A myopic POV on Sanjay Dutt and the Mumbai riots verdict

“Because I have Muslim blood in my veins. I could not bear what was happening in the city."

Said Sanjay to his father when forced by the police to confess why he had procured the arms. Sanjay Dutt got these weapons from Anees Ibrahim, whose brother Dawood along with a few others, was the mastermind behind the Mumbai (then Bombay) riots.

For how the weapons reached Sanjay, who all was involved, why did Dawood want to arm people, the details surrounding the latest verdict and the reasons behind the disparity in the sentences, read this in-depth Tehelka article that covers a lot more.

If someone “conspires or attempts to commit, or advocates, abets, advises or incites or knowingly facilitates the commission of a terrorist act or any act preparatory to a terrorist act” is treated as a criminal, what about the corrupt politicians who have directly or indirectly caused a lot of anti-social elements to rise to the level where they can disrupt peace? That includes almost every other politician.

Back to Sanjay. He did procure the weapons, but did he use them? What matters is his intention and the proactive manner in which he reached out to gangsters. Gangsters who are waiting for opportunities to make the best of them. Gangsters who are aware that India has corrupt politicians that can be easily bought, lethargic legal system that will delay justice, and people who can be easily swayed or influenced in the name of religion.

It's unfortunate that our nation lacks the leadership that will curtail all the elements leading towards such disasters. It's not about a Bollywood superstar being given an easy sentence, or the fact that the verdict came 20 years after the riots, but the fact the every single such case points towards the failure of our system.

Ah, forget all of this. Let's go beat up some cops because we are MLAs and we can boss around!

Narendra Modi's debut on this blog and other stuff

So this morning, I was watching the India-Australia test match and during one of the breaks I landed on a news channel broadcasting Mr. Modi live. My first time listening to him live.

He knows what is talking about, doesn't he? Modi goes beyond a certain set of beliefs. He seems like he has fine tuned his thoughts and actions based on today's requirement and not the legacy politics. Modi has proved himself in his home state. He does have certain black marks on his career. Black tending to bloody red. But, which politician is not tainted in this country? In India, where almost every politician has a criminal record or at least some not-so-direct association?

Modi has gone beyond basic governance with the support from his state and made changes that we expect from the center as well. When we are paying up so much money to the government through various taxes, isn't it right on our part to expect?

I know this might seem an amateurish collection of thoughts, but it's a basic model. Happens in most of the professionally run organizations. If a person, with a team, proves something good over a period of time, he/she is ideally given a bigger opportunity to replicate changes on a larger scale. State to Nation in Modi's case is but a big step. We are not talking about a city to Nation. The governing dynamics will be huge, but the basic principles as were pertaining to the state just have to be enlarged.

It's definitely better than using a legacy formula like visiting hapless farmers and eating at their place. Definitely!

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I had to write on the rising land-mafiaesque scenario in Pune. What's with these turned-rich-overnight folks, their humungous inept and ugly attitude, their disregard for all things civil, their love for big cars (oh poor Audis and Mercs. I am sure it's hard on these lovely cars to be driven by spitters, garbage throwers, and people who don't know how to respect a fab piece of engineering), and GOLD? What the hell do you want a gold shirt for? Just because of you have money and you want to display all that hollow power?

In the immortal words of Gabbar Hari Singh, "Haak Thoo."

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The other day, we were discussing about rap music (Afro-American, not the half-baked Indian scene) and how dirty the lyrics are, how violent and misogynistic they seem. Yes, sometimes they are. They objectify women at times too.

But, music as an avenue as compared to street violence and actually assaulting people and their values. What's the lesser evil?

People who at times wield guns but make music (and some of it is really good!) too. And if they are successful artists, they choose a better life! But, at least they invest their energy in creativity.

Look at the folks in India. In Pune, we have these katta gangs (not the normal friends getting together and talking ones) who eve-tease, are extremely anti-social, and try to show power just because they are backed by some local corporator (failed or not!) or are paid to create a ruckus.

Sometimes I really feel like taking a baseball bat and hitting these people. I wish we could gang up on these hate-worthy beings just like they gang up on us. What will 50 local gundas do against say a 1000 really angry people who are fighting for a cause?
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Only 42,000 people who have declared income of more than 1 crore rupees in India! I bet the gold wearers are exempted from this list. So are most of the politicians who have most of their assets in the name of their loyal wives (Dear loyal wives, run away with that money and spend it, I dare you!). Where the hell do their SUVs come from?

It's your and my money!