Modi Prime Minister? No, Thank You!

Another slap on Mr. Modi's face was the cancellation of his keynote address at the Wharton Business School in Pennsylvania. The strongest punch in the guts though, is the denial of a US visa. I am going to make it very clear, I don't like Modi. In fact, I don't like any Indian politician. From Raj Thackeray to Lalu Yadav, from Sharad Pawar to Mamata Banerjee, from Sheila Dixit to Mayawati, all receive equal wrath of my non-adoration. Mr. Modi however, is a different animal.

A Hindutva champion, a charismatic speaker nonetheless, Mr. Modi is the the de facto Prime Ministerial candidate for the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party). Like it or not, this bigot could be India's next Prime Minister. That, could open a can of worms!!

The US has been denying a visa to Mr. Modi for years now based on the pretext of him not allowing "religious freedom". If he becomes the Prime Minister, he would get a Diplomatic Passport, which could mean visa free travel. Now that, would be a slap on the face of the US.

It could mean political suicide for the BJP if they really put forth Mr. Modi as their candidate because everyone knows, if you want to be PM, you must win UP. Uttar Pradesh is to an Indian election, what Ohio is to American one. With over 200 million in population, and over 50% of that Muslim, Mr. Modi and the BJP can bid goodbye to UP.

Mr. Modi may be a sensible choice from an economic perspective because of his record of being "investor friendly" and all, but from an ethical perspective he would be a disaster. His inability to control the violence against the Muslims, no wait, let me phrase it, his unwillingness to control the violence against the Muslims makes him a killer. He is responsible for the genocide in Gujarat in 2002 as I'd like to call it because not doing anything amounts to abetting in the crime. When he took oath as Chief Minister of the state, he pledged to protect all individuals irrespective of caste, colour or religion. He failed at that. He did not do his job.

Please note, I am not saying Rahul Gandhi should be the next PM. I mean, apart from having "Gandhi" as his last name, what has he done? The guy is over 40 and is called the "youth leader" for crying out loud. Since when 40 equals youth?

As for the illiterate Mayawati, I'll have to dedicate another blog post.

Wherever you look, democracy is a namesake. From Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to Bashar Al Assad of Syria, from the Bhuttos in Pakistan to the Gandhis in India. Basically the World never moved on from monarchies, Kings and Queens. In England we still offiicially have The Queen, in the rest of the World we have autocratic families who seem to own the right to rule the country.

Rape: India's Shame

Ironically, many capital cities of the World have a reputation for being unsafe, but New Delhi, somehow stands out. It probably is an unsafe capital city in the World by some measures. By one measure however, it is the most unsafe; by the number of rape cases registered in the city. According to one estimate, there's a case registered every 12 hours. Mind you, we are not getting the figures for the unregistered cases, for the unreported ones. It is well established that there is a problem, and many people are blaming the usual suspects, lack of Policing, inadequate policies by the Government etc. But people are talking about treating the diseased, not the disease itself.

In a socially conservative -- and hush-hush about sexual matters -- country like India, rape seems out of place. But, the idea that it's okay to tease a girl, and it's alright to pass lewd comments about her and maybe force your will with her, are deeply held beliefs and there are several reasons why that is the case. I am no psychology expert, but I believe the following are some of the reasons for the psyche of Indian men:

Bollywood / Popular Films:

Right from the movies in the 70s, to Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, to whatever the latest film is, the protagonist woos the lady love by doing things which would be considered silly, sometimes disgusting, in the real World. But for some reason, Indians seem to be fine with it when it comes to the reel World. Why?

I watched DDLJ with a few American friends and they called SRK, wait-for-it, an "ass-clown". They were so disgusted by the film, they didn't want to finish it. We watched True Grit instead. The idea that teasing a girl is a way to tell her that you are interested is fundamental to the script of Indian films and in a way is indoctrinating the young men to do the same when they step out of the movie theater. See for yourself in the following song from a Telugu film. This is just an example, there are multiple other examples on YouTube. As it turns out, YouTube was invented for Indian people to upload copyrighted material.



Domestic Violence:

Most boys who have seen their fathers beat the shit of the their mothers and sisters, grow up to be men who do the same, as they don't know any better. Respect for women in the hearts and minds of these young boys will never come in a house where the men don't have it. The patriarchal mindset of the country doesn't help either. The men in the family run the family's business and the women in the house have no say, most of the time anyway. Things are changing gradually as more women work and are equal bread-winners for the family. Economic independence is a tremendous boost for women's status in society and more needs to be done to bring millions of women out of the kitchen into the fore-front of their family's daily affairs.

Two Indias:

In all honesty there are two Indias. One is the one that is progressive by ideas, has shiny buildings, is glitzy, which, majority Indians would like to portray to the the rest of the World. And then there's the other India, the sleepy towns and villages where people still live like they lived in the 19th century. It's a collision of these two, very different Indias that brings culture shock to compatriots. Someone from rural Bihar in the heart of  Bangalore or Mumbai would be equally lost if he were in downtown Chicago or New York City [I'm not equating Bangalore to Chicago and Mumbai to New York City here; oh please, the Indian cities are light years behind their American counterparts]. That society is alien to him even though he belongs to the same country. Technically, it is a clash of two civilizations, within the same country. It is a clash of two different ways of thinking and two different mindsets, when it comes to women. One side treats them equally, fairly; the other thinks they are objects.

Conservatives however, will want to hold on to the status-quo, give rubbish explanations, and blame Western culture for the rape crisis. I know my blog post is not the only one which has been written about the topic so far, and probably there is more to come. But let's also work towards changing attitudes in the long run, rather than just putting more cops on the road in the short term.

Half The Sky

After a long time today I did a worthwhile investment of four hours of my time in watching a set of documentaries aired on PBS in America called, Half the Sky. It is a collection of stories of women and girls over 10 countries, who are fighting for equal rights, fighting for justice, and above all, fighting for survival. The stories of these women and girls are extra-ordinary. Every one's story however, deserves to be told.

I was aware of may of the issues raised by the documentary before I saw it, issues like, Female Genital Mutilation, Child Sex Trafficking, Trans-Generational Prostitution, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Female Foeticide, Girl Child Education, Domestic Violence etc.; but when you put a face to the victims, the problem seems bigger and clearer. These are the social evils of our generation and till the time they are eradicated, we cannot have a peaceful society. A society that does not respect it's women, is not a complete society, not a mature society. It is especially disheartening to see religion, culture and customs used as excuses to continue these practices. That is my problem with religion, it brings nothing but violence, pain and suffering with it. And I don't say it to malign one particular religion, all of them are equally violent, it's only that Islam is bearing the brunt of the abuse now.

The story I was most touched by, was that of Nhi, a 14 year old girl from Vietnam who sells lottery tickets everyday and makes about $4, only to give most of it back to her father who demands the money, and beats her up. She goes to school, and tries to save money, but doesn't have enough left for tuition at the end of the week, even after spending long hours selling lottery tickets. A very soft-spoken, extremely sad and hurt girl who still has a smile on her face.

The team travelled to India to cover the stories of forced prostitution, where daughters of current sex-workers are forced into the trade. It was shameful and yet eye-opening at the same time that a country like India which prides itself over its customs, traditions and its conservatism about sexual matters, has such a huge prostitution industry where young girls, whom I would call children, are forced into prostitution. The plight of these people who are lower down on the socio-economic ladder are not seen by the country's, although useless, but in-power politicians.

What can we do? Every journey begins with a single step, so my first step in my journey to address some of these issues is by writing about it here. Sharing it with the rest of the World in the hope that I would have touched just one person out there.

Right Wing America

The President has been re-elected, and finally, the incredibly stupid ideas of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan can be put to rest. It is time to move forward. Although, there's one small problem. Right Wing America. Never has this country been so divided, at least not since I've taken an interest in it. The election results speak for themselves. The President won just by a narrow margin. Right wing conservative America, and it's millions in spending had almost hijacked the political process.

The most shameful act of the election is this piece of news on the BBC. Some states would like to secede from the union i.e. leave the United States of America. The last time that happened, something called the American Civil War broke out. We don't wanna go back to those times, do we?

Tonight I watched a Ch4 Unreported World story on Talk Radios in the United States. I believe, people like Brian Fisher and Rush Limbaugh are nothing but poisonous snakes. They abuse the "free speech" inferred upon them by the constitution of America. By talking down on gays, not only they are disrespecting fellow Americans and human beings, but also degrading the Biblical value of "Love thy neighbour" they hold so dear.

It's not just homosexuals who bear the wrath of these so called "patriots" and believers of "traditional America"; whatever the heck that is suppose to mean! Abortion seekers are also talked down on American conservative media. "Life begins at conception" is the phrase used by these right-wing nut-jobs. Bill Maher makes fun of that by saying they should change the line to "Life begins at erection". Just today I read a story on the BBC of a Indian woman being denied abortion in Ireland because "it's a Catholic country". The result? There were further complications and the lady died. Yes, she died. So, who is responsible for her death? The nurse who tended to her first, the doctor who refused abortion, or the Catholic Church and the Irish government for establishing the strict laws? Was there a bit of racism involved? I don't know, I'm just speculating. So to protect an unborn, unformed child, the hospital let a 31 year old woman die. How ironic!!

 I admit I had a very, very rosy picture of the United States before I moved here. And, to be honest, the things I was escaping from, like, power-cuts, insane traffic, noisy festivals, are not here. I'm very glad about that. But there are a different set of problems. The belief that America is a Christian nation and the motto of "In God we trust" is a slap in the face of non-Christians and atheists. I'm not saying everyone should abandon religion, but I want the Bible-thumpers to be humane toward the non-believers. America likes to be considered a progressive society and is very quick to point out flaws in other cultures. How progressive is it to deny women access to contraceptive health-care? Have no universal health-care plan? Or ask homeless people to stay homeless? Perhaps it is time for Americans and Right-Wing Americans in particular to pause, take a step back and reflect.

How can a country that calls itself "the leader of the free World" solve the biggest problem facing mankind, Global Warming, if most of the country's citizens deny the existence of it? Moderate and liberal Americans have a duty to educate their counterparts and make 'em realize that the World they live in is not real. And that the real World, is in real danger.

The 'silent' Prime Minister

Most of you might have read a recent article on The Washington Post about Dr. Manmohan Singh, The Prime Minister of India. He was dubbed the "silent" Prime Minister, for very good reason. Unlike the charismatic personalities of Barack Obama or David Cameron, Mr. Singh is a subdued creature. One reason according to me is his old age. At 79, he probably is one of the oldest Prime Ministers in the world right now. The article in question received a lot of positive and negative responses. As expected it also created a "Twitter Storm". As expected, there are calls for an apology by some Indian government officials.

After receiving the title of "Underachiever" from Time magazine a few weeks back, he is now being called a "failure" by WaPo. Ofcourse, as expected, the Indians retaliated by calling President Obama the same back then. We all know, who the real underachiever is, don't we?

To be honest, I don't blame The Post for such an article. As Rohan Joshi said in his tweet "Dear @PMOIndia. What the Washington Post did is called "doing its job". Try it sometime." The Indian media is not really known for its investigative, or for that matter real journalism, so someone has to do their work. Mr. Singh hasn't really been a leader when it comes to reform. The best example would be when he passed retail reforms, only to retract later. In an age of constant scrutiny and judgement, he doesn't seem have to gotten anything done in his second term.

Its not the article that bothers me, its the response. A person, or maybe many people, hiding under the name   wetheindians1@hotmail.com posted pro-government and defensive comments on the article all day in response. I replied to few of the comments posted and defended WaPo for the article. It is the job of a media organization to scrutinize and tell the truth. The Prime Minister's Office responded to the article and as expected criticized the Post for criticizing the Prime Minister. What this shows is that Indians have become an intolerant people not capable of digesting scrutiny and criticism. What disgusts me more is the fact that these are the same people who post caricatures of Mr. Singh as the silent guy on facebook every day and mock him in the social media. So, when a reputed organization is accounting his achievements, you have a problem? Or is it the case that internal mocking is fine, but external is not? That's hypocrisy.

With a slowing economy, high inflation, rampant corruption and ever increasing population, India needs a bottom-up approach to change. Hereditary practice of passing on political power must be stopped. Government transparency needs to increase. Perhaps for once, Indians should think of themselves as Indians first and not as Punjabi, Gujarati or Maharashtrian among many other regional affiliations; and put country first to solve its problems, their problems.

Let's talk gun control, shall we?

I feel appalled by the number of gun related deaths every year on the richest nation on Earth. Not a single day goes by where you don't hear about someone somewhere getting shot and worse, dying because of it. A couple of weeks ago it was a maniac in Aurora, Colorado who killed innocent people, and now another lunatic killed a few more in Wisconsin. Perhaps its time to take another look at the right to bear arms by the people of the United States.

The scars of the families of the Aurora killings have not yet healed, and, another set have been inflicted upon the Sikh community in Wisconsin. The attack on the Sikh temple not only raises questions on the safety of immigrant ethnic communities, but also raises the question of gun control once again. The Right wing conservative media said "now is not the time" to talk about gun control after the killings in Aurora. What do they have to say now?

Fareed Zakaria featured guns in one of the episodes of his show the Global Public Square on CNN. He brought some startling facts and figures to the limelight. The United States which has 5% of the population of the World has 50% of its guns. If that figure doesn't scare you, then I don't know what will. Let me rephrase it, half of all the guns in the world, are in the U.S. Got it?

Details are slowly emerging that the  gunman involved in the Wisconsin incident had links with a white supremacist group. The fact that this fellow was an Army veteran brings more shock. The gun used in the shooting had been purchased legally according to the authorities. The point is, utter lunatics like this guy are able to purchase guns is a matter of grave concern. What needs to be realized is that guns belong to police officers and active servicemen of the military, not to the general public. Holding on to an age old fear that someday ordinary Americans will have to protect themselves and the country from  an external force (including the government) is ludicrous. A small pistol is no match for the drones the government has. Perhaps this is something each and every American should realize for themselves. Having guns in the house and under the pillows is not helping the crime rate go down, it is just the other way round.

The price of holding on to 'culture'

I'm sure most of my followers did watch the episode featuring 'Honour Killings' on Aamir Khan's show and cursed the Indian society for it. In a third world country like India, one can't expect any better. But when the same things start to happen in the Western world, you feel sick, and disgusted.

A teenage girl in the UK was killed in 2003 by her parents because she brought 'shame' onto the family by being 'Western'. They were both convicted of the murder today and will spend the rest of their lives rotting in jail. The sad part is, this is not the only such instance. The BBC show Panorama featured the 'South Asian' malpractices on one of their episodes. It begs the question I too asked on one of my earlier posts about parents clinging on to  the culture of their home country. Not only it is detrimental to the society of the country the parents are now living, but is also a catalyst for confusing the kids who were born there. The term ABCD captures this dilemma beautifully.

On one hand, the immigrants to Western societies accuse them of not integrating them properly or being outright racist about their culture, but on the other, the immigrants themselves don't want to let go of their origin countries' culture. I believe the immigrants have no moral right of accusing the peoples of the Western world of being racist, or being aloof.

Of course, there's no doubt that the countries should do more to integrate the newcomers into society in a way that does not diminish the importance of the immigrants' culture. Canada is the only country which has so far been the Gold medalist in this aspect.

This issue is more important today than ever because a lot of people are living abroad for work than ever before. In a globalized world, mankind is going to see newer challenges which have to be met gracefully. This issue is very close to my heart as I'm now on a path to have a child on foreign soil. The fact that my girlfriend is American only makes my point more valid. She and I have talked about marriage and kids, and I don't have any moral right to force on her, or our child, to be "Indian" or for that matter, "Hindu". Religion and culture should take a back seat when one is not in one's own country. If everyone who moves to a different country for whatever reason follows this one simple rule, cases like Shafilea Ahmed's will be less likely to occur.

Update: It turns out Shafilea's dad was previously married to a Danish woman and enjoyed Western culture. So for someone like him to kill his own daughter makes him nothing but a monster.