Is it worth this effort?
Have I lost an inspiration?
Have I hurt my silly little ego?
Am I looking for a hundred lame excuses?
Why am I not looking for one to forget it all?
Do we need a reason for all?
Could it not be like before?
Why don’t those faces reach my dreams anymore?
That perpetual smile is no more
Why is there so much of distance?
Why were all the imperfections admired then?
Why do they seem like folly now?
Why do I feel like existing in virtuosity?
Just a number, a digital face and a crackled voice,
Why do feel like an electronic pulse on some memory chip,
Wasn’t I just an admirer?
Why do I seek some stupid truth now?
Why does my fickle mind wish to control others?
Is it that we have found a utility in each of us?
That’s what had bothered you then and it bothers me now,
It was so good when we were useless,
When it was so human to err.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Tilling a Society
The recent carnage in khagaria district of Bihar has more to it than meets the eye.
Over 3 dozen armed criminals in Icharua village dragged 21 men, mostly youths, from their homes and after taking them to an isolated area, shot and killed 16 of them. Others managed to escape in the cover of the darkness.
There have been blame game and soon the story will be a forgotten one, like many other such incidents.
Incidents like this though just keep adding up for further events which will happen in the future. Issues related to land do not get forgotten in this part of the world. The rest of the world might forget it, but the classes here, take cue from this one to form the next bend for the society. It might not affect the rest of the world directly, but a flutter of a butterfly effect would surely bring rain in the rest of the country.
This issue sure looks like a law and order problem to begin with. Of course it is, but it is deep rooted in the concept of property rights.
The cast war, the Maoist or Naxal problems, the land mafia’s, the criminal-politician-bureaucrat nexus, in Bihar, the roots of all lay here. In fact, my bet is the recent debacle of the ruling JDU-BJP combine in Bihar also has roots here. The suspicion over implementation of Bandopadhya committee report did not get unnoticed in the core of the Bihar’s society.
Land reforms and revenue based models on land, right from the days of mughal period till date, have added pages of history to form what the lands and people of Bihar are today.
It’s a fact that, the last survey that is acknowledged by the courts still is that of the British; all frivolous efforts of the Indian government still do not stand on the courts of law. To complicate issues they have the survey of the 1953 still unfinished, the land consolidation- a closed chapter, the land ceiling act, the bataidari act, the laws for the riverine areas, the bhoodan movement, and once in a five year term, they pass a land reforms act.
Every government that is in power distributes thousands of acres of land to lakhs of people every year. Of course reasons are the same as NREGA or Rs. 2 per kg of rice. Whether the land really belongs to the government and if it is in their possession is not important. People settle scores buy distributing parchas of someone else’s land too.
It would be an impossible task to have a single remedy or a quick solution to all this.
However, we need to think beyond just a law and order problem.
Is there a liberal solution to it? I propose to have a panel discussion on the issue and prepare a recommendation for all interested in a near solution, if possible.
Please do put in your suggestions.
Over 3 dozen armed criminals in Icharua village dragged 21 men, mostly youths, from their homes and after taking them to an isolated area, shot and killed 16 of them. Others managed to escape in the cover of the darkness.
There have been blame game and soon the story will be a forgotten one, like many other such incidents.
Incidents like this though just keep adding up for further events which will happen in the future. Issues related to land do not get forgotten in this part of the world. The rest of the world might forget it, but the classes here, take cue from this one to form the next bend for the society. It might not affect the rest of the world directly, but a flutter of a butterfly effect would surely bring rain in the rest of the country.
This issue sure looks like a law and order problem to begin with. Of course it is, but it is deep rooted in the concept of property rights.
The cast war, the Maoist or Naxal problems, the land mafia’s, the criminal-politician-bureaucrat nexus, in Bihar, the roots of all lay here. In fact, my bet is the recent debacle of the ruling JDU-BJP combine in Bihar also has roots here. The suspicion over implementation of Bandopadhya committee report did not get unnoticed in the core of the Bihar’s society.
Land reforms and revenue based models on land, right from the days of mughal period till date, have added pages of history to form what the lands and people of Bihar are today.
It’s a fact that, the last survey that is acknowledged by the courts still is that of the British; all frivolous efforts of the Indian government still do not stand on the courts of law. To complicate issues they have the survey of the 1953 still unfinished, the land consolidation- a closed chapter, the land ceiling act, the bataidari act, the laws for the riverine areas, the bhoodan movement, and once in a five year term, they pass a land reforms act.
Every government that is in power distributes thousands of acres of land to lakhs of people every year. Of course reasons are the same as NREGA or Rs. 2 per kg of rice. Whether the land really belongs to the government and if it is in their possession is not important. People settle scores buy distributing parchas of someone else’s land too.
It would be an impossible task to have a single remedy or a quick solution to all this.
However, we need to think beyond just a law and order problem.
Is there a liberal solution to it? I propose to have a panel discussion on the issue and prepare a recommendation for all interested in a near solution, if possible.
Please do put in your suggestions.
The End of Socialism?
"The FDP has had the great good luck that they aren't currently part of the federal government and they haven't been associated with the crisis," Dietmar Herz, a professor of political science at Erfurt University, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Partially as a result, the party has been able to develop an image of economic expertise."
It couldn’t be clearer: No new taxes. Germany has decisively rejected the tired nostrums of the Social Democratic Party, which campaigned on raising taxes on the wealthy and was the junior partner of the Christian Democrats in a grand coalition during the past four years. The Social Democrats turned in their worst performance in the history of the Federal Republic, winning a mere 23 percent, while the Free Democratic Party (FDP) polled a record 14.6 percent. The Christian Democrats crawled across the finish line with 33.9 percent.
The 47-year old from Bonn will become Germany's first openly homosexual vice-chancellor and could win more than the normal three cabinet positions traditionally reserved for the junior partner in a coalition government.
The FDP leader is best known at home for his espousal of Thatcherite economic reforms. But it is his position on Afghanistan that will make him the welcome face of Germany's foreign policy among the country's allies.
“To the point where they’ve consigned one of the political cornerstones of modern Germany, the Social Democrats, a party founded in 1869, to the trash can of history, or close enough. The S.P.D. collapse to 23 percent of the vote, not the strong showing of the F.D.P., was the seismic shift of the election.” ROGER COHEN NY times.
It is to be seen now, how it effects the other European nations in policy change, if there is some indication from the German results, change in Europe will mark global depression for socialism.
Is it not time for Indian liberals and free market sympathizers to rethink their strategies for a liberal political alternative?
It couldn’t be clearer: No new taxes. Germany has decisively rejected the tired nostrums of the Social Democratic Party, which campaigned on raising taxes on the wealthy and was the junior partner of the Christian Democrats in a grand coalition during the past four years. The Social Democrats turned in their worst performance in the history of the Federal Republic, winning a mere 23 percent, while the Free Democratic Party (FDP) polled a record 14.6 percent. The Christian Democrats crawled across the finish line with 33.9 percent.
The 47-year old from Bonn will become Germany's first openly homosexual vice-chancellor and could win more than the normal three cabinet positions traditionally reserved for the junior partner in a coalition government.
The FDP leader is best known at home for his espousal of Thatcherite economic reforms. But it is his position on Afghanistan that will make him the welcome face of Germany's foreign policy among the country's allies.
“To the point where they’ve consigned one of the political cornerstones of modern Germany, the Social Democrats, a party founded in 1869, to the trash can of history, or close enough. The S.P.D. collapse to 23 percent of the vote, not the strong showing of the F.D.P., was the seismic shift of the election.” ROGER COHEN NY times.
It is to be seen now, how it effects the other European nations in policy change, if there is some indication from the German results, change in Europe will mark global depression for socialism.
Is it not time for Indian liberals and free market sympathizers to rethink their strategies for a liberal political alternative?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
