I can’t celebrate independence day when my country is going to the dogs

there was a Jhanda Vandan in my building where the children sang the national anthem and everyone stood in honour of the flag and the anthem. It was a pretty site.

what’s not pretty is what is happening in the rest of the country. Look at what happened in Jammu & Kashmir. Congress decided to hand over land to the Amarnath Shrine Board. Then decided to undo the transfer. This was good enough to be taken as a ‘mudda’ by the opposition parties and now they have struck all over Jammu and the plan is to take to the entire country. Seven people have died so far in the rioting in the Valley. Two died outside Delhi because the ambulance carrying the patients could not reach the hospital thanks to the ‘chakka jaam’. Not one person was arrested. Imagine a situation like that in Germany. I can’t. “We will cut-off the supplies to and from the Valley said one BJP-VHP “leader”. Great, Pakistan is more than happy to buy apples from Kashmir and endorse it as a help. Then we go out and gt surprised when a Kashmiri asks, ‘are you from India?’. The confidence with which these rioters charge the streets is amazing. I can’t believe these guys have regular day jobs. This is not possible without proven assurance from a party or an organisation which specialises in the indsutry of hatred.

Of course in this course of events, the word ‘terrorism’ is not used. That is reserved for something else.

Maharashtra. Full of the most beautiful landscapes and most beautiful people, is reeling under a debt of one lakh crore rupees (think it’s slightly more). The state govt has earmarked (hold your breath) a hundred crore rupees for a status of Shivaji at Marine Drive, Mumbai. There are villages only two hours from Mumbai which don’t have drinking water access, forget power and hospitals and schools. But priority is the statue.

and the biggest fug-up is that I can’t do anything about it. I tried, but I can’t. How far can you go with RTI? I could file a PIL but then my family will mysteriously get involved in ‘accidents’. I couldn’t get a professional to pick up the cigarette packet he threw on the road, what can I do. What can anyone do?

It’s hopeless.