Compulsory drafting - Can India do it

Everyday we are being asked the question of what is your one suggestion to make a difference to be prepared for the next terror attack.
One of the suggestion that came up in television programs from a father who has a 11 year old son and an unmarried actress was to send their child for a compulsory drafting into the national services like it is prevalent in countries like USA, Singapore & Israel.
It is indeed a laudable thought, I shall recommend this too and I have a son who is running 18, if not for anything it will build a society which is disciplined. Before we go any further we also have to understand the difficulties in implementing this in our country.
• Huge force of youth which is unemployed
• No tracking mechanism to make out who is completing 18 years of age so that he could be called for drafting.
• Highly corrupt bureaucracy which needs to implement this
We need to first create a data base of our citizenry and issue them ID cards (I read somewhere that a trial implementation has started in few districts). This ID has to be the link for all transactions be it issue of ration cards, passport, PAN card etc. Since the technology permits we should have smart cards which will even allow DNA data also to be stored on these cards in addition to Bio Metric data. If money is a constraint we could be levied another 1% surcharge on all the taxes and am sure no one will object to it.
A deadline needs to be set to make Compulsory drafting (CD) into a law and work out a plan for the same. We have Defence forces, Para Military forces and of course police where every individual be it a boy or a girl should be drafted in for armed forces training for a period of one year (naturally this force will be a back up force when ever there is an event of war). With youth getting into the compulsory training certain values can be imbibed into them and there would be less chances of these trainees getting attracted to organisations like PWG, ULFA etc.
Best fringe benefit in this entire exercise would be more law abiding citizens and less need for Traffic cops to levy fines on errant road users and also less eve teasing on the roads.
It is up to the government to decide the period of drafting whether it should be one year or two years.
Once the database is created and a tracking mechanism is established on the movement of people (we do have a huge migration of people to where better living opportunities exist) the call for compulsory drafting has to be automatised. In addition to the officials there should be a citizens panel of people who have sent in their children to serve the nation, this body will decide if required for eliminating youngsters who are not medically fit from the compulsory drafting.
Coming to the unemployed youth, they could probably choose this to be their career if they so desire.
Important question is can the forces accommodate these many additional people I believe there would be at least 5 million Indians attaining the age of 18 every year, would they be in a position to convince the FM for the required budgets.

Terror - Politician – Media

In the last one week we have gone through a traumatic period and have experienced terror at our doorstep. When Mr. Turner bought the gulf war into American homes we wouldn't have understood the impact, today we have been fed with live-feed of terror journalism for a period of 60 hours live and continuous barrage after that too.

We needed the info, but we didn't need the sensationalism associated with it, we did not require the competitive journalism which we were fed through this period. Newspapers were not interesting any more as all the news sounded stale after the 24 hour news casting.

No doubt our politicians had to duck for cover as they faced the public outrage for this terror at our doorstep. Some of them probably wanted to have the opportunity to give some sound bytes and were caught wanting in that area. When we critically analyse two controversies, I notice a considerable amount of sensationalism on the part of the media.

Naqvi's statement about Ladies with lipstick. I am sure most of the politicians didn't like these socialites telling them why they are not doing their job, this guy probably wanted to say something to that effect either the language failed him or we were given only the edited version making him a scrape goat. Indeed what will happen to this socialites who are making grandiose statements, will they lead the war against terrorism, will they mobilise the nation's opinion to make the politicians and bureaucrats accountable to their inactions. Once the heat is over, it might be difficult to find them except In the page 3's of the newspapers and tabloids.

Achutandan's comment, I strongly believe has been taken out of context. He goes to the slain martyrs house to pay his respects, door is slammed on his face, it is indeed a big insult for a politician, may be everyone will not be as gracious as Mr. Narendra Modi to keep quiet. This guy having been pushed by a journo, says not even a dog would have gone to that house if it was not for the slain martyr. He is indeed saying the importance is of the martyr and not his father, who shut the door on him. Now that he has apologised I believe we all have to forget the issue, but am sure two people are not going to do that are Achutandan and Major Sandeep's father.

But I believe the media did make too much noise when emotions were already running high, was it required, more so with all this diversions will we forget the main cause of making the politicians accountable.

Can't we live together

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There was a time we talked about unity in diversity and how we Indians live like brothers and sister’s blah, blah. What is happening today is simple selfish acts of politicians which are taking the country so much behind.

World over it is the hard working and enterprising people who migrate from their home lands and move out searching greener pastures. That is how civilisations evolved and mankind spread throughout the six continents that are in, what we call as, the earth.

Today in India we are seeing situations where migrants are being seen as threat to the local people and create ruckus about the same. It is indeed necessary that when we move into a new place we need to respect the local culture and be a part of the society rather than be seen as a sore thumb. Best example that could be given is how Marwari’s merge into the local community, retaining their own cultural ethos.

Whether it is Mumbai or Bengaluru why do we make an attempt to project that outsiders are not welcome, when they play a major part in the development of that city. Why should locals only look at low paying jobs why are they not encouraged to compete with outsiders and get their due share of better paying jobs. Wouldn’t an employer prefer a hardworking local vis a vis an outsider who is a migrant.

Politicians naturally take the cudgels for the locals as they constitute a big vote bank. Any cause that is in favour of them will fetch more votes. Aren’t the locals being spoiled to imagine a cushy life and not be competitive? It is important that efforts are made to empower the locals to compete and win the jobs they deserve on merit rather than reservations. Any way we have so many categories of reservations, do we need more. If we want to be globally competitive we need to have best manpower working for the corporate and produce world class results.

If we Indians can’t live harmoniously within our country how do we expect the other countries and their populace to accept us with open arms? It is high time we all accept the reality of the global village and not give in to the petty politician.

In this case we need to look at the role media is playing, are we giving too much importance to these petty politicians to get some much wanted TRP’s. By carrying out the debates and coverage about these petty politicians and the reaction to their actions, we are making a mockery of our democracy and giving more heart burn across the nation. Like the case of Bihar’s reaction to the Mumbai problems.

Is it not time for all forward thinking people to voice their concerns across available means to condemn these petty politicians and demand to make India a peaceful place to live

Believe it or not it happened in Chennai

Recently son of a doctor couple met with a road accident and was declared brain dead. At this point of time the parents consented for the donation of organs of their beloved son. Eyes, Kidney, Liver and Heart were all transplanted to different recipients. The story of how the heart was carried from one hospital where the donaor was located and the other where the recipient was situated, read it might sound like a cinema action but it has happened for real.

(News item published in Deccan chronicle is reprduced here)
It was a journey with a difference for police driver Mohan on Tuesday afternoon. He was summoned to drive a police car to pilot the ambu lance that was carrying the heart of 15-year-old Hithendran, who was killed in a bike accident. The heart was being taken to Frontier Life hospital in JJ Nagar from Apollo specialty hospitals, Teynampet to transplant it into a 10-year–old girl. The doctors after harvesting the heart (it has to be transplanted within a very short span) got into Mohan’s pilot car, instead of the ambulance. Then it became the duty of the constable to make sure that the heart, kept in a special icebox in the car, reached its destination as fast as possible. With assistant commissioner, Mr Manoharan on his side, Mohan drove the car, with its siren bleating, out of the Apollo at around 2.50 pm. Senior traffic police officials had already made arrangement to switch off traffic signals en route and clear the roads so that the heart convoy was not stopped anywhere.
The race against time through the busy V N Road, Madley Road, the new flyover at T Nagar, Loyola College, Nelson Manickam Road, Anna Arch and Anna Nagar round tana to reach Frontline took just ten minutes — probably a city record. As a tense Mohan drove his vehicle at more than 100 kph, the assistant commissioner kept radioing instructions to his men on the road to clear the traffic.

As soon as the mission was completed, Mr Sunil Kumar, additional commissioner, traffic, congratulated his team. On Wednesday Mr Mohan was given a cash award by Mr R. Sekhar, commissioner and Mr Sunil Kumar. ++++
Kudos to the entire team who participated in this, long live such thoughts and deeds.

Is it time for railways to think out of the box

The recent fire tragedy on the Gauthami express calls for some thinking on the side of the popular railway Minister and his team of people.

If you have traveled in a train, have you ever wondered why there is no fire extinguisher handy, though there are messages galore about fire safety pasted all across the coaches? They have created emergency windows, but seemed to have missed out on the simple precautionary measure which is mandatory in many a public place to stop fire. You will even find the extinguishers in the Taxi cabs.

Irrespective of the cost it is necessary that Railway board thinks of this simple measure, probably this could have saved at least few precious lives.

Since we are on the subject, It may be prudent for the railways to consider fixing fire alarm system in their coaches (It is the most common thing in all hotels today), and they could even think of sprinklers to spray water in case of fire. Remember every passenger coach carries water in it for the use of passengers.

Bharat Ratna - is it demandable

Bharat Ratna the highest Indian award/recognition given to an individual who excels in his field of activity and contributes to the pride of the country. When you look at the demands being made by one and all it sounds so ludicrous

Up to a point of time this award was only given to people who were in politics and the trend got changed some time in the history where people like Mother Theresa, Abdul Kalam, Lata Mangheskar, Bhismillah Khan and their likes were recognized worthy of this recognition.

When we consider the whys and why not of the selection process shouldn’t we look at what each individual has contributed to the nation building effort. Let’s look at some of the contenders

One is a nation’s foremost statesman, who played a very effective role of a opposition leader and also lead the first full term Non-Congress government at the centre.

Next is a person who has lead the second revolution of the dalit uplifting and in the end days died a very confined death and predominantly unsung except for by his protege, that to more as an after thought.

Another a seasoned poet and a regional leader who was known for his anti-Hindi agitation and today’s pressure politics (His party has enjoyed the power at the centre for over a decade by being with the right alliance), family first policy etc., apart from this he is not known much for national building, he is being pushed by his well wishers for this award.

Once in a while we here about a film star turned politician whose erstwhile party which keeps demanding the award being bestowed on him. No doubt there are some worthy names which are missing in this madness for proposals including a former prime minister who has initiated the economic reforms, the benefit of which we are all enjoying today.

Another senior leader of a leftist party is being propped for his leadership of a state for over two decades during which period it has gone from being a industrial capital of the country to a most backward state status. This party other than it’s self proclaimed nations conscious keeper status done nothing much towards nation building.

No doubt there are more such names doing the rounds, one doesn’t really understand why so much of noise is being generated in this regard. Why not we take few examples from different walks of life and evolve a mechanism which can deliver a blemish free selection.

Noble prize winners are selected by a five man committee constituted by the Norwegian parliament for that purpose and they will dwell on various proposals and then come out with a valued judgment. Closer home let’s look at the effort of a Business publication which has been selecting the ‘Best Businessman of the year’ with a well constituted panel which is headed by the previous years winner.

It is worthwhile that a parliament appointed committee consisting of eminent people (who are unlikely to appease for this appointment) to select the Highest Civilian awardees. Let all these propagandists send in their nominations for the award detailing why they propose the award for their candidate.

Do we Indians have the killer instinct?

We keep reading and hearing about the lack of killer instinct in the Indian sportsmen and how we tamely give up when it comes to a fight.

Yes it was indeed true some years back, however when some players show aggression, we the community tell it is too much and we shouldn’t carry the fight into the enemy camp. I suppose the soldiers who fought the 1971 war with Pakistan will agree when they were asked to retreat from the occupied territory.

Srisanth showed what was aggression and as a bowler he bowled with the spirit and unlike Zaheer who was thrashed in the world cup finals, Sreeshanth had been quite persistently successful and he lived up to his aggression. It was sthe Indian batsman who couldn’t take the fight to the enemy territory and all the people around started asking Shreesanth to calm down, I presume media too played it’s role. Probably that is one reason why he is sitting at home, instead of playing the game in Australia, are we worried an angry Australian team would rip us apart.

Coming to the latest match at Sydney, first and foremost Australians started using the negative tactics by alleging Racial abuse at Harbajan (he was one of those willing to match them word to word). I am sure no body would say anything unless he is provoked and that is what even Tony Greg has rightly pointed out.

It was difficult to the Aussie team to stomach the fight Indian team gave them from the day one of the 2nd test match. I think they were greatly helped by the umpires who were as it is performing way below their ability. The policy of I don’t walk when I am out but will also claim catches when they are not clean seems to be the new spirit of the Aussie team, while it doesn’t speak good for a fighting team, it is time they re-visited their strategy.

Indeed Australians are fighters and will not give up that easily and they have proved it time and again, but they should be willing to play the game in a fair manner. Probably the reaction of Aussie captain Ponting’s to a media person’s question about the spirit of the game, speaks the guilty he is carrying.

Come on Aussies playing the game hard cant be only your team’s prerogative and fight the game on the field rather than off it. Sledging, Bad gamesmanship shouldn’t win you the matches but your ability should.

Come on India it is time you fight the game on the field and give them a fitting reply and we are with you in your fight back