I was travelling with my friend who was visiting me from the United States; we were at the Trivandrum Railway Station to pick up tickets to go to my home town. The counters where crowded and we settled in a queue waiting for our turn to buy tickets for the train. A couple of people came in and rushed to the counter telling they where late for the train ahead of the queue, no one in the queue reacted, Suddenly I saw my friend walking towards the counter, I was wondering why, before I could react he was dragging both of them back to the queue. I couldn’t stop laughing and then when they tried to go again a few of us reacted asking him to go behind, sitting in the train, we were talking when he told me, this can happen only in India, people can break a queue and walk ahead with the others not complaining, this would not happen in my place, I started arguing with him, that he had mentioned that he was late for the train and we have to be compassionate. Something he told me struck me very hard.

Trains don’t change times every day in India, why couldn’t the gentleman come in time? And why does he take advantage of all the people standing there? He is no handicap for me to let him break the queue. There was a valid point there; It had hit me really hard. I drive to office everyday and we have to cross a toll, and everyday there are people who cut the line and come threaten you to give them way, I am sure everyone would have experienced it, some people fight back and some people don’t, I started fighting back, I would not let anyone break the queue and go ahead of me, and I would try and block him and let other vehicles go. But there are a lot of people I see don’t bother.
Have we started becoming a bunch of people who are completely laid back with the attitude of whatever happens I am not bothered?

We have bad roads? No problem we will live with that

We have price raise? No problem we will live with that

Are we becoming undemanding people who will live with what the public administration provides us with? Strangely it looks so, when the Mumbai blasts came, everyone came out, everyone wanted things to change and then after a few weeks its dead, I am sure we all need to take care of our own conveniences, but giving some time and making an effort to see if something can be done for the good of the country is not going to hurt us.

The governments and the Politicians take advantage of us, why, he knows he will get away with whatever he does, and he knows people here won’t even bother, then he makes his Son and daughter his second commands, he make his party a family affair, we are not bothered, we are on the verge of bringing a feudal system of Governance, Who cares?

Prices of essential commodities are going up, who cares? I have money to buy that, today it’s the poor, tomorrow it’s you, we are all going to face problems reacting then would be too late. It’s today or never. Rise up every Indian, your slumber is enough. Work towards making your nation a better place, spend half a day a week for your nation, I am sure we can change it, are you going to wake up my Indian soul? are you going to fight for your right? this is your nation, the servants who work for you are looting it away, they are making a criminal den,they are destroying your mother land, how long? will you ever wake up? Duty calls but ………….

Joe

In our childhood days, when we were told about India’s ‘unity in diversity’ I’m sure we would never have understood the full extent of the meaning of the phrase but now, thanks to omnipotent ‘nepotism’ in Indian politics, our education system might incorporate yet another example of teaching our children about India’s ‘unity in diversity’. From Abdullhas in Kashmir to Karunanidhis in Tamil Nadu our politicians are one in perpetrating ‘nepotism’ and it’s not an exaggeration if we claim this gene of nepotism runs in every Indian’s blood, across the length and breadth of the country!

Like many of the ill-wills afflicting this nation, the disease called nepotism too was effectively introduced in Indian politics by the Congress party in its obsession with the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Apart from the three family trees so far mentioned in this article the dynasties spread across all "isms" and all regions of our political spectrum. From the Thackerays, the Pawars and the Deoras of Maharashtra to the Karunakarans of Kerala to the Chidambarams and the Ramadosses of Tamil Nadu to the Naidus and Reddys of Andhra Pradesh to the Gowdas of Karanataka to Patnaiks of Orissa to the Mulayams and Mayawatis of Uttar Pradesh to the Badals in Punjab to the Chautalas in Haryana to the Scindias, Jaswant Singhs and Pilots in Rajasthan to the Laloos and company in Bihar, the list is endless. They believe in Parivars or gharana politics rather than in ideologies. They are the first families in their respective fiefdoms and are law unto themselves.

The end result is our political parties, while fighting tooth and nail to perpetrate their kinds of rule in their local strongholds, are never interested in spending time and energy to democratise their internal systems. It’s because of the fear that they might lose their grip over the family silver. Most of the political parties are nothing but private limited companies. When starting a political party has become such a profitable venture it is foolhardy on the part of the electorate to expect any kind of self-regulation and internal democracy. Most of our present day leaders are ‘state men’ rather than ‘statesmen’.

Recently the Supreme Court found it difficult to give directions to political parties to file income tax returns when the Association of Democratic Reforms, in its petition, urged the Apex Court to order them to file income returns for each assessment year. The bench consists of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice P. Sathasivam merely said, "…it was for the Income Tax Department to look into the issue. Why should we interfere in it?"

Political parties in India get divided not due to any ideological reasons but mainly due to family feuds and palace intrigues. As Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes, "Our political parties seem to be similar in their style of functioning. Most are based on loyalty to leaders rather than loyalty to causes or institutions. Very few have properly institutionalised norms of recruitment and membership. And none has any real intra-party democracy."

Meanwhile what’s even more striking is the recent remark by Rahul Gandhi when he admits ‘democracy’ in political parties "is non-existent in India”. You cannot enter politics unless you are well connected. The outburst of Margaret Alva, one of the staunch family loyalists of the Gandhis, when she speaks of Congress tickets being ‘sold’ is sadly true.

Both Rahul Gandhi and Margaret Alva are living examples of all that is wrong with the Congress in particular and the Indian political system, in general. Whilst there is no doubt about the lineage of Rahul Gandhi, Margaret Alva too is a product of nepotism and privilege. As the daughter-in-law of Joachim and Violet Alva, the first Congress couple in the parliament, she was handpicked by Indira Gandhi to become a Rajya Sabha MP, in 1974, when she was barely 32. She went on to serve four terms till 1998. In 1999, she contested on a Lok Sabha ticket and won. In both Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao cabinets she held important portfolios and therefore it’s totally uncalled for when she suddenly accuses the very system, which has so far helped her reap benefits.

The answer is not a difficult one. Like any Indian political leader would behave in a similar manner, she too wants to continue with the same tradition and would like to plant her elder son Nivedith, as her successor in the system, before it is too late!

The irony is that it is simply out of place for both Margaret Alva and Rahul Gandhi to adopt this kind of moral posturing in a party ruled by a political dynasty and crowded with children of political clans.

What’s also amazing is the shadow boxing that both the leaders unwittingly indulge in. In Alva’s case the real target is none other than Digvijay Singh, the chairman of the screening committee who, she claims, is the man who looked the other way while tickets were being bought and sold. On the other hand it’s an open secret that Digvijay Singh enjoys the confidence of none other than Rahul Gandhi himself!

So, is Margaret Alva taking on Rahul Gandhi to tell the whole world how come nepotism on the part of the first family of the Congress is okay but not of other leaders? Or is it called the ‘family value’?

It would be interesting to see how the Congress leadership handles this unlikely scenario but one thing is clear: coteries in the Congress Party are well and alive and Benjamin Disraeli has to blame himself for speaking too much when he said, "change is constant" but, of course, he only talked about "a progressive country”. Sadly, India is just an ‘imitation democracy’

have been working on Education reforms for almost 10 years without any success. The apathy in today’s education System is clearly evident from the fact that after 60 years of Independence we don’t have a program for every child going to School.

India boasts about 65% literacy; Education in the Urban world is much better compared to what happens in the rural world. I have heard the opportunity of visiting a lot of middle schools in te rural area, I was moved by the effort some teachers put in without any government support, I was equally annoyed by some of the teachers who are not bothered about teaching but the money the Government pays them.

But finally, when thinking back, I am a convent educated kid, had access to the best of education toys and gears, I was wondering why we are not able to provide the same kind of education to the Poor in the rural areas?

The drop out in the schools in rural areas are so high, I also realised it was because of the teachers in the schools and nonexistent toys or gears to create the Interest, can’t blame the teachers as they are also not trained to keep the child motivated nor to teach effectively..

The Government in the name of Education cess, takes so much of money out of us, wondering if there was so much of money available for Education why is the Government not providing quality Education which matches the Private Schools? What is lacking? why is that we as citizens don’t care about what happens in the Education set-up in India?

Education is the key to changing the Society, basic primary education should be a right, and Government should provide state of the art Education Systems, gadgets, infrastructure to the Government Schools to match up with the rural Schools.

Still trying to understand if this is a inability of the Government or is it a systematic failure of Governance? How does one get this correct? Can we take this issue up, which is one of the most key issues Plaguing our country? How does one correct it? What is the solution to better Education in this country? Can we get all your views?

A month ago straight after the elections I had written that this was the end of the road for BJP, there where arguments and counter arguments, but today when you see how things are shaping up you would realize that the BJP is going from bad to Worse. I have very strong reasons to cite why the BJP cannot be an alternative to the congress and why it can’t come back to power.

BJP in this elections did not have a clear focus on what areas they are fighting on, they were talking half Hinduvata, and half congress failures, the party which did better governance than congress in the five years it was in power is under a great ideology and identity crisis. Now that Advani has retired there is going to be enormous commotion in the party, the second layer of people who are in the party like Jaswant, yaswant, arun Shourie who are all in their 70s would feel their time would come, but  these people would be sidelined, after Bajpais departure the RSS has a major say in the party, they decide who is what in the party, and all this aged second line leaders being moderate leaders would be completely sidelined by the party.We would see chaos and the party would come up with the theory of young leaders where Rajnath, Sushuma and Murali manohar Joshi would be made key people of the party. This would push the BJP further into the Hinduvata role and this is going to be the tragedy which is going to doom the party. On the other side if BJP wants to pull it back, it should dump the RSS, the Sangh and the Shiva Sena and bring moderate leaders on the top level like Arun Shourie and Arun Jaitely, yaswant, and then there could be a possibility of overall support from all the communities and religion who will visualize BJP as a alternative to congress, and there could be a complete trend change where all the third front and even the communists supporting BJP to power next time, and BJP winning a lot of seats from south India, but this is a distant dream.

The third front has been a disaster from the day it started, this can never be an opposition to the congress. It is like  100s of bitches together bitching with each other. Opportunists like Devagowda, TRS, Sangma and NCP, and the dream of Prakash karat, and the Prime Ministerial dreams of Lalu, Jayalalitha, and Mulayam and the wishes of Chandra babu Naidu are put together it can never be a reality. Because this is like a Balloon with 100 pressure points and it will burst with infighting with each other and if they ever come to Power they would ruin India.

The greatest opportunity came across to Mayawathi, the media in fact was hailing as a the Obama of India and she was making inroads all across the country, But then she lost out on the simple basic thing, she did nothing to change UP, when she had all the opportunity to show case UP as a model state and take it all across the country, but she ignored it and started building statues, and she was trying to build castles on air? When she was doing nothing to build her base strong, and mayawathi from the Status of Obama, the great Dalit leader uprising has fallen out of favor and I don’t think she can ever climb back to be an alternative to the congress.

My search continues with the People of this country for a worthy alternative, Congress has ruled this country enough and ruined it, will there be an alternative? I pray we have one soon- Jaihind

Stop corrupting my people
The leaders of my nation, so you call
Stop giving my brethren free rice,
Stop giving my brethren free televisions
Stop giving my brethren free power
Stop giving free land to the rich & famous

Give my People good healthcare
Give their children good education
Give employment to them
Give land to the needy
Give them good roads to walk upon
Give them good transport to travel
Give them an opportunity to lead a life

Am I asking too much?
Something which cannot be done
When you eat away the country’s wealth
What do you have for the people?
Leftovers do no good to people
What will you do with all the loot?
Carry it to your grave?

The people have woke up
Your end is near
The people have woke up
I can hear the voices rising
Woe to you, who cheated people
Change now or Perish
I can hear the trumpet blowing
It’s the citizens Movement