Unequal Celebrity Power! Moving Mandya to Singapore.....

Its always a fact that celebrities, especially those from filmdom and cricket, get their share of disproportionate attention all the time. And this is not from their fans that I am talking about, but this is from government agencies that bend backwards to accommodate, many a times what are undue expectations. Remember the tax waiver for Sachin Tendulkar's Ferrari for which he did not even pay for, and easy paroles for Sanjay Dutt to name a few in recent times.

One such event that is currently in the news involves actor turned politician Ambarish in Bangalore. The man with a massive fan following was admitted to the hospital in Bangalore in a critical condition. Many days of treatment showed only marginal improvement. With fan and family anxiety running high over his deteriorating health condition, the government of Karnataka took a decision to shift him to Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore for further treatment and better facilities. He is now recuperating and recovering well and we are happy and glad that he is. 

On the other hand, there are celebrities of a different kind. Social activists who do a whale of good to society without expecting any kind of public attention. These people are driven purely by passion and act with a mission of larger good to society. More importantly, such individuals spend their own resources and go about their benevolent activity without any financial gains or incentives. One such person is Salumarada Thimakka, an environmentalist from Karnataka known for planting  and tending to 285 banyan trees on a highway near Bangalore. Contributions such as her's has an extremely high inspiration value and her contribution, given her financial background of coming from a daily wage labourers' family, can put any one of us to shame. But Thimakka is also ill now and was seeking government support for her medical expenses. Given this situation, the best the government could do was admit her in Victoria Hospital. With the sad state of affairs that our government hospitals are in right now, you can imagine the quality of care that she is a recipient of for her illness. 

Between Ambarish and Thimakka, I am not going to squabble on whose contribution is higher or more prominent and impactful, but putting forward argument why our elected representatives and the associated bureaucrats discriminate between two notable achievers. I believe that both of them need the respect and warrant the same level of attention due to their notable contributions. It is not fair on the part of the government to blatantly discriminate based either on their political affiliations, their financial standing or their familial backgrounds. 

It saddens me that while tax payers money is being spent to treat both of them, while one relaxes in a ultra luxury suite in swanky Singapore, the other one is forced to spend one more night in vicious Victoria Hospital amidst a pathetic system put together by the very same people who are getting treated elsewhere.

I hope this public and government apathy stops and equality will prevail amongst all citizens of this country.

At an election campaign....
Politician: I am going to transform this badly maintained city into Singapore....then all of you can enjoy super dooper facilities
Suresha: Hey Ramesh, how will he do it man? is it even possible?
Ramesh: C'mon man Suresh, of course its possible and very easy dude!
Suresha: What its easy? How?
Ramesh: He will just change the name of this town from Mandya to Singapore!!!!!!!

Hypocrites preaching human rights....

I am shocked at the recent bombings in Delhi where in innocent people have become victims to the cowardly acts of some narrow minded individuals lead by a set of bizarre ideologies and psyches that would win a Nobel Prize if ever reasoned out. Imagine if there would be an article published titled the “psyche behind the cause of terror” which has solid scientific backing. Psychology would be the “in thing” and absolutely savvy. But I think you have heard the word “cowardly” way too many times for comfort from the past few days. The sad part is that the word has been used more times than the number of cricket matches that India has played in the last 1 year! Well that is real high frequency I should admit and it is scary. The people who have been using the word “cowardly” have proven themselves that they suit the description best. It is a failure not in my opinion about intelligence of our forces, but the lack of political will from the individuals in responsible and governing positions to send out a stern message that these kinds of insane acts would not be dealt with lightly. We have a dude, who has been a political agenda, an eternal news pot for the press and a topic of casual conversations over beer, enjoying his time in prison from the last couple of years. His nice holiday sponsored by our tax payer’s money is courtesy….. his act of attacking the seat of our democracy, the parliament building. And what has the government done? It has been extending his holiday indefinitely than packing him off to the gallows. Well the explanation is pretty obvious for the moment I think; it is a classical case of vote bank politicking in which the collateral damage are innocent people. If the Indian home minister have had half as much loyalty towards his country than what he owes to his political party president, the lives of innocuous people would have been saved. Karnataka has been a witness to apparently some kind of religious tensions and clashes over the past few days. Any lives taken? NO. The central government wants to pressurise the local government to protect the affected people. Well, I am not saying that it is a trivial issue, but it has been blown so much out of proportion that the situation does not demand. The national human rights commission has stepped up its investigation in this regard. People at the central government have gone into overdrive to make the state government a scapegoat holding them responsible for these incidents. They want to curtail the powers of the state by attempting to use an act that is no longer taught of in law schools.
Why is the home ministry taking all the trouble to protect a bunch of people who live half the country away and why all of a sudden this immense interest in the welfare and the protection of our countrymen?
My impression is that this is a perfect way to make a mountain out of a mole hill to skew the attention of the people away from the real issues that really matter. I believe we have more pressing problems on our hands than investigating petty issues. The ministry has to step up its force on matters that mean a matter of life or death for the common man. We need our resources to be spent on strengthening our internal security to assure a peaceful life for our countrymen. The people responsible should be shown no tolerance and compassion and treated in a way that they chose to be. When they can ruthlessly take the lives of thousands of people who have no connection to them, why should our country give them the luxury called existence?
The human rights commission if they really mean business should initiate legal proceedings against the home ministry for not doing their job. Didn’t the victims of the blast have a right to live? They too have families, had jobs and had been bread earners for them. What can the government do to these victims of a real human rights tragedy? Oh well yes they can, make it a political agenda! Accuse someone else remotely connected with a petty robbery and axe him. Pass the baton on and shun away from responsibility.
The individuals at the powerful executive positions in the country are the most fearful ones I have seen. They fear political repercussions to protect the lives of our people. They fear losing their skin and are ready to trade it for the security of our people. The human rights commission has no real role to play and they are just a puppet in the hands of the ruling governments to act and make a noise when they are told to do so.
The people making statements on human rights should first awaken themselves to the fact that every individual has the right to live, irrespective of caste, creed or religion. Please show human life some respect by using the law in the true spirit of human rights. Avoid being synonymous with hypocrisy.............

Year 2020, the clerk in the Finance department,
“Sir there has been a request for a room A/C and a new limo”
“from whom?”
“The commission for the Delhi blast investigation of 2008 sir”