“We don’t want POTA to be an instrument in the hand of Narendra Modi to target communities.”
           - Kapil Sibal, in an interview to Karan Thapar on CCN/IBN

Now that Varun Gandhi has been booked under National Security Act, he has become part of the clan with people like M K Gandhi and Indira Gandhi, all jailed at one point of time for being a threat to the nation, what has Sibal to say. Is any law safe with any politician ?

What started as a bonfire by Varun to cook his election meal, is now joined by Maywati , Mulayam , Congress and of course BJP. And together they have managed to rage a major fire, threatening to gut thousands of kitchens in Pilibhit.

Today I have lost my sense of humor, because in a few days my colleague Ahmad Kamal, is scheduled to get married in Pilibhit -and I am worried for him.

Now, this is not funny - nor is this post.

I have some questions to which I seek answers-

• Can politicians ever think of people as individuals when they indulge in such acts ?
• Or are we faceless members of the crowd, waiting to be pounced upon, divided , taken to the polling booths, and then ignored for next 5 years ?
• Do they know the people they are fighting each other for, have a life - and that very life is threatened by what they do and what they say ?

And what is worse ? The reaction of educated people on internet forums. The forums show a clear divide between a Hindu surfer and a Muslim surfer of India. All news is interpreted in terms of these two terms - even Gautam Gambhir scoring a ton is applauded as an example of Hindu might ! Every discussion somehow takes itself to terrorist attacks. Godhra, Gujrat, Ayodhya. Take for example,  the Rediff feature on SRK walking the ramp in the Mumbai Fashion Week - the first comment I see there is Congress Bashing, the second one says how SRK is a true muslim,  and a whole bunch of moderated and removed comments.

• Are we becoming them ?
• We the normal people of India, are we losing sense ?
• Are we becoming a crazy nation, which can think of only two colors - saffron and green ?
• Are we going to vote BJP or Congress just because we are Hindus or Muslims ?
• Is the man on the other side of my cubicle a Pakistani or is he the best performer of my team ?
• Is my boss a Hindu or is he the one who is fostering my career ?
• Is earning bread important for me ?
• Are good roads important  to me ? 
• Or is my whole thinking , being , living , breathing solely guided by the way I pray to God each morning ?

If this is what religion does to a country,  I want to reduce to rubbles each temple, each mosque, each gurdwara and each church of India. And I want to replace them with a flag staff, on which the tricolor proudly displays white along with saffron and green

I am ashamed to be an Indian in a country of Hindus and Muslims

Now that we have taken enough care of the skin, let me remind you that beauty is only skin deep. This is why an important part of being pretty is being healthy and fit. That applies to all life forms including viruses, algae, bacteria and politicians.

One of the most important qualities of a politician is to snatch and throw. Do you want examples ? Here goes

Chandrayan, the mission to moon features prominently in Congress advertisements  as one of their achievements (one might show up on this page too, thanks to Google). This mission was announced  by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, from Lal Qila on 56th Independence day - even the name “Chandrayaan” was (supposedly) given by Vajpayee.  Though both NDA and UPA had got nothing to do with the project - except approving funds, Congress has clearly snatched it as its achievement.

Whenever there is a debate on getting a tough law for terror, Kapil Sibbal has only one thing to say. He blames the NDA government for going out of their way to help the terrorists in Khandahar. Now, no one has the courage to ask Kabil Sibbal how that resolves the debate or how that answers the question of getting a tougher terror law. No, they are not scared of his attitude, they are scared because he might actually start explaining his theory - listening to which is unsafe, hazardous and probabaly fatal. A clear case of throwing by Mr Sibbal.

Varun Gandhi is courting arrest,  and declaring himself a martyr for his samaaj. He still insists that he is being framed, and going by the discussions on the Internet, most people think he is right. It is so strange, how we chose to ignore real evidence, just because of our ideology or religion. Politics of hate is at its all time worst - its has reverse ossified into the minds of people. The man on the street, the man is his AC car, and even the man teaching in a University has developed a sense of support to specific political parties , just because the party is well aligned to their religion ! And its sad to see young people like Varun, do the same snatching exercise to get votes.

L K Advani has  recently supported ex army men in their “One Rank, One Pension” demand - which they have been raising for months now. Only after the elections were declared , he could realize the merit in their demands.  Quoting from  his website -  “If we come to power in the next general elections, it is my promise that I will persuade my colleagues to give priority to the fulfillment of the long overdue  ‘One Rank, One Pension’ demand.”  He is going to persuade people to give priority to it  -  well that can also be done sitting in the opposition Mr Advani, why do you want to win the elections for that ? This is one snatch which is too obvious.

So how to develop good snatching capabilities ? Its simple , develop a grip. Using the hand grip daily for half an hour to improve your grip.

Make sure you create a list of all achievements your opponents and categorize them into two - the ones you can snatch, and the others you can throw. Do the same with their mistakes. Congress is a pro at this - they have snatched Chandrayan, Highways, Delhi metro from BJP and keep throwing Gujrat, Ayodhya (and now Varun) at them. BJP has got a long way to go with snatching stuff from Congress - they only know how to throw … and sometimes they even throw away the advantage.

Kaiku