Rahul Dravid: Class Personified

The thought of writing something on Rahul Dravid infiltrated through my mind a number of times since the day he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. But I postponed the implementation of this thought for some time by gulling my mind. The most interior part of my heart wished Rahul does a Shahid Afridi and calls off his retirement plan. That hasn't happened, yet. And now the hopes are fading. Not just because he is adjusting to commentating and other things, but only for the kind of a man he is. Once he decides something, no one on the earth can shake his determination.

Rahul has always believed that he was not a gifted player as most of his contemporaries including Sachin and Lara were. Does that make him any lesser? Or it makes him better? One needs more concentration, determination and self-belief that he would eventually do well, when he is not gifted. (Not taking anything away from the gifted ones)

Dravid has been a great cricketer and there is no doubting that statement. He indeed is. Scoring more than 10,000 runs in both, Test matches as well as ODIs is a great achievement itself. Some might argue that numbers can be manipulated. Though, Rahul's greatness as a cricketer cannot be questioned after looking at the occasions when he scored big. More centuries away from India than on the home turf. Many on the bouncy pitches against formidable bowling attacks where most batsmen falter.

As a cricketer, his best shots were the drives through cover region and on drives off yorker length deliveries and the cut shot. I am no cricketer. Watching Dravid play was alike gazing at The Last Supper by Da Vinci, being absolutely clueless of how anyone could have done it so well. The best I can do is appreciate his shots and game. To me, Rahul is not just a cricketer who scored big runs and made a lot of money. He is more of an inspiration whom I feel, I can look upon every time I need a push. There is a lot I have learnt from this cricketing legend. 

He was declared unfit for ODIs as he played a little slow at the very start of his career. It was rejection in the most unclear terms. But he wasn't dejected. On the contrary, he chose to sweat in the field and toil for betterment. He improved his strike rate, increased his range of shots and came back to ODIs to score more than 10,000 runs in his ODI career. This is inspirational. 

Sachin was already a star when Dravid made his debut. Comparisons were obvious. But being unmoved by such media comparisons was the challenge. Dravid never compared himself to Sachin. He would prefer to work harder in the practice sessions than being involved in such useless analysis. This is what eventually paid off. He created his own aura alongside Sachin and never bothered about being undermined by the star power that Sachin possessed. In our lives, we occasionally get entangled in such trivial issues and mess our lives. Dravid should be an inspiration in this area. How simple would our lives be without such comparisons? And Dravid also shows that greatness is achieved without these comparisons and complexes but by sheer hard work.

Cool temperament. One quality that can undermine or nullify any shortcoming of oneself. Firstly, one can concentrate on the job at hand without being distracted by unavailing issues. Secondly, one can gracefully face the rough times and failures. Dravid had perfect temperament to be a great cricketer. The most easily imaginable situation is Dravid coming out to bat at no. 3 just after a very important wicket has fallen. Fielders are brought closer. Three slips, a gully, short cover, short mid on, forward short leg and the fast bowler steaming in. Sledging, or at the least, morale lowering chats among the fielders should be commonly going around. To stay calm is the only key one has. One losing temper in such a situation, may risk the game his team is playing for. Dravid didn't lose temper. He started loving the job of leaving those deliveries outside the off stump and just let his bat speak on a poor delivery. And his bat spoke volumes. 

A human expecting the circumstances to suit his emotions or aspirations would be inviting misery. It is his job to suit the circumstances prevailing. Dravid just retained this in his mind. He suited to every condition. He would accept the job as a wicketkeeper when India had no specialist wicketkeeper- batsman. He would accept the job of captaincy being wary of how that could harm his personal game. He would come out to open the innings when India fell short of a good opening batsman. And it was not just that he tolerated these conditions. He enjoyed them and worked hard to do well in each of these jobs.

Dravid was perennially inspirational. One last thing was left to be done. That was his retirement. He had a fabulous series in England a few months ago. Then he went to Australia with the team but had a poor run. It was not the best time for him to quit. A few home series were lined up in 2012, which would have given Dravid his chance of retiring on a high. But this man was determined. He felt it was his time to hang his boots and he did so. There was no looking back.

The last classy batsman retired from cricket. There won't be any more of those clinical innings with the most classy shots. Cricket would always miss Rahul. But he shall remain an example for numerous youngsters in numerous facets of life and in numerous ways. 

Thank You. 

Contemporary Indian Politics

News channels and newspapers are becoming synonymous to grief, misery and despair. There is nothing in the newspapers, reading which can make one happy. Its all about the bad or the sad news. The last time, I remember reading an article that made me happy was about India beating Pakistan in the T20 world cup. As a citizen of the country, I expect more from Manmohan Singh than from Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The latter occasionally takes you on a joyride with his helicopter shot, but the former has miserably failed to deliver. It is not just about the UPA government, even otherwise, the sorrows of common people have just soared in the last few years. 

Manmohan Singh recently made a public statement which goes as, "If we are going down, we are going down fighting." It is indeed a matter of joy that he made a bold statement after such a long time, but I do not see any hope in it. 

India is failing on three counts. Firstly we are failing economically, secondly on moral grounds and finally on political grounds.

The Ratings agencies have downgraded India's credit rating owing to its fiscal policies. The value of Indian rupee has slipped to an all time low against the US Dollar. The economic downturn in the west has affected us badly. The industrial growth in several states has come to a standstill. Even in this situation, nothing substantial is being done. If something is attempted to be done, it is rejected by the allies of the UPA itself. A situation of complete policy paralysis has arisen where the inflation is constantly on the rise and the government is a spectator whereas the masses, victims.

The State Legislative Assembly is a sacred institution where the policies and laws for the State are enacted. Is it not horrendous to find Ministers watching a porn film while the proceedings in the Vidhan Sabha are going on? What worse could be done by them? This situation would have been untenable, even if the Ministers were caught watching a devotional film, as they are expected to watch, observe and participate positively in the law making process, failing which would be a dereliction of their duty. In any case, this was a pure case of watching obscene movies. There is no further moral degradation imaginable.

Months later, a Senior leader of the Congress and a Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of India was found in a compromising position with another lawyer, whom he allegedly incited by offering her a judicial post. If the CD is believed to be true, it brings up a serious case of the conduct of such highly reputed people and the image of the higher judiciary that they portray in the minds of people.

The central government has absolutely failed to deliver to the expectations of people after the Anna Hazare storm hit them in mid 2011. Promises after promises were made, only to be broken subsequently. At the fag end of 2012, there is no idea of whether any Lokpal bill would ever be passed. 

A cartoonist draws some cartoons, where the parliament is not shown as one would expect. But does putting the cartoonist behind the bars, solve the issue? Or the parliamentarians acting sanely, in the interest of public would do so? Throwing chairs and screaming like school going kids does in no way show that the parliamentarians themselves respect the institution.

Sonia Gandhi decided to visit a rape victim's family in Haryana. It does not seem to be a co-incidence of the rape victim being a Dalit girl. There is no harm in visiting such needy and downtrodden people in the remote areas of the country. The harm is in aiming at votes for doing so.

Mamata Banerjee exemplifies the term antagonist in its truest sense. One would seriously doubt if she even considers the proposal before rejecting it. But, there is more to it. West Bengal is an economically poor state. So, Mamata Di is correct in outright rejection of any proposal where the poor people are going to be affected. Be it the petrol price hike or FDI in retail, she does not look at the issue on merits as doing so would not fetch her more votes. She added a flavour to the vote bank politics while announcing the withdrawal of her support to UPA. The Ministers of TMC were to submit their resignation after Friday Namaz, according to her. The choice of words seems to be perfect, where nothing else but vote banks are aimed at. 

Arvind Kejriwal makes serious allegations against Robert Vadra of lobbying with DLF ltd and taking interest free loans from the latter. If the allegations are true, it is just another story of the families of politicians being treated as Dukes and Duchesses. If not, it would be a failure on the part of Kejriwal of not gathering proper evidences. 

            The political parties need to introspect as to what they are doing. Whether they are giving the national interest, primacy over their personal interests? This introspection is required immediately. If the politicians don’t, the voters certainly would.

Jai Hind. 

Narendra Modi: The Protagonist Or A Devil?

India is a Union of States comprising of 28 States and 7 Union Territories. Randomly, if you go out and ask people belonging to a particular state if they know Chief Ministers of other States, it is highly improbable that one would be ignorant about the Gujarat CM. Narendra Modi is most definitely, a populist leader and the following saying goes well for him "You may love him, you may hate him, but you just can't ignore him." 

The fact that one statement made by him becomes a news headline and a topic of debate for days together is itself evident of the fact that he is a renowned leader. Even the criticism he receives for a statement made by him shows the importance of his statement.

There are two images of Narendra Modi. The first image is that of a hardliner Hindu seen as a Chief Minster who did not take appropriate action during the 2002 riots in Gujarat. On the other hand, Modi's followers see him as a pro-development protagonist under whose administration, Gujarat has progressed tremendously. 

Somehow, the horrors of 2002 still haunt the Gujarat Chief Minister. Anything he says or does is read in connection with the 2002 riots. For instance, the Sadbhavna fast was considered to be a move by Modi to woo Muslims. But that wasn't the sole agenda. During Sadbhavna fasts, Modi also gave a feel of Sadbhavna to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. It was a move to bring the '5.5 crore Gujaratis', as Modi often refers to as the population of Gujarat, to be on a similar footing and feel good about being a Gujarati and not about belonging to a particular caste or religion. 

The Media and Modi's opponents probably do not wish to let the 2002 riots be evaporated from the minds of public, precisely voters. To a certain extent, they would be justified in doing so as Modi seems impeccable with the charisma he has and the crowds he can pull. Who could have imagined that Modi would be able to capitalize on a remark by Sonia Gandhi during 2007 Gujarat polls where Modi was referred to as 'Maut ke saudagar'. One can safely say that the said remark went in Modi's favour. Yet, the attempts to malign Modi on the same ground has been attempted persistently.

With the Gujarat polls due in December this year, the electoral fever seems to be catching up. Recently, Modi gave an interview to a Urdu daily. The interviewer was Shahid Siddiqui, a former SP member. The interview has been much talked about in the last week. The so-called controversial statement by Modi was that he did not apologize to anyone for the riots and expressly said that he may be hanged in public, if found guilty in the riots cases. What more would one expect after a decade of such an event and when the man has been maligned for over a decade for inaction during riots. Had he apologized, the media would have read the interview as a matter of regret and would have assumed his role in the riots. So, not much can be done in such situations. At least one should laud his courage to say that he may be hanged. Not many would have the courage to say so.

All such drama is excepted once again. The Modi regime has done pretty well with the sole agenda of development. One can witness the difference in the Gujarat in pre-Modi era and the post-Modi era. The decade of Modi's rule has got various accolades for Gujarat and its efficient administration. Modi has been praised for the development of state, but one more aspect worth commending is the peace and tranquility in the state. There has been no major riot case since 2002. One needs to acknowledge the fact that this is indeed an achievement as Gujarat has been notorious for such instances in the past and that communal riots have been going on in this state since long. Also that the terrorist activities and attacks have also been very less as compared to other states while keeping in mind the geographical location of Gujarat which shares border with Pakistan. 

Modi is usually ridiculed by Congress as a communal leader. How do they forget the kind of action taken by Congress during the anti-Sikh riots in 1984? The investigations against some cases of 1984 riots are still pending and politicians like Jagdish Tytler are still out in public. Why does then Congress stress on speedy trial in the 2002 riots cases. There is no hindrance or resistance against such speedy trial and convicting those found guilty in the Gujarat riots cases, but the Congress is itself not clean and it seems to be an amusing metaphor when Congress talks of speedy trial in such cases. 

Modi is indeed a threat to the Congress, not just at the state level, but at the national level as well. I have no doubts that the BJP tally would be benefited if Modi is declared as their Prime Ministerial candidate. Moreover, the rampant corruption and inefficient administration of Congress at the centre would all add up to Modi's benefit. Lastly, if we look at the larger picture, Modi shares a good rapport with J. Jayalalitha and several other regional leaders who would be ready and willing to support Modi as Prime Minister. 

Only time would show what the actual political scenario is at the state as well as national level, but I would say, the Modi regime has been beneficial to the people of Gujarat and a sense of economic as well as physical security has been established in the people of Gujarat and I don't see a political turnaround in the upcoming State elections.

Jay Hind.

Indian Presidential Elections 2012: Hype or Hope?

The only thing Indian media has been revolving around, for the last whole month, is speculating who would be India's next President. The value of Indian Rupee is contantly slipping and the inflation soaring, but that didn't seem as much important to the media houses. Interestingly, the speculations and the crazy merry-go - round over the successor to Pratibha Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan appealed the masses as well. Prime time shows and editorial pages of the newspapers were all packed with the Presidential news.

This trend is unprecedented. For the first time, there is so much fuss about who would be our next President.  Does that not indicate about how much the people are annoyed with our present President? As is evident from a bare reading of our Constitution, the President hardly has discretion to exercise and decisions to make on his own. Almost everything the President does, during whole of his term is on the 'Aid and advice of the Council of Ministers'. Why then would everyone be so anxious to have a new, a better president with minimal powers? Is it that a better successor would at least create a better global image of the nation? 

Pratibha Patil has been criticized as a President even more, probably because her predecessor was a highly qualified and an inspirational Scientist. People do not expect a President to perform exceptionally well as the first citizen of the country, but at least make such public appearances that would carry the image of brand India and not the ones that are marred by various controversies. Mrs. Patil was dragged into various controversies. Be it regarding protecting her brother in a murder case, or divulging funds to a family owned trust or her post- retirement home. That is the least one would expect to go around even with the President. 

Be it so, the hunt for President started like a TV reality show, with all the melodrama. Political Parties gradually got into the act of deciding the Presidential candidate. Firstly, Congress not naming their candidate for so long. Once they officially name Pranabda as their candidate, their most trusted ally, for no reason apparent, TMC leader and Bengal CM, Mamata Banerjee teams up with Mulayam to name none other than the present Prime Minister as their preferred choice for the post.Such a statement is obviously intriguing as it reflected that Mamata has no faith either in Manmohan Singh as PM and Pranabda as Prez. Let us not go into the coalition dharma debate but accept the fact that the UPA is definitely vulnerable. They badly need those 20 seats of Bengal, which Mamatadi holds. Further, Sangma from NCP and Ram Jethmalani from  BJP have decided to contest the elections, even with a god idea of the support Pranabda has. 

However, in the end, Pranab da is nominated as the Prez candidate by Congress also getting expressive support from SP and BSP and with speculations that he would sweep an easy victory even if he is contested. But one more issue needs to be gone into. Pranab has been a savior for UPA in the times of crisis, then why was only he named as Prez. Evidently, he could not do much to save Indian economy from the world crisis. The Rupee kept on slipping, inflation rising and market transactions at the low of a decade. But, he deserves a retirement of this kind. A man who has been at the whelms of Congress since 70's surely deserves it all. 

Let us now hope that 19th July gives us a new, a better, a rather more inspirational President who would lead India from the front and take us ahead with the vision of India 2020. 

Jay Hind.

    

UP Polls

With the beginning of the year 2012, the election fever was already on as 5 states went to polls in the first quarter of the year. Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur did not gain as much attention as UP did during the elections. But that is fair, as UP is a State with a population way over 200 Million and is bound to attract more eyes. Moreover, the political heavyweights were all trying their luck in UP. If BJP exported Uma Bharti, SP brought a fresh wave with the young Akhilesh Yadav. Congress played its trump card of Rahul G(Ji), and BSP had its dalit ki beti, Mayawati to lead the election campaign.

Congress played its old trick of 'woo muslims and get into power'. Salman Khursheed promising a 9% sub-quota for Muslims, then defending himself saying that he quoted what was transcripted in Congress manifesto, although the said manifesto was found not to have specified the quantum of reservation. SP was not behind in Muslim appeasement for various contents in its manifesto. It promises to provide reservation to all Muslims, treating them as backwards, in proportion to their population on the lines of Dalit reservation. The other salient features of the manifesto relating to the minority community are construction of boundaries of graveyards, a 'Special Dargah Act' with special package, modernisation of madarsas, removal of encroachment from all waqf properties, protection to artisans and handicrafts, waiver of power dues on weavers, special incentive of Rs 30000 for every Muslim girl who has passed class X, university status to several minority institutions and fulfilling Azam Khan's dream of setting up Jauhar University in Rampur. 

Minority appeasement had to be an important issue in UP, for its 18% Muslim population.

On the other hand, BSP supremo Mayawati could not think of anything beyond dalits and continued with the Kashiram's line of politics. BJP, as expected, had Ram Mandir contruction in its manifesto, though it seemed to be a  forced inclusion as it was not talked about during the rallies. 

The 7- phased election in UP came an end and the speculations began with the media coming up with contradicting exit polls, where some predicted a President rule, while some others showed SP a clear majority. 

On 6th of March, the real picture was unveiled and the political turnaround was round the corner. Akhilesh Yadav, turned out be the real Nawab of UP. SP won 224 seats out of 403. That says a lot about the Mayawati regime and its failure. But, more than Maya, it was a setback to the national parties. Rahul Gandhi campaigned with full enthusiasm and confidence, but success rate in the constituencies where he campaigned was merely 11%. Even the Amethi and Rae Bareli seats were lost. And that Congress stood 4th as far as the number of seats were concerned.

It was not a good day for BJP either, as it lost a big opportunity. Certainly, Uma Bharti did not work. The star campaigner for BLP, the Gujarat Cm, Narendra Modi was missing. There in no unanimity in the opinion of political analysts, whether, his presence could have been better or worse for BJP. But for sure, Ram Mandir issue has to be reconsidered by BJP, as it lost its Ayodhya seat for the first time since 1990. BJP has been winning elections in other states for its agenda of Development and upliftment of the poors, and the same should have been the prime concern in UP as well.

Ultimately, Akhilesh won it for SP, and gifted the CM's chair to his father. What worked for SP is still unknown. Was it the anti-incumbency factor? Was it the poor governance by Mayawati? Was rampant corruption by Mayawati government the decisive factor? Was it the minority appeasement that worked? Did the people of UP forget the goondaraj by SP, half a decade ago? Did Mayawati commit a blunder by wasting hundreds of crores of Rs. from public exchequer for her own statues?

The people of UP have reposed faith in SP, and there is a glimmer of hope and anticipation of regret in the SP for its goondaraj in the early years. Good, corruption-free governance is expected from SP. Now, it is upto them to prove thir point and come true to the expectations of people.

Jai Hind

My views on 62nd Republic Day

26th January, 1950. This day made our country a sovereign, a democracy and a republic at one go by enactment of the Constitution. We are, proudly, world's largest democracy. But, is it enough to give the country, a democratic status?? Would a mere democratic status confer every freedom to the people of India.

What we, the people of India deserve is a progressive democracy. A democracy, where the principles of right to life and personal liberty, right to speech and expression, right to equality before law and supremacy of Constitution are actualized. A democracy where the Fundamental rights of each subject are protected. A democracy where the Directive Principles are paid heed to. 

A democracy where everyone a point of view and the same is respected by others; where there is no Raj Thackerey to abuse people of UP & Bihar; where there are no strikes for seperation of states; where there is no Mayawati (or even her billions worth statues) in one of the most backward states of India; where a Salman Rushdie is not restricted from arriving in the country.

We deserve a functional, progressive and participatory democracy. Hope to see a turnaround and an India that our Constitution framers had dreamt of, though after 62 years.

Jai Hind