Spin-o-phobia

Lately, any discussion about test cricket, anywhere around the globe invariably leads to a debate about the pitch and what is a good test cricket pitch. Especially in light of the current India vs South Africa series, pitch has garnered as much attention as the cricket played on the pitch itself. Should an ideal pitch be turning, should it be seaming, how much of an assistance should there be for the bowlers, how many first innings runs vindicate the curator and several other questions are on everyone’s mind. I would like to present an alternative viewpoint that may invalidate the premise of a few.

                                                                                                                           

How important is the pitch?

Cricket is primarily a contest between bat and bowl. When two school kids play cricket in their backyard, they don't discuss pitch conditions. All they care is if one can get the other one out or if the other can score as many runs possible. Growing up, playing backyard cricket, if the batsman didn’t get out, it was time to invent new rules to get him out. Harder the rules, quicker the interchanges, more fun it was. I think it is time to reflect upon the focus of our attention. Cricket should be not held hostage to references of previous matches or statistical averages. Neither should the quality of a test match be dictated by them. Quality of a test match should be determined by the balance between bat and bowl and the contest between two sides. A good pitch is one where each run is earned, not scored; a pitch where each run is an achievement and not a God given right of the batsman. That means, that only two kinds of pitches should in fact raise genuine concern – one that is unplayable and dangerous for batting and second which is flat and so placid that Muralitharan with a baseball bat can score a century on it. (I have nothing against Murali, but have you seen him bat? Its like he is battling an army of flies with a swatter.)

My point being, a good test match does not depend on type of pitch as much as it depends on how close the contest is. As long as the pitch is same for both the teams, it is a fair contest. By that logic, the Mohali and Nagpur test matches were fantastic with ball spitting, bouncing, turning and batsman struggling to survive. It was a relief to see a bowlers dominate a cricketing contest for once. I think the curator should be applauded for making a result oriented pitch. It was the kind of pitch that can differentiate a good batsmen from a great one unlike the Perth pitch (Australia vs New Zealand) where almost every batsman scored century. How do you tell who is a great batsman if every batsman in the top order scores century?

I say all pitches that are challenging and result producing are good pitches. The joys of cricket are as much in spin, seam, swing, bounce as in a nicely timed cover drive. Let us not debate pitches, let us discuss how well each team adapts to the conditions. It gets hard for a cricket lover like me to defend test cricket where it ends up being a draw after 5 days while whining about 3 hour long goal-less soccer matches.

What about batting averages?

When a batsman faces a deadly fast bowler or a guileful spinner at the pinnacle of his ability, all the batting averages of the world mean as much to him as a comb to a bald man – something he can display in a cabinet but cannot use if his life depended on it. Cricket is over obsessed with averages and statistics. How about if we agree to keep T20’s as a batsmen's game and aspire for test matches to be bowler friendly? 

Did India exploit home advantage?

Indians took home advantage, exploit would be a rather strong word indicating they did something they were not authorized under the rules. They chose to play cricket on pitches more suited to their skills, which every home team does. Anyone disagreeing must watch India’s last tour to South Africa where SA prepared green tracks and Dale Steyn was swinging the ball like it was a boomerang. Sachin was the only batsman who was able to withstand those conditions, but not without having played and missed a million balls. So no, India did not exploit home advantage, so all Indians, please purge yourself of the guilt. I read somewhere Hashim Amla mentioning importance of scoring an honorable win. The pitch was equally challenging for both the teams, India bowled better, India batted better, so yes, Kohli and co. scored a very honorable win. A not so honorable win might have been if pitch conditions had changed drastically over the course of a match rendering major advantage to one of the teams but that has not happened in this series so far.

Should away tests be that hard to win?

Yes, traditionally, in test cricket, an away win is considered like a battle won in enemy territory, it is worth its weight in gold. However, I believe that home advantage is considerable advantage. To negate this advantage, toss should be eliminated and choice of batting or bowling first should be made prerogative of visiting captain. Also, ample time must be given to teams travelling abroad for preparation and skill adaptation, so they can pose a genuine challenge to the home side.

Should India just keep preparing spinning tracks?

For the sake of cricket, probably not. All batsmen should be tested against different pitch conditions, there should be variety which would make test cricket a lot more interesting. Each pitch should be different and offer something unique, no matter how subtle the difference might be. Yes, tracks in subcontinent would predominantly be spinning but variety can be introduced in extent of spin and bounce. Still, having a result oriented track is still better than flat ones. Only a comatose person would have found this test series uninteresting, that for obvious reasons.

What should South Africa do?

Spin is easy to play if and only if your instincts are acute. There are only two ways to play spin – you either go forward if you can reach to the pitch of the ball or you stay back and allow the ball to spin. This however assumes that you have read the ball of the bowlers hand correctly, to a certain extent, . Even then, whether to go forward or back can be a judgement call if the bowler pitches it in that nagging in-between spot. This ability to judge differentiates a good player of spin from a not so good one. When under pressure with 6 fielders around the batsmen ready to pounce on any small/big edge from the bat, this judgement needs to come instinctively. Instincts come with heaps of practice, day in and day out. When Australia was to tour India for a three test match series in 1997-98, it is common knowledge that Tendulkar practiced his defence for days against spin bowling on uneven tracks to hone his skills so he could counter Warne. How many batsman these days practice defense, let alone practicing playing against spin?

To now answer the question above, there is no easy way for SA. Their batters need more practice, clear mind, confident head on their shoulders and trust in their defense. Indecisiveness in going forward or staying back is causing their downfall. In the book of spin, it seems attack is not the best form of defense, only solid defense is the best form of defense.

What should India do?

India have only fared marginally better than South Africa in this series. If you are going to prepare spin friendly tracks, then maybe you should ensure that spin is still your strength. Luckily, it’s the quality of spin bowlers in Indian side that have saved them the blushes. What should they do – be prepared to spend time on the crease and rotate strike. South African’s spinners are still not of age, so there will be loose balls – capitalize on them and anyone who loses wicket to an aggressive shot should be made to listen Saeed Ajmal speaking English for hours. If that does not scare them, I don’t know what would.

What should Delhi pitch be like?

This question, really? After all the discussion about cricket and not pitches.

I honestly don’t care as long as it leads to exciting contest and that is what cricket is all about.

Bihar - The Agony, The Irony

As the dust settles from Bihar Assembly elections, PM Modi and BJP top leadership face an uphill task. BJP must have been counting on this election to get them required strength in the upper house of Indian parliament. Many reforms need to be passed and bills (including GST bill) need to become laws to help economy but it seems, despite having cleared them in lower house where BJP has majority, it would be a while till something gets done.

Critics of BJP attribute the loss to the argument that PM Modi and his government have not done enough after coming to power about a year and a half ago. There is a feeling of discontent among general public as the miracles they expected from him did not materialize. What we fail to realize is that things take time to mature, especially in a complex country like India. Our forefathers have written the constitution in a way that it is immune to tectonic changes and establishes decentralization of power. It has its benefit, prevents us from being like Pakistan where government is relatively easy to usurp. But at the same time, it makes it a herculean task even to shift the momentum of development from decline towards growth. Quick wins are not permitted, any change has to go though both houses and majority must vote in favor of it. The writers of constitution were perhaps under assumption that elected member shall by and large judge each bill on its merit, individually. The current political scenario suggests contrary – elected members subscribe to the directions from the party they belong to and a few party leaders make decisions. Independent thinking is discouraged; an example would be senior party leader Shashi Tharoor being rebuked by Congress for genuinely praising PM Modi. Further troublesome is the fact that these party decisions are generally not based on merit but based on politics of opportunism. Opposition is quick to support populist schemes no matter how detrimental they might prove for the country in the long run. They tend to oppose for the sake of opposing.

PM Modi seems to be trying to do the right thing, projecting India as a prospective manufacturing hub on a global scale and focusing on development. For a country where government officials generally work on kickbacks and politicians are generally opportunistic, manipulative and exploiters, establishing pro-developmental mentality cannot be an easy task. Indian politics is a quicksand which pulls back anyone trying to do the right thing. Bihar proves this again.

In this election, Bihar again demonstrated that its people are still unwilling to look beyond caste. This election was again won on the same basis. Anyone believing that Grand Alliance got votes on the basis of good governance image projected by Nitish’s must be overlooking the regrettable fact that Lalu Yadav's party has won more seats than Nitish Kumar's JDU. For Bihari votes, it seems having someone from their own caste in power matter above having good governance, therein lies the tragedy of Bihar – the 3rd poorest and populous state of India with maximum unemployment.

Another factor behind Nitish-Lalu victory is their ability to convince that BJP is a threat to India’s secularism. They were able to unite all small faction which were not part of mainstream, against common enemy - BJP. India is secular and there is no threat to it. Generally, it is the so-called-seculars that create differences in a society. In the name of secularism, vote banks are targeted and people are manipulated. Common man must be able to see this that every time someone screams secularism, it is not without an undertone of some personal agenda.

National Stock Exchange of India fell as much as 2.3 percent after Bihar results, the lowest since Sep 29 this year. It shows that Bihar verdict is seen as impediment to the economy and growth by trade pundits. I find it hard to imagine how voters in Bihar have ignored this basic indicator.

Having said that, BJP is also guilty of communalizing the election campaign. The divisive cow-based politics inciting Hindu vote bank deviated them from their agenda of development. Not only such politics is morally wrong, it was also a huge gamble which might have worked in Uttar Pradesh but not in Bihar. Bihar is divided more by caste than by religion. They say in Bihar, even a 10-year-old child can clearly state the differences between his caste and that of his friend. Regardless, I believe a simple and clean promise of growth and development would have produced better result than what BJP achieved.

In all of this, Bihar has the most to lose. An inherent handicap for democracy is that 51 fools can control 49 wise. Foolishness as Albert Einstein describes is repeating the same activity expecting different results. I don’t know what makes Bihar think that Lalu in power this time would be any different from Lalu of the last time when his governance was compared to ‘jungle raj’. For the sake of Bihar, I hope Nitish is able to pursue ‘Vikas’ without RJD holding his hands tight.

Modern India has to look beyond caste, religion and other differences and be united in sole perspective of inclusive growth. It has to discourage divisive politics and hold leaders accountable on their promises. They say, in democracy, people get the leader they deserve. If it is true, it is about time we raise the consciousness, awareness of the country and set aside personal gains. Because if we won’t, our leaders will never.

Happy Gandhi Jayanti

Happy Gandhi Jayanti to everyone who aspires for a peaceful and tolerant world.

This is the third time I starting this blog all over again. There is just so much I want to share with you, I seem unable to decide where to start with. Each topic I want to discuss is worth a book. What to focus in this blog, what to leave.. hard choice.. Should I discuss all of them? If I do, I risk sounding like a disappointed father seemingly unable to decide what to rebuke his drunk violent unstable child for - drinking, violence and being deluded?

Should I discuss how reprehensible was the brutal murder of 50 year old Mohammad Ikhlaq in Dadri, Greater Noida by a lynch mob on suspicion that he consumed beef? Should I talk about how some people are spreading poison in the name of religion throughout the globe? 

Should I talk about lack of empathy shown to the Syrian refugees by rest of the world especially by their Muslim brethren? Should I talk about the brutality and terrorism bred in the form of Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Boko-Harem and likes of their kind? Or may be should I point out the fact that the arms and ammunition used by these organisations are created in factories that keep our economy running? Should I even begin on the greed of people and nations that has created this credit-based flimsy world economy that seems to run on promises but no substance? 

I really don't know what to talk about. Probably, in the hearts of your hearts, you all know what is right and wrong in what is happening around us. I know one thing for sure, if you were humanity, your father would have been pretty damn upset with you as you have turned out one psychopath of person and that is to put it politely.

We cannot fix everything in a day. Hell, I don't know if we can even fix it someday. But we can at least try improving our thought process. 

Firstly, it would be a great start if we can agree that no-one dies in the name of religion anymore. Religion is not above sanctity of human life, or laws of the land. Instead of tolerating corrupt practices, deceitful leaders, unclean surroundings, pitiful infrastructure, poverty and hypocrisies, we should tolerate each - other and respect everyone's right to live life happily. God does not exist in statues, monuments, stones, trees, cow or in any other material object you perceive to be holy. God exists in faith, so lay your faith carefully. Lay your faith in humanity, in love, in truth, in peace and in tolerance. Being tolerant does not mean being weak, it means knowing what to fight against, who to fight against. Fight against tobacco, alcohol, bribe, corruption, dowry and poverty. Pardon me in stealing these words of a lead protagonist of a popular TV show Mr Robot - "We live in a world built on fantasy. Synthetic emotions in the form of pills. Psychological warfare in the form of advertising. Mind-altering chemicals in the form of... food! Brainwashing seminars in the form of media. Controlled isolated bubbles in the form of social networks." Get real people, find your sensitivities, find your human connection. World will be a better place if you and I become even an iota of a better human being. Having a clean conscious is price-less. Be real and honest to your soul.

Secondly, if we can be less greedy, less materialistic, we would find more human in us. Life for most of us has become chasing ambitions and dreams, running after paychecks after paychecks. We buy luxuries of today with promises to pay for those luxuries tomorrow. Then when we reach tomorrow, we need more luxuries and we still haven't completely paid off yesterday's luxuries, so we borrow more with more promises. And at some stage, it builds up to impossible number of promises to keep and our world comes crumbling down. This is exactly what has happened to Greece and Chinese economies and rest of the world is not far behind. If entire American debt is divided by number of its taxpayers, each American owes roughly $65,000 to the world. Staggering fact!  There are plenty of economists sitting to discuss how to fix federal budgets of nations, I am just gonna pass on a simple advice on individual front - learn to live with less. Why is it important to remind you today, because today we pay respect to father of the nation who was a prophet of peace and tolerance and in his words one should have "Simple living, high thinking" and "There is enough in the world for need, not enough for greed."

- Shivank Kaul

Happy Independence Day 2014

Happy Independence Day 2014

All my fellow Indians, many congratulations on the Independence Day of our country. About six odd decades ago, the dreams of an entire nation came true this day and the efforts of more than a century of freedom struggle bore fruits. We created a nation, that we so proudly now call - Republic of India.

Firstly, I must congratulate you on the successful completion of the General Elections this year. It was the largest democratic exercise in the world where one seventh of the world's population presented its mandate. And what a splendid mandate it was. I congratulate every Indian on the unanimity of the mandate across the length and breadth of the nation. It felt as if we all spoke out in favour of good governance in one voice. This is the way it should be. Democracy is not democracy unless we all take responsibility and ownership of our country and our government. We can't escape the blame if the country has not done that well. Some of us have given up on India. Some of us feel that we have let ourselves down in the years after Independence to a level from where there is no coming back. Some folks feel that we may never be able to compete with the top nations in the world. Some believe that we do not put enough price on our integrity and work ethics. We can't give up on India. We shall always be connected to India through our thoughts, our way of life, our language and our culture, regardless of where we live. So instead of ignoring, I believe its time to fix what can be fixed and improve what can be improved.

Our Prime Minister, Sh. Narendra Modi has invited the world with open arms to invest and manufacture in India. I believe it is a great opportunity for India to grow its economy and create jobs. We have immensely skilled and talented workforce to deliver exceptional results. We must ensure utmost quality in whatever we produce. Brand India needs to be a symbol of excellence and consistency. 'Indian' should be synonym for quality. And that is a responsibility of us all. It is not that hard - all it takes is a sincere effort, all it takes is a sense of pride in what we do, all it means is for all of us is to do an honest day's work, everyday. Gradually, together, we can build a good reputation over the years to last forever.

Sincerity and honesty, if enforced under the fear of punishment, would always be shortlived. Only through respect, sincerity in approach, honesty in effort and sense of pride in oneself, can be realised. Respect is all we need to bind us together and make us stronger. Respect is all we need to create an atmosphere of harmony, brotherhood, acceptance, growth, progress and self-esteem. My brothers and sisters, today on this occasion, I request you to re-kindle that respect for everything that is Indian. We have paid a huge price to have a free and independent India, we must cherish this gift our forefathers sacrificed their lives for.

Begin by respecting your fellow country men. Respect every Indian equally. Do not respect them for their religion, for their mother-tounge, for the color of their skin, for their race, for where they were born in India, or for how affluent they might be.

Respect them for their knowledge because knowledge is the only true wealth a person can have. Respect them for their sanskriti because they, you and I, we inherit the same culture. Respect them for their poverty because being poor is no shame. Respect them for their day-to-day struggle because for some, survival is a daily battle. Respect them for their broken english because their attempt is commendable. Respect the cobbler who sits all day under the scorching sun to feed his family. Respect the milkman who despite being poor, does not dilute milk with water. Respect the rikshaw-puller who tirelessly works all day, pulling people's weight to earn his bread. Respect morals, dedication, commitment, chivallry, altruism. Respect your father because he is your first role model. Respect your mother because in mother lives God. Respect your son as he struggles everyday to live up to your expectations. Respect your daughter as she struggles for respect outside home in our predominently male chauvinist society. Respect women as it is unforgivable to not treat them as equals in this day and age. Respect all daughters and mothers because a society that cannot respect its women does not deserve it. Respect the sheer spirit of 1.2 billion strong humanity.

Our country has exemplary men and women. It is the common men who are so extraordinary in their commonality. Regard them and never look down upon them. Extend out a helping hand to every fellow Indian out of love, out of compassion. Be honest, have faith and believe in truth. Our strength lies in our unity and values we cherish. Honor every Indian for the belief he/she has in these values. Through respect comes love. With love, break the boundaries that separate our hearts. Love is the basis for a family. We are a family, one huge family and its time we start behaving like one.

I am proud to be an Indian. It is not because of what we are today, but because of the potential we have to be what we can be tomorrow.

Jai Hind

Happy Independence Day 15^th August 2013

Many congratulations and good wishes to all my fellow Indians on our 67^th Independence Day. I wish you all prosperity and growth and development in all spheres of life. There are many topics I wish to discuss with you. There are my issues on which I want to share my opinion and get yours. I intend to ignite a spark that creates an environment where youth of the nation get involved and realise the responsibilities of running a nation.

We the people of India, solemnly resolve to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. And every educated, learned, knowledgeable Indian has a greater responsibility to do so.

Today’s India is rapidly becoming an India of haves and have not’s.  This ever increasing, widening gap between rich and poor is concerning. The rich must realise that they cannot stay rich for long if they do not share some of their riches with others. There is a quote from Bhagwat Geeta that in essence, teaches us all to take as much as is need. Taking anything beyond would lead to ill and turn into poison. The perfect man is a man who has control on his desires and knows how to share with his brethren. Unless we work towards such purpose, I foresee greater conflicts, revolts and uprisings.  On the other hand, poor must know that the path to progress goes through education and awareness. Democracy’s strength lies in its people. More they are educated, knowledgeable, responsible and actively contributing, stronger is the democracy.

Today we celebrate 66 years of freedom, liberty and independence. The same should reflect in our mentality. Modern and free thinking begets from the principles of equality and freedom of speech. I want to see an India where no longer do we have quotas and reservations on the basis of castes or regions. I aspire to see an India where every Indian is equal and where talented, sincere and hardworking people are justly rewarded, no matter what family they are born in, and regardless of which part of the country they were born in. When it comes to education, job, opportunities, the only criterion should be talent and hard work.  Coming to freedom of speech and expression, if India wants to stand among the tallest of the nations in the world, we need to have a free and fair exchange of dialogues. The voices of poor and destitute must not be curbed and free speech should not be punished. Twitter and Facebook have become new modes of expression of youth and persecution of people for their candid comments on similar social media must be stopped. Our government should be such that it should invite its criticism so as to understand what must be done in order to help the hurt.

In today’s India, honestly and patriotism seems to have become most hard to find commodity. We must not forget that we celebrate today’s day in name of people who personified these virtues, who got us our Independence. Honesty must be rewarded and the voice that stands against corruption and wrong-doing must be supported. How is it acceptable that honest IAS officers are being punished by the government for standing up to mafia and the government is still in power? There is only one explanation. We have closed our eyes, ears and mouth to all that is ill around us. We have become so numb and insensitive towards corruption that it has become a part of how we live. We need to stop somewhere, open our eyes and stand up against corruption. This is our nation, if we can corrupt it, we can also clean it. All it needs is 51 willing people out of every 100.

We have general elections this year. I implore all my fellow Indians to vote and be a part of this celebration of Loktantra (democracy). This year, vote fearlessly, vote sincerely and vote not for short tern benefits but vote with the thought of your motherland in your heart. At the same time, I implore all political parties to contest a fight worthy of this great nation. Let it be fought on matters of development and growth. Let us restrain from digging dirt on others and focus on policies that are for Lok Kalyaan (social good). Let us have an honest contest where the leaders stand tall on the pedestals of sincere intentions to make life of every Indian better over the period of next 5 years. History would not remember you just because you achieved power, history would remember you for what you did after achieving that power. And for every Indian, let me quote Mahatma Gandhi –

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world”

Jai Hind
Shivank Kaul

Dear Mr Prime Minister..

Dear Mr Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, 

    A very good morning to you sir. I believe the parliament is still non-functional over  the so-called "coal-gate" scam. So hopefully, you may have a few spare minutes in your busy schedule to at least gloss over my humble letter.  I heard that you recently retorted to opposition's attack in parliament with an Urdu couplet - 

"Hazaaron Jawabon Se Acchi Hai Meri Khamoshi, Na Jaane Kitne Sawaalon Ki Aabru Rakhe"

    This translates to  - My silence is better than a thousand answers, because it is veiling the premise/prestige of myriad questions. 

    I must say, it was an excellent repartee, a gambit to take the attack to the opposition and question the authenticity of their questions without having to answer one. Also, it exhibits your ability to hit back criticism. 

    But unfortunately, I was shocked to hear your words. Let me explain why!! 

    Democracy is established on accountability. Once a ruling party has been given the mandate to govern, it automatically becomes accountable to every citizen of the country. Accountability is the most primal distinction between democracy and autocracy or dictatorship. As a ruling party, it behoves you to listen to every citizen of India and answer every question any citizen of India has through proper channels. There is no way on earth, your refusal to answer questions of representatives of people (no matter how eloquently presented) can be justified in a democracy. It is blasphemy for a disciple of constitution and personally, this for me stands out as the biggest blemish on your term as PM. 

    I do not take sides. I understand opposition's unrelenting attack and exaggerated criticism for their own gains. I understand that clogging the functioning of parliament and asking for your resignation is again constitutionally reprehensible. You have the majority and if they have objection to you being the Prime Minister, they can introduce a no-confidence motion. But having said that, you cannot exonerate yourself from your fundamental responsibility of being accountable for your actions or in-actions. Our whole constitution is built around transparency, right to information and right to question. 

    I see you as a good, God-fearing man, of unparalleled academic acumen and humblest of demeanour. What I want to see is a man with gumption and fire in his belly to make things right. I want to see a Prime Minister who is passionate about his governance and defends himself through good governance KPI's. I do not want you to resign but I expect to see you come out and take the ownership of all of this. 

    Mahatma Gandhi, father of the nation always suggested that it is ultimate bravery to accept your mistake and rectify it. If you think mistake has been done, accept it and rectify it. To be honest, it won't even affect your vote bank. It would impress the cognisant because you would be the first among generations of politicians, to admit their mistake and work towards fixing it. And the in-cognisant shall vote the way they always do - under their local leader's influence based on whatever topic is exploited close to elections  - religion, region or caste. 

    Even after plethora of scams under your governance, commonwealth games, 2G, coalgate to name a few, everyone still believes you are an honest man who is finding it hard to discipline his coalition ministers and other senior party leaders. But history will not remember you as an honest man if you fail to address all this mis-governance. History does not remember what impression you have on people as much as the financial losses that government exchequer has suffered during your prime-ministership.

    I apologies if I disrespected you in any way in this letter. You are the leader of my nation and I submit to you. But at the same time, I have constitutional right to question you and this letter is a reminder of the same. 

Jai Hind
Yours Sincerely, 
Shivank Kaul

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sdvMzazpSs

Happy Independence Day 65

Happy Independence Day my fellow Indians.. 

It is a day when we celebrate the blood and sweat of freedom fighters, achievements of the past 65 years after independence and also contemplate - where do we head now..

We are 65 years old today. And our democracy is still going through teething process like a baby. We may be the largest democracy, but surely not the most mature one. We still play vote bank politics, we still vote based on caste and religion. As long as the people in power keep exploiting people not in power, democracy might well be called oligarchy for all the difference it makes. 

Democracy was meant to shift the control of governance in hands of people. People who were given power were supposed to be hierarchically below the common people. And the structure forefathers presented was quite justified. All rationale suggests that if people in power are elected by people not in power, then they would be accountable to them.
But we failed them because we forgot those basics. Our decision to vote for a candidate should solely be based on his credentials, his past record of governance and his administration skills. Instead, we kept selling our votes to the powerful under influence of mob mentality, caste-religion bias or short term motives.

The result of that is today for all of us to see. People are sitting on agitations, there are hunger protests so government can listen to people. Sitting on hunger protest is equivalent to blackmailing but has our government become that callous forcing people to resort to such measures?

I think before we start fixing anything, it behoves us to fix our own self. In 1947, we had conquered British, gained our independence from them, but we were still fighting poverty, illiteracy, mismanagement of resources and lack of proper administration. Today, in 2012, we fight poverty, illiteracy, mismanagement of resources, lack of proper administration and corruption on top of that. What happened in these 65 years is that we lost the passion and drive to make our country better. We lost the intention of doing good for India, we got so busy doing good for self. Rich became richer and the economic gap widened. 


Let us fix ourselves first. Let us all at least find that intent of doing good for India in us. Let us put the barriers of languages, regions, states, castes, colours, cultures, religions aside. Let us reignite the passion for India, India as a whole, not a region, not a state, my whole mother India. 

Besides realising our faith in unity of an undivided India, we need educated masses. We need every person in this country educated and literate. Every person needs to be someone who understands his/her fundamental rights and duties and understands public administration and stand up against exploitation. And we need people to go beyond and make others aware against unlawful, corrupt activities that infest under the sheets in dark. We needs such activists to be in every sphere of society - medicine, administration, media, judiciary etc.

But if you cannot be such an activist, the least you can do is understand the importance of the biggest power you have - your vote. We all need to keep ourselves informed, make a rational opinion based on governance alone and then vote. It will be a slow process but the day contesting candidates realise that they cannot cheat their way into power - that day, you and I as common men, we become powerful. That day, we realise the true potential of democracy. That day, all our requests and appeals will not go unanswered. That day, we will have true accountability. That day, we would have gained independence from conservative thinking and fear of hooligans. We would have freedom from exploitation and it would be independence in its purest form..

Lets pledge on this Independence Day that when we gather again to celebrate next Independence Day, we would have done something in this whole one year, that would make us worthy of celebration.
JAI HIND