Nothing Intended: Chalo ek baar phir se ‘communal’ ho jaayein….

                                                By: Ashutosh Asthana

Television debates are on full swing, newspapers are flooded with the news and every noble laureate of the society is discussing about the matter openly. I am talking about the Yakub Memon hanging! The past two decade after the Mumbai bomb blast was the assessment period for the judicial system of our country in which the judiciary has passed with the flying colours. After twenty years of trial, Yakub Memon was given death penalty. All his hope was annulled when his last support system, the mercy plea filed for the consideration was cancelled by the President and his hanging was upheld. In the wee hours of July 30^th, Memon was hanged till death! All these trivia is easily available through every news channel and newspaper, so I am not going to show my intelligence on this case any further.

The after effect of this hanging is more interesting though! It is clearly shown on social media. My friend list on facebook is producing wise, wiser and wisest of men these days. Those who were never interested in politics, those who seriously have no idea that under which act, law or ‘kanoon’ Mr. Yakub Memon was arrested, those who are least bothered to know that Indian soldiers are being killed in attacks by Pakistan on the borders, are posting with all there ‘par intelligence’ factor on facebook regarding this case. A clear line of demarcation has been made which has created two major groups. Earlier, the groups which were made as, ‘Hang Yakub’ and ‘Save Yakub’ has now changed to ‘Hindus’ and ‘Muslims’. Friendship is getting bitter, intellectual breed is becoming communal!

Yakub Memon

In the midst of such situation those who choose to stand apart are being considered ‘Politically dead’! So I have also decided to be communal on my part! According to me, Yakub Memon was a terrorist and so the punishment given to him is just! Moreover he was a Muslim and so he should be hanged! Why is that every terrorist is a Muslim? Just like Ajmal Kasab, Yakub Memon was given a correct treatment and I support it! 

 But, what about Godhra Massacre? What about Naroda Patiya Massacre?  What about Babu Bajrangi and Maya Kodani? Ohh God! Please help! These questions are creating obstacles in my way to become a true communalist! It is better to ignore these questions, and simply say, it is a different matter!

Rather I can join the second group! Yakub Memon was the most guiltless person created by God! He was never a part of the Mumbai Bomb blast case; neither had he done the conspiracy nor did he provide his car for the blast! Even he surrendered himself to the authorities. He was innocent; this case is just the murder of Human Rights in an intellectual society. He is ‘Shaheed Yakub’. Muslims are targeted in this country. They are not safe in this country, the authorities are against us! But isn’t the second bomb blasted near a Mosque, where many innocent Muslims were killed? How is that the Interpol arrested Yakub from Kathmandu while he was trying to escape? How is that Ujjwal Nikam told to a reputated newspaper that Yakub never wanted to surrender? If justice is not for Muslims in this country that why did Yakub got the opportunity to file curative pleas, mercy petitons? Again such unanswerable questions! What should I do? 

In this scenario if I will be on a neutral platform then I will be considered ‘Politically Dead’ by the eminent scholars of social media! But the truth is, this matter requires being on the neutral platform! A terrorist is a terrorist after all! Irrespective of religion because terrorism has no religion! How does it affects that Yakub Memon was a Muslim or Hindu or an alien! The only thing that should affect is that a person who was involved in the plotting of Mumbai bomb blast case should be punished. The law found him guilty to such an extent that he was given death penalty. Sanjay Dutt is still in jail because of being convicted in the same bomb blast case. We all our Indians first, and then anything else. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was also a Muslim, can anyone on this earth claim that he was not given what he deserved in this country!

 Social Media is a big platform to discuss issues, so it will be wise for the social media bugs to discuss on issues for something constructive. A discussion just for the sake of discussing and being communal when the nation wants you the most, is not at all cool! 

 The time will not be far in such light, that communal riots will take place on social media, unfriending and blocking will be the weapon!

It is better to be ‘ajnabee’ (stranger) on social media than to be communal for such issues!

Happy Reading!

 

Nothing Intended: Oops! The scam took a wrong turn!

                                  By: Ashutosh Asthana

Everything was going smooth out there, papers were being leaked, nepotism was at its best, bribe, forgery, everything was planned but the scam took a wrong turn in Madhya Pradesh. The Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board is making headlines these days for such odd reasons which the M.P. government and the board members would have never thought of.

Before commenting on any issue it is important to understand about this Vyapam thing which is trending throughout the media. The Madhya Pradesh Vyavasaik Pariksha Mandal (Vyapam) is a government organization which was setup in 1982. It is responsible for conducting various entrance examinations in the state. The entrance tests are the base for recruiting employees to government jobs and for admissions to educational institutes in the state. This government body came to limelight with the scam attached to it in the near past. The scam involved top officials of the organization, ministers and businessmen taking bribe and selling top posts in government offices to undeserved candidates. Complaints of indiscretion began to come up during 1990’s and the first FIR against the organization was filed in 2000. Till then also everything was under control. The real problem started from 2013 and till today this scam is increasing the TRPs of every news channel.

As I said earlier this scam was smoothly paced and the ‘scams-ters’ were not facing any big issues, it was running as a normal healthy scam! Scams like this have already come up in our country, just like the TET scam of 2012 in which the prime accused Dev Kumar Pandey, an associate of former director of the Uttar Pradesh Board of Secondary Education Sanjay Mohan, was arrested in February, 2010 for allegedly collecting money from candidates who appeared in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), 2011, to assist in their selection. Its normal in our country that such tiny scams of few crore are aroused! Scams of this magnitude have always been usual in Uttar Pradesh. In March this year in Mathura, nine invigilators, including a centre superintendent of a school in Baldeo block, were suspended for allowing students to copy from one another. The suspended teachers, including the centre superintendent, were arrested after SDM Mahaban Vishwa Bhusan Misra, a member of the flying squad, lodged an FIR against them for allowing mass cheating at their centres during the evening shift. The daughter of a state minister was allegedly caught this year while cheating in the ongoing Secondary Education Board examination in Nathnagar block in Sant Kabir Nagar. Every year hundreds of cheaters who run their chain in Uttar Pradesh are caught for providing cheating material to the students appearing in the Uttar Pradesh boards exams.

It was nothing new in our country, so why did this case, got such immense status? 

Governor of MP, Ram Naresh Yadav

The turning point of the scam came when people associated with this scam were being killed due to obvious reasons in mysterious manner. The reasons were that either the pawns of the game were no more needed as they have become a threat who could leak about the case or killing those who were investigating about the case. Anamika Kushwaha, a Trainee Sub Inspector, Narendra Singh Tomar, an Assistant Veterinary Officer at Raisen, Vijay Singh Patel, a pharmacist posted at Shajapur District Jail,  Namrata Damor, a first year student of MGM Medical College, Indore, Amit Sagar, a veterinary student in Mhow etc. were among the few who were killed in different manner related to this case.

People are killed in this country every day, isn’t it! Likewise these people were also like many others got killed in this case but this case came to public eye when Arun Sharma and Dr DK Sakalley deans of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Medical College in Jabalpur were added to the list of death tolls related to the scam. It became high profile when Madhya Pradesh’s Governor Ram Naresh Yadav’s name was linked to the case and his son, Shailesh Yadav, one of the accused in this scam was also mysteriously killed. Recently the death of a journalist Akshay Singh triggered the anger of people making this case trending on social networking sites and making it the breaking news of channels. Till now more than 40 people have been killed in this case.

Journalist Akshay Singh

The Madhya Pradesh Government formed a Special Task Force (STF) to examine the scam in 2012. The Congress-led opposition expressed concern over neutrality of the STF and demanded a CBI probe, but the government declined to fulfill this demand. The opposition also demanded the Chief Minister for his resignation on ethical grounds in relation of alleged involvement of his ministers and relatives but the Chief Minister had termed it as “mudslinging” by the opposition due to the defeat in Lok Sabha election 2014. On November 5, 2014, Madhya Pradesh High Court rejected Digvijay Singh's petition for CBI probe and instead ordered setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) to act as a supervisory body for the court. The SIT is a 3-member team chaired by Justice Chandresh Bhushan, a retired Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. With the growing pressure Chief Minister of MP has asked for a CBI probe into the case, but the High Court has cancelled the request as it is not under its jurisdiction. The congress is demanding the Supreme Court to set up another SIT which will govern the CBI in the case. It is obvious that the parrot is still in the cage and thus mere CBI probe will be of no good to the people.

CM of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan

With all the politics going around justice for the aspirants and family of those killed is still awaited. Heating up the political arena and increasing the TRP will not help.

Justice where are you?

The case is serious, still, Happy Reading!

रेत पर देखा निशान !!

                             लेखक: आशुतोष अस्थाना 

आस्था और धर्म के संगम में जीवन को जीते देखा
देवताओं के देवत्व को और साधुओं की साधना को देखा
अमृत की वर्षा को देखा गंगा की पवित्रता को देखा
आँखों में पुण्य की लालसा लिए श्रद्धालुओं का सैलाब देखा
और देखा मैंने उस मीलों दूर फैली रेत को
हर तरफ थी वो
कुछ अनकही सी बात थी उसमें
छुपाए अपने अंदर करोड़ों निशान
वह कदम जो गुजरे थे उस पर से
वो निशान जो बसाया उसने अपने सीने में
कहने को तो वो है सिर्फ पानी उसकी महत्वता तो इन्हीं
कदमों से झलकती है
उसकी पवित्रता की निशानी इन्हीं से तो बनती है गंगा की
कहानी।।
कदमों के हर निशान को यह रेत अपने में समा लेती है
कोई फर्क नहीं है न ही कोई ऊँच-नीच है इन निशानों में
सिखाते हैं यह निशान हमको जातीयता तो है इंसानों में
कौन राजा है कौन रंक
रक्षक कौन है और कौन है भक्षक
कौन देव है और कौन मनुष्य
समान है यह निशान
कहीं दूर से आते आपस में वो मिल जाते मंजिल तो एक ही है उनकी
जो कभी नहीं मिलते आपस में यह निशान उन्हीं की एकता
की है पहचान
वह निशान नही है मराठी गुजराती पंजाबी और सिंधी
एकजुट होकर जीवन को जीना सिखाते है।
मुख होते नहीं उनके फिर भी वो बोलते हैं
यथार्थ का परिचय करा कर भावनाओं का रस घोलते है।
माँ गंगा से मिलने को बेचैन किसी नागा के उत्साह को
दर्शाते
किसी पेश्वाई के गुजर जाने का एहसास जताते
तो श्रद्धालुओं की भीड़ में कभी-कभी खो जाते।
कभी ये खाकी वर्दी की मदद भी कर जाते 
तो कभी किसी भटके को रास्ता दिखाते
तो घिसटते हुए किसी बूढ़ी भिखारिन की फटी बिवाईयों के खून को
सूरज की लालिमा के भांति अपने में हैं बसाते
कुछ नन्हे निशान उस पकड़ा-पकड़ी के खेल सेें बन जातें
तो वो गहरे निशान किसी के अन्त पे रोते इंसान की पीड़ा बताते।।
लोग आते गंगा में डुबकी लगाते और चले जाते
यह निशान लेकिन सदा उनका परिचय कराते।

इस कुछ दिन के शहर में उनकी याद हेशा दिलाते।

Nothing Intended: Shruti_Seth, a Daughter not fit for 'The Selfie'

                                           By: Ashutosh Asthana

Scrolling down the news feed of Facebook, I saw a proverbial face of television industry after a long time. It was difficult to recollect the name of that girl. I casually started scrolling further when again another photo of that girl came up. I remember she was a supporting actress in the film ‘Fanaa’ and anchored a famous comedy show, “comedy circus”. I was curious to know why was she on facebook, oh yes! She was Shruti Seth. I read her news and then understood the whole matter.

For all those who are still unaware about the so called ‘kaand’ in which Shruti Seth has indulge into, I would like to tell that the ‘shararat’ famed actress has done a shararat on social media by criticizing on Modi’s campaign, ‘#SelfiewithDaughter which he announced in his ‘Mann ki Baat’ recently. For her criticism she is now facing a real hard time, as the whole social media community has stood against her. For the past few days she is battling a barrage of staunch criticism on Twitter, where she openly criticized PM’s selfie campaign.

With more analysis than actually needed on this matter, I reached to the following point that unnecessary limelight is being given to this issue. Our Pradhanmantri launched the campaign while expressing the Indians his ‘Mann ki Baat’ so if we go by the constitution of India every Indian has the freedom of expressing his or her ‘Mann ki Baat’ just like the Prime Minister, so why such hue and cry on this statement of Shruti Seth who only meant that bigger issues related to women should be resolved than clicking a selfie!

Poor Shruti who was just trying to be a ‘messiah’ for Indian women didn’t expected that she would have to face such hate tweets on twitter but was this a gimmick to capture the much needed limelight for this television actress. I mean when did we last saw Shruti Seth in the shoes of lead actress in a movie or serial although after this incident it seems that she has learnt good ‘rajneeti’ with her previous experiences. Calling the PM selfie obsessed and writing a note to the people of India, all these things doesn't put in place for an actress like her who is rarely seen recently. In the recent past Shruti was nowhere to be seen but now the whole social media is packed with Shruti Seth’s tweets. At least people like me, who even forgot the name of this actress will now remember her for the next few months. In many ways it is not Shruti’s fault, it is we the social media users who make topics trending in the media.

Well I didn’t feel anything wrong in Shruti Seth’s statements, but the intentions behind commenting on the campaign, I seal my mouth on that! I leave up to you all, you know it better.

Happy Reading!