Independence day greetings. A time to reflect upon our tryst with destiny,
which, the more I think of it the more I tend to believe that Nehru used
it in a negative sense, similar to what I have heard my mother say when
something bad happens. A quintessential Indian philosophical "ithanu
nammude vidhi, enthu cheyyan (this is our fate, what can we do)?"
After 50 odd years of this destiny, we see our newspapers reporting with
pride that we are 4 or 5 places ahead of Pak and B'desh in the development
index of countries. What they don't say is that there are more than 100
countries above us and only a few African countries below us. After years
of Nehru clan rule, coalitions with left/right support at the same time
rule and the party with a difference rule, we're still not there yet. Some
destiny.
Our claim to democracy and freedom, like America's claim to spreading of democracy, is mostly a fake. Maybe, that's why my journalist wife was asked to sign a paper saying that she won't do any reporting in India. Ironically, she was given a journalist visa (she asked for a tourist one but the rule states that journalists get journalist visa only). "Here is your journalist visa, but don't do any journalism in India". What are we hiding?
Also, there is this new law that states that all foreigners should register with the police within 2 weeks of arrival. I doubt if any country other than say, N. Korea has this kind of rules. This is supposedly to catch Pak bad guys, who I suppose would come straight to the police and give out a detailed list of the places they're going to blow up that week in writing.
Meanwhile, here is news on one of my favourite association, listening to whose nagging is one of our destinies. This happened a few weeks back when these animal lovers got this London shop to stop buying Indian leather. PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) has persuaded Marks & Spencer to stop buying Indian leather. The organisation says cruel slaughtering practices remain common. "Thousands of cattle in (the southern Indian states of) Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka are still being forced to walk for days to their deaths," the statement said. "When they collapse, they are beaten and have their tails broken at each joint." PETA said in some abattoirs the animals are dragged to the slaughter floors and their throats hacked at by blunt instruments.
I love these PETA people. These are people with very good intentions and we should listen to them (not swing blunt instruments at their throats) patiently first (before swinging blunt instruments at them). Interestingly, their hearts don't bleed for the skinny guy who is also walking along with the cattle for days, just to make ends meet, whose lifetime earnings for all this walking and beating won't get him a leather strap from a broken bag in Marks & Spencer. If only they spend a fraction of the pounds they spend on organising protests against Vajpayee to buy sharp knives for the abattoirs. At least we would have been able to watch some entertainingly efficient animal slaughter, but we can't. Manifest Destiny as applied to us. Ithanu nammude vidhi.