Police

The Tamilnadu police is in the news again , for all the wrong reasons . Firstly for brutal custodial torture and death and now for getting assaulted themselves by politicians . This is not an isolated incident, it's happening everywhere. Only most of it is being hushed quickly.

After the spread of Covid 19 pandemic, the police in every state is as harried as the doctors but maybe less celebrated. The Police in every state have a lot of negatives and personally I am not too much sentimental about them or their services. But there is no harm in acknowledging, however grudgingly one may do it, that it is the police who have been instrumental in ensuring the lockdown everywhere. The Indian police system of all spectrum, good , bad or ugly have done a great job over these three months since lockdown was announced nationally .

They have been stretched beyond physical limits and no doubt exhausted physically and mentally. Particularly those at the lower end of the hierarchy. Continuous duty for unlimited hours, lack of leave, recreation and quality family time in these testing times is telling on them . And one has to also consider that many of them have individually lost their second stream of income through bribes and extortion (hafta). That's a fact of life and only a hypocrite will deny or ignore it with a holier than thou moral stance. All in all , the police everywhere are raging volcanoes capped by their uniform. At some places this seething lava just comes out.

We need the police and we need more of them ,fit and fine, of good health and mind. But are the policy makers and administrators listening ?

#BitterPill

I don't have much idea of medicine and will not mind even a bit if any specialist decides to show me my place by contradicting what I am saying in this post. But whatever scientific temper that I have developed in life through reading books and common sense tells me that no medication really exist for any disease classified as a "Flu" , the short form of Influenza. Flu can only be prevented by a vaccine . Being viral in nature , the various drugs that are used to treat any type of flu are generically anti-viral and treats the symptoms by lessening the effect in terms of physical effects or duration.  

Basically , the effect of any flu that effects the respiratory system is always complicated due to a host of pre-existing lifestyle diseases like diabetes, blood pressure, arterial blockages or thickening of blood . So a flu by itself is not dangerous . It becomes fatal when it combines with the existing illnesses and aggravate them. Covid - 19 is no exception. Till a vaccine is developed, no medicine will be able to stop the scourge . All medicines that are being developed, used or discussed are basically aimed at fighting the effects of the virus. And nobody has yet claimed that there is a medical solution to this virus. 

Therefore it is not only surprising but also very dangerous that the company Patanjali is claiming that two ayurvedic drugs marketed by them will cure a person affected by Covid 19 within seven days. I have nothing against ayurvedic medicines , But I have grave doubts if any illness like that caused by the Corona virus actually existed during old ages or Patanjali has a state of the art or planned scientific research programme or facility to test the medicine . So apart from the psychosomatic effects of the drugs, there will be little to actually prove the claims.

We don't know really what will happen. We have the example of Homeopathic medicines which were once quite popular. Why, I myself used them regularly when young for minor ailments and my wife used them even when not so young for complicated health problems. Can't say that we were totally disappointed . In the same way the Patanjali drugs may or may not be helpful. The pandemic may or may not be as fatal as we are fearing. So I will not say that the drugs are fake or false . But given the antecedents of the producer and the hype that is being created over something that does not even have a generic chemical formula to start with , one should be very very circumspect . If someone derives some quantum of solace by using the drug , let the person have it by all means . But there should be no false claims or hyped untruths being marketed in the name of a panacea.  

India is culturally a peace-loving country...We have always worked closely with our neighbours in a cooperative and friendly manner...We never provoke anyone...Whenever the time has come, we have demonstrated our power, proving our capabilities in protecting the integrity and sovereignty of the country.

Neither anyone has intruded into our territory nor taken over any post. Our forces are doing what they have to do to protect the country, whether it is deployment, action or counter-action. Our patrolling capacity has increased due to newly built infrastructure, especially along LAC. 

So on and so forth.........

And thus, the story ends. 

Now go back to your bed and sleep. 

Wake up only during elections and vote like cattle. 

Keeping with the trend observed during the last six years, the External Affairs minister has come out with a statement on twitter about the armed forces. The Defence minister has not said anything .

Of course yes. any minister of the cabinet is free to give any statement on whatever matters they deem fit . Nobody can say anything about that. But it is regularly seen that the concerned minister is silent about the issue and someone else is giving the statement.

Don't dismiss this as of no consequence or laugh sarcastically at the trend. This is being done with a strategy to avoid accountability. Later no one can bind both the ministers to the issue. The one who gave statement will be seen as not qualified to do so and the one who is qualified will be seen as not saying so . Meanwhile you and me remain confused and keep on outraging on social media.

When the election comes , all this confusion or specification doesn't matter to those who vote. They always vote on false promises . But for the last two terms , they are also voting on the promise of some sort of ethnic cleansing, in addition . And that matters to those who are ruling.

Boycott

People seem to have too much faith on the efficacy of boycott without realising what sacrifice is. From Plastics to Chinese goods to Karan Johar films, we like to clamour for boycott without anything actually happening. Because we like our comforts and are not ready to give them up.

Frankly speaking, to me all this boycott bogie seems to be like a casual reaction at par with the spectacle of taali bajao thaali bajao that happened recently. Or the discussion on who donated how much to the PMCares fund. But then this shallowness is the distinguishing feature of the times and the society we live in . 

Can't help it, so have to bear it .

Fake message

A fake photo-shopped screenshot image of a tweet by Rahul Gandhi is being circulated on Whatsapp . It relates to his expression of condolence on the death of Sushant Singh , yesterday. In the fake image, the word actor has been replaced by cricketer and underlined in red . This is purportedly to laugh at a supposed goof up by him .
Till now I have received three Whatsapp messages with screenshot of the fake tweet. All the senders are well known to me and other wise respectable persons. Their standing in the society is such that you can provide their names as a referee of character of your son for a job .
Even after me pointing out that the said message is fake and malicious ,none of them even said sorry or apologised for forwarding an obviously fake message . And it's not the first time that they are doing this . Just imagine how deep the rot has gone !!
The problem is that if I start blocking such people from my phone list then perhaps pretty soon I will have very few people left to communicate with.

PR in WB ?

One may call it a premonition, assumption, conspiracy theory, daydreaming,doomsday prediction or whatever comes to mind. But I am having a growing feeling that the President’s rule will soon be imposed in West Bengal . The BJP and the Central government are now ready to do so and waiting for a conducive situation to do that with some justification.

Don’t ask me the logic behind it because the decisions taken by the present Central government has always been bereft of logic and more of in-your-face. The sole aim of any decision taken by them so far has either been to win elections or keep their crony capitalist lobby happy. So there should be no surprise if they impose the President’s rule in West Bengal before the next assembly elections, due in May 2021.

Right now, they are watching and letting the Covid situation worsen in the state. A four pronged attack is being made with constant pressure by the statements of Central government ministers , local BJP leaders , misrepresentation of the situation by the pliant media and above all by a cunning and malicious Governor installed at Raj Bhavan. There are also incessant attempts to vitiate the atmosphere and create a law and order situation.

To those who ask me – ” How can you be sure ?” , I will just ask the counter question – “What will you do if this is indeed done ?” Can anybody do anything about it if it is done right now on some flimsy pretext, even like something as asinine as disrespect of the Governor or mishandling of Covid situation ? Before any body even gather themselves, the state will be flooded with paramilitary, the Governor will rule by proxy and the entire administration will overnight change allegiance. Then will come the turn of “conscientious” turncoats in the TMC who will take no time to ditch their leader. And people ? They will be too happy to watch a circus. And in this situation, it will be very difficult to organise protests on the streets. Even if something is done, that will be a good excuse to resort to state sponsored violence.

I think the die is cast. West Bengal is heading for a saffron takeover. By a gang of crooks who have no compunction, no shame, no scruples and no respect for the people or the Constitution.For them only the end matters, not the means. And, they are steadfast in their resolve to storm this bastion which does not conform to their vision of dominance.

I WILL BE MOST HAPPY TO BE PROVED WRONG.

#BitterPill