no body is exempted from one's action and has to perform their act. Of course the result one will live to "enjoy" or suffer. So we all are "actors" posing in different forms. In Bhagavath Geetha, it is said to do one's own duty (svadharma) is better than doing other's (para-dharma). Here Sri Ramdev is acclaimed as a Yoga teacher and he was really good in that. He should have continued that without entering into "politics". He is not a "sanyasi" in its real meaning, because a sanyasi is the one who has relinquished all his/her desires. I also felt that he was either "pushed" or "jumped" from the stage for his own protection (sensing the danger at the stage). A captain of a ship on fire will see all his sailors are saved prior to his leaving the ship. Here he failed in that and that too had left the crowd as a "eunuch" (man in a ladies dress). How on earth one can trust such a "leader?"
Elected Government has a duty to "Govern" and they dealt the way they felt good. They should have shown some restraints and not to evict the crowd in the middle of the night. But I think they must have their own reason for that too. The coin has always two sides and it will never be the same.

Finally I feel my feelings may not worth since I am not in the middle of the meddle. I think that we should have only two or three parties at National and state level for a good administration. I do not know if "common people" "aam aadmi" wants that...

I may sound that I am in the "minority"
With regards
Chandrettan

PaddyPal said...

Dear Chandran Uncle,

Whenever I post my articles on the blog, I eagerly look forward to the comments of a few people in particular as their comments are very valuable and path breaking for me apart from the fact that such comments inspires me and open up a huge learning curve for me. You are one of them. So, at the outset, Thanks for the comment.

Of course, the self-respect is applicable outside you and only if you respect others as potential individuals, you will be able to respect your own self as an individual. If I can refer 'Osho' (May be one of India's most misunderstood Gurus), when he talks about 'Compassion', he reiterates on the necessity of loving one's own self and then only one will realize the essence of compassion and able to spread it to others. I really don't know how many understood the real meaning of this and we see lot of people who loves themselves a lot and it actually ends there and there only. I had come across such people who doesn't love even their immediate family except for PDA (Public Displays of Affection) and all that exhibitionism! So it's important to respect others to have self-respect. However, in the context of the article, what I was trying to explain is a small self-test to distinguish between self-respect and the ego, so as to nip the ego in the budding stage. This can be achieved if one look inside for an analysis.

Regarding the movement against corruption, my point is that whether it is Ramdev or Sachdev who is doing a peaceful protest against the establishment, which is supported by many across the country, he/ she's actually helping the establishment in channelizing the ire of the people to peaceful expression of protest and hence, understanding this larger picture of the problem, the establishment should have shown better maturity by tackling the issue patiently. Otherwise, how many agitations we are witnessing inside the country, which are violent and caused loss of lives of many innocent people?! Examples are starting from Bandhs, Hartals to Mandal Commission riots, Gujjar agitation and the latest being Telangana agitations. The politically motivated such agitations have been deliberately violent and manipulated exclusively for short term political gains. However, whomever is in the back of Anna or Ramdev, the fact of the matter is that it had opened up a flood gate of public ire in the most peaceful manner, which was missing in this country for a while! In fact, the Government's hasty action against it, is now seen as an action out of insecurity and lack of confidence in their own capability of handling such protests. What I have been advocating is not with any alignment to any of the ideologies, but with an overlook at a larger picture and the consequences it can cause to the democratic system. I also don't agree that there is an efficient democracy prevailing in this country as long as the electorate don't have choice of casting 'No Vote' and 'Right to Recall'...

Hope you had read the article of Chetan Bhagat (the link is provided in the beginning of the post), which sarcastically brings about the most silly and cheap tricks played to sideline the civil society by hoodwinking the public. Finally I agree with your last point 100% as to have only 2 -3 parties and I also feel that there should be a transparent funding system (Refer my earlier articles in the blog since 2008) and pragmatic expense limits as well. As long as the parties are funded with black money, the black money trail cannot be effectively ploughed into the economy, as every party needs it during their elections!

Regards,

Padmanabhan Bhaskaran

Skype ID: padmanabhan.bhaskaran

PaddyPal said...

Dear Shyam Sir,

Thanks for the comment. I was actually mentioning about the discussion we had on the issue. As you rightly said the actors like Digvijay have started enjoying their roles as clowns! However, the climax seems to be a long way ahead as this seems to be a mega serial with lots of melodrama...!

P B SHYAM said...

Yes, Paddy. A mega serial that has 1.2 billion actors which includes about 50 Guest artistes (the likes of Dig Vijay, Kapil Sibal, Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev, Media House Reps.....)who are trying to acheive the Celebrity status in the first episode.

PaddyPal said...

Well said...Sir!