india on fire
normally this type of heading will suggest some sporting victories by our country but in this post i have no intention of talking abt indian hockey team retaining bronze in the azlan shah tournament or viswanathan anand being crowned as the number one chess player in the world or sachin tendulkar scoring back to back test centuries against bangladesh.. i am writing abt our country literally being on fire among the recent happenings..
firstly there was a bomb blast in the hyderabad mosque, not to forget the timely diffusion of a couple more by the police.. then a few days later, three bomb blasts took place in gorakhpur followed by recovery of bombs & other explosives from the railway stations at faizabad & farukhabad.. the fact that these three cities happen to be in uttar pradesh just make you wonder if this was a mere coincidence or a political plot to tarnish the image (!!), as if they have any, of the recently victorious BSP.. absolutely anything is possible in our land of political, religious & cricket fanatics !!
come to the economic capital "mumbai" and you can't stop wondering what will happen when the power lands in the hands of shiv sena.. recently when a few marathis working in the "big bazaar" chain were fired by their employers because of over-staffing, within hours their "masihas" gathered in big numbers and promptly closed down all the outlets of big bazaar in the city.. obviously there was destruction of property like breaking off the mirrors in nearby parked cars, buses etc, that was quite anticipated.. after all this is maratha land and so nobody has the right to remove marathis from any form of employment.. in fact, some time back the younger thackeray (raj or udbhav, don't remember) voiced his concern over the high proportion of bhaiyyas (those from UP) and biharis among the auto/taxi wallah community in the city, which should ideally belong to the marathis "the original inhabitants of the city".. as you might have correctly guessed, the big bazaar owners gave up and retained the fired marathis, guess they realized that they are losing more as a result of outlet closure then they would by keeping the extra labour :) recently, the sainiks were at their hilarious best when they gathered outside a newly opened restaurant of the "bombay blue" franchise (btw, i simply love their cheese nachos with mexican beans :P) and demanded that the name be changed to more appropriate "mumbai blue" since the city is no longer called "bombay".. this is when there are multiple chains running under the "bombay blue" name for years now, may be they are unaware, in any case please don't inform them, i don't want the one next to my offic closed down :)
moving north again, there is big fight going on in punjab between akali takht and dera sachcha sauda.. frankly, i have no clue abt either of these two communities, came to know of their existence when they showed people fighting with swords openly on the streets across many cities in punjab.. for the uninitiated, the chief of this dera community, a fellow called "ram rahim singh" (wow !! what a secular name) appeared in one of his meetings dressed like sikh guru gobind singh and the akali takht took this as an imitation & insult.. i am sure that he must have been appearing in that kind of dress in the past also, only to go unnoticed by the takht leaders.. anyways so the takht demanded the closure of all "deras" and an apology by baba ram rahim while the other party stood firm that they won't apologize etc etc.. finally after days of pampering, when the dera leader gave in and furnished an apology, it was rejected by the takht leaders as "not graceful in language & spirit".. i am sure this is going down the wires like the battle for top spot between barcelona & real madrid in spanish football league :P
and then the latest one in rajasthan.. thousands from gurjar community blocked the jaipur agra national highway near dausa district demanding the inclusion of their community in scheduled tribe category.. eleven were killed in the ensuing clashes between the gurjars & police in dausa, karauli & bundi.. promptly enough, opposition congress party has demanded a resignation from the ruling BJP :) i was mentioning this to pankaj that ours is probably the only country where people fight to prove themselves backwards !! there is already so much uproar over the reservation bill at the center and pankaj rightly pointed that no political party is opposing the bill.. as always there is a political angle in this issue with the backward classes forming a big chunk of the vote bank, and so by not opposing the bill, the opposition parties are indirectly supporting the bill if not openly.. after all, turning of tables doesn't take much time.. i guess the day is not far when there will be reservation in private jobs too.. let's see..
add to these, the regular killings/disruptions by the members of ulfa & naxal movements and terrorists roaming around freely carrying explosives.. there is so much unrest that i was wondering if there will ever be peace.. or may be there is no point worrying abt the future & better to just live in the moment.. don't know !!
firstly there was a bomb blast in the hyderabad mosque, not to forget the timely diffusion of a couple more by the police.. then a few days later, three bomb blasts took place in gorakhpur followed by recovery of bombs & other explosives from the railway stations at faizabad & farukhabad.. the fact that these three cities happen to be in uttar pradesh just make you wonder if this was a mere coincidence or a political plot to tarnish the image (!!), as if they have any, of the recently victorious BSP.. absolutely anything is possible in our land of political, religious & cricket fanatics !!
come to the economic capital "mumbai" and you can't stop wondering what will happen when the power lands in the hands of shiv sena.. recently when a few marathis working in the "big bazaar" chain were fired by their employers because of over-staffing, within hours their "masihas" gathered in big numbers and promptly closed down all the outlets of big bazaar in the city.. obviously there was destruction of property like breaking off the mirrors in nearby parked cars, buses etc, that was quite anticipated.. after all this is maratha land and so nobody has the right to remove marathis from any form of employment.. in fact, some time back the younger thackeray (raj or udbhav, don't remember) voiced his concern over the high proportion of bhaiyyas (those from UP) and biharis among the auto/taxi wallah community in the city, which should ideally belong to the marathis "the original inhabitants of the city".. as you might have correctly guessed, the big bazaar owners gave up and retained the fired marathis, guess they realized that they are losing more as a result of outlet closure then they would by keeping the extra labour :) recently, the sainiks were at their hilarious best when they gathered outside a newly opened restaurant of the "bombay blue" franchise (btw, i simply love their cheese nachos with mexican beans :P) and demanded that the name be changed to more appropriate "mumbai blue" since the city is no longer called "bombay".. this is when there are multiple chains running under the "bombay blue" name for years now, may be they are unaware, in any case please don't inform them, i don't want the one next to my offic closed down :)
moving north again, there is big fight going on in punjab between akali takht and dera sachcha sauda.. frankly, i have no clue abt either of these two communities, came to know of their existence when they showed people fighting with swords openly on the streets across many cities in punjab.. for the uninitiated, the chief of this dera community, a fellow called "ram rahim singh" (wow !! what a secular name) appeared in one of his meetings dressed like sikh guru gobind singh and the akali takht took this as an imitation & insult.. i am sure that he must have been appearing in that kind of dress in the past also, only to go unnoticed by the takht leaders.. anyways so the takht demanded the closure of all "deras" and an apology by baba ram rahim while the other party stood firm that they won't apologize etc etc.. finally after days of pampering, when the dera leader gave in and furnished an apology, it was rejected by the takht leaders as "not graceful in language & spirit".. i am sure this is going down the wires like the battle for top spot between barcelona & real madrid in spanish football league :P
and then the latest one in rajasthan.. thousands from gurjar community blocked the jaipur agra national highway near dausa district demanding the inclusion of their community in scheduled tribe category.. eleven were killed in the ensuing clashes between the gurjars & police in dausa, karauli & bundi.. promptly enough, opposition congress party has demanded a resignation from the ruling BJP :) i was mentioning this to pankaj that ours is probably the only country where people fight to prove themselves backwards !! there is already so much uproar over the reservation bill at the center and pankaj rightly pointed that no political party is opposing the bill.. as always there is a political angle in this issue with the backward classes forming a big chunk of the vote bank, and so by not opposing the bill, the opposition parties are indirectly supporting the bill if not openly.. after all, turning of tables doesn't take much time.. i guess the day is not far when there will be reservation in private jobs too.. let's see..
add to these, the regular killings/disruptions by the members of ulfa & naxal movements and terrorists roaming around freely carrying explosives.. there is so much unrest that i was wondering if there will ever be peace.. or may be there is no point worrying abt the future & better to just live in the moment.. don't know !!
posted by himanshu agrawal | 10:43 AM
1 Comments:
What disappointed me most was when I found that Sachin Pilot was the one who started it all!
So much for Congress blaming the BJP.
Quite certainly, there wouldn't have been any protest had his seat not been in trouble. And media (at least the articles that I read) seem to ignore this point completely! Damn. So many people died so that he can fulfill his wish.
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