Of Deliberate, Compassionate Conscience and The Following Silence

“Oh Demonic world, we doth behold,
How prices flew? How conscience sold?
How darkness loomed, how grave the shame
All lost in loss, absorbed deep in blame.”

Tainted Telecom minister A.Raja

As I watched a debate on a noted TV news channel last night, my stomach curled up in rage. My conscience mocked, I brooded as the gentlemen and women involved threw brickbats and bouquets at each other. Over what might you question? Passive through we are, we refuse to remain silent when the scoundrel of a thief, plays the kingmaker (read Raja).

Dr. Manmohan Singh has been playing his cards efficiently in the recent past, placing his accomplices under his protective care, ensuring robust protection to those who cement his existence the most.

Brand Congress has seen its image tarnished and tattered in the last couple of months. Be it the Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society Scam or the mismanagement at the Commonwealth Games at Delhi; the Congress will find it difficult to resurface to the near-pinnacle location that it had found itself at. With the 2-G scam making a backdoor entry, just at the completion of the games in Delhi, the party has been hit hook-line and sinker.

What would be interesting to the observer is how the chieftain of the herd would retort. Mr. Suresh Kalmadi was sacked under desperate circumstances. Amidst hectic midnight parleys, AK Antony and Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, the loyalist faces of the Congress chose Mr. Prithviraj Chavan as the successor to the beleaguered Mr. Ashok Chavan.
Common logic would suggest – Shouldn’t Raja too get the boot? Why not?

As the entire country looks up to this man, the Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy for his judgment, we simply wonder- is it really arriving at all? This beacon of conscience and principles is caged within the darkness of silence. I allude a line that I recall from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to the predicament that all of us are in -“The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power”.

Must not the ministry be purged of all its inherent evil elements? Has the stability of the ministry become a greater liability to the esteemed Prime Minister of the nation, than the existence of righteousness? He might have made good beginnings by sacking two very prominent officials of the country, but it just wasn’t enough. He must complete what he had set out to resolve.

The Prime Minister is acting right now towards the upcoming Tamil Nadu, as well as the General Elections much ahead. It is a well-thought out act to garner some precious Tamil seats. However, had the country elected the NDA to destroy the present for the benefit of the future? No, we hadn’t. Dr. Singh must come out with a verdict soon.

Let’s discuss the figures to familiarize you with the loss. The country lost crores in revenue, over seven times the amount upon which various agreements were made during President Obama’s visit. The amount was enough to feed the entire country hundreds of times over. Such was the revenue that the 2G auction could have generated. But alas, the king (‘Raja’) had other plans.

Mamata Didi on the naming spree

The inherent urge to return to power after half a decade can drive most politicians of our country to unfathomable limits. They are obligated to delve deep into all available resources. But does his locale extend to the centre alone? Gone are the days where a person would rule all of the Roman empire from the Senate alone. Those were the yester years. Politicians have realized the odd necessity of the presence of their iron hand from both home and away. Home? One might ask. Does it not immediately imply that the nation is ones home? Sectarian politics has divided the state into regional monolingual fragments.

Is it not amusing to ponder over that we were barbaric millennia ago, all blissful in our specific, miniscule domains. The urge to improve civilization required of us to share resources and knowledge. Our territories began to expand and flourish. But there was an apparent and absurd volte-face to the matter of things. Our territories shrunk and we are now back where we came from.

Mamata Banerjee, the honorable Railway-Minister of the country is devout to the above principle in her work ethics. A die-hard fanatic for the so-called ‘upliftment’ of West Bengal, she is known to most Bengalis here as merely Didi(the word here means elder sister). An ideal representation of simplicity, she would always be found in here white sari and hawai chappals, in during the Parliament session.

But, what most of the world is not aware of is her very weird sense of nomenclature. I really don’t mean to offend her or any of her party supporters here, but Didi, you really need someone for this job. Really, do hire someone who’d give proper names to things. I take a few examples to support my claims.

A year or so ago, the Metro Railway in Kolkata had been extended till Garia, a suburb in the city. The extension was a blessing for the masses. She couldn’t have timed the inauguration better, holding it dead before the festival season. It was a definite bulls-eye for her party’s resurgence campaign in the state of West Bengal. Now the extension came with new stations. So Didi hatched up a plan. She names the new stations right after famous Bengali personalities. Names as famous as the noted actor of yore, Uttam Kumar, or the very popular Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose were up for grabs.

But the irony that remains here is it doesn’t sound too well in the local tongue. Say for example, if I were to go a station, Netaji, what I’d have to ask at the ticket counter would loosely be translated as Give me one Netaji, or for that matter, give two Netajis. Its ridiculous and absurd. Moreover, the outsider would gape in amazement at his amazement if he were unable to correlate between the actual place and the station name. What drags the matter to further inanity is the fact that some ticket vendors are themselves clueless about the said correlation.

Dumb takes newer strides as a plan for the said Metro was taken up at its northern end. Three more new stations, the terminus being at Dakhineshwar, famed for the spiritual Sri Ramakrishna and his disciple Swami Vivekananda and Sarada ma. Guess what, these stations would too be named after them, that too in the same ridiculous way.

Her stupidity sees no bounds. She reported to the press that the Park Circus station would be redeveloped and, guess what, renamed after Mother Teresa.  What was funny, you might ask. Funny,  because there is no Park Circus station on the entire metro network at all. What was she trying to develop- a ghost station after the famous patron saint?

This last one was a definite home- run that I had glanced through this very morning. She intended to create a medical college on the land, just along the railway tracks! And the crème-de-la-crème, A railway station would be established close by, and this was to, yes, named after, of all people, Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal Emperor of the country. My history tells me that the emperor was last seen in captivity, languishing in the British prison at erstwhile Rangoon, now Yangon. This is as close the emperor got the Bengal.

Didi, do name stations as they be rightfully suited. Respect and remember the contributions of great men and ask yourself for once- have I done something really right? For what apparently appears, she has stolen their glory only to  satisfy the needs of her and her party’s political needs and held it in shameful captivity.