Apathy

My classmates are planning on organising a New Year Party in keeping with Law School traditions. Rs. 1, 300/- have been collected per head to organise this grand event. I did not pay and have no intentions whatsoever of paying for this. The detailed budget was forwarded to the Class group today and one among the heads of expenditure was 'bribes' connoting probably the money to be paid to cops for disregarding rules with respect to partying late at night.

Earlier this month, in an exercise that was initiated by me, someone who abused a privilege and blatantly so was re-called to a team that is meant to safeguard interests of a larger group (as a whole and not merely, individuals). Both these incidents have left an indelible impression on my mind. What could be a better forum than my own blog to vent these emotions.

If by chance one among my classmates were to read this post, perhaps the first criticism of the same would be based on the 'freedom of choice' implying that everyone is free to choose his/her course of action. Fully aware of the probability (howsoever low) of such a reaction, I thought I would state that it is the same 'freedom of choice' argument that justifies my comments- few choose to keep quite and others choose to make a fuss albeit discreetly and I chose to be a part of the latter group.

Having delineated the justification (for lack of a better word) for this post, I have expressed my opinion about the two incidents rather, chain of events described in the first two paragraphs of this post; in the following points:

• On occasions wherein socially relevant issues are discussed in class almost everyone has something or the other to say. Going by the tenor of these comments one would expect some commitment to being part of the solution to such social problems. However, going by the careful inclusion of bribes as a head of expenditure I must say all those arguments were just made out of inner compulsions to exhibit one's sense of logic or to reveal the lack of it, in other's arguments.
• There are certain people who seem to be very interested in history- sacrifices made by young people for liberation of what we call India today, the emotions that drove such honourable men to make those sacrifices. These people never lost an opportunity in class to painfully outline their conception of and respect for such heroic deeds. These attempts, in light of their contribution to what culminated in relation to both the re-calling of that person and the party seem to have been made out of a desire to impress others with the insight. These historical events, their love for these events all this seems to be just another interest to these people.
• There are certain other people who swear by propriety and other such words when speaking in public. But in private they don't want to fall in the bad-books of anyone even at the risk of endorsing someone who did something wrong.

The long and short of what I intend to express is, apathy is deep-rooted among my classmates. The very same bunch could not donate money to a corpus for flood victims, they never thought of contributing to a corpus such as National Defence Fund; but when it comes to enjoyment, money is no more a problem. And beware, all of them are or at least would want to be known as socially responsible people. I, at times; feel disgusted to be a part of a group that is by and large so inconsiderate to issues that affect all. In such times when the entire country is reeling under terrorism my esteemed classmates choose to go ahead with their plans to throw a rambunctious party all with booze and music without perhaps thinking once of those for whom life will never be the same again and this new year will not be so happy.

Responding through candles

I had the opportunity of viewing parts of an interview with Preity Zinta telecast on Headlines Today, earlier this morning. The actress talked with fervour about how in her opinion, every family should get at least one son/ daughter to join armed forces and other things , prior to the commencement of the candle-march. I am not sure about the origin of candle-marches as a mass response to undesirable occurences but to believe one among my class-mates, the movie Rang De Basanti inspired the new trend of these candle-marches. As I was watching the clip of candle-march held after the dastardly attacks on Mumbai, someone remarked how these marches created a security hazard more than anything else.

This post was not intended to be entirely devoted to the utility of candle-marches but at the risk of contradicting myself I shoudl pose the question- what purpose do these marches serve? Call me a consequentialist if you may but in my opinion the utility of these marches is if not nothing, very close to nothing. The media get an event to cover, participants get an opportunity to perhaps exhibit placards but does this lead to any change, any effect on people who should perhaps be thrown out of their cosy chairs? The answer clearly is no. Assuming No, to the be the answer a pertinent enquiry shoudl perhaps be directed at exploring alternate means of tackling such situations, means through which we (the people) can achieve something for our own good and for the good of future generations that will take birth in our country.

The same middle class that exhibits unmatched enthusiasm when it comes to participation in events such as Marathons (another trend), candle-marches etc. shies away from exercising its franchise, from accosting officials, from garnering money and support for people who lay down their lives for the country and are not even spoken about- electronic media flashed news items devoted to the sacrifice of three IPS officers and Major Unni, but another martyr Havaldar Gajendra Singh was conveniently forgotten perhaps because he was not a Commissioned Officer unlike Major Unni. I mean no dis-prespect at all to Major Unni or the three IPS officers but what I do intend to highlight is the apathy with which the media and the middle class treats the sacrifices of constables (police and para-millitary forces) and non-commissioned officers.

In a democracy such as India, in order for an issue to assume importance (int he eyes of those who have been conferred the power to do something in that regard) what matters is being noticeable as a vote-bank. If the same avid supporters of candle-marches were to organise themselves and accost officials, politicians and such other 'public servants' (and make this a continual affair) perhaps the impact would be much more and qualitatively better.

I have been enrolled on a seminar course dealing with the unknown aspects of the Indian National Movement and the most apparent facte of all struggles seems to be the presence of the middle class. Most of the Revolutionary Terrorists hailed from the middle class and so did most of the leaders of the Non-violent movement. It is the middle class that is uniquely situated- in terms of being vulnerable to inefficiencies of the 'system' and having the numbers to combat such inefficiencies. What's needed is a beginning.

ISSUE

I'm creating a post after a long time. Several things kept me away from the Internet in general and the blog, in particular. Thanks to the box sold to me by HP, calling it a laptop I have been virtually disconnected with cyberspace for past so many weeks. This led to me a resolution- no more HP products.

The world has changed a lot in such a short span of time. But perhaps the most important incident (rather, a chain of incidents) of late has been the terrorist attacks on Mumbai. While this has presented yet another opportunity to our leaders and bureaucrats to blame our neighbour perhaps this is the right time to view the issue of Pakistan sponsored terrorism (in the sense of terrorism having roots in Pakistan although not necessarily sponsored by the Pak government) - perhaps now is the time to think of solutions that will hold us in good stead if terrorism were to strike again from the eastern side of our frontier. Most importantly, perhaps it is the time to test all 'traditional' and cliched arguments in respect of Indo-Pak relationship.

I think crucial to the understanding of the involvement of Pakistan in terrorism and terrorist acts on our soil is an appreciation of the fact that ISI and Pakistani Armed Forces long ago established and created a niche for themselves above Government. So no matter who the PM or President of Pakistan is, these agencies are capable of continuing to plan and execute these plans independent of any support from the Government.

All arguments calling for a 'decisive' war with Pakistan must perhaps be tested against this truth- we launch a war, we win the war and then ... what next? Even the almighty US is finding it difficult to tackle hardcore Islamic militants in the Tribal belt of Pakistan- will we prove to be any better?

Similarly, all arguments for tackling this issue solely at the diplomatic level need to be tested against the fact of ISI-Pak Army duo being capable to fund and support terrorism on our soil irrespective of any support from the government. Will any civil government of Pakistan be able to rein in these elements without facing the threat of elimination?

The answer, in my humble opinion clearly lies somewhere in the middle of the spectrum (whose ends consist of decisive war and diplomacy) and it is the job of those 'foreign policy experts' to find a solution.