Other Backward Thoughts

As monster was taken away from me, I am left alone in the room to study. 45 minutes into a study session, my brain gets maxed out; it leaves the books and starts wandering. It was then the row over the reservation made me think and think I did.

What is wrong with this country? After analyzing what dad talks about and collecting data from all the “upper” meetings with friends, I came up with several reasons.

• Turning personal interests into public interests.


• Corruption


• Religion


• Lack of rational thinking among citizens.


• More, still to be discovered.

For example, consider the controversy over the OBC reservations. The Congress government is weak at this moment, that’s why the ruling party is the UPA and not Congress. As Sonia Gandhi has absolutely no chance of being the PM of India, their only figure is Rahul Gandhi, so next time around in the elections, the Congress need to be dominant so as to make RG the next PM. For that to materialize they need to increase their vote base. The OBCs constitute a handful in the Indian population, and they believe they can win them over by granting them reservations. Arjun Singh openly admitted to introducing the reservation solely for the sake Rahul Gandhi and to increase his popularity. I am astonished that no media channel seems to have elevated that statement. I am not just blaming the congress party; but there was not a single political party which opposed the bill, not even the BJP, all because everyone is afraid of losing their votes.

Its not only the politicians and their parties, its also the people, if the people were wise and voted for the best government based solely on what the government is willing to do for every citizen in the country, no one would have cared about the reservations. People are always preoccupied with their own interests. They vote for a party only if the party promises to give them something, like reservations for their caste/religion, etc. We are the ones who elect, and if we ourselves are biased and greedy, why should we expect the politicians to be fair and clean?

The Da-Vinci Code, an amazing book. As all of you know, its latest form is a Tom Hanks starring movie. I just confirmed some questions relating to the movie.

• Where was this movie made? – The USA


• Who starred in the movie and who were responsible for the making? – Prolly US or UK citizens.


• Where was this movie 1st released? – The USA.

The USA is a Christian majority country and I also believe there were numerous Christians involved in the making of that movie. Over that there are millions of Christians who watched that movie around the world, let it be Europe or the Americas. They all don’t seem to have a problem with the movie. But when it was about to be released here, a country where Christians are considered a minority group (no offence), everyone has a problem with the movie. They make a big deal; involved the censor board, the Supreme Court (WTF!! Who involves the Supreme Court, the highest authority, for a movie which isn’t even made here?) and politicians to make noise over nothing. There are only two logical explanations to elucidate this behavior, either they are nuts or this is an elaborate publicity stunt for the movie. Whatever the reason the may be, using religion in this fashion is immoral!

Politicians can get so confused at times that they don’t even know what is written in the constitution! After the TDP (Telugu Desam Party) was overthrown by the Congress, here in Andhra Pradesh, the Congress was being blamed for not fulfilling the promises they made before the elections (Free electricity being one, its been two years and I think they are yet to implement it). So to somehow nullify that, they introduced reservations for the Muslims at UG level, both medicine and Engineering streams. Unfortunately for them, the bill was struck down by the High Court, stating that India is a secular country and reservations based on religion are against the Constitution. A disgraceful experience, and yet they are still so blatant that they are taking it up again in the Supreme Court. Why all this? Muslims constitute another handful of the population in the state.

Reservations are deadly, if once approved, no one will ever have the guts or the balls to get rid of them. And if at all they do get rid of them, I guarantee that the party wouldn’t be elected again for at least the next 15 years.

The vote is so powerful that it makes politicians go haywire for it, and yet people have absolutely no idea how powerful their vote is and what difference it can make. People forego their vote just for the sake of miniscule privileges. It is like giving away a Vienetta Ice-cream in exchange for a lollypop.

Hippies!