Category Archives: Politics

Is Brand Modi Copyrighted?

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Was that a joke? Someone using Prime Minister’s picture advertisement can be fined up to Rupees 500? Is the present government just shoots from its hip when it has to make a law or rule?

A lot of noise in media amplified when Modi’s picture appeared in Jio ad. And it has been a month since then. Now Information and Broadcasting ministry woke up, that too with this crap of a rule?

Politicians making noise about this is understandable. Trash talk after all. But media? How could they interpret this as Modi’s involvement in Jio or Paytm for that matter that launched its ad featuring PM post demonetization ? Rakhi Sawant showed up in a dress with Modi pictures on all over. Would that mean that Modi gave the green signal? Or should she be slapped a fine of Rs. 500?

The issue has to be looked into detail to understand where to draw the line for punitive action. A tea vendor can put pictures of Modi or even name his stall as Modi Chai to sound cool and boost his sales. Can this fine be slapped on him too? In that case why same fine on violators regardless of the monetary value they stand to gain in their business with the help of this violation?

I do not have a clear answer. But I do believe that whether PMO office is involved or not in these ad campaigns, Modi’s brand value does influence consumer’s decision. He is the Prime Minister of the country after all. Thus while there shouldn’t be an assumption that government must have colluded with these businesses , yet government must make its position clear. Ideally, it shouldn’t be a part of this at all. It should levy a heavy fine on the businesses in proportion to monetary gains and ask them to take the campaigns be down and issue a public apology. This definitely can’t be seen as a revenue stream for the government.

रामायण

I was watching रामायण after very long. I guess last time I watched it was when I was in class 8 or something. Here mummy is alone at home, so to give her company, I watch it. I found that even today, when so many hindi films have been released since Ramanand Sagar’s रामायण , still this one carries so much emotional value. I feel moved to tears in many scenes. Unlike Mahabharat, रामायण is story of so much love and affection . One can notice the word ‘sneh’ umpteen number of times in one episode. One really feels like having cleaned his mind and heart of all vices. Every character in the story (ofcourse barring few – kakayi, manthura and those from Ravan’s camp), have so much love for each other. Every one’s fighting to give comfort to some one else. I feel that Ram’s age must have been the most peaceful and stable times on earth.

Timing of my realization of these things is pretty apt. I mean very recently Karunanidhi questioned the existence of Ram. He was giving some arguments that he claimed were rational. Even I am myself a computer science graduate. But still I feel influenced by these mythological stories. At least they are putting in us some fear for god, some fear from doing fallacies. If he wanted to make bridge, then he should have gone ahead, but not by inciting people by attacking faith of people. I remember once I was complaining to an Austrian Professor that in India, some rivers get polluted a lot because people put dead bodies and other things in the reiver for religious reasons. Then even that chap, who was complete foriegn to hinduism and mythology replied,”But people have faith in that. It’s the question of faith.” And Karunananidhi is from south India, the land, where we can find most religious people in India. Even that bridge is ultimately for welfare of people, then it is actually service of God, people would not have complained if that new bridge is making the lives easier. But it is crap to say things about Ram sethu or for that matter Ram’s existence per se, as this was all uncalled for. It’s like if we can build a hospital for destitute by breaking some temple, then it should be fine. But we should not break the temple because we don’t believe in the deity worshiped in that temple. May Ram give some sense to these morons.

double standard, glorified.

July 24, 2007

Some prominent media houses give following headlines :

NASDAQ : “Suspect Haneef’s Clean Chit To Australian Federal Police “

The Times of India : “Diary notes are mine, not by cops: Haneef”

Times Now : “Haneef gives a clean chit to AFP “

Yahoo News / CNN-IBN : “Haneef says Oz cops did not doctor his diary”

July 30-31, 2007 : When Haneef is back in India, here’s what we see :

The times of India : “Haneef wants Australia to apologise”

The Hindu : “Haneef: I am a victim of Australian conspiracy”

This sudden change in the Hanif’s attitude is quite visible through headlines!

Does India remember it’s a sovereign country?

The Indian constitution declares India to be a sovereign state. But every time Pakistan fiddles with India, India turns its poor face to west(read America) craving for a certificate certifying that what Pakistan did was incorrect. Then Indian ‘national dailies’ give headlines- ‘America condemns acts of terror and shows solidarity with India’. I have rather started hating the word ‘condemnation’. Just ‘SPEAKING’ against the terrorism will not end it. We’ve gotta ‘ACT’ against it. Did not US give an answer to Iraq after 9/11? Did he ask for anyone’s opinion in that? If President Bush says that Pakistan should stop terrorism, will that bring back the lives of people killed in the Mumbai blasts. Why is The Times of India celebrating PM manmohan singh’s ‘success’ at G8 summit? All those countries have paid a lip service to PM Singh. What is so big to be happy for? It’s only natural to say we hate terrorism. Even Pakistan will also say that they blasts were heinous crime and they are also sending condolence message. But what good is all this for ? For how long should we continue to suffer because of weak government international policies. India is investing millions of dollars in defense. Can not that defense power be used to save our countrymen from the terror of blasts? How long should India exchange dialogues with Pakistan. Can we not give a befitting reply to that country once n for all. If an eye for an eye leaves every one blind, then two eyes for an eye can save our other eye. It’s high time that India should shed off it’s softness and show some symbol of strength rather than showing impotency when faced with terror strikes.

Now security is being beefed up in Maharashtra and other places in India. The cry will be silent in few days. The main page news will slowly fade away in darkness. Case against suspected criminals will be kept pending in the wonderful courts of India. And again another series of blasts can injure another city then. Why the hell this beefed up security not the normal level of security in India? Why we take actions (that too weaker ones) only after casualties?

London Blasts

Today was a day full of irony and stark contrasts. In the morning only i read aboout London’s victory in bidding for 2012 olympics and hardly 12 hrs later i read about these horrible London blasts. Actually, we human beings have become so much habitual of the casualities that we don’t take any tragedy seriously unless the number of casualities runs into thousands.

Photos courtesy BBC and The New York Times

The casualities were barely 33, till the time I am writing this blog, but this event has sent several important signals and lessons to be learnt. Firstly, we must notice that whole of the London is united in this hour of crisis. Even the politicians, whether from conservatives or democrats, all were pledging the to keep London united, and their first priority was to help the people reach to safety.Now compare this with the Indian scenario. Some 2-3 days back, Ayodhya was attacked. This became so big a matter, that on the BBC site, only news under the section ,’South Asia’ , was “More Ayodhya protests”. This was too much. I mean in our case, when hardly any casualty concerning any civilian was reported, and all the 6 terrorists have been gunned down, why this bruhaha now over such a petty matter. In India, whenever such thing happpens, first thing we hear form political leaders other than those beonging to treasury is that X should resign and Y should resign. I guess it’s high time that we the Indians should learn to behave in a matured manner and show the world that we are also united when it comes to the threat to the security of the nation is concerned rather than politicising the issues to make them the front page headlines of BBC.
Probably that’s why BBC doesn’t write much good things in the profile of India. It begins describing India by the word ,” a nuclear weapon state”. But in that case BBC is also discriminating. And strangest thing is that it gives a link for the national anthem of Pakistan on it’s profile page(that’s a different matter that it didn’t work , atleast I could’n’t open it), but not a link of Jana-gana-mana on the profile page of India.

But situation of london is really strange at the moment. In one hand , he’s carrying the victory of securing London as the venue for 2012 olympics, on the other hand, it has these blasts.

I really feel sorry for Mr. Blair, who’s concerned with , apart from these 2 issues, the G-8 summit also. There also, supporters of African nations are giving tough times to the leaders of highly developed nations, including Mr. Blair.

God bless London