AFTER EFFECTS OF A SUICIDE

The death of Mr Rohit Vemula in Hyderabad has once again brought back the issue of “intolerance “ to limelight. And everybody who is somebody has jumped into the bandwagon with their own interpretation of the whole incident. Allegations and counter allegations galore and everybody is trying hard to prove their point. But I feel everybody has missed some crucial points relevant or they chose to ignore these points

First of all I have not come across any statement condemning the act of suicide committed by Rohit. Being a bright scholar as reported, why did not he show the courage to stand up fearlessly and fight against the injustice, if it was done to him as is alleged? Where were these people who have come pledging support to him when he was alive and staying put in the campus fighting his case? Whatever be the provocation, suicide is not a solution to any problem at all. This message should be clearly given to the youth of our country, I believe. The Prime Minister has finally come out and said that after all the country and Rohit’s mother have lost a brilliant son.

I wonder why every issue that crops up is seen from the cast and religion angle only. Why doesn’t anyone go into the root causes of the incident and try to find out a solution for the same. If the reports are to be believed, the issue started with Rohit’s association with a students’ forum opposed to ABVP. In our country isn’t there a space for everybody to express their opinion? Why such differences of opinion lead to physical clashes in the campus? Isn’t it because of the political patronage enjoyed by these students’ organizations? In a University isn’t the Vice Chancellor the final authority regarding matters pertaining to the discipline of the university? Why outsiders should interfere or outsiders should be allowed to interfere in such matters? What was the interest of the central Minister in the tussle between Rohit and another student reported to an ABVP activist? Even if the Minister had written to VC seeking action against Rohit, wasn’t it the duty of the VC to apprise the Minister about the facts instead of meekly surrendering to the demand made by the Minister? Also what was the circumstances for forming a so called radical organization of which Rohit was reported to be a part? Has anybody try to analyse the basic reason for that?

Earlier there have been suggestions about de politicization of campuses in the country which have been vehemently opposed by almost all political parties. When we say de politicization, we only mean that the patronage the main line political parties to various students unions should end. Students should have freedom to form their own organizations to actively intervene in the affairs of the campus where they study and live and not become pawns in the hands of the main line politicians. Once they are out of the campus, they can join whatever political party they believe in and function accordingly. So ideally in a campus only one students' organization should be there to bargain for the students’ welfare.

I am sure the points mentioned above will not be palatable to the so called leaders but I urge upon the youth of the country to think on these lines and build a new India by their efforts.

MEDIA RUINING FAMILY/SOCIAL LIFE?

During my younger days, personal bonding among the family members and other relatives was much stronger, I believe. The family members used to take breakfast, dinner etc together and many things used to be discussed over the food, which used to be happy occasions too. Birthdays or anniversaries used to be pleasant occasions where everybody greeted the person (s) celebrating personally. Husband and wife, parents and children, siblings all had personal bonding among each other.

However, the scenario slowly changed with the advent of satellite televisions, mobile phones and the social media. Even though television made its presence in late seventies, it used to take limited time of the viewers, where all at home together watched the programme which was available for a limited time only. Earlier to that though All India Radio was present, it largely being an audio medium never used to steal the family time.

With the advent of satellite Televisions and multiplicity of visual media, be it news channels or entertainment channels, there started a cut throat competition among them to retain the TRP rating. With this in mind they started churning out “Breaking News” on news channels and other soap operas in entertainment channels. Even without verifying the veracity of the “Breaking News” the news hungry population started getting addicted to these channels and their panel discussions, which many often turns out to be much ado about nothing!. Similarly the soap operas started affecting the routine of those who started watching them, by adjusting their chores as per the timings of these serials. (Of course, I remember in the days of Doordarshan only when “Mahabharat” used to attract huge viewership, any function on Sundays used to be timed after the telecast of this serial was over and at some places of celebration they had made arrangements for telecasting the serial on large screens with due publicity, so that the invitees will be in their seats even before the function started to view the serial!)

After the AV revolution, there came the internet, social media and the smart phones!!! Though all these have helped the human race in a large way, the bad effects of these should be seen to be believed. Now everybody who is having some earnings possesses a Smartphone and accessing face book and Whatsapp has become a daily chore like. It has gone to such an extent that it seems something untoward will happen if a person did not browse to access his mails or posted his latest status in FB instantly. So now even if somebody visits you at home, the host as well as the guests will be grossly immersed with their smart phones and hardly any conversation takes place. If it is the time for any popular serial, in between they watch that too, without much talk.

And the use of FB has gone to such an extent that now- a -days even the husband and wife , who normally share at least the bed rooms, wish each other on birthdays and anniversaries through FB!

And talking about the smart phones, you can see everybody playing with their proud possessions, wherever they are, be it at a bus stop, in the office, walking on the road and even in meeting rooms!! Since everybody in the meeting room right from the person presiding over the function will be engaged in this, nobody takes objection to such attitude in the meetings too…

There are some casualties also in this Smartphone and FB activity. Many unverified statements fly around through these media as everybody shares whatever they receive over these platforms without verifying the veracity of what has been received. There is a danger of spreading false information/rumours also through these media because of this. And we also read about spreading the morphed images of persons through these media thereby defaming the persons affected. And thinking that brevity is the beauty of the message, these people use their own language killing the English language to save time in typing the message. Thus “the” becomes “d”, “forget” becomes “4get”  “together” becomes “2gether” etc.

While I fully agree that the technological advantages should be fully taken benefit of, I am of the opinion that this should not be at the cost of our family and social life. Let us reinvent the personal values and personal bonding which will go a long way in the social life, even if it means sacrificing some time we spent on the TV and social media.

ENTRY OF LADIES IN SABARIMALA TEMPLE

It is unfortunate a fresh controversy has been started by the observation made by Supreme Court regarding the denial of entry to Sabarimala to ladies.

I fully support the observations made by the Court as I have been very strongly arguing on this issue for the past about 30 years. Just in the name of tradition it is not fair to bar anybody their constitutional rights, I feel. If thee is a ritual, it should be based on some logic reasoning and not merely on the gender of the pilgrim.

Before proceeding further let me state that I am a hindu by birth and I am also a member of the local NSS Karayogam. Today a statement attributed to the NSS President also has appeared in newspapers saying that NSS will get impleaded in the petition and argue for continuing the existing tradition. I do not know who have him the mandate to speak on behalf of all members of Nair community. I would like to know whether NSS had conducted a referendum on the issue to know the opinion of the members before making such statements on a controversial issue.

While it is true that traditionally ladies in the age group of 10 to 50 years are not permitted to visit the shrine, on the plea that the deity is a "brahmachari". I have not read in any scriptures that ladies should not go in front of a Brahmachari. I would light to get enlightened on this point from others. Even if this argument is taken on face value, why the age group of 10 to 50 years? Another argument put forward is that the visit to the shrine involves strict "vrutham" for 41 days involving personal purity and it may not be possible for the ladies in the particular age group to observe this , possible a hint to the monthly menstrual cycle. Two questions arise on this argument. One, how many people visiting the shrine observe this strict vrutham for 41 days? Is there any mechanism to check this? If not why only target ladies on this? Second is the question of individual purity. Who has said the monthly menstrual cycles makes the body of a lady impure? Isn't it a biological process to keep her body fit always? Why should we treat it as impurity? Again, even if we take this also for argument's sake, what is the guarantee that girls below 10 years and ladies above 50 years are beyond this? There have been instances where girst below 10 years attains puberty and ladies above 50 not reaching menopause. So how would you differentiate such persons?

Finally, if you consider all these, we can come to a conclusion that the tradition has not been based on either of these counts. As far as I believe it might be based on the arduous journey people used to undertake for the pilgrimage to the hill shrine in the olden days which used to take days and months together , which might have been difficult for the ladies to undertake given the transport conditions, absence of other basic infrastructural facilities etc. In the modern days, people go to the shrine in the morning and return in the evening and hence it has become more or less a picnic for many and hence I do not think denying the right of entry to ladies to this shrine on whatever ground is not correct and it needs to be changed. I hope the court will consider all the above points and give a ruling  to this directions and the government and other so called "religious" and communal leaders will accept the verdict with humility without creating more problems.

What is Martyrdom?

The terrorist attack at Air Force Station Pathankot is highly condemnable and the security lapse, if any, as alleged by some people, has to be looked into seriously by the Government.

The personnel who were killed in the attack also need to be honored and their family taken care of well.

However, with all due respect to the departed commnados, I would like to strike a different note , which may not be palatable to many, in the case of deceased Lt Colonel Niranjan, who was killed on the second day. As per the reports available Lt Colonel Niranjan was killed when he was trying to diffuse the grenade on the body of a killed terrorist. Does that need to be considered as an encounter death, I wonder. Simply put, it only implies that the commando did not know how to do his job.First of all what was the need for a Lt Colonel trying to diffuse the grenade? Second, even if he had to, what type of precautions he had taken to handle such a job? Was he technically qualified to handle the job? If yes how did the grenade explode during the operation? All these questions need to be answered before we confer any bravery award or honors on the departed commando. I, for a moment, do not mean to belittle the sacrifice made by him in the operation nor am I casting any aspersions on his ability. Only question is should the death under such circumstances be treated as a great sacrifice fighting the terrorists?