Name game, who should we blame !!

"What is there in a name" asked Shakespear, well for the Indian mass a lot.

India got it's first indigenous nuclear submarine, becoming the sixth nation in the world to have this technology after USA, UK, France, Russia and PR China. Now the issue is nomenclature of the submarine. It has been named "INS Arihant" by the wife of our honourable Prime Minister. The name meaning 'destroyer of enemies ' according to her.

The word Arihant is widely used in Jainism and Jain texts, it is very important in the religious context for the minority group. According to them, arihant means the same 'destroyer of enemies' but in precise context. Here the enemy is referred to the greed, enviousness, hatred and all the immoral things imbibed within us. The word is also present in 'Navkaar mantra'. The Jain munis and community heads have requested the PM and President to rechristen the most powerful, violent force of the nation. Naming it after the most non'-violent character is surely not advocated.

Now, again when it comes to name the politicians play the game. BJP- Shivsena came into power in 1990's renamed our beloved 'Bombay' to 'Mumbai'. The Victoria terminus was renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus.

When it comes to naming infrastructure, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi are congress netas favourites, they have a short vision and so they cannot see beyond these populists.

Naming the nation's 7th IIM at Shillong after Rajiv Gandhi surely was a blunder, it was not at all needed. All the other 6 IIM have no additional names attached to them other then their respective city names, why did we need it for Shillong.

Bandra worli sealink as suggested by Sharad Pawar was named after Rajiv Gandhi again. Did we really need the name 'Rajiv Gandhi setu' or the better question would be 'are we going to call it as Rajiv Gandhi setu or simply Bandra worli sealink?'. I don't think people are going to use the first name.

Except the John F Kennedy airport, no other major infrastructure in the US is named after a politician. Even if we need to name them, why not have a longer vision and name it after our great freedom fighters like Shaheed Bhagat Singh or Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The name game is surely to be blamed on the publicity policy of the political party in power.

Yes we can!!

India is a great country with a greater history. A famous American author wrote, “When Indians were at the climax of their Civilization, Europeans and Americans were still painting the walls of their caves”. Very true, But it seems the same civilized society has turned into a mass of rowdy, outspoken and vernacular class. The most disappointing thing is that we people have adjusted with these stuffs, we don’t manipulate any more, we manage it. When something goes against the interest of some section of people they go berserk, damaging, beating everything they see before them. The Hindus bringing down Babri mosque, the repercussion- the Muslims killing them, 1984 Sikh riots, the Kashmiri people going down the lane throwing stones is a daily news now. Sikhs vandalizing the city property just because one of their Guru died in Vienna, Dalits flaming down a train in Pune, why, because statue of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was broken in ‘Kanpur’. Forget the above, even in our daily life we can see people spitting/pissing on roads, littering public places, abusing each other, no sense of lane system in traffic, etc etc, the list goes on and on and on.

I’m happy to see that we have been developing our country and have been flaunting the development to the world for some time, but I’m sorry to see that we are unable to develop the very same society of ours. I call it citizenship. We need to develop citizenship among ourselves.

I was talking to a friend some days back and came up with a solution. What if we start a citizenship programme in schools (especially the one for poor and villagers), that would help us developing our next generation as ideal citizens. This citizenship programme will be once a week, vocational kind of programme. The programme includes civil manners, traffic manners, and moral values. The initiative can be taken by an NGO and if the concept is successful the government should enact it to make it a compulsory part of our education system. Enough of history, geography, and other such subjects. We need to make a difference in the society now. Yes we can

The internal terror.

"The fire you kindle for your enemy often burns yourself more than him."

The above stated is a Chinese proverb which says all about the present situation of our neighbour Pakistan. Though we all know about the relationship of the parted nation but i would like to pint out an another issue related to this. There is an another phrase, an African one, "When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you". Most of the Indians are ignorant about Naxalites and Maoists. The recent attack on a police troop killing all 26 of them including an SP rank officer did not invoke any fire except closing down the city in the name of protest. come on yaar, this is no British Raj, closing down cities and holding strikes are no solution to such major problems. The way to protest government hasn't changed since the British rule, burning down public properties, ransacking public properties, vandalizing government holdings were ok before independence but now, it's our own, very own properties. Anyways, their was not a statement heard from the Chief minister or his counterparts after this, not an action taken against those psychos. I've spoken to an army man, and he said it's not more than a 15 day job for the Army folks. They'll wipe them off the Indian map. Naxalism is not very different from a pandemic and if the right steps are not taken, it will continue to grow, remember the creeper tree, crow, and bird hunter story we use to read in our kindergarten. there will be more lalgarhs if nothing will be done. This internal terror is as much perilous to us as much the Jihadi terrorism is. Right actions should be taken at the right time. We need to wake up.