Dear Mr. Virendra Bhogal,
I am in total agreement with your riposte to Commodore Kailath's views. We have long lost the value with which we had begun to celebrate national days and occasions. Take the list of government holidays (national). Republic day is now reduced to pomp and show and is really a sham. If it is meant to showcase our armed forces and their hardware with the intention of infusing confidence in the public, now every one knows how the politicians and bureaucrats have truncated the fighting capacity of the services. This knowledge is in public domain. How is it and why is Henderson Brooks report even now not being made public? 2013 is not 1962 but why should the public not be told even at this stage who was really responsible for the forced sacrifice of thousands of its sons, fathers, brothers, husbands and soldiers and why even now the clamp down on rebuilding the process of credible defence by cutting down on its capital expense? I have a background similar to that of George (we are batch mates from NDA and are very close even to this day.) And I know how let down we feel at the constant downgrading of the services, both in operational sense as well as from social status it enjoys in society. Yes we are to blame, but should we be celebrating a hollow and pretentious strength. Yes the men in uniform will deliver in whatever condition, but it is high time that the untruth be known to the people. Lives of vast majority of India's citizens is involved because they pay to the Government one way or the other and they pay for their basic needs, including their safety and security. Recent data and information released on the skewed security cover to the few when more insecurity has set in amongst the common people is THE point. They will be happy to pay for the glitter of these functions, only once their basic needs of living a most frugal life in severe conditions is first ensured by the Government. I can understand where George is coming from, but have serious concerns the way the government has set about obtaining for its people the basic security and their welfare.
And yes, I cross my heart and say that I am cleaner, much much cleaner than all those representatives who have serious criminal charges against them and yet enjoy unbridled privileges and position in our society. Most, if not all of us are victims of corruption and have every right to shout aloud "I don't like it. Let us change the rot in the existing system"
Take Gandhi Jayanti celebrations, it is a day when we should collectively hang our heads in shame and ask forgiveness of the Mahatma and in self condemnation for using his name for perpetuating inequality. Ambedkar is an icon for many and for different reasons, but to all us Indians who celebrate Republic Day he was an idealistic visionary, who unfortunately did not foresee that the elected reps will fight like spoilt, irresponsible and petty people in the assemblies. Where they would hold a special one day session to increase their own pelf but will not discuss bills that concern the safety and security of its people even 6 years after introducing it. And let us not talk of judicial commissions, they will give their recommendation but the Government will not consider it till the next crisis and then will constitute yet another judicial commission or committee. Oh! Don't we by now know how the system is sabotaged by the sloths who will just not take hard decisions for their own skins?
But let me say that George, like all of us of that period when we trained together, are hard core Indians who feel very strongly for our country, of our conduct and of protocols. So I understand where he is coming from, only we have different approaches. He is more patient at his age than perhaps I am.
Major Kapur
Sent from my iPhone
Dear George,
Some of the points raised in your letter have raised some questions in my mind.
You say - 'go back to the medieval times' - going by the ways of the government machinery that has run the country for the past 60+ years we are in the medieval times. By and large the public has been by-stander if not a participant in the fiasco. However, now it appears that a significant part of the public wants to rise above this rabble and is subconsciously looking for leadership other than khadi clad mafia.
Then "Our India is the only country in the sub-continent that has not fallen to military dictatorship." There are many reasons including 'leadership' necessary to bring it about, but the Army has not done any favor to the country - look to whom it has been subservient. The bureaucrats have been deriding the generals irrespective of the stars he has managed to acquire. Look at the state of the country - look at the levels of corruption - I can forgive the man in the civil street for he is not organized, but not the supposedly well-organized force that has taken an oath of allegiance to the constitution and at the same time can conveniently watch the rape of the country from the sidelines.
Why is "There is a judicial committee that is now looking into the matter of rapes." at this time - it is because the pre-dominantly youth protestors have taken to the streets. How is this committee going to be different from the judicial system, or why should it even be different?
Can anyone in all honesty recall any productive discussion in the parliament that has been conducive to the public good? That one can now expect the parliamentarians to suddenly have a change of heart. They will still try to save their collective hides.
"Please - let us not lower ourselves to such mean depth as to even suggest a boycott of Republic Day." The day the likes of Sonia, Mayawati, Raja, vadra, etc., etc., etc., are made accountable for the massive wealth they have accumulated, the day police begins to protect the citizens, the day IAS behaves like a public servant, the day the judges are unbiased and upright will be the day to celebrate republic day, until then this celebration is a farce of quixotic proportions.
The sooner the PM speaks to empty rows of benches the sooner the country will be ready to get rid of the cancer.
Best Regards,
Virender
On Tue, Jan 1, 2013 at 9:00 AM, George Kailath
<gkailath@hotmail.com> wrote:
--
Virender Bhogal
+1 206 218 4660
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