I was going to attend a discussion on ‘democracy’ in the American Centre, where I was one of the invitee, as a student. I saw a banner hanging near the Pragati Maidan- “No Bhajji, No Match”.
As the auto was creeping towards the kasturba Marg, a month old drama was flashing in my memory. The incident that took place on the Sydney Cricket Ground, on roads all over India, and more so on Indian ‘News’ channels. Yes, I m talking about the Sydney Test Match between India and Australia, which unfortunately would now be remembered for all the wrong reasons- poor umpiring, sledging; despite some good show of cricket by Sachin, Sourav, and Kumble. Symonds abused Harbhajan (our dear poor innocent Bhajji!!!). Bhajji hurled back “Big Monkey”; which was latter changed to “Mother fucker” in the “Special Court”. Media, especially the electronic media took great pride in informing the “informed and awakened” citizens that Our Bhajji is innocent and Un-racist. Obviously the poor guy only called Symonds a “mother fucker” and not a “monkey”. It was also a personal “Victory” for all media houses, for it was due to their active campaign that the “three match ban” from Bhajji was ultimately lifted and “let go with only certain amount of fine”.
I am a proud citizen of this country, but the “Great Indian Tamasha” that happened between the “Monkey” business and the “fucking” affair was embarrassing and shameful to me at least, if not anyone else. I am in no way suggesting that what Mr. Bucknor did as right, or the behaviour of Ponting, Clarke or Symonds were very appropriate. But all I am saying is that the way we Indians react to certain things is laughable. No doubt India produced some great social thinkers and men, who did opposed caste-division, class-division, etc. But does that make us all Indians “naive”? The rigid caste-system exists only in India. One has if ever opened a ‘Matrimonial’ section; he must have noticed that everyone wants a “fair, beautiful” spouse. The very first requirement is being “fair”-the rest is considerable. What is it if not racism-a kind of racism which is deep-embedded in our ‘social-psyche’?
Initially girls only, it seemed, wanted to meet the required demands of their counterparts; and so we had an entire range of beauty products, from fair and lovely to Shehnaz Hussain’s Herbal products.
Some even claimed of purely Ayurvedic formulae. (I wonder why Indians are still dark skinned!!!) The self-conscious males are too now gearing up to be fair and handsome.
Forget these, I have many friends in our University, who like me are not themselves the “fairest” of creatures. But they look down upon South-Indians, merely because they are not “our-types” that they are darker and speak different language. And, what about the Chinkis- our cousins from the North-eastern states? Whether they belong to Assam or to Manipur, they are all Chinkis for us. And the way we pronounce Gora and Gori, the very tone; isn’t it derogatory? And has one ever heared the commoners speaking on roads of our dilwalon ki Dilli, or in the interiors of western U.P., and the conductor of our “lovely” Blue-line buses, or for that matter rowdies in the streets of Chennai? They all have their set of colloquial-slang, which have become quite a norm in that part. Hindi or other versions of mother/sister ****** can be heard even in our campuses when there is some brawl.
And all these continue without any eyebrows being raised. But the day Shilpa Shetty self proclaims herself as a cultural-ambassador of India and accuses her colleagues of a reality show of racism entire country (read the media) boils up. One is not really concerned about poverty, illiteracy, falling ratio of females, rapes, domestic violence. One just has to respond to every media-gimmick. In a country which proudly declares guests as gods- Atithi Devo bhava, foreign tourists (mostly goris) are raped in various parts of the country.
In the backdrop of all these, the Sydney Test has labelled the gentleman’s game of cricket with racism charges. Well, I don’t see much wrong in that though. I mean, when one hardly come across a gentleman in that gentle sense of the term, why expect our poor cricketers to behave in sober manner all the time. Let’s accept the fact cricket is no more just a sport. It has become a profession. And all is fair in love, war and work.
Anyways, let’s look at the Bhajji case for now. Whether Clarke or Bhajji said those words or not, or whether Symonds actually instigated him is a different matter. One can not deny that be it football, or cricket, or any sport, one can not expect sportsmen to behave and act in the manners our forefathers did. Do we behave in similar fashion? Why expect something that we ourselves fail to comply with?
What is laughable though is the behaviour of the “media”. They all have one single agenda-TRP. And so while they may leave out important issues they are quite willing to show a Vishesh on any trivial matter that they are sure would attract some audience. Obviously the audience, the citizens too are to be blamed for this. But at least we expect better treatment from the so called “sophisticated, educated” editors, and the fourth pillar of democracy- Media.
BCCI was in a mess, as encouraged by the media, the people has made the Bhajji issue a matter of pride. And when you have a shrewd politician like Mr. Pawar at the helm, one can only expect poltics, political statements (and some close door diplomacy as well). And so there were calls like- “Tour is over, if Harbhajan is not freed of all charges”. The issue was ultimately resolved after compromises between ACB and BCCI, initiated by ICC. And what all happened after it was a different ball game- and some of our board members are from the best lot of the country, cutting across party lines.
But do we ever think that such outrageous behaviour on every little matter make us the laughing stock??? We seriously need to introspect before we raise fingers on anyone. I remember a moral science story, which ended with the moral that before raising finger on anyone see that other three fingers are pointing towards you only.
Activism, whether by media, court or by citizens of the country, is commendable. But it should be ‘positive’ activism, and not directed towards some menial end. Else what happens generally is people seem confused, and ignore some important issues, while highlight and fight for trivial matters.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Inhman Rights
“Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all the members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world”, Preamble, UDHR.
Rights that a person gets simply because he or she is a human being are termed as ‘human rights’. These include civil, political, social, economic, social, environmental rights. As most of these rights are given by the ‘State’, they exercise a special ethical (or unethical) right of terminating any of or all of these rights. Petty political, diplomatic and economic interests drive most States and the missionary of states to abuse and misuse their powers flex them according to their whims and desires. The frequent abuse of human rights in most states has led to a new system of “In-human Rights”, rights which are sole authority of few states or of handful of people.
We often hear of gross human right violations in Kashmir, Communist China, Palestine, Pakistan, North-east Indian states. But have we ever pondered over the issue? Do we even know what it means to suffer? Well here are some eye-openers….
For Angammal and her husband Guruviah, the nightmare began when they were accused of receiving stolen property and arrested. They denied all knowledge. Their interrogation began the following day. What followed were a systematic beating, sexual abuse and humiliation. They were stripped naked, hung from the roof and hit with bamboo sticks. They were forced to stimulate intercourse in front baying Policemen.
Mr G M Lone, a journalist from Kangan Kashmir, made a statement that he was warned by the local officer that he will be killed if he continued to report atrocities in that area. This warning was published in all Kashmir newspapers. Two days later he was killed along with 7 year-old son. Willaim A Orme, Jr Executive director of CPJ (Committee for protection of Journalists), made a representation to Narasima Rao, then PM of India. "CPJ views slaying of Mr. Lone and his son is a flagrant violations of the right to seek, receive and impart information, regardless of frontiers, guaranteed by article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We want judicial investigation into the case." Copies went to all forums of the world. India stalled any response.
Adel Hamad was taken at gunpoint from his home in Pakistan by US and Pakistani agents in July 2002. He was held in Pakistani prison for months before being transferred to US detention at Bagram in Afghanistan and then at Guantanamo. He had worked as an administrative director at a hospital in Afghanistan, which US authorities claimed had links to terrorist organisations. Adel denies knowing anything about these alleged links. Despite apparently having been cleared for transfer or release from the base in December 2005, Adel is still behind bars suffering physical and mental torture every second.
The sufferings of prisoners kept in Guantanamo without trial is so horrendous that about 145 representatives of the House of Representatives wrote in a letter to President Bush, “Guantanamo Bay has become a liability in the broader global war on terror, as allegations of torture, the indefinite detention of innocent men, and international objections to the treatment…..Its continued operation also threatens the safety of US citizens and military personnel detained abroad.”
I gave just three instances. That does not mean that the rest of the world is at peace. The kind of human right violations that take place everyday all over the place would make the memories of even super computers crash and hundreds of books of the size of this magazine would fall short in registering all the cases.
But is there no end to these gross violations of human rights, which are natural rights and perhaps divine too? The irony of fate is that countries which are most vocal of human rights top the list in violations as well. Pakistan talks human right violations in Kashmir, but ignores the same in Baluchistan, NWFP. America speaks of it around the world and exploits the same principles wherever it suits them. This reminds me of George Orwell, who once remarked “A humanitarian is always a hypocrite.” I also remember a sher (couplet) in Urdu which in English would translate to:
“My assassin is himself the Judge
Justice is uncalled for……”
George Barnad Shaw rightly remarked “only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue and abiding love.”
Am I sounding too pessimist? Well I am not. But I am only aghast seeing the situations around the world. But there is still hope, a silver line; and the only way to achieve it is, in john Comenius words “Let us have but one end in view, the welfare of humanity; and let us put aside all selfishness in consideration of language, nationality, or religion.”
Rights that a person gets simply because he or she is a human being are termed as ‘human rights’. These include civil, political, social, economic, social, environmental rights. As most of these rights are given by the ‘State’, they exercise a special ethical (or unethical) right of terminating any of or all of these rights. Petty political, diplomatic and economic interests drive most States and the missionary of states to abuse and misuse their powers flex them according to their whims and desires. The frequent abuse of human rights in most states has led to a new system of “In-human Rights”, rights which are sole authority of few states or of handful of people.
We often hear of gross human right violations in Kashmir, Communist China, Palestine, Pakistan, North-east Indian states. But have we ever pondered over the issue? Do we even know what it means to suffer? Well here are some eye-openers….
For Angammal and her husband Guruviah, the nightmare began when they were accused of receiving stolen property and arrested. They denied all knowledge. Their interrogation began the following day. What followed were a systematic beating, sexual abuse and humiliation. They were stripped naked, hung from the roof and hit with bamboo sticks. They were forced to stimulate intercourse in front baying Policemen.
Mr G M Lone, a journalist from Kangan Kashmir, made a statement that he was warned by the local officer that he will be killed if he continued to report atrocities in that area. This warning was published in all Kashmir newspapers. Two days later he was killed along with 7 year-old son. Willaim A Orme, Jr Executive director of CPJ (Committee for protection of Journalists), made a representation to Narasima Rao, then PM of India. "CPJ views slaying of Mr. Lone and his son is a flagrant violations of the right to seek, receive and impart information, regardless of frontiers, guaranteed by article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We want judicial investigation into the case." Copies went to all forums of the world. India stalled any response.
Adel Hamad was taken at gunpoint from his home in Pakistan by US and Pakistani agents in July 2002. He was held in Pakistani prison for months before being transferred to US detention at Bagram in Afghanistan and then at Guantanamo. He had worked as an administrative director at a hospital in Afghanistan, which US authorities claimed had links to terrorist organisations. Adel denies knowing anything about these alleged links. Despite apparently having been cleared for transfer or release from the base in December 2005, Adel is still behind bars suffering physical and mental torture every second.
The sufferings of prisoners kept in Guantanamo without trial is so horrendous that about 145 representatives of the House of Representatives wrote in a letter to President Bush, “Guantanamo Bay has become a liability in the broader global war on terror, as allegations of torture, the indefinite detention of innocent men, and international objections to the treatment…..Its continued operation also threatens the safety of US citizens and military personnel detained abroad.”
I gave just three instances. That does not mean that the rest of the world is at peace. The kind of human right violations that take place everyday all over the place would make the memories of even super computers crash and hundreds of books of the size of this magazine would fall short in registering all the cases.
But is there no end to these gross violations of human rights, which are natural rights and perhaps divine too? The irony of fate is that countries which are most vocal of human rights top the list in violations as well. Pakistan talks human right violations in Kashmir, but ignores the same in Baluchistan, NWFP. America speaks of it around the world and exploits the same principles wherever it suits them. This reminds me of George Orwell, who once remarked “A humanitarian is always a hypocrite.” I also remember a sher (couplet) in Urdu which in English would translate to:
“My assassin is himself the Judge
Justice is uncalled for……”
George Barnad Shaw rightly remarked “only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue and abiding love.”
Am I sounding too pessimist? Well I am not. But I am only aghast seeing the situations around the world. But there is still hope, a silver line; and the only way to achieve it is, in john Comenius words “Let us have but one end in view, the welfare of humanity; and let us put aside all selfishness in consideration of language, nationality, or religion.”
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