Fascism under the veil of People’s Movement

-Professor Kawaldeep Singh Kanwal

In the very start itself I want to clear one important thing that I am not a fan/supporter of anyone, Neither of Anna nor of Rahul/Sonia/Congress and could never ever think of be one of the bunch of opportunistic lot of BJP.

How much we differ with the man but Anna should be praised for what he has done for the Nation by acting as a catalyst to help the public emotions and aspirations against the biggest problem being faced by the Nation - Corruption from top to bottom - to precipitate in form of stronger articulation and a kind of will to eradicate it across the nation. In this manner he made this core issue to be at center-stage.

However from now legal and constitutional frame-works have to take the lead and due processes have to be followed to incorporate the real civil-society, 120 Crore People of this largest and constitutional democracy of the word and every view and intelligence of the people of this nation has to be considered before framing the well talked law of Lokpal.

But the matter of concern is Anna wants to dictate everything on his own set of terms. He is creating a situation like "My Way or Highway" by getting over-excited by the crowds which only gathered around him to channelize their own frustration against the system due to various reasons ranging from ever growing Price-rise to non-performing administration on various core issues directly impacting them.

Now seeing the whole situations over a wider spectrum the question strongly arises that what is the difference between "Mandir Wahin Banayenge !" (The Ram Temple would be built only at the place we dictate.. not the law or justice !) and "Bill to Hamara Jan-Lokpal Hi Parit Hoga" (Only our Jan Lokpal Bill would have to be passed)? What else is the definition of FASCISM ?

And the major concern about the colour of Anna’s protest is also coming out true with the truth coming out that his ideology is getting direct affiliation from the saffron Band-Wagoners. In the recent published life-sketches of his, he is being described as directly impacted by philosophy of Nana Deshmukh, a luminary and veteran of the RSS, who on November 8, 1984 days after the Genocide of Sikhs written and distributed an article which tried to establish mass killings as rightful act. This article was also published in Hindi Weekly Pratipaksh edited by George Fernandes (Defence Minister of India 1999-2004) in its edition of November 25, 1984 titled 'Indira Congress-RSS collusion'.

And following on the foot-step of his ideal, Anna too has articulated his support to Narendra Modi recently, who is accepted not only by this whole nation as mass-murderer and prime convict in Gujrat Riots which were targeted against the Muslim Minority but also banned in various democracies world-over for these crimes against humanity.

Its an appeal in the end to the common emotional people of this nation that please do not become the football of vested interests of others and carried away by mere louder sloganeering. While the issue is important but more important is the awareness about the worthiness of articulation. So for God say, we are living in a form of government which is still democratic in its core and running under a written set of principles defined in a document named constitution. Let’s respect it and let the solution(s) come through intelligent discussions in proper forums with involvement of all, from Elite to downtrodden, from ones controlling the power corridors to the weakest lot, from majority to minorities, from North to South and East to West, but never ever from the exhibit of power on the streets, as it would set precedent that would be impossible to rewind in future.

NOTE: Nobody is supporting corruption here, everyone has suffered extremely and pained to the core due to it.

Speaking-Me

Life is struggle, we all say. But how many of us accept it? We couldn't win all the times; we have to loose sometimes too, and for normal ones most of times as per simple probability mathematics. What's the big deal if we couldn't overcome situations sometimes (even most of the times)? We are single; they are multiples; there is more probability of them to win. So if we are loosing, it doesn't always mean that we did wrong.

We could always start anew. Of-course not from the level we fell, we definitely have to come down, dig up once again, sow the seed again, water it and wait for once again for a new and fresh life to come out.

Situations can never be reversed, and for sure we couldn't go back in time, neither we can decide our future. What we can do is to live (in) our present. We can make adjustments (if any) in present only.

If we are standing by the bank of a stream, the water flows through it today. If tomorrow we come back to the same place, we could still find the water flowing through it (if it hasn’t dried up) but in any case could never make the same water flow through it again. It would be the new water, the fresh water. That is life !

Banning of Alcohol or Tobacco Products from India

Many times alike in the past, its today also, in a discussion on the issue of Alcohol or Tobacco Hazards in India in general (or in Punjab in particular), I heard a very generic suggestion that such products must be banned totally by government by passing some law. This a very simple and ‘running from the core problem’ kind of suggestion which we always throw to just pass-on our own responsibilities towards every and other problem of ours.

However as far as the issue of banning them is concerned, I have doubt if they could really be banned by any successive government of India in practical senses. With so much of revenue coming from them in taxes (Punjab government’s significant budget comes from number of taxes on Alcohols only and center & other state governments’ also earning huge capital from tax revenue from Tobacco Products as well as Alcohols) along with contribution to party (as well as personal) funds coming from various Liquor Barons or Tobacco products makers and huge vote-bank provided by poors working in such industries, it is impossible for government of India to Ban them completely..

Otherwise, if we use such products, is it our problem or a National issue of concern? Why don’t we ourselves have the willpower to say NO to such filth?

Tomorrow, if we reach to our office delayed by an hour or so, would we shout for that the Government of India must ban either TIMING CONSTRAINTS or MAKING OF CLOCKS in this country? When would we learn to solve our problem ourselves??

It would only be we ourselves who could ban them from our lives, then in real senses they would automatically be disappeared from our society… Are we actually ready to solve the problem or are just passing the bucket with feeling that we have played our part well?

Your Views Please…………………..

Life & Emotions

We needn’t to be above emotions, we need to be emotive, and to live in them but don’t allow them to take over us..
An emotion is a sign of life but life is much beyond emotions, we have to be emotional however just need to be careful that they simply not take control of our life or wisdom..
We can’t live without emotions but couldn’t conclude to a logic with them too..

Emotions are no doubt a necessary part of life. An emotion is actually a sign of life, if and only if a person is emotive then only one could be considered as alive in real terms. However emotions when take control of our wisdom, our decision making capabilities, then they are the worst enemies of the life itself. Emotive mind goes illogical could be think freely at all on new thought against ones prejudices or presumptions with which our self has developed some emotional attachment. We simply don’t want to give second thought when something we feel is hurting our emotions, irrespective how much weight it might possesses on logical plane. So in that manner emotions controls our wisdom or our otherwise intellectual self.

Emotionlessness is actually lifelessness, however life is not emotions only but moving beyond while still keeping them alongside. It is not leaving them all alone, but its actually practicing detachment from them while spreading open arms for them.

It is actually living in between, like Lotus in a pound, an otherwise muddy pound.

Tearful Onions !

Tears which we are having on sky-rocketing ONIONS, these days, is only due to the hoarding… Black-marketers just artificially increase or decrease the prices of essential commodities by doing planned stocking and preventing the commodity reaching the retail market. This impacts the availably while demand of commodity remains same, so does the rising of prices. They use to pocket huge money before Govt. could take steps to bring the prices down. 

Media plays big role in it. One day, it was selling Rs. 20/kg in small cities, same evening a news came that onions are being sold at Rs. 50/kg in metros and you just seen the prices rocketing very next morning in small cities.. Then it raised to Rs. 70-80 on next day with the grace of information spreading through electronic media specifically.

Along with controlling hoarders, black-marketers, something need to be there to control such hoax pass to spread through media..

MEDIA IS BECOMING MAFIA these days..

Human Emotions, Science & Future

Human emotions are something which are still unexplainable with the scientific knowledge that mankind currently possess. There is no scientific theory that can explain why we get happy on some moments or why some things make us unexplainably aggressive? Why we get jealous with some achievements of others? How we sometimes feel huge intrinsic desire for somewhat? The very weak reply comes as what is visibly happening in the neurons, present in strength of millions in our brain, in form of some electrochemical reactions. But why these reactions exist on first place? Why only some particular emotions are there at specific occasions rather than the other ones? Who is actually deciding which emotions to be best suitable for the situations in which they actually emerge? Current knowledge is astonishingly silent.

May be the knowledge to which we would evolve with time in future, we can answer these questions. Then, by that time, we might be able to control or generate the human emotions. Loss of some loved one would not be going to generate any shock and grief. Or we can imagine a world free from depression or any kind of mental disease. But this could turn the humanity into mechanic puppets with nothing left humane. Somebody or something could control all the emotions, all the feelings and can generate them or wipe out with the central control. There wouldn’t be any motherly love and care, there wouldn’t be any affection, love, romance, bravery, kindness, zeal for struggle and our million other emotions which actually make us what we are today. Everything would be controlled or falsely induced. Isn’t it a terrible visualization?

Now try to imagine the authority that is having the control of whole false and induced world. The one with that power wouldn’t be anything less than today’s God or even above that. God of today atleast has no control on our feelings.

But the question arises would we ever be able to attain that power. Is this anyway possible? However whole world sharing and evolving information with internet was not even imagined in one or two centuries back. Nobody had ever thought about cloning, travelling to moon or other planets & stars beyond. So what is hidden with future would only be revealed when the appropriate time would come.

Life, Questions & Answers

What is the meaning of life? Is it only respiring, earning, eating, sleeping, romancing, reproducing or so? We are living on a planet full of around 6.5 billion of people. Everybody is doing these things, so de facto all are qualified of being alive. My conscience always asks me am I here to be just like crawlers or there is a specific purpose of my existence? Why am I alive otherwise? It seems to be representing spiritual alter-ego of my personality but it is a valid question in all senses. If completing my daily tasks is the only need then I am nothing but a crawler. There would be hardly any difference between the existence of a cattle or an insect and sophisticated, intelligent and so called humane existence of mine.

The best way to know the answer(s) of these doubts is to earn the eligibility to get answered. Wisdom says that there is no question without answer(s). Answers are ready much before the question is posed. Only thing is some answers are readily available while for others we have to put extreme efforts of ours to find out. In addition to these, there are some answers for whom we have to earn the qualification to get them known. Questions of life meet the criteria of answers belonging to later category.

Now this believe is itself a web of questions. How could one become eligible to get the answers of life? Where to start the journey and what actually is to be achieved? What is on stake and what could be in the way as facilitator or as obstacle? How could I be sure that I am following the right path or direction i.e. whether I am moving ahead on the road to attain eligibility to get the solutions of riddles put forward by life or just confusing with and getting all my energy wasted for none? Can someone be chosen as the guide or this travel actually needs guidance? There are millions of other threads in this web but foremost is whether these questions of life which appear to demand answers are genuine or just an escape route for running the routine challenges and pains of human life?

This subject is so mystic in itself that once you start with it and you find yourself in an unending maze. Begin with any corner and you never seem to find the other one while losing the way from where you have actually started and left puzzled & perplexed in every sense. So do we need to quarantine this thinking to save ourselves from mental stigma or at least dive in the ocean of thoughts and try to search? I agree with later argument. It doesn’t matter if we would fail to reach to conclusion(s) but the pleasure of search is itself a big achievement. Answer(s) would definitely be the target but steps we follow and logics we employ could never be underestimated in its value.

Even though we could disturb our routine life while seeking out the solutions for the questions whose genuinity we couldn’t sure about, it would always be worthy to struggle for.  It could be anything but an escape route. Every life in existence has a motive associated with it. It’s exploration worth our efforts.

Search of an individual is the reflexion of the intellectual capability one possesses in the way of one’s thrive for answers about the truths of life and is specific to particular identity. So there is no question of external guide. The one could take the guidance from self only. Others can give suggestions based on superficial thinking which could never be helpful until the self search. It is similar to way that we could never learn swimming unless we ourselves dive in water. Only the submergence of our conscience can make us able to find the pearls of truthful answers.

Even if we have doubts about path we are following we should at least attempt to search. A failure in an attempt wouldn’t be a failure in real sense but the success in manner we would have discovered another way via which success couldn’t be achieved.

My Spirituality

Two people asked me about spirituality, today – One theist and other atheist.. “Does it makes any difference?”, one asked. I said, “It makes for me while embedding something in usual conversation, because spirituality is nothing about words, but all time beyond that. Words otherwise require perspective as well as pre-study of the mind of listener”. We couldn’t explain same thing to tailor or a doctor in a same manner. So does the spirituality.

My first requirement from them was to come to me with their mind cleansed from their previous preoccupations, prejudices of their ideologies or beliefs; as only a clean vessel is eligible to pour something inside.. One has to forget one’s previous-self to learn something new, else one can proceed with one’s already pre-decided conclusions of something which is otherwise anew/unknown in real sense..

One asked me if I am religious or spiritual. I said give me the definitions of both and I would then tell you which would fits on me best. He asked me whether I follow some specific and stringent prayer-timings or other conducts. My simple answer to it was if you ask me do you believe in God (Any Supreme Authority), I would say I am but if you ask me do you follow some ritualistic conducts, I would say WHAT??

There are no such specific & stringent timing requirements to get connected with your innerself, with realization of Supreme. The very time when you have your realization is the only blissful time (or Amrit Vela in eastern perspective).

Furthermore to it, we need to conclude that there is no requirement of mediator between one and one’s ownself (or the Supreme) of any kind. A Guru or spiritual teacher is just a medium, a medium of connection, and its utilization is till that only. Guru is never a destination but a path or the enlightenment of path, and one has to reach ultimate destination through one’s own experiences.

Actually the religion & spirituality though seemed different superficially but actually coexist in one person if understood deeply. That was my point in asking for separate definitions for both as they are NOT as clear bounded..

Spirituality is not like spoon-feeding, if one aims for same then one has to search it for oneself.

Buddha has given a very powerful statement. “Don’t follow me blindly.. Search yourself !”

This is what spirituality is !

Problem of addressing someone Senior–Indian Perspective

When I start a relationship of friendship with persons significantly senior than me, my first hesitation is always that what would I going to address that person. I use to ask people how do they like to be addressed by me?

As far as professional contacts are concerned, I do have a lot of my seniors, ranging from 5 to even 30-40 years older than me. Still I call them by their first name, while on work, as a part of professional practice in my organization.

However, in our subcontinent, we in personal relationship are obliged to give respect as well as respectful addressing to our elders as part of our culture when relationships are concerned.

West, otherwise, has very limited vocabulary of relationships. All Mama, Mosa, Chaha, Taya, Fufa, etc are only Uncle for them and they address all their Mami, Mosi, Chachi, Taayi, Bhuya by Aunt. In addition, they don’t address anyone outside their direct relation as their Uncle or Aunt. I am amused that there is no equivalent world to our simple word of respect “Ji” in English.

Our concept is completely different. We have abundant words in our vocabulary for blood relatives. Though we have our indigenous words for non-relatives we have somehow adopted the address of Uncle/Aunty for anyone close but who is not directly linked by relationships. And not this we use to call every and other stranger, we meet, by Uncle/Aunty due to our mindset.

The possible reason of this behaviour, as I think, would be that our culture works with the comforts of relationships. And if we don’t have blood ones we try to make ones of respect, even with strangers. We might have millions of flaws in us but this is one of the prevalent beauties of our values.