Under blood red skies...

In my teens, I was enamoured by communism . The egalitarian outlook of the philosophy seemed perfect to make this planet a better place to live. Besides, the thrashing the ever-corrupt Congress government got from the communist in Kerala and West Bengal gave the party a larger than life image. Kerala was going through a revolutionary change during my father's growing years. The communist party was brought in equality and spread the concept of one's rights to every corner of state. The communist ideology made the party a cauldron of many young thinking minds. My father talked about those days and I was fascinated by the party's heroes and their heroic actions. I would have given anything to see the play "Ningel enne communist akki". All these years have not subsided that desire.

The first seeds of doubt were sown by Ayn Rand. Her essay "For the New Intellectual" attacked communism and Socialism mercilessly. Though I am not fond of her writing, this essay changed a part of my thought process. In that sense, she has had a powerful impact on my life. The tone of the essay can be understood from the following section of the essay.

The essential characteristic of socialism is the denial of individual property rights; under socialism, the right to property (which is the right of use and disposal) is vested in “society as a whole,” i.e., in the collective, with production and distribution controlled by the state, i.e., by the government.

Socialism may be established by force, as in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—or by vote, as in Nazi (National Socialist) Germany. The degree of socialization may be total, as in Russia—or partial, as in England. Theoretically, the differences are superficial; practically, they are only a matter of time. The basic principle, in all cases, is the same.

The alleged goals of socialism were: the abolition of poverty, the achievement of general prosperity, progress, peace and human brotherhood. The results have been a terrifying failure—terrifying, that is, if one’s motive is men’s welfare.

Instead of prosperity, socialism has brought economic paralysis and/or collapse to every country that tried it. The degree of socialization has been the degree of disaster. The consequences have varied accordingly.

I really understood the issue with communism when I read the following part of the essay

the demand of one group for an unearned share of another group’s income is not socialism—that the destruction of property rights will not affect any other rights—that man’s mind, intelligence, creative ability are a “national resource” (like mines, forests, waterfalls, buffalo reserves and national parks) to be taken over, subsidized and disposed of by the government—that businessmen are selfish autocrats because they are struggling to preserve freedom, while the “liberals” are the true champions of liberty because they are fighting for more government controls

The idea of people working to support themselves and a set of lazy bums seemed shocking. Looking at my own brought up, I did not think I will end up being a lazy bum and so the ideology did not seem appealing. The sad aspect of communism and socialism is that it does not attempt to equalize the society by uplifting people. No! That would be too tough. It takes the easier route of burdening the ambitious and responsible few. It is not about "you cannot be lower than average" but "how dare you be better than average". I don't think Marx and Engels per se suggested this perverted view. The implementers of the ideology molded it to their convenience. The result is the extremely corrupt and violent forms of governance.

At most place communism has failed. People have thrown this form of governance away. But a few around the world hold on to it. This "holding on" is not a problem by itself. But arrogance of the communists and their fans annoy me to the edge of the world. They believe they are the epitome of human evolution. They act as though they are light years ahead of their times - socially, philosophically and intellectually. Their belief that this fading ideology would save the world is laughable yet one can't laugh.

Most communist governments are violent. They have absolute disdain for human life. I would not be surprised to hear that they have killed more people than even Hitler. Yet Hitler is a villain and many of the communist leaders are heroes. The ideology being strong does not mean it should be kept in a shrine. It should be placed at a safe distance away from the world at large. Let the lovers of communism discuss and debate their profound thoughts behind closed doors. We don't need another Stalin. We don't need another Mao. We definitely don't need another Pol Pot.

I came across an interesting article on three people (from the west) who went missing during the Khmer Rouge government in Cambodia. The article brought out the brutality and the paranoia of the communist government. The comrade and cadres went about killing indiscriminately. Their only excuse was that they were following orders. The article is disturbing and poignant.

From Newcastle and New Zealand to the Killing Fields of Cambodia

At one point, the author talks about human nature and that we should not blame it all on one ideology or other.

The man who ran S-21 under Khmer Rouge ordered the murder of thousands Comrade Duch subsequently lived in the jungle who. He was remembered as a journalist  as a man who “knew how to swim with the sharks, knew how to manipulate… He was a classic survivor. The survivors [of these sorts of regimes] are the thieves, crooks, the murderers… I’ve met many people like this and they’re quite ordinary. We don’t like to admit that we all have that potential within us. We are all violent.”

Humans seem to be violent by nature. We don't really require the impetus of communism. Whenever and wherever communism has bloomed it has left that period and place bloodied. All the intellectualism are limited to the talks of a few peripheral maniacs. So, I believe we should have buried this diseased ideology many year ago. Many innocents have shed their blood to redden the red of the communist flag. Its time the red feeds on itself and disappears from this planet.

Chayyakadakarante chaya kollilla...

For long, I liked the party - from the time I started voting. A friend of mine had convinced me that this is the only party that can administer India. I vouched for them and their sassy leader. While the world looked down at the party, its leader and anyone who uttered a good word about them, I supported the party. They seemed to have a set of administrators who were surrounded by many morons. But I only cared about the administrators and ignored the rambling idiots.

At some point of time, a suspicion sneaked in. These fellows seem to be pushing their culture and language on others across the country. We seem to be treated as second class citizens. But I ignored it. Then floods struck the southern most state in the country and the suspicion solidified. The fellows of the party did not give the required amount of funds for the state to recuperate. They did not provide subsidy on the rice and petrol they supplied. They also tried to hinder the flow of money into the state by invoking archaic rules. 

To top it, the morons who populate the northern parts of the country called the marooned people names. "Unpatriotic", "Shameless" and "Petty". As the saying goes "there are no good people, only bad people with some good exist". How true! It is time, I revoked my decades old allegiance from this chauvinistic party and their pathetic supporters. They are better than all the other politicians in the country but that is not good enough to support them. 

I can hear the people of the southern state singing

Chayakkadakkara…

Ninte Chaayelu Madhuramilla

Vellathinu Choodumilla..

Chaayapodi Theereyilla…

Panjasaara Leshamilla

Kaa Paisa Njaan Tharilla

Chayakkadakkara…

Ninte Chaayelu Madhuramilla

sIn Now To Objectively Look at a progrEssively Rising nAtion - Creating issuEs

My grandmother is an ardent Congress supporter.  Her father had made his children promise that their families and they will always support Congress.  Her forceful personality ensured her pushing the adoration for Congress down her children's throat.  Though they did not have much have much regard for Congress, they did not bother to protest.  Soon the family grew and people from other families came into her small and secure family as in-laws. Unfortunately for my grandmother these newer entrants to the family did not have similar upbringing or political orientation.  My father’s political thoughts were formed during a period when many of the states started seeing the rise of political alternatives to the Congress.  These younger parties were spewing ideas that seemed progressive and inclusive compared to the Congress. The party had lost its sheen.  From my father's generation's point of view, Congress died with Gandhi and the cremation rituals were complete by the time the Nehru era ended.  My father's political thoughts were shaped on two concepts, namely, "Indira Congress is not India Congress" and "If you see a snake and a congress man, don't kill the snake first.  The snake attacks you only if you disturb it".  I grew up seeing these two generation and ideas in conflict.

This conflict has an effect on my political beliefs.  Obviously, I was closer to my father's thought process.  My grandmother’s view comes from the independence era which saw Kumari Kamala dancing to the tune “Mahaan Gandhi Mahaan”.  Gandhi, Nehru and Congress motivated the young blood fighting and ultimately building a new nation.  In those days, the Congress seemed revolutionary like the Communist and Dravidian parties in the sixties and AAP in 21^st century.  The country becoming independent was probably one of the most important events of her life.  Thus, she felt indebted to the Congress for life.  But with time the party changed from Indian National Congress (INC) to “Nehruvian Congress” and finally to “Indira Congress”.  She did not understand these changes.  During this time a number of disillusioned Congress leaders left the party and formed newer parties.  These leaders took away a good part of the soul of INC to the newer parties thus making the party poor of principles.  But all this was lost of my grandmother and she blindly followed her father’s words when she supported the Congress.  Though I did not have all these thoughts in my younger days, I ended up disliking the Congress in my teens.  

My political opinions are never too strong.  I believe this comes from the fact that current affairs and politics do not interest me much.  The cartoon section of newspapers captured (and continues to capture) my attention more than any other page.  So I had no idea about my political leanings.  Though I did not like the Congress I was not sure which party I supported.  I had some liking to communism but the fall of communism in the late 80's and a few pages of Ayn Rand killed that liking for ever.  I am sure how but by the time I reached the votable age, BJP seemed an attractive option.  It probably was due to the messy vacuum created by V.P.Singh (whose reincarnation, I believe, Kejriwal is).  Their leadership team also seemed attractive.  That is till Advani climbed atop the Babri issue and caused a lot of confusion and bloodshed in the country. But Deve Gowda's sleepy tenure and Gujral’s prequel to Manmohan Singh tenure removed the Babri-cal thoughts from my head.  

At the turn of the century I was very happy to see the BJP Government at centre.  A few goods emerged from the five years of BJP rule.  Only the five years of Narasimha Rao Government left a similar impression in my mind.  Unfortunately, the BJP rule lasted five years only and the Congress was back in power.  The few days after election were worrying with the prospect of living in shame under a person of foreign origin.  To out relief the brilliant Manmohan Singh was chosen the prime minister.  Five years went by and the Congress Government did not seem to perform badly – the Manmohan magic had not lost its sheen.  Around this time, Congress' own Prince Charles started flexing his muscles.  For a few days, I was misled by the idea of joining the Congress to build a new India.  At around this time, events took a disastrous turn and the Congress Government spiralled into corruption, chaos, a speechless PM, allegations of the family looting the country, the prodigal son-in-law, the mumbling–bumbling future icon of the party and many other nonsense that I cannot remember now.

Sometime in the middle of Congress' disastrous second term, the name Narendra Modi emerged.  That Gujarat man can never make it is what many of thought.  The Gujarat riots and related accusations against him left a lot of impression on us.  But with time people started talking about him and the development he ushered in Gujarat.  His followers attracted the sceptics through the videos of his speeches.  What he said made sense and he was a powerful speaker whose words seemed very convincing.  I was soon under his sway and was desperate to see him become the PM of the country.  Apparently many others in the country thought so too and soon we had a powerful leader at the centre.  He did not have the necessity to look towards people with dubious intentions before he opened his mouth.   But the bed of roses was not thorn free.  There were doubters and agitators inside and outside of the party.  The old guards under Advani’s able leadership were sulking.  Modi and BJP's RSS associations made the so called minorities nervous (Why "so called"?  How can a secular democracy have majority and minority?).  The wilting of the roses made the thorns prominent.

Most people I met were happy with our new PM.  He seemed to have the right vision for the future and articulated them well.  We expected him to indulge in bombastic and populist action. But his actions were sober and to many he seemed to take a step at a time.  He was working to bring in timeliness at the Government offices.  We heard about him terrifying his ministers with 5AM and 7 AM review meetings.   He brought out the necessity of making India clean and every family having a bank account.  These were not all talk but we saw it happening around us too.  For me, the cleanliness of Chennai central station was a big surprise.  It was longer wet and the foul.  It was not just the stations but the trains and their toilets were clean too.  But this did not extend to all places – Chennai continued to be dirty.  But I don’t think we can blame the PM for it.  The local Governments and the citizens have to take a big chunk of that responsibility.  There were instances when even the most ardent supporter of Modi was seen throwing waste on road.  Such is our attitude.  Interestingly, the PM had mentioned some place that all the talk about “Swach Bharat” is to make people think about it initially.  He does expect India to become like Singapore in a matter of months.  That surely is a well thought of plan with realistic expectation.

Soon the honeymoon period came to an end. The trouble makers started lifting their heads.  The purportedly hard core Hindus wanted to ban beef and surprisingly the whole world went up in arms.  Many people who had issues sitting on the same table as a non-vegetarian were supporting the holding of beef parties and beef eaters were now equated to freedom fighters.   The news papers and TV channels started screaming out about the sensational case of Hindu extremism – a few hard core Hindus killed a freedom loving beef eater.  Demands of apology from every Hindu right from Narendra Modi were heard.  I do not watch the cable network and so am not sure if Arnab apologized on our behalf in prime time television.  The battle shifted to the social media with people taking sides and many versions of the reality emerged.  Since then the media and social media have been trading pole-apart realities.

This barbaric Dadri killing resulted in the strong emergence of the word - "INTOLERANCE".  I think this word is primarily used to describe an allergy – “I am intolerant to pollen”, “I am intolerant to Vijay movies” and in the latest trend “I am intolerant to Hindus”. Since that last sentence is grammatically incorrect, the word extremism is added at the end.  As a result of this allergy, many intellectuals started returning awards.  Many caring citizens expressed their concern in prime time television. Soon the King-Kongs of Bollywood joined.  Shahrukh Khan cried out at the intolerance he was being subjected to.  One of my oldest friends mentioned over dinner that he was very disturbed by the growing Hindu extremism.  This happened a week before the attacks in Paris.  I was of the view that that is an instance of extremism.  I am not sure if the ISIS would quite appreciate it if we equate the Dadri killers to them.  As the word suggests, extremism requires something extreme to be done.  I am not sure if the Hindus have the capacity to indulge in extreme acts.  Maybe a sacrifice here or a stone thrown there but none of those grand “lets blast a few round of AK47s in a concert”.  Sure there are fanatical elements in Hinduism but extremism is taking it too far.  Unlike riots which are immediate and reactionary in nature, extremism leads to well thought acts of destruction as in Paris.  It is not fair to compare Alexander with Aurangazeb (I am not sure which of the two would be feel insulted with this comparison).

The Paris incident and the BJP not winning Bihar elections brought a lull to intolerance to intolerance storm.  Modi was yesterday’s hero; the press had newer one.  The ever charming Lalu, the angry old leader Nitish, the man of the messes Kejriwal, the atomic Didi and the American returned Akhilesh were the new hopes of India.  Lalu's ninth and twelfth failed sons with that hope-dope of the future were the shining stars of youthful democracy.  The media and in a few instance social media started singing praises for these shining stars of 2019.  I hope that the Mayans have missed the end of the world by few years and that the world would end by 2019.

I did not realize that I missed intolerance’s Arnold-ish “I will be back”. Coincidentally, A is for Arnold, A is for Aamir Khan and A is for that stinky place too.   Aamir Khan possibly figures in every Indians best actors list.  For a long time, he also seemed to be a perfect human being - a good and concerned citizen.  If Aamir had made that statement a few years ago, it would have made many of us reassess our thoughts.  But Aamir's personal reputation has not been the same for the past decade or so.  There were talks of affairs and a child abroad.  He separated from his long standing wife and soon got married again. I have no issues with these if I was thinking of Aamir the actor.  But these thoughts are not good enough for me to appreciate or even tolerate Aamir the social activist. Personally, I found his actions during the Narmada Bachao Andolan disappointing.  Initially it was impressive to see him sit in the dharna supporting the farmers.  He seemed genuinely concerned about the dam effects on the fate of the small farmers.  Many of us were touched and had a tear in our eyes.  A few days later, the ever vigilant media vilified today’s hero with the news that Aamir would lose some of his ancestral property as a result of the dam.  Suddenly a chink appeared in Aamir's golden armor of selflessness.  He put on the Lagaan hat and became a farmer's grandson whose genes have been tuned to understand the pain of a farmer.  Many faces emerged in the broken mirror.  It is not wrong to be selfish but to mask selfishness with selflessness is quite a cheat.  Apparently, it only takes a misstep to get to the bottom of the goodness hill regardless of how high one is.

Aamir continued his concerned citizen act with Satyamev Jayate and had the whole nation in tears.  The success of the programme and his movies made Aamir feel like a God.  He now believes he knows the ultimate truth and now can will others to utter it too.  His words seem to be the worst among all the tolerant servants of Gods.  Sadly, he does not come in and say that he finds this place intolerable to live due to all the intolerance (is that a paradox?).   He generously brings in his Hindu wife’s name and casually mentions a bedroom conversation in public.  The point to note is the Hinduness of his wife.  She finds it intolerable and that is good enough for us to realize how pathetic India is.  The country has become so dangerous that she want to move out of here.  I wonder which safe country she has in  mind when she says she wants to move.  On the day of this momentous disclosure, Russian jets were brought down by Turkey and the worry of World War III was in the air. A few days earlier, an African-American was shot 16 times by cops.  A week or so earlier, ISIS gunned down over 100 people in Paris. As a result Muslims around the world were facing many unfriendly situations.  Switzerland had banned the use of hijab in public places.  A few weeks later, a couple of Pakistani origin shot a number of innocent Americans in California.  A friend had mentioned that sometimes it is scary living in US because they are not quite sure who is going to get out a gun and start shooting.  I don’t think Mrs. and Mr. Khan are stupid enough not to know of these occurrences.  So how do they think there is a safer place than India somewhere on this messy planet?  Aamir himself was strip searched and interrogated at Chicago in 2002 as a result of his name.  The dream destination of many Indians is definitely not the comfortable place for Mrs. and Mr.Khan.

But there is something more hurtful than Khans statement!  I don’t too much about that guy’s personal beliefs and morals to take his seemingly intellectual statement seriously.  What hurts me more is the kind of support many people extend to this ridiculous statement.  While the common people on the social media have been tearing the ever selfish Khan to pieces our dear journalist and media persons continue to talk about freedom of expression and intolerance.  The statement "with great power comes great responsibility" should be remembered by all these people in power.  Aamir is a person with a lot of power and while he has the freedom to express what he wants, he should express it responsibly.  He cannot make populist statements to be a part of the intelligentsia (all of whom have decided to be journalists and media persons).  Unfortunately, we the common people of India don't have a choice but be embarrassed about being a Hindu, Muslim, forward caste, Dalit, north Indian, Madrasi and a million other things.  Some of us write, not very well, and put these words in blogs that no one reads.  Others express it much better and get noticed by many as in the case of this link.

Probably for the first time in the nation’s history, we have a PM who seems to care about the nation.  He does not have a family trying to loot the country or let the country into dynastic rule.  He has a tough task ahead of him in first attempting to change the nation's attitude.  Only then can he think of trying to achieve anything.  Not many in his party support him in the endeavor, which makes things tougher.  To complicate matters further, he cannot make enemies inside the party and at the same time has the tough task of making his party seem intelligent.  We have to support him for our country to be successful.  Instead what do we do - we indulge in absurdities, we build stories about the downfall of Narendra Modi.  We wait for him to fail.  Even if he fails, I am sure he will move on but I am not so sure about the country.  Just this morning, the news was showing how the Congress ridiculing the parliament by sloganeering in Rajya Sabha.  The reason, their beloved leaders are summoned by the court.  How dare these jokers treat their leaders like first among equals?  Can’t people file a case against these two and should they not appear before the court?  How can we let jokers with such absurd mentality come back and rule this country?  Or do we expect an odd-even prime minister for the nation?  The rest are not even worth a discussion.

When will all these tolerant intelligentsia understand we don't have a bloody choice!