Note for the readers:
The characters and situations used
are imaginative. It is not intended to harm or provoke anyone. Reading this
article is at reader’s risk. Neither the so called ‘writer’ nor Microsoft shall
be responsible for any dire consequences.
The content is not copyrighted.
You can reproduce this in any form in whatever media but do not use any name.
Cigarette smoking is injurious to
others health. Be responsible and do not create nuisance. Your democracy ends
at other’s nose.
Thanks to: Anu, Ishara, my friends, YOU, Microsoft and
Indian democracy
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PROLOGUE:
Finally, after fighting out few
missiles when I was about to breath sign of relief, 2 cops ran towards my car
from one corner of the road asking me to stop. The last time I saw cops running
like this, was during 26/11 attack, when the terrorists took the car post their
attack on Mumbai CST. I salute such heroic act but….why did they do that to me? L...........
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It was already late to office. I
never anticipated that the government would suddenly wake up one day to dig the
entire street for the storm water drainage which was approved 2 years back.
Negotiating all those 90 degrees curves, greeted by the cows & dogs on the
road, honked by the fellow ‘frustrates’ (I mean my companion on the road that
day) it took good 15 minutes to reach the main road which was indeed
frustrating. It was’ nt easy after that either. A well known God’s spokesperson
visited the neighborhood and people from nearby hamlets thronged to see him.
The venue chosen was a roadside temple so that the spillover crowd could use
the tarmac highway to wash their sins. May be due to recession and consequent
retrenchment, the government citing shortage of police, deployed only two
constables who were spinning their ‘lathi’ in the air as if it was a magical
wand that can help them to manage the crowd in the peak hour traffic. There was
car- people conflict with some people keeping their tongue out, looking at the
car drivers so ferociously. Little do they realize that the ‘sacred’ place they
chose for their ritual was meant for some other purpose! Driving the car we buy
with our hard earned money (many times borrowed money) is like running on the
battle field. The missiles can come in any form. Sometimes it takes the form of
a motorist who wish to perform all his daredevil acts on public road; Sometimes
as jay walkers who jump over the median and walk on the middle of the road like
buffaloes gazing on the field; Sometimes as radio cabs who come closer to you
and threaten to dash you if you don’t give sides.
Finally, after fighting out few
missiles when I was about to breath sign of relief, 2 cops ran towards my car
from one corner of the road asking me to stop. The last time I saw cops running
like this, was during 26/11 attack, when the terrorists took the car post their
attack on Mumbai CST. I salute such heroic act but….why did they do that to me?
That too, when the vehicles were making beeline before signal and every driver turned environmentalists
murmuring ‘Go Green’!
‘Hey it’s tinted glasses. It’s
contempt of court. (Cauvery verdict and
hanging Afsal Guru are minor cases of contempt, I suppose) Pay Rs. 300 or
you will be produced in the court’. The angry traffic cop pronounced. ‘It was
not complete tinted glass. It has 60% visibility. You can check that’. The
traffic cop became furious and started arguing. After some 5 minutes of
argument, we reached for the ‘out of court’ settlement and I got 50% discount
on the penalty without receipt. The cops were also happy and must be thanking
the judiciary. When it comes to strict implementation of laws on small time
offenders, our cops stand next to none.
When I was going in the multi
level park ramps, my mind was thinking about the misplaced priorities of the
government. A procession was granted without adequate protection that too on
peak hours. Cops were asked to manage the ever increasing traffic without any
long sighted vision from the government and planners to improve public transportation.
All that the cop can do is to increase the ‘waiting time’ in the signal and
create new ‘one ways’. Road accidents take more life than terror attacks
in India. The working middle class who are responsible for the huge upswing of
India’s economy spends significant, precious amount of time on roads, but
finding the solution for the urban chaos is never the government’s priority.
This is not as big as border issue, water dispute and Telegana which cannot be
solved.
On the other hand, the citizens of
India, has misplaced tolerance limits. They tolerate everything and anything
that affects their daily life like grass root corruption in public services,
poor physical infrastructure, bad civic amenities but never tolerate even a
slightest provocation on their religious/communal quotients, even if it is well
within the definition of ‘freedom of expression’. The British Raj introduced
‘divide and rule’ and we are still divided and ruled. Atleast those days, the
rulers were intelligent, educated and little sensible. It’s this, misplaced
tolerance of the ‘common’ man aka middle class, the politicians use for their
advantage. They swindle the money meant for development and come to our streets
to distribute ‘biryanis’; They call the country as ‘secular’ but never ever
allow the country to become truly liberal and secular sans religion. India with
its division, caste based reservation system, reserved constituencies is what
they want. That’s the definition of ‘secularism’.
I
reached my work station and the headlines evoked my curiosity. It read,
“Suggestion to decongest choked cities; introduce congestion tax”. The biggest
copycats are our babus and netas who simply copy laws from the west without bothering
to do any ground work. Take for instance, London. (From where this concept of
congestion tax is copied, I guess). The first metro network in London was
commissioned in 1863. 100 years later London government proposed congestion tax
to decongest ‘central London’ the CBD area of Greater London. Post several debates
and protests, it was finally introduced only in early 2000. This means, after
putting in place an efficient public transportation system like metro and
improving the ‘last mile connectivity’ the Britain government introduced the
congestion tax to dissuade private vehicles from roads. As against this, the
first metro in India was introduced in Delhi only in 2002 and still there are
many black spots in the city which was not covered by metro. Cities like
Chennai are yet to see metro and some confused bureaucrats still keep arguing
which public transportation (Metro or Mono) is best suitable for Indian cities.
Whether it was the old dynasty rule by our kings or the present ‘modern’
(?) dynasty rule in the name of democracy, Indians always pioneer in discovering
new form of taxes and go on with the tradition of ‘minting spree’, the hard
earned money of the common man. Anyways, we have income tax, service tax,
wealth tax, education tax, health tax, road tax, property tax, excise duty,
customs duty, state level sales tax, central level sales tax and other whole
list of holistic hidden taxes. These congestion taxes are never going to deter
our enthusiasm for holding candles and protesting near India gate, the only
thing which we could do for holding the Indian passport!!!! Happy republic day guys!!!
- Hari
