Religion and terrorism

The issue of terrorism is not new to humans, our society has dealt with various forms of terrorism since its existence. The most ugly form of terrorism is violence inflicted on innocent people, but it can also manifest itself in so many other forms which are equally detrimental. There is no doubt that any form of terrorism is harmful to any society or civilization. The arms and weapons industry is a huge player in this area and it has a tremendous influence on how world politics works, the revenue of this industry depends on feelings of fear and there is nothing better than terrorism to infuse this feeling among people of any country. Any society suffering from any form of terrorism faces so many problems, first of all day-to-day lives of its citizens are severely affected in many ways, many people live in constant fear of attack and it creates feelings of insecurity and distrust among its people. All these things are not signs of a healthy society, they affect its growth, stability, and productivity. So, it is always better to address problems related to any sort of terrorism on a priority basis. Ignoring such problems doesn't make them go away on its own, rather they can give rise to so many other problems which can be very damaging to any country in the long run.

Many countries have been battling with the issue of terrorism in various forms for years. As an Indian, I know very well how it feels to live in a country that is at the receiving end of terrorist attacks regularly. The situation in India is not as bad as many other places in the world, but still one can feel the heat of terrorism. People try to label these acts of terrorism in so many ways, many times these terrorist groups label themselves, they choose to attach themselves to certain regions, ethnic groups, or religions to create an impression that they are fighting for that particular group's interests. In the last few years, there has been increasing use of terms like "Islamic terrorism" all over the world or "saffron terrorism" in India. These terms try to link some particular religion with terrorist activities happening in that region. The clear intention behind this is to indicate that that particular religion is used as an instrument to incite people to perform acts of terrorism. So, the question we need to ask is, is there any relationship between religion and terrorism? Especially, when almost everyone claims that all religions teach peace, why there is so much hatred and violence in the name of religion? Why are people willing to kill each other in the name of religion? Is this a fault of those people or does religion give them this opportunity by being ambiguous about the use of violence? Is it possible that in reality, almost all religions teach both, hate and love, peace and violence? When such extreme options are available people conveniently use the one that suits them to justify their actions of love as well as hatred and violence. I know some of these questions might make some people feel very uncomfortable and might even offend some devoted followers of religion, but nevertheless, we need to ask them. It seems people very easily get offended nowadays, I was surprised to hear that speakers need to give a "trigger warning" before saying anything that might be contrary to some popular belief or against some widely accepted ideology. But we need to ask these questions so that people can understand about this very complicated and sensitive issue. Religion or aspects are religion are regularly exploited to propagate terrorism, therefore, we all should be very careful in defending everything associated with religion, especially, the aspects that are used to trigger violent reactions should be recognized and appropriately handled on intellectual and social levels.

Most religions have gone through various forms of struggles to establish themselves in this world, one can easily read the history of different religions on the internet. Some religions originated in a very hostile environment and had to fight bloody wars to defeat their enemies and establish their presence. This might be the reason most of them include recommendations to fight wars against their opponents (enemies) until the opponents are wiped out from that region. These recommendations might have been necessary at that time as that was the time of the "might is right" era, but such conditions don't exist anymore. Most of us now understand that all these religions are like personal choices and different people can have different religions as it suits their requirements and needs. Most of us also understand that there is no imminent threat to any religion in most countries. Most civilized countries offer their residents the right to practice any religion of their choice. If that particular religion is relevant and useful it will survive, and if not, it will fade away with time. This is a simple rule of the market, if the product is popular and sellable it will stay in the market or something else will replace it. The point I am trying to make is, that any violence propagated in the name of some religion is under attack or in extreme danger is a false narrative and a lame attempt to justify the hatred and violence.

Also, every religion needs to own things happening in its name, it doesn't matter if they are good, bad, or ugly, they need to take responsibility for all these things. The propagators and followers of any religion can not be selective in only owning good things about their own religion. They just can't only talk about good things about their religion and purposely ignore all the bad and ugly things. This is called hypocrisy, where someone tries to project only one side conveniently ignoring other sides as they don't suit their purpose. At least, violence in the name of religion must be confronted in the strongest possible terms by people of that religion to demonstrate that they don't support any violence in the name of their religion. Historically, every major religion has been used to commit autocracies on nonbelievers at some point in time. Some sort of discrimination was practiced or still is in practice against nonbelievers of all religions. Rather than accepting these things, various explanations are offered to justify these acts either directly or indirectly. This is one of the reasons why most people don't hesitate to justify violence in the name of their own religion as almost everyone other religion has done it. As others have done it, so, why not us, this is the simple but ridiculous logic they follow. Many of these heinous acts get some sort of legitimacy if they are committed in the name of some religion. 

It seems religion can generate extremely good or extremely bad emotions in people. Some groups use both these extremes to serve the purpose of their organizations. But the problem is most followers are really prompt and attentive in praising good deeds by people from their own religion, but at the same time, they are hesitant or completely reluctant to accept many bad acts committed in the name of their religion. People need to own these bad acts and criticize them in the strongest terms if they care about their religion. Strong criticism from outside of that religion doesn't act as a deterrent, it helps to radicalize some of its supporters and it helps the purpose of groups who want to misuse that religion. Because no religion takes criticism from outsiders very kindly, because it is assumed that outsiders will criticize mainly out of their hatred or jealousy. This is why strong criticism must come from within the same religion, and then only any positive reform is possible. Until these things start happening on a large scale, religion will be vulnerable to misuse by some bigots from their own fraternity. Today it is Islam, tomorrow it might be something else, or even some new religion. Our social and political class needs to show courage and commitment to address this problem without getting into a trap of not hurting anyone's sentiment type of mentality. Please remember that as most saints belong to some religion, most terrorists claim to belong to some religion and they make their motive clear. As religion owns these saints, they need to own these terrorists and take up the challenge of refuting their narrative assertively, a meek denial or refusal won't work. It is the job of everyone to reject these violent ideas no matter which holy book or religion is used to justify them. Unless we all unite to fight this evil, we will continue to suffer because of it, so, let's unite and fight this evil of terrorism together.

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[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Mother Teresa's miraculous path to sainthood

When I read the news that Mother Teresa is on her way to becoming a catholic saint, I couldn't decide whether to feel happy or sad. I am a great admirer of her humanitarian work which she did in India, and her work speaks for itself about her greatness, so I wonder why she needed these random incidents under the name of miracles to get the title of "saint." Wasn't her social work enough to call her a saint? But it seems a minimum of two miracles are required to be declared as a catholic saint, I don't know on what basis they came up with the number 2, but that seems to be the criteria. So, even after all that great work that she did most of her life, it was not good enough to qualify her to become a saint, and now finally she got that dearly required second miracle recently which cleared her path to become a catholic saint. Seriously? Mr. Pope, do you need such trivial miracles which are just random incidents that happen every day somewhere in the world to declare someone like her a saint? I am really stunned to know that church authorities need some sort of nonreproducible random incidents (so-called miracles) to declare someone like Mother Teresa a saint. Can they please explain why her exemplary work is not enough for that? I feel astonished by all this because I come from the part of India which has produced many sants (equivalent of saint in Marathi) like, Dyaneshwar, Tukaram, Eknath, Namdev and many others. Actually, to be fair to Vatican people there are some miracles attributed to some of these people which according to me are clearly works of fiction. Miracles are attributed just to emphasize their greatness to some people who may not be able to understand the real importance of their work. That is why according to me all of them are not saints because they did some miracles, but for their scholarly work in the field of devotional literature, for carrying out social reforms, or for their humanitarian work. Miracles don't exist and no one can perform them. Maybe many centuries back people needed some fictional stories about different miracles to understand the greatness of someone, but in today's world why do we need such things which we know are some random incidents. Today how believable is the news that someone with multiple brain tumors prayed for her and got cured? Now for a moment let's assume that this is really true, then is it recommended for all those who are undergoing medical treatments for similar diseases to stop those treatments and start praying to her or someone else to get cured. If not, why not? Actually, people do pray whenever they are in deep trouble or when they see no other option, but they do this for their mental satisfaction there is not much logic behind this as there is no data to prove that prayers are as effective as medicines. But people do have the habit of praying and many also feel that their prayers produce desired results, but there is no proof for these things. Such a psychological boost can work in some cases, in medical science, there is a phenomenon called the "placebo effect" which is a similar scenario, but it is not a miracle, there is a rationale and logical explanation behind it.

I wrote one blog post about her many months back, even though I am an admirer of her work, her intentions and motives behind her work are questioned by some people. These questions or objections might sound unreasonable to her admirers like me, but they are there and one needs to acknowledge their existence. But my main objection to this miracle thing is what is the real purpose behind attributing such lame miracles to anyone? Don't they know that such things spread superstition among people? Especially those who are very vulnerable to believe in such things, for such people anything coming from their religious authority is absolute truth and this is dangerous. Superstition is already a huge problem in many societies and if powerful religious institutions like the catholic church are instrumental in spreading these things so blatantly, then I wonder how a society can dream of getting rid of these social evils? I absolutely have no problem with declaring Mother Teresa a saint or God or angel or whatever they want, but I have a strong objection to the so-called miracles attributed to her. This is a very clear case of superstition, just because something happened randomly doesn't mean it is a miracle. Many years back things like lunar eclipses or even rainbows were considered as miracles done by some God, but not anymore. I think it is the responsibility of any responsible and powerful institution not to propagate the culture of falsehood and superstition. This drama of miracle is really not necessary for giving sainthood to a great lady like Mother Teresa, people like her or Baba Amte are great human beings. We can call them saints, gods, or angels just because of their amazing work, they don't need any crutches of miracles to prove their greatness. I hope people understand this and give well-deserved respect to these individuals which they totally deserve because of their superb work, and not based on some stupid miracles.

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[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:

1. Mother Teresa to become a saint after Pope Francis recognizes 2nd miracle

An open letter to Mr. Arvind Kejriwal

Dear Arvind,

It was really surprising, if not shocking, to see you shouting angry slurs at the BJP and Mr. Modi on national TV and Twitter. I really thought that you learned your lesson from your horrible outburst against Mr. Prashant Bhushan and Mr. Yogendra Yadav, which was revealed immediately after your party's spectacular victory in the Delhi assembly elections. We all can disagree with others or even can have serious differences of opinion on various matters or criticize each other very strongly without being abusive towards each other. I was under the impression that maybe finally after that mistake you learned to control your anger, at least in public. But it seems that lesson is long forgotten and you are back with your "angry young man" avatar that has very little regard for choice of words while expressing his anger. I agree that you have complete freedom to say whatever you want, after all, the right of freedom of expression comes with the right to offend, but I never imagined that you would take it to the extent that it would sound like abuse. Frankly speaking, my love affair with AAP ended long back, immediately after you decided to resign after 45 days of your brief tenure as Delhi CM. I should accept that I was attracted to your political party because of the presence of a wide variety of people from different backgrounds who don't necessarily subscribe to a single ideology. It was an interesting mix and generated some hope in people like me that maybe people with different sets of ideas can also come together and create something unique that can challenge traditional norms of Indian politics. I must also accept that you guys managed to do that, but that phenomenon was very short-lived. I still agree that your party is somewhat different than all other political parties in India, but that difference is very minute and the gap is narrowing day by day. It still is somewhat different, and I hope it remains like that.

Now, coming back to this particular incident, I agree that Mr. Modi or the central NDA government misused power in their hand. I also agree that CBI was in the past and still today is used as a tool to settle political scores or strike political deals, but didn't you already know all this? Didn't you voluntarily sign up for this job and willingly enter the murky arena of Indian politics after knowing all these facts about predatory and dirty tactics used by central governments to intimidate their opposition? Or somehow you believed that these things won't happen with you and your government? Assuming that even if Mr. Modi or the BJP showed their cowardliness and vengeance, why you didn't show your bravery and sensible nature by facing that inquiry or raid like any common citizen of India? Why do you think that your office is so special that CBI needs to get your permission to raid it? DO they do this if they want to raid any common person's home or office? If according to you, Mr. Modi is a coward or a psychopath then who are you? A brave CM who is crying foul just for a single raid conducted on his office? Or is it the case that as a CM of Delhi, you expect to be treated differently than any other citizen of India? I still remember that you and your party as well as most leaders of other political parties saying on multiple occasions that you all are servants of the common people of India. Especially, you and your party claim to be against the VIP culture. But it seems this rhetoric is only true until you guys win the election and get the power, once you are in government then you all become those VIPs, expect some special treatment, and start behaving like a privileged entity who is above the law. I think you know this, but in case you forgot let me remind you that many common people in India go through these ordeals of search, raids, and arrests every day and there is no one to help them. Many of them go through this as a consequence of their criminal acts but believe me, many are put through this for no fault of theirs, but they all go through this, and hope that the system will do justice to them. They believe in the same system of which you are also a part now, even though the system fails them most of the time. They don't ask for any special treatment. What do you have to say now about the VIP culture and everyone should be treated in the same way? I know, that now you or your supporters will argue that then why any other CM's office was not raided or why some other scam was not investigated. I agree that there are often selective investigations and political vendettas in many cases, but I am sure you expected this. People are raising questions about these things and these things should be questioned, but not the way you are doing now. Also, if there are some allegations against one of the officers in your office, then why not investigate him? Why put conditions that first investigate X and Y, and then come to me or my staff? What happened to the claim that we will not tolerate any corruption or shelter any corrupt officer? Was it just a chunavi jumla, a gimmick to win the election, just like your esteemed opponents do in every election? If it was, then at least let people know about it, so they stop thinking that you and your party are any different than others.

If you expected that nothing of this sort would happen to you or that your political opponents wouldn't play any dirty games with you or they would deal with you using kid gloves or that politics would change overnight, then I must say that I am amazed by your naiveness. Similar things have happened in the past and I am sure they will happen in the future also, but it is you who promised to bring the change of culture, but it seems that now you are trying really hard to fit right into that same culture which you opposed as an activist. Your choice of words was not only wrong, but I am sure it was disheartening for many of your supporters to hear these things coming from you. It puts you in the same line of people who called you a traitor, Pakistani agent, bhagoda, naxal, and whatnot. I am sure you must be enjoying their company as you really tried very hard to be part of that group. Those people also used abusive language and displayed a very low level of personal vendetta and what you did is no different. I would not have bothered to write this mail a few months back, but recently I thought your government was back on track as you guys were really doing some good work, initiating discussions about relevant topics like pollution and air quality of Indian cities, but then this happened. It is like going 5 steps forward and 10 steps backward.

I don't want to make my letter too long and too preachy. I am also not here to tell you what to do and what not to do, I am sure you know this better than me. I just raised a few questions and I hope you bother to think about them and introspect a little. Let me end by citing a very relevant example for you, I am sure you know the name of Sachin Tendulkar. This man is considered a great cricketer not just for the number of records he broke or runs he scored but also for his temperament, consistency, sincerity, and on-field behavior. There are equally great players as far as statistics or records are concerned from his era or eras before and after him, many of them are very aggressive not only while playing cricket but also while dealing with other players on the field, and some of them are even known to be extremely abusive during their on-field behavior. Sachin is different from all those because he never engaged in on-field verbal spats, it is not that he was not abused or people never tried to intimidate him or he was not targeted, opponents from all teams tried all sorts of tactics but Sachin answered all that not with his mouth, but with his bat by scoring runs. His performance answered those insults thrown at him, no doubt that he needed to produce very high-quality performance consistently to deal with on-ground sledding, and this is one of the reasons he is considered a great cricketer. I hope this example inspires you to do something different from now onward. Because it is of no use just to claim that you are different, you also need to show that by your behavior.

All the very best and take care.

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[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Why it is important to understand enigma of American politics - Donald Trump

One of the front runners for the Republican nomination for next year's presidential elections Mr. Donald Trump has been creating a lot of media waves all over the world. Somehow, he manages to grab headlines in print or electronic media because of his statements. Many of his statements have generated very polarized responses with some praising him for calling spade a spade (hinting that he is telling the truth, even though he might sound politically incorrect) and some criticizing him for spreading hatred and negativity about certain sections of society (an outright racist, misogynist, etc.). But to everyone's surprise, so far he managed to stay in the news, and also if polls are to be believed he is still one of the front runners to grab the Republican presidential nomination. Many people are surprised by his high popularity as well as the amount of support his statements receive. He is considered an outsider in politics, but for all Republican primary candidates, he is giving a run for their money. To some, this "outsider" tag might seem like a big drawback, especially, when you are planning to run for the topmost political post in the country, but this guy has managed to turn this to his advantage by diffusing all attacks that question his political inexperience. I am not at all his supporter or for that matter any party supporter, but I have a deep interest in politics and like to study various aspects of it, and there is no doubt that Mr. Trump is the most unusual and interesting candidate in this US presidential race.

I live in Connecticut, which is considered a loyal Democrat state, that's why I was really surprised to hear when an old lady who was a very devoted democrat supporter for many years said that maybe this time she will vote for Mr. Trump if he gets the nomination. It is worthwhile to note that she didn't say that she would vote for some republican candidate, but she specifically mentioned Mr. Trump. I guess the main reason behind this is people's frustration with politicians from both parties, election after election they witnessed every presidential candidate making huge promises during their campaigns, they all promised to bring change, and in the end, nothing much changed on the ground. So, it seems that people are increasingly getting frustrated with the inability of seasoned politicians to deliver on their election promises. They are losing their faith in them, for all those people Mr. Trump is like a breeze of fresh air, someone who may not lie and cheat just to win an election. To boost this confidence, Mr. Trump already declared that he is not going to take any money for his campaign from so-called BIG donors who then try to influence the government. This is a very well-known fact, called lobbying. The donations that these corporations make to various candidates from both major parties is a sort of investment on their part to protect their own interests, and it doesn't matter which candidate wins these corporate houses make sure to keep their goodwill with both major parties. There is nothing illegal or wrong in this practice as it is allowed by law and everything is declared for everyone to see, so one should not blame these corporations for this as the system allows them to do this. They are just using legal ways to protect their business interests. It is the duty of politicians to make sure that they protect people's interests. Mr. Trump's controversial statements about illegal immigrants, Syrian refugees, or Muslim immigrants are very insensitive and controversial, but I think he knows that people will relate to his statements as most politicians won't dare to make such statements as they are offensive. Many seasoned politicians don't want to touch some of these topics because they don't want to get into trouble, they don't want to hurt their vote bank, and because of this attitude, many of them just refuse to accept that these problems even exist. This is where traditional politics fails and gives someone like Trump an opportunity to make their case, these problems and concerns are there and people need some answers. Why can't Democrats explain that if you legalize current illegal immigrants then how it doesn't mean that you are actually encouraging more illegal immigration? Just because people who broke the immigration law are in millions, is it okay to pardon their illegal act? Suppose the government does that today, then what is the guarantee that after 10 or 20 years the country will not be facing a similar situation, and then what to do? Issue another legal pardon and legalize all peaceful illegal immigrants? What is the process followed to make sure that all refugees entering the US need genuine help? The point I am trying to raise here is, that people have many questions like these, and politicians or political parties who are willing to legalize illegal immigrants or want to take more refugees are not able to explain properly why they want to do that. They somehow are not able to explain the logic and rationale behind their decision clearly and assertively. If you dodge a question, you give your opponents a chance to say that you are hiding something, or you don't have any answers to that question. This creates confusion and builds resentment. Any opposition to these issues can not be dismissed just based on partisan politics. This should not be projected as a democrat vs republican battle. Mr. Trump is not even a seasoned republican guy still he is getting so much support, we need to ask, why??

I think one major reason behind Mr. Trump's popularity is that there was an apparent disconnect between republican voters and politicians, and Mr. Trump is trying to bridge that gap. His ability to say some things that any traditional politician won't even dream of saying on a public platform is paying him some dividends. We all know that many times in politics political parties try to make use of the same issues in every election. Actually, many political parties are interested in keeping many issues alive because those issues generate votes for them in every election, I have seen it happening in India for decades, in the US the situation is much better compared to India, but these things happen here also. I guess people think that Mr. Trump can challenge this and change this, whether he will get elected or do it or not, is a different issue, but at least he is projecting himself as a "no-nonsense" person, and many people are buying that. Many of his controversial statements are highly flawed and made with a clear intention of polarizing people, they are inflammatory statements. They are clearly targeted to make use of feelings of uneasiness in people's minds. I guess he is willing to take the risk, and he thinks that rewards are high if it works in his favor. I am sure he also knows that it can backfire on him, but if he is also like the rest of the politicians, then why the heck people should choose him? He wants to set him apart from the rest, and I guess so far his strategy seems to be working. Pressure and obligation to be politically correct all the time has made many politicians very defensive, they hesitate to attack any problem aggressively because of fear that it might disturb their core constituency. Fear of being sidelined or hammered by the press and the public who are just looking for one loose statement to finish someone's political career is very real among all public figures. Mr. Trump seems to be immune to this fear and it seems many people are appreciating this. 

One can agree or disagree with Mr. Trump's statement or even dismiss him as publicity publicity-hungry businessman or call him an insignificant candidate who is not going to make it to the finish line, but there is no doubt that this man has created a lot of waves in the political arena. If it is good or bad only time will tell, but I think people should ponder over the fact that why is he getting so much support? Maybe it will help us understand many issues that are stuck in deadly partisan politics in such a way that it seems they can not be resolved no matter how long both parties try. But there is no doubt that this is a dangerous path to achieve power, this is not a sustainable approach. You can not create a rift in society and then expect peace and unity. A similar thing happened in India last year. Current Indian prime minister Mr. Modi made use of a huge vacuum created by indecisive leadership and the inability of politicians to address some real problems like corruption, black money, poor infrastructure, communal tension, etc. He rose to the charts of the popularity index day by day by making many statements and promises which seasoned politicians in India hesitate to make. He said whatever people wanted to hear, whether it was about taking on Pakistan or China, about black money, the so-called pink revolution, or about dynastic politics. He used all rhetoric and theatrics, never apologized for any of his mistakes, or never minced his words while attacking someone and it all worked in his favor. Voters of India saw a ray of hope in him and gave him an unprecedented mandate, but since coming into power he has been struggling to clear his image as a divisive leader. He is finding it hard to rein in some elements of his own party who totally believe that it's okay to spread hate and make inflammatory statements as such things are validated by their top leader. Almost a year and a half has passed but the current government is still finding it very hard to pass some key reform bills in parliament in spite of having a clear majority as the opposition is just refusing to cooperate. It is easy to win elections by polarizing the society, but then it is not easy to neutralize that polarization when you want to run the country. While filling the vacuum created by indecisive political leadership, Mr. Trump is setting up the same dangerous precedence in the US that Mr. Modi did in India. Their intentions might be good, and they might be sincerely trying to do something good for their country, we should give both these leaders the benefit of the doubt, but then the method they are using has some serious side effects which cannot be ignored. Today he is targeting Muslims, what if tomorrow he says the same thing about Hindus or Africans? What is a guarantee that his supporters won't target other minority immigrants who according to them are taking up American jobs? A polarized and divided society can go in any direction, it is very difficult to predict. Purposely cultivated hatred can manifest in several ways, it is very dangerous to play with this fire. Divide and rule is the well-tested and best strategy if you just want to rule any society without having any concern about its welfare. This trick has been successfully used in the past many times to exploit many regions, but these regions are still struggling with those divisions, they are still grappling with problems like a lack of trust and perpetual communal tension. It is a very tempting strategy as it seems to provide immediate short-term gains, many political parties and leaders still use this in India. Does Mr. Trump want to see a similar situation in the US? We can find faults with other methods and ways used by other politicians or political parties, policies like minority or majority appeasement are also not good, but a clear agenda of divisiveness or hatred is the most dangerous among all. So, I hope people try to understand what's really going on. I hope even Mr. Trump will realize that he doesn't need to make such divisive statements to stay in the limelight or ahead in the polls. After all, no election win should be more important than the unity and prosperity of the nation. Please note one thing here, I am not at all objecting to the right of Mr. Trump to say those things, he has the freedom to say those things and others can criticize him for that as much as they want, I am just trying to discuss the merits and demerits of his divisive approach. If Mr. Trump doesn't change his ways, I hope voters realize that his approach is dangerous for the country and act accordingly. One should not underestimate his candidacy and approach, this has worked in countries like India and I see no reason why it may not work in the US. I hope each one of us understands this and thinks over these things logically, no matter in which country we reside, or which party or person we support.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Chennai floods and story of unplanned development in Indian cities

The entire world watched the floods in Chennai on various news channels, the international coverage was not as prominent as it should have been but it was somewhere there in every news portal. Even most of the Indian media responded very late to report this natural calamity with the attention and sincerity it deserves. There can be various reasons for this lack of coverage in the Indian media, maybe they thought that useless debate on tolerance and intolerance going on in parliament was more important, or maybe they thought Chennai is not Mumbai or Delhi so not many people will be interested in that coverage, or maybe they had no clue that it was that serious, so we don't know what was the reason but national media was very late to show up on the scene, but finally they did show up. There were reports of severe damage to people's homes and other personal property, day-to-day lives of thousands of people were affected in a way they never imagined. Some scenarios were terrible and beyond imagination. My few relatives live in Chennai, and from them, I came to know how bad was the situation and how people managed to survive mostly by helping each other. In India, the government machinery is either unprepared for such a massive disaster or it gets crushed under the huge demand for help. There were also various stories of common people, celebrities, and rescue workers' heroics, and their brave acts during these moments of crises which managed to save many lives and helped many in distress. No doubt that these stories need to be highlighted, but they should not overshadow the real reasons behind this human-made natural disaster. 

We all saw what happened and how people were fighting to overcome the problems caused by this disaster, but we also need to ask the important question, why this happened, and who is to blame? We all know that we can not control rain, drought, or any other natural calamities like earthquakes or tsunamis, but we can take some preventive or precautionary measures to minimize the damage and reduce casualties. We need to be better prepared for such types of incidents so that they don't create havoc in people's lives. Then, why doesn't any government in India whether it is a state or central make it their priority? To understand why I am saying this please go and visit any growing city in India like Pune, Bengaluru, or any other city, and observe what is going on in the name of development. It is literally unplanned construction on a massive scale, people are building something on each and every vacant land legally or illegally. Not only builders but also common people, and various institutions are occupying each and every available piece of land and constructing something on it, it feels like these cities are on steroids as far as construction is concerned. Land prices are skyrocketing in each and every city, town, or village where even a little bit of wind of development has reached. People are selling and buying land and apartments like stocks in the stock market, prices fluctuate daily, there are land millionaires who became rich just because they had huge ancestral land which is worth more than they ever imagined. These things are good for the economy and people if they happen in a planned way, but there is absolutely no planning in all this, the real estate boom just happened and exploded. There was no pre-planning about how to design and sanction new constructions and no one was even interested in any such planning as the system is deeply corrupt and inefficient. Illegal construction is not a new problem for Indian cities, this has been going on for decades, and the real estate boom has just made it worse. However, the real issue is that no government wants to do anything about it, even after disasters there is no action to correct any mistakes, if at all, they play politics at the cost of suffering people. I lived in one such very crowded neighborhood of Pune for most of my life, so I know firsthand how these neighborhoods come into existence and grow without any legal planning and approval. They are so crowded that in many places even ambulances or firetrucks can't reach if there is any emergency, so, just imagine what might happen in case of flood or earthquake. The amazing part is all these neighborhoods originate and flourish right under the watch of government and elected members of the legislature of every political party, and there are no exceptions to this. These people and corresponding government departments purposely ignore this dangerous situation until it becomes an unmanageable humanitarian problem, there are thousands of colonies like these in each city of India. This is not development, but this is like having a ticking time bomb that is waiting to explode. 

Why so much unplanned development is allowed when they could develop a city with proper planning? Two main reasons come to my mind. The first reason is the pressure of the growing population in cities, people migrate in large numbers to cities in search of better living, migration happens especially from northern states of India to cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune,, Chennai, and many others where there are better job opportunities for unskilled labor. The second reason is rampant corruption in government offices and political parties that encourage such illegal settlements. Illegal construction is massive in all these cities and the government knows right from the time when it starts. There are colonies where thousands of people live with hundreds of homes, all of them constructed illegally. People already occupied dry lakes, shrunken river beds, hills, and canals, even they covered up drainage lines and built their residence on top of it. Whenever there is a significant amount of rainfall there is no proper drainage for that water to go. It has to flood neighborhoods, enter people's homes, and damage their properties. Does anyone know how to manage this mess? Can we just blame excess rain for this problem? This water has nowhere to go as all its natural paths are blocked by massive construction by this so-called development. We saw this happening in Mumbai, Delhi, and now in Chennai, but did we ever bother to take any steps to correct these mistakes? Did we ask ourselves why this is happening so frequently in major cities? Is nature screwing us up or we are paying the price for screwing up nature? Unless and until we ask these questions we are not going to find any solution to these problems. Next time it might be some different city or state, but the same scenario of destruction and loss of life will be repeated.

Thankfully natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, or hurricanes don't strike us every day or every year, but that doesn't mean we should not be cautious or prepared for them. Because when they strike and we are not prepared, then the loss is catastrophic, and tragedy is humongous. We can not control the occurrence of rain or earthquakes, but we can definitely prepare ourselves to minimize their impact. I hope these floods initiate some discussion about the need for planned development in Indian cities. I hope people and governments don't forget this tragedy and move on without taking any corrective measures. I hope other growing cities learn from this and plan accordingly. If nothing changes, then we all are waiting for another Chennai to happen and I don't think any of us want to witness this again.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:
1. Actor Siddarth's amazing efforts with his team to carry out relief work in affected areas.
2. आखिर चेन्नई में बारिश से बाढ़ क्यों?

Circus called tolerance and intolerance debate

Nowadays heated discussions are going on in India on the issue of tolerance and intolerance. Every news channel is having some panel discussion to decide whether India is getting more intolerant or not, on social media some people are busy proving that intolerance is on the rise and some are fiercely contesting this claim by abusing them for raising this issue. The issue has become so important that it is being discussed in parliament also! I personally value tolerance a lot and have written a couple of posts related to this topic. One is about why we need a tolerant society and another is about my own experience of intolerance in Indian society. Now let's come back to this topic of debate over the issue of intolerance (or tolerance). If you listen to most of these debates, then any sensible person can easily understand how misplaced these people's expectations are about tolerance and intolerance. Somehow tolerance is equated with complete acceptance, objectionless, and submissive type of behavior, and intolerance is equated with any objection or strong comment or dissent against your own views. So, if I object to anyone's statement, then I am intolerant, if I say anything against any religion or person, then I am intolerant, on the contrary, if I don't react to an abusive statement, then I am tolerant, if I don't express any dissent about anything, then I am tolerant. Basically, either you are with me or against me, there is no middle ground. Also, there is huge confusion about where the "freedom of expression/speech" fits into all this? I don't even know if these people know that there is something called freedom of expression. So, the first question everyone should try to ask is, do we accept that people have freedom of expression or not?

Now let's proceed in step-wise manure as this topic seems to be very complicated. If there is freedom of expression, (with some reasonable restriction like no incitement of violence), then, anyone can say anything as long as it is not an incitement to engage in a violent act. People need to agree on this first, if people have freedom of expression, then they can express their opinion. That opinion can be anything, like some people should leave this country or I don't feel comfortable about the current atmosphere in this country, or whatever. Any Yogi, Sadhvi, minister, writer, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, atheist, actor, or whoever it may be can say whatever they want and no one should challenge their right to say those things as they are not doing anything unconstitutional or illegal by using their basic right of freedom of expression. Making any statement or agreeing or disagreeing with someone doesn't make anyone tolerant or intolerant. It all depends on our actions and behavior towards people who say nasty and offensive things, it depends on how we react to those statements with which we disagree or feel offended. Just look at the reactions from both sides and you will understand what I am talking about and why I call this debate a big circus. I personally have no objection to any Yogi, minister, or actor expressing their opinions, they have the right to do that. I cannot question that right. I may or may not agree with their statement, and I may have very strong objections to those statements, but that person has equal rights to express them just like I have. But it seems people don't understand this simple thing, most of the reactions are like, how dare he or she say this? He or she should be punished or kicked out of the country for saying this or let's boycott them for expressing their opinion. Common, at least first try to understand what that person said, debate and discuss that topic in detail, and then come to any conclusion. But it looks like people are more interested in delivering verdicts of guilty or nonguilty rather than resolving the issues and having any meaningful discussions. The atmosphere is getting so polarized that it seems there is no possibility of any middle ground where people can agree to disagree and move on. Even in parliament, the discussion is pathetic, it is not that I expected it to be any different than whatever is going on in TV studios, but if you are putting some circus then at least make it somewhat entertaining and watchable. The recent protests and this 'award wapasi' movement were actually to protest against the increase of physical violence which is the ultimate form of intolerance. I don't think it has anything to do with the change of government or who is PM or who is president. The government should have taken these protests in the right spirit rather than taking them personally and trying to dismiss them altogether thereby giving them a lot of media coverage. Addressing the concerns of these people might have stopped this issue from becoming a national time pass. I also don't know why people complaining about intolerance want to paint the picture as if today in India you can not say anything against the current government, it seems both sides are only interested in going to any extreme just to prove their point. Tolerance or intolerance shows in our behavior. A tolerant person, society, or country doesn't have to say that they are tolerant or give any proof to prove that, their behavior is enough to prove it. Similarly, an intolerant society or person doesn't have to accept that they are intolerant their behavior is the ultimate proof of who they are. Our actions speak louder than our words, so, I think people should focus on their actions and let those actions speak whether they are tolerant or intolerant. I don't think this shouting at each other is going to bring any desired change, each person should correct their behavior and automatically it will bring change in the country. I hope both sides understand this, otherwise, this issue will become another never-ending topic of Indian politics like secularism and communalism.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]