Broken Down To Infinity

Weeks ago, it was the shocking molestation incident that got all the attention from the media from all over the country. The overexcited Newslive reporter was rightly criticized by everyone for putting TRPs over minimum sense of morality and incidentally arrested by the post-activated police. However, as soon as that happened, other news channels too tried to increase their TRPs by focusing on the same news and same disguised footage.

Now, coming on to the more pressing issue, we are still surprised how situations are being represented. Not only that the state machinery fails repeatedly to curb natural and unnatural disasters in Assam, but what is more shocking is that instead of taking a right perspective of the situation, everyone including the top ministers are busy finding someone or something else to pass on their blames.  On the other side, a portion of the media created headlines, where they highlighted words like “communal violence”, “riots” and “Bodos Vs Muslims” – a politically, socially and anthropologically incorrect title used to define the kind of violence. While some channels were careful and quick to distinguish between ethnic violence and communal riots, others simply didn’t seem to bother. “Bodos Vs Muslims” sounds as absurd as a cricket match between Punjab and the whole of India. First of all, Bodo is the official name of a Tribe, not a religion (of whom approximately 80 per cent are identified as Hindus and the remaining are followers of Christianity). They are predominantly concentrated in parts of north-eastern India. Muslims are the people who follow Islam as their religion. They are found all over the world, in all skin colors, speaks all sorts of their native languages and have their own distinct respective cultures. Though, it is true that the tension that broke between two sections was the Bodos and the other side happened to be Muslims. But why was it necessary to highlight a particular religion before everything else? Doesn’t it send in some way a confusing and incomplete impression of the region to the rest of the country? Doesn’t it hurt a particular community? Of course, it does. Therefore, here is a need to agree and reaffirm on certain basic points:

1. All Muslimls living in Assam (or anywhere else) are not Illegal Migrants.
2. All Illegal Migrants living in Assam (or anywhere else) are not Muslims.
3. All Migrants (Hindus or Muslims or Sikhs or Christians or Buddhists) living in Assam (or anywhere else) are not Illegal.

If taken together, since independence there have been way more Hindu migrations (including tribals) than Muslim migrations in India from Bangladesh. Migrants are migrants; they may be legal or illegal but need not be termed as Hindus or Muslims. Let me also clarify here that we are not dismissing the argument that, the root causes of these ethnic violence in Assam has a lot to do with the migration coupled with the feeling of deprivation and negligence among many native ethnic groups living in Assam. Take the example in West Bengal and Tripura where the problem of migration hasn’t been looked upon as severely as it has been in Assam. This is may be because of the cultural similarities between Bangladeshis and neighboring people of West Bengal and Tripura. In case of Assam such a cultural similarity is difficult to establish except in the districts of Cachar or Dhubri, where incidentally the majority population have always felt some kind of an identity crisis. Therefore, for Assam Migration has always been a cultural problem and was needed to be dealt as a cultural problem. The political parties never had any clear strategy to manage the ethnic diversity of Assam. Unfortunately, they were always luring themselves to secure power with narrow vote bank politics. They realized that it is easier to come to the power in Assam if it retains its sectional politics and thus never honestly worked for a Unified State.

The tragic compulsion for the helpless people to leave their motherland and migrate to a foreign land can be economic as well as socio-political pressure. Therefore, dealing with migration is equally a critical and sensitive issue which needs both diplomatic and humanitarian approach. Unfortunately both the Centre and the State have neither of them.

A Country Divided By Egos

Till now it used to be mostly Bollywood celebrities who makes spicy page 3 headlines for their love-hate relationships with other celebrities. But now, politicians who generally preaches about unity and integration or sportsmen who are supposed to put their country first no matter what, are indulging in childish and selfish ego-battles. Whether it is Pranab Vs Mamata, Modi Vs Nitish or Mahesh Vs Leander - its all and only about Ego. Demographically speaking, India is a young country, but I wonder when its leaders will care to grow up..!!!

It’s Not "Fare"!!

One of the major colonial contributions to modern India is the railways. Since the pre-independence era, the Indian Railways stood (and ran) as a symbol that promised to be the engines of growth and prosperity for a vastly poor country. However, sadly no other organization has been as severely exploited as the Indian Railways since our celebrated independence. Regional favoritism and political exploitation has so far done significant (and perhaps, irreparable) damages to one of the world’s greatest public sector enterprise. The railways that crisscrosses the length and breadth of the nation like veins and arteries, as quoted by the fired minister during his budget presentation, is unquestionably under serious financial crisis. Even just increasing the passenger fares may not seem to be enough now. In the successive and recurring process of pleasing prospective voters (or a section of it), the Indian Railways had to keep on adding burden on its aging wheels, year after year. And in the course, there was never given any visionary scope for sustainable development. Now, it’s high time to protect the Indian Railways from being running down to the bottom under our “honorable” railway ministry dominated by unrealistic sectional politics. What we need today is perhaps a full corporatization of the railways; if not necessarily privatization. But certainly and most importantly, we need its full depoliticalization.