Law and Behold

Why is it that laws and rules (in India) are mostly used to curtail freedom of people rather than to make life easy.

We have been seeing what has happened in Ruchika molestation case. Then later we also saw the case of Hockey players and insensitivity of Hockey India officials towards the players. And then yesterday it was time for harassment of Abhinav Bindra at the hands of NRAI.

It seems that laws (or rules as in case of sportsmen) are meant only for the lesser mortals. The people who are suppose to implement the laws/rules can easily go scot free by doing anything and then citing the laws.

We have seen what happens when players don't perform. Cricketers or their homes may be assaulted (it has happened many times). Other not so well to do sportsperson may forfeit other future opportunities and may end up working as gardeners, cleaners or waiters (it has happened with some hockey players, boxers and weightlifters).

It doesn't look or feel nice when players are forced to bend and beg infront of the beauracrats who are meant to be working for the players and the sports. Don't we make people think that its better to be a sports administrator than and sportsperson?

What about the sports officials who are responsible for administration of sports in the country? KPS Gill went on being the IHF president even when Indian hockey was going downhill. Priyaranjan Dasmunshi has been heading AIFF for years while Indian football is going nowhere.
Least said about Suresh Kalmadi, who has been heading Indian Olympic Association from 1996, the better. Most of the Delhites know about the Commonwealth games preparation in the city, and the chaos and fear because of it - fear that the games would be a catastrophe.

So how is it that these so-called sports officials are not held responsible for poor showings in sports events and how do they keep on holding their lucrative posts year after year. Is there any way that these Sports Authorities be made as much accountable for the on-field performance as much sportsperson are held. Can some provisions made by the Sports Ministry in order to quantify the performance of Sports Authority and on basis of which office holders be awarded or punished?

Dance of Democracy

Its election time and we get to hear views and objections on topics as varied as economy, religion, security, external affairs, etc. from whole political diaspora everyday and every hour.
And I frankly believe most of these discussions are going to end in trash as soon as election is over.

So whats make this election season special as compared to any we have seen in years gone by.
Voter turnout seem to be same. The politicians are again stroking age old issues about which public in general is not interested. The quality of politicians has not changed much and old guns seem to have taken a nosedive.

But then this year election season doesn't seem to be so much exciting as it used to be, thanks to EC. But then the bhasanbaji has shifted from streets to our bedroom via television. Do these politicos think people prefer to watch them rather than saas-bahus or filmi celebs? I mean they always manage to remain in news and newspapers. And after watching them on full-page news advertisements do we still need to watch them during TV commercials specially when we are trying to find some good entertainment?

Gambling

Its three weeks since the fall of Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers, and the Sensex has tumbled about 2000 points or about 15% during this time. As a result I have again lost quite a bit of money resulting in my accumulated losses being more than my one months salary. But I am not writing this to analyze whys and hows of stock market fall. During the last two weeks I have been hearing a lot about how Stock Market is all about gambling and usually people loose money. I agree about the second part of the theory but not the second part. And my belief is that the second part holds true mostly because people believe in the first part. You may want to differ with my view but this is also not what I am going to write about.
My thoughts are about gambling. Why does it come in mind only when loss of money is involved? Does gambling only involve having money as stake? Have we (me and you) never gambled with our life or happiness?
When we decide to join a trade are we not gambling with our career? When I had to join college, I was preparing for medical entrance, but when results came out I was offered two options - dentistry or engineering. I chose engineering. Who knows how my life would have been if I had chosen dentistry. Or how my life would have been if I had rejected both the offers and decided to give a try to medical once more.
When we deice to change our job (I mean the employer) are we again not gambling with our career? After about three years in my first job I decided to switch. I got an offer from Wipro. I thought it was a good career move. I left my company and joined Wipro. Its another story that I decided to leave the company within a matter of days. Now by leaving Wipro wasn't I gambling with my career again? The HR there told me I was not looking at the long-term prospects,but I thought my work was going to be more important than the organization.
Similarly we all make different kind of choices. Where to invest our money? Whom to get married with? What trade to choose? Which organization to work for? Where to live? The list will be endless. And with each of those choice we make a move in life which can either have a good or a bad impact not only us but also to our near and dear ones. And thus we gamble with our lives.

Why terrorists target attack soft targets?

I was just reading B Raman's views on the subject and although he might be right, I felt that the seriousness of the matter was lost in dramatics. So I decided to publish my own views and opinions.

Why terrorists attack soft targets?

1. Its easy - terrorists chooses the place of attack as per their convenience.
2. Its not dangerous - they are not facing armed opponents.
3. It causes panic. Killing Army men won't cause panic short of war.
4. It attracts more media attention. How much coverage is given to a truck carrying 100 CRPF men killed in landmine blast?
   

Why do you think terrorists always claim responsibility for their attacks? Indian Mujaheddin has been mailing the proofs too. One should never presume what terrorists want to achieve through their actions. The best example for taking Maoist terrorism lightly is Nepal. So why? Its because they don't consider themselves villains, they are the heroes. And they are fighting against the villains which is usually the government of the land.

First law of war - attack where it hurts your enemy most. It will weaken the enemy making him incapable to retaliate. The focus of the enemy will then be to defend.

And how to do that - kill innocents, cause widespread panic, let the blame game and speculation starts. Make the government (and people) - not feel - believe that terrorists can attack at any place and at any time. (It also gets media attention and with the help of sympathizers they can give voice to their demands.)

Thus the hope will die, and people will become ready to try to deal with the terrorists across the board. People will believe that no price is too high to achieve peace "if their family and they are safe".

Do you think in such a scenario country or religion or even freedom of expression will come to your mind before safety of you and your family?

It usually doesn't matter to people who is ruling the country on any given day. What matters to them is whether they are safe and free, where the degree of freedom can be compromised to some extent. Given a choice what will you choose - to be safe or to govern?

Its a game and only best player wins. The worse part of this game is we cannot decide that we don't want to play - either we play and try to win or we loose.
Terrorists know their game and strategy. Do we know it? And do we know how to counter it?

Olympics mania

As the bouts of Abhinav Bindra, Vijender Kumar and Sushil Kumar are creating waves around the country, many people have started comparing (as usual) India's achievements with that of China. How come India be at 50th position while China has won more than 50 golds? The problem with us Indians is that we don't attempt a deeper analysis and are often end up satisfied with claims and demands which hold no merit.

China's performance in Beijing Olympics is no magic performance. They have been preparing for it for over two decades now. In Athens 2004 they were are second position with 32 golds and in Sydney 2000 at third position with 28 golds. So if anybody who thinks that any country can replicate China's performance within time for next Olympics is daydreaming. Maybe countries like America and Australia who have strong sporting tradition can do it, but India obviously CANNOT. Just thinking of achieving what other countries have achieved after struggling for two-three decades is insane.

Dreaming of achieving such glory yourself is good, but dreaming in void is never going to help. And its ridiculous to even dream so when we don't have any sporting tradition (except cricket). The medals won by our sportsmen is not because of such dreams but because of aspirations and passions of handful of people.

Daydreaming is not going to take us anywhere. And if we we want to achieve better results in future we needs to plan and work hard to achieve set targets while encouraging our youngsters to take on the field (not just cricket) aspiring to be the best.

We don't loose in Olympics because we lack quality players. We loose because we as a country have no interest in Olympics and Olympic medals. That is the problem which needs be addressed urgently, otherwise the euphoria generated by the achievements of our Olympians will get drowned in the frenzy of Champions Trophy.