‘Food security Bill’ or ‘Vote security Bill’

Recently this Bill passed in Monsoon session has created a lot of fuss in and out of the parliament. Media has named it Vote Security Bill and the opposition has not really opposed it as they are not the one who is going to risk their own quota of the votes. Ultimately it’s all a part of politics, call it dirty or healthy our leaders or should call them politicians, have sweared on politicizing everything, literally.

Half of the people who are opposing or who are supporting it do not even know what exactly this Bill is about. Their behavior is like a sheep in herd and they just follow the herd. So what is this Bill?

“As per the provisions of the bill, beneficiaries would get rice at 3 rs/kg, wheat at 2 rs/kg, and coarse grains at 1 rs/kg. These rates would be valid for three years. Every pregnant woman and lactating mother would get free meal during pregnancy till six months after child birth. They will also get a maternity benefit of 6,000 rs in installments. Children up to 14 years would get free meals. In case of non-supply of food grains, states will have to pay food security allowance to beneficiaries.”

Now who are these beneficiaries no one knows yet. I heard that Government is starting a survey to identify them. Here one noticeable thing is there are already schemes which are providing really cheap food grains to people who are below Poverty line. There are already mid-day meals for children country wide. And already free check-ups and medicines for pregnant women. So what extra benefit this Bill is going to provide? Now they say, number of beneficiaries will be much higher. Bravo…

‘There is no free lunch’ was a saying till now and I am sure our government is hell bent on proving it wrong. You want to see where is the free lunch? Please come and visit India. India, at one point of time one of the fastest growing economy has imposed a great amount of risk on its already sinking economy, by providing free lunch. Why? What a stupid word is this ‘why?’, of course to lure the people who really vote.

Now question arises how it will be done? I am not really a economist but I know how a simple give and take works. But first we have to identify who is the giver and who is the taker. Giver is for sure the Government treasury, which we all know is filled by the tax payer’s money, I will come to it. Takers are the poor of this country, which happens to be 32.7% of the population i.e. approximately 400 millions of people, but in this case as the beneficiary limit is greater than that as per the Bill, which consists of farmers, daily wage earners and also people who does nothing.

Now the government will buy food grains from farmers, with higher payment (prices are shooting already) and then they will give back the same grains to them with negligible prices, also to them who do nothing or work on daily basis. Think of the effect, why do you think the daily earners will work anymore? They already got what they work for. Why do you think a person who does nothing, will do anything if he gets already what he would earn. Living in this country and doing nothing has become a bliss for them, now they just need to Vote and keep doing nothing.

Who is at loss? Government? Government is just a body who manages the country (ideally) by regulating money, collecting taxes and using that money in infrastructure, defense and welfare of the citizen. So the Money which government has is from salaried employees, businessmen, companies, organizations who are paying taxes. In short its people’s money which Government is using to pay and buy food for poor.

So what’s the outcome? Indirectly half of the working people are spending their hard earn money to feed the other half. On the same lines I read somewhere -

“Just think what will happen when the one half gets the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets an idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for. Well, it is when it is beginning of the end of an economy.”

 Only motive behind this Bill, according to Government, is to remove poverty which we don’t see is working and looking at the amount of corruption it is less likely that even half of the people who belong to this beneficiary list will even know about it and like other welfare schemes this will also end up filling political pockets. 

 Well, statement still has question marks ‘Food security Bill’ or ‘Vote security Bill’???

Ganpati Bappa Morya !!

Living in Mumbai there are something’s one has to learn. One of them is celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi. I am not saying that we have to learn to celebrate or learn to enjoy the festival which was once a symbol of unity. We have to learn how to tolerate the abuse in the name of almighty lord. The festival which was started in a small temple in Pune by respected Bal Gangadhar Tilak to unite all Indians against colonial rule of England now has turned his face. Good turns to Evil at some point of time and this is turning to be an example of it, good turning evil.

One would be thinking that I am talking about the pollution it causes to the city be it polluting the ocean, polluting the air or crossing the decibel limits with party songs creating an huge amount of noise pollution. These are just the tip of the iceberg. Real evil is the pollution of minds and pollution of behavior to an extent where some of them start treating themselves as the agent of God himself.

If you live in Mumbai, Pune or any city of the Maharashtra, you will know what I am talking about. Collecting money has become a fashion, if not a requirement. Few receipts can make your life miserable if you are fond of bargaining, especially if you are not a Marathi speaking cast. Yes, I would call it a cast, because behavior is similar i.e. hate other casts and they are no different.

One of the incidences will prove what I want to say here. It was Sunday morning and bunch of people rang the door bell asking for some donation for the Ganesh Chaturthi which they were going to setup just outside the colony. ‘But we have already donated to the people who came yesterday’ the guy said from the house.

‘That was for your colony, this is for the area’

At first it was too much for the guy but then if there are bunch of goons standing on your door, who would like to argue. He just went inside, came out and gave them a hundred rupee note.

‘Do we look like a beggar to you? You will spend thousands for your comforts, but when it comes for God you will shy away. You non-Marathi’s come here and then disrespect our God. We won’t take less than five hundred.’

What option is left? Can you take a stand against this? We all know where this money goes; surely not a penny from it is spent for a good cause. The soon you refuse to give those five hundreds. You are the one disrespecting THEIR God, which was supposed to be yours too. You are in front of a gang of goons, shouting, abusing and threatening to you and your family. All others around will come and start blaming you for not respecting the God and for creating a scene just for few rupees, so much that you start thinking about leaving the place and settle somewhere else. Is it just few rupees? And moreover is it a matter of money? Doesn’t a donation is something which a man does with his own will? If not, why it is even called a donation? Call it a ransom, call it a threat.

It so much threat that women and girls avoid crossing the mandap alone, huge amount of money is collected for a special queue which will take you to the idol faster, higher the money nearer you can reach the god. Donate a gold crown and you will be made to sit in the lap of the God. This is how it works now.

A beautiful event and a respectful festival, is slowly losing its value, its charm and its dignity. But then as it is said no Good can be good forever, slowly, eventually it turns to Evil.
In the end Ganpati bappa morya (oh Ganpati ! My Lord)!! all you already know …  

this Independence Day..

Like all others who are not in school or college, for me too it was a holiday. For years now Independence Day has become only an opportunity to drop some messages to our dear ones, suddenly we all start loving, of course just for a day, those three colours. 

Sixty seven year has passed celebrating it and i am sure many more years we will be celebrating it. I have seen many intellectual and well educated people complaining about it, not the celebration but the situation. They say people screaming and shouting about independence are just living in fairy tale, they are just one day wonders and in reality they are totally unaware of the current grave situation through which our country is passing. They think wearing tri colours, putting small plastic flags on their scooter, decorating their shops with white, green and orange coloured balloons will not make a difference in the economy.

It would not happen that suddenly all the corruption from India will vanish, all black money from Swiss banks will get deposited to RBI and all the politicians who for a day, today are sitting on a stage watching small children dancing on some patriotic song, will suddenly start thinking about how to raise the standard of living in India and will start treating everyone equally irrespective of their cast, religion, statehood. No, its not going to happen. I am in agreement of those intellectual individuals who think just by celebrating a day; it is not going to make any deference apart from some alert issued by our intelligence agencies regarding possibilities of terror attacks.

But this agreement is just partial, because there is a complete different side of it. Its called unity. For years now i have been at different places on Independence Day but when you see the spirit of people on this particular day, its no different. There is a sense of pride in everyone of them, from a person pulling a cart to an auto driver, for a day, they all connect to each other by those tri colours. I have seen people telling their children to respect the flag and not to put it on the ground. All these incidences create a love towards their country. For a day they all feel an Indian-ness into them, they forget that they are Marathi, Kannadiga, Tamil, Gujrati, Punjabi, Bengali, Kashmiri or of any other statehood, they become Indians.

A day will come when everyone will understand the vote politics, they will know who is using them to get benefit out of it to fill their own bank accounts, they will know that reservation if getting should be based on financial conditions not on account of religion and casts, they will know that a person who talks most about the secularism is the most communal, they will know that the most secular is one who not even thinks about religion, he thinks only about humanity. There will be one day, when every day we will celebrate like Independence Day. There will be one day when all will know that progress is only in peace and it will make difference only when we take everyone together. Unity is what we need; division will always lead to weakness.

So this Independence Day lets we all treat all Indians as Indians and feel pride. Wish you all a very happy Sixty Seventh Independence day.  

She !!

She kept weeping, so much that her body has started struggling for each gasp. Each breath was as if hiccups have increased its extent. Lady Constable was constantly trying to comfort her by rubbing her back and offering glass of water.

‘This is too much sir, we must file this complain and take those animals to court’ constable said to inspector who was stationed in front of her, staring at her burned hand and cursing the fate of this poor woman. Society is still not grown up. They still treat women as if they are their own possession. Beating their wife is still a matter of manhood for those who are not able to digest their equality.

‘I thought they would realize, my care for them will change them one day, but today when they tried to burn me alive. I was left with no other choice but to come here with my plea’ she said controlling her tears. ‘I have done all to save my marriage. Today, with no reason at all they all just shot on me, first my husband kicked me and punched me while my father-in-law was shouting from the corner of the room and suddenly my mother-in-law came with a burning stick and kerosene and tried to burn me alive, it was then I ran out of the house and came here.’ She said and again started crying.

One of the constables was busy scribbling the story on a paper. Once he was done he came to the lady. She took the paper and signed it without even reading it.

‘Let’s get them here’ The Inspector signaled other constables and next moment they left for the address given by the lady.

It was quiet in the police station; only evident sound was sobs of the lady. There were few people gathered outside the gate to know more about the case, some of them were media staff as they knew they were going to get something to fill in tomorrow’s newspaper.

They saw the jeep coming back, this time with extra three members. They all were almost dragged inside the station, mother crying loudly, father horrified. They all were pushed in the corner. Inspector stood in front of them observing. He could see burn marks on her mother-in-law, also bleeding forehead of her husband.

‘What do you think, you are?’ shouted the inspector, holding the collar of her husband. ‘Sir, whatever she was saying, is a lie.’ Gulping his own saliva, her husband started,’ Sir, It’s her who want a separate life. It’s her who wants my parents to leave the house. It’s her…’ It all went silent, a huge slap, tearing his skin to bleed was enough to make everything silent. I drop of tear rolled out of his red turned eye.

Inspector turned to the lady constable, gesturing her to take the woman to her home. She stood up and started to the door. All three of them were watching her leave and then from the corner of eye she saw her husband. As soon as their eyes met, she winked…

Another tear rolled out of his eyes. Only good thing which happened today was that he was able to save her mother from the fire.