Raj Thackray-Gujjar-Nandigram vs. Constitution-Gandhi-Jalianvala Baug

Every morning when we open a News Paper, “wanted” or not, we encounter a new News (nothing new actually) about new encounter……..

Raj Thackray & Ma. Na. Se. has opinion that UPs and Biharis should not have place in Maharashtra. I am neutral on that. I don’t support or protest it. Because Raj brings out this issue which perhaps is core at heart of many Mumbains. It also has some social justification. But it is nevertheless grossly illegitimate.

There is a say – “Everything Moral is not Legal, and Everything Legal is not Moral”. I think this suits the philosophy (?) of our beloved leader ‘raj’. (“Raj tum raj karo, hum tumhare hath hai”).

Few months back when I first read about Gujjar’s, I thought they are not but ‘Gujjus’. I was quite taken aback then, why Gujjus are looking for ‘reservations’. But later I realized that Gujjars are different than Gujjus, and they are one amongst perhaps 10000 different castes in India, mainly amassed in Rajasthan (‘Royals’). I have complete sympathy for them. They should be given reservation. In fact every one (I don’t mean every individual; but every caste, creed, breed, religion & class) perhaps should have reservation. I highly recommend this to “Sarakar ‘raj’” at Delhi. Bravo Gujjars……… I recommend that there should be constituted a Constitutional Committee to determine the caste based reservations for all the castes in India, which Committee should have ‘equal’ representation from each caste, so that no ‘caste’ is ‘cast away’ from ‘the blessings’ of Reservation………….The real problem is to prepare authenticate list of all the castes in India, and even greater problem is which caste people should prepare such list. (I invite suggestions on this).

Nandigram is different story altogether. I fail to understand why few thousand people are concerned and bothered about the progress of few ‘handful’ (the term is used because their ‘Hands’ are already ‘Full’) of people. I further, and even more, fail to understand how come and why at all in the (e)state ‘rajjed’ (please pardon yourself if you are not familiar with the verb ‘raj’; this is modern form of verb ‘lead’ at least in India, and I am sure Oxford, Cambridge and Chambers must be incorporating this very soon in their new Editions or reprints of Dictionaries and Thesauruses) by Communist Party (Oh! I am sorry, now days they prefer called them as “Leftists”), who are so pro-labour. They are there to take care of all those protestants and antagonists. Don’t blame them with the stigma of being Capitalists, else they will call overnight meeting of Polit Bureau to discuss their Polity about this issue.

Art.14 of Constitution of India (I know this is very embarrassing Article) entails the concept of Equality. It contemplates ‘equality before law and equal treatment of law’. It was then rightly interpreted by apex Court quite some time back that equality means ‘equality amongst equals’, and how true was that in the context of all above encounters. The only thing which is beyond my comprehension is that why at all our apex Court had to spend its time and energy interpreting it that way, when long back a statement was clearly enunciated in the famous book “Animal Farm” authored by Mr. Orwell – “All Animals (he had forgot to mention – including without limitation ‘party animals’, perhaps because he was that time unaware of existence of such an animal) are Equal; however some are ‘more equal’ than others”. Three, no, many many, cheers to Mr. Orwell. (Possibly this sentence might have been considered by Constitution Makers or the apex Court while construing the word ‘equal’, because like our Constitution, its interpretation could also be “borrowed” one). (I disclaim all liabilities of Contempt of Court).

Salute and many many thanks to a Man called “Godse” for assassinating Gandhiji soon after our (?) independence or freedom or whatever it was. Godse was such an intelligent man, he helped our society and politics from probable tortures of Gandhiji, and he literally helped Gandhiji escaping the trauma of encounters like above. Its so easy and nice to have Gandhiji’s foto ‘hanged’ on the wall and then we gain the right to have praise for Gandhi (including without limitation, with specific reference to Congress Party, ‘Indira, Rajiv, Soniya, Rahul, Priyanka, their children, grand-children and so on and so forth’) and Gandhism, without any need to implement his principles, which are very recently pronounced (rather reproduced) by super-hit “Munna bhai”. He also in the end has to say to all Politicians “Lage raho…”.

The Government, I guess, has manifold program for population control, and as a strong and quickest possible measure perhaps, it is implementing the strategy of giving “mukti” to people who protest for their demand (justified or unjustified). Believe me, this is very effective measure looking at the results in terms of figures (35-40 in Rajasthan in 2 days; and many more in W.B. in few months). Bravo (not that non-Indian cricketer Dwyen Bravo) our Government!!

No, no, please..no. No way I can afford to have thoughts of comparing these ‘encounters’ with brutal, sheer inhuman, stigmatic to mankind, cruel, merciless and ruthless act at “Jallianwala Baug”. Please forgive me if I compare like that. How can tyrannical British Rulers be compared with our ‘raj’ makers. I condemn incidences like Jallianwala, but the way all these ‘encounters’ are (man)handled by our Government is really highly commendable. I criticize the censure passed by many social workers and media people on our politicians. The actions taken by respective Governments were ‘need of time’ to control emotional eruptions of few people. In fact this is a great service to mankind. Let us all thank these Governments for doing such multi-purpose actions of controlling population growth, unwanted demands and reactions and maintaining the “Law and Order”. Kudos! to them all.

I recollect an article written by a creature, who is a ‘Common Man Creator’, our beloved R.K. Laxman. This article was titled as “Thanks for Blunders”, written at the 50th Anniversary of Indian Independence from British reign. He thanked, and so do I now, all our Politicians for making those Blunders, which helped this man to create so many caricatures, and thus earn his bread, butter and reputation. Thanks to Laxman for picturizing us, the “Common Men”, so well. Long Live Laxman and his “Common Man”.
I am aware that in today’s world a common (corporate) woman/man (I declare and disclaim that I do not intend to make any sexual discrimination by using such gender specific terms) is not permitted to have or take (if already have unfortunately) any political view, but this time – please “Gustakhi Maufff”.

रात्र ही वधू असेल
तरीही माझी हरकत नाही
पुत्र म्हणून मात्र
अंधार मला पटत नाही

पुन्हा एक.............

पुन्हा एक संध्याकाळ अशीच निघून जाणार,
आठवांची पिसाट सर मनात पडून जाणार

घेतील मनात जन्म काही वेडगळ आशा,
आशेत वाढलेली वने अशीच जळून जाणार.

फुटतील ओठात माझ्या काही फुटकळ शब्द,
सार्या भावना मात्र अशाच गळून जाणार.

उरतील खिन्न स्मृती रेंगाळतील मनामध्ये,
हृदय सार्या स्मृती अशाच पिळून जाणार.
============================
सारंग भणगे (१९९८)

प्रिय शिल्पास

जैसी फुले कळयांची,
होउनी ती फुलावी,
तैसी अबोल प्रीति,
शिल्पा वारी जडावी।

क्षण हेच चांदण्याचे,
वक्षात साठवावे,
ओल्या स्मृतिस हिरव्या,
हृदयात आठवावे.

Train to Pakistan - journey that shakes you

“Train to Pakistan” is the story of those post independence days when massacres were routine; cutting and killing was matter of pride; communal riots were at peak; inhumanity and brutality had taken wildest ever shape…………It was perhaps the darkest page of history of India independence, without any silver lining at all.

Mano Majra, a small commonplace village on the border, peacefully leading its way of life, the life of Sikh farmers and their Muslim peasants. The villagers are dwelling happily despite all odds of post independence calamities all around.

Jugga Singh, a dacoit, a budmash, is arrested for dacoit and murder of a Hindu Money Lender in his own village, Mano Majra. It is known to the Police that he is not involved in the crime, but as a part of strategy of the Magistrate to save this border village from those killings, Jugga is kept in custody.

The old Magistrate, Hukum Chand, lays one more strategy to move Muslims of Mano Majra to Pakistani camps, to protect them from possible attacks, not by Sikh dwellers of Mano Majra, but by refugees coming over from Pakistan and also by villagers from other parts of district.

When all Muslims are moved to refugee camps, including Jugga’s beloved Nooran a troop of fundamentalist Sikh youngsters along with some Sikh refugees, plot a plan to execute the Muslim travelers in a ‘Train to Pakistan’.

In a dramatic end of the story, which shivers you entirely, Jugga sacrifices his life to save the ‘Train to Pakistan’, and gets butchered by the very train which he saves from his own countrymen and community people.

Khushwant Singh’s first novel, “Train to Pakistan”, deserves many accolades. The book depicts the horrifying times of post independence days. The facts to which our generation is completely alien. In a country like India, people were butchered, women were ravished, kids were ruthlessly killed and houses were voraciously looted. Without going into too much of description on such incidences, Khushwant Singh lefts tremendous impact on your mind about all these things, and also perhaps raises the thunderstorm of questions; the unanswered questions.

Khushwant Singh uses his each word aptly and choicely. While creating the drama in the story, he doesn’t forget to write some paragraphs about the beauty of nature, the philosophy of human life, failure of religion systems etc. This adds literary value to the book. His characters are real life characters. He’s meticulous describing even the small action or movement of the character, which makes each one of them live.

The book is very honest effort. The story is crafted and drafted such a way that its neither boring or slow nor is too dramatic such that it would lose its real life touch. He takes leisure in building the drama in the story, but never disturbs the flow of the story.

Unusual to such stories, which usually end on negative note, “Train to Pakistan” in one way ends with a very positive note. The story doesn’t give any message or lay down any controversy, but raises some obvious questions in one’s mind, search of which would begin, when one would end reading the book.