India Pakistan relations is like estranged husband & wife

The New Visa agreement between India and Pakistan is a new benchmark in relationship between India and Pakistan on September 9 2012.

The 34 year old Hinna Rabanni Khar and 80 plus old Krishna didn’t looked like ideal compatriots, though they were successful, in finalizing  new “Visa Agreement”.  The agreement had lot of issues being resolved , joint statement of India/ Pakistan given

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/full-text-indiapakistan-joint-statement/289690-3.html  

though it never went into details regarding Siachen, Wullar Barrage / Tulbul Navigation Project, Sir Creek, Peace & Security including CBMs, Jammu & Kashmir,and promotion of Friendly Exchanges or 26/11 trials and just highlighted the meetings done and the need of improvement.  

Though the tourist and pilgrimage visits have been restricted to 15 persons, the process time has not exceeded for more than 45 days.  List of 21 products have been permissible for cross border exchange by both sides.

Looking at the agreement it’s kind of a sugar coated chocolate for Pakistan, but for Indian perspective , it’s a serious threat to Security and  integrity of Nation. Even though Government has failed in keeping strict Visa norms, Pakistan has used this lacunae for outsourcing terrorists and planning attacks on Indian sovereignty.

The  pressure on Krishna was quite clear on September Nine. First, The Visa Agreement was a clear way of moving media attention from Coal Gate. Second, Khar had overshadowed Krishna in the final re battle with media. Krishna looked confused, had to read his script and even got confused from  questions raised by media.

http://www.firstpost.com/fwire/khar-overshadows-a-seasoned-krishna-islamabad-diary-449332.html?utm_source=fwire&utm_medium=hp

Well, for the peace lovers in India, the VISA agreement still remains a milestone, and India getting handover of  Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari aka Abu Hamza aka Abu Jundal from Saudi Arabia could have soured relations a bit, Terrorism and Infiltration by wrong means still remains big worry for government.

Cartoons will only fear Cartoons

There were days when I used to unfold the newspaper and never used to find anything interesting to read. I used to see  “Cartoons” made by RK Laxman (especially Common Man) and that used to frame my mind , and  created a aura of  existing political atmosphere in India. Cartoonists were being considered as  noble professionals who not only caricatured and commented on various issues, but also mocked on government’s lackadaisical policies. Oh ! Those were the days…

Cartoonists, today when I hear this word, create fear and grief, not because of their open speech but the way they have been tormented by government, for supporting the justified. Pen is mightier than  sword and well one can now say Cartoon is mightier than Government. Cartoons are a expression of free Speech, a image of True Democracy and righteousness , Cartoon is  a  opera of burning  issues within a  society.  So what if Aseem Trivedi has been booked by the government , the reality is he is the victim of government controlled machinery run by autocratic political rulers.

Does the one who have arrested Aseem has respect for the Emblem ? No.  Do they have respect for “Satyamev Jayate” engraved on it ? No. So what prompts them to arrest a Cartoonist who has just used a medium to express his feelings. The point is a cartoon hits harder than 100 words. They do satire on the situation built and it does has its impact on its readers.  The last I heard of cartoon terror was death of Irfan Hussain http://cpj.org/killed/1999/irfan-hussain.php was a blot to free speech and democratic values and next  when Mamta Banerjee was severely criticized  for arresting a Jadavpur Professor. http://ibnlive.in.com/news/mamata-defends-professors-arrest-over-cartoons/248472-37-64.html.

The Question now arises is whether we are going back to dark, gloomy days of Emergency, and we have not developed inspite of economic growth and literacy rates. Is India a democratic country just on paper where we say in our Constitution in Articles 19,20,21,22 about Freedom of Expression. Yes I agree Freedom has its limits and I don’t endorse the freedom which limits the barrier of decency and intelligence.

But with Aseem Trivedi, in Jail, I challenge his Freedom of Expression in his Cartoons were well within the limits of fundamental rights.

The Government of India if gets mocked later by United Nation Organisation or various International bodies, or another Washington Post or TIME magazine op-ed , I would say, Shut up Fools, you have done the damage

Impetuous think tank, Blurred Vision and Media Cacophony

Yesterday was a big day in the history of social media after its  evolution as a broad way of free speech communication .  Twitterati went frenzy after a post in English US daily The Washington Post by  Simon Denyer where PM Manmohan Singh was criticized  to cite him as http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/indias-silent-prime-minister-becomes-a-tragic-figure/2012/09/04/a88662c4-f396-11e1-adc6-87dfa8eff430_story.html
“ a dithering, ineffectual bureaucrat presiding over a deeply corrupt government.”  Well the Prime Minister Office was quick to react, Simon Denyer was called up, made to meet government officials and The Washington Post was told to clarify its stand. Apparently, in afternoon, it was announced by PMO, that a formal apology has been made to PMO by Washington Post on the issue and later few renowned journalists tweeted  about the authenticity of the matter. 

The shrewd Simon was quick to react on the occasion, twitted about the spurious details and even had tweet to tweet battle with few journalists ,finally made the Twitter aware of the fact that neither The  Washington Post has said sorry on the matter nor he intends to take his piece back on such a important  issue which effects one of the strongest economic power house of the subcontinent.

Later, The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/indian-prime-ministers-office-responds-to-washington-posts-profile-on-manmohan-singh/2012/09/05/89b66e24-f784-11e1-8b93-c4f4ab1c8d13_blog.html took a stand on it and even replied Mr Pankaj Pachauri (Official Media Advisor to PM)  in his  official reply mail about the stand taken which was written  by Anup Khaple.  The whole chain of events was enough to prove two things. First, the PMO’s myopic, ineffectual , intolerant stand on Media rants on his performance and also highlighted  a deep concern on how such officials have retaliated and shown bigotry towards free media and speech. To add, they lied , spread rumors and even made people believe that the matter has been resolved. Outrageous!

The incident too made us feel about the impetuous think tank and blurred vision of PMO office which never  tolerated criticism and looked severely juvenile, babyish, immature in handling the matter. The Twitter reacted very strongly emphasizing the fact, had there not been something called twitter, the social medium, the PMO would have somehow made a fictitious story look real with all added masala in it , as it’s a general belief that main stream media would never have told real story and the rumors might have converted themselves as  anecdotes of Indian op-eds , purposely  finding lacunae in Western media Journalistic methodologies. 

But things are little different because of Twitter and yes I thank Twitter for the insights and Knowledge management where every wrong information is being criticized and challenged. The government  stand looked diminutive and passive with twiterrati lampooning its intellectual think tank which literally became a serious cause of concern. A ex DGP twitted that he had heard something called “ Ram Nam ki loot” but never thought he will be able to see that in his life time.

As Shekhar Kapoor twitted that he thinks Government is on collapse mode and probably Army will take over, lot of people expressed concern, and asked him not to spread rumors to which he replied with ease that people have actually forgotten the dark days of emergency. To add support to my views of Government  intolerance and impatience are also the facts which happened few days back, where few twitter handles were deliberately blocked as they  seem to question lot of government policies and issues in a pragmatic, intellectual way.

Every Democratic State or government has been questioned, has been put through the Stress test  of policy makers, Intellectuals, Socialists, Historians but they had the patience to hear and perseverance to resolve the burning issues. Even Obama is challenged with his debt policies , Romney has to give his tax details, so what if Indian and Western Media wants to get clarified from PM on  issues of Coalgate. What is the problem if Sonia has been asked about her  secret illness( in quotes as it is not secret any more) and the cost associated with it.

The canards and cacophony of Main Stream Media will always be there, but if the government remains sincere and honest in answering it, noone will question mark the Will and “ Vivek” of Governance.