Amidst the unprecedented brouhaha over PM Modi's Digital India campaign, my good friend Ms. Enakshi Johri couple of days ago questioned its effectiveness over the timely issuance of her ration card and one Aadhaar card. Her grievances were justified for I too went through a more-than-enough waiting period to avail mine but still her chiding the digital media campaign disturbed me slightly. I believe the principle reason behind such discomfort was my admiration towards PM Modi and all the wonderful initiatives he has been coming up with in both India and abroad but I too found myself questioning their effectiveness today after learning about a very unfortunate incident that happened in Dadri, Ghaziabad; famously known as the doorstep to Capital New Delhi.
Mohammad Akhlaq was killed by an angry mob belonging to an extremist group following the rumors that his family was consuming beef. His son is severely injured and his wife and daughter are currently crying their eyes out. His daughter has been heard saying that what if they were not eating 'beef', will the authorities bring back his now 'dead' father? A very disturbing question, you must all agree; so what an administrator will do to curb her pain and soothe her nerves? What will our politicians do to 'de-communalize' our nation? This may be a popular notion, to shut all the meatshops selling beef and beef products but where is the blueprint of reintegrating these work-deprived butchers? Also, what a person eats or does not, must be his/her choice. Several of my Hindu friends from South India and North-East India consume Beef, so should I have 'beef' with them and must I stop interacting with them? And why only beef should be exempted from all this discussion? Why not goat meat, pork, fish and even Chicken? What's wrong with them?
In 1930s, Burger King came up with a print advertising campaign, 'Where is the beef?' to promote its beef burgers and needless to say, this slogan has now become one of the most worshipped advertisement jargon of last century. We all know North And Latin America's affinity towards beef, and PM Modi has just returned from there with bagfuls of promises and FDI, so in wake of all these events, must we stop communicating with America, the only global superpower? What is the point of all this, I must ask now?
Coming back to this Akhlaq case, his son is with Indian Air Force and as we all know, no parents in our country want to send their sons/daughters to Indian military willingly. Does this man have to give another proof of his patriotism? You know me, I seldom write about such incidents but like you, when I encountered it yesterday, I was unable to discuss/think anything else. Today, Mr. Rajdeep Serdesai (A Renowned TV journalist) too raised this issue on Facebook. Later Our Honourable CM (of Uttar Pradesh) came up with an INR 1 million compensation for the 'lynched' Mohammed Akhlaq. See our lives are just as cheap. And then our PM talk about Digital India. For all I know, we have following issues to talk about: Naxalite, Madhesi Issues, Nakhalistan in Punjab (Go to Rajouri/Subhash Nagar Localities in Delhi, it's still,there), Thousands of separatist factions in North East, China, Pakistan, Kashmir, Hindi-Dravidian Languages clash in South India, Casteism politics in Bihar and whatnots. And then, there is the challenge of tackling 'communalism', the most sensible yet the least talked about issue and there I believe no PM/CM could ever come up with a plausible solution. For God's sake, Bhutan and Mongolia are better off than us. And all we want is a permanent seat in UNSC. Am I missing anything else?
So I believe digital India campaign is not going to help us with all this disturbing tidbits. And the tidbits they are for growing India. We shall very soon become Zombies devouring each other flesh and blood, whereas we should have become more 'Indians' with passing passages of time........I'm done.........#NakedEmotions
Mohammad Akhlaq was killed by an angry mob belonging to an extremist group following the rumors that his family was consuming beef. His son is severely injured and his wife and daughter are currently crying their eyes out. His daughter has been heard saying that what if they were not eating 'beef', will the authorities bring back his now 'dead' father? A very disturbing question, you must all agree; so what an administrator will do to curb her pain and soothe her nerves? What will our politicians do to 'de-communalize' our nation? This may be a popular notion, to shut all the meatshops selling beef and beef products but where is the blueprint of reintegrating these work-deprived butchers? Also, what a person eats or does not, must be his/her choice. Several of my Hindu friends from South India and North-East India consume Beef, so should I have 'beef' with them and must I stop interacting with them? And why only beef should be exempted from all this discussion? Why not goat meat, pork, fish and even Chicken? What's wrong with them?
In 1930s, Burger King came up with a print advertising campaign, 'Where is the beef?' to promote its beef burgers and needless to say, this slogan has now become one of the most worshipped advertisement jargon of last century. We all know North And Latin America's affinity towards beef, and PM Modi has just returned from there with bagfuls of promises and FDI, so in wake of all these events, must we stop communicating with America, the only global superpower? What is the point of all this, I must ask now?
Coming back to this Akhlaq case, his son is with Indian Air Force and as we all know, no parents in our country want to send their sons/daughters to Indian military willingly. Does this man have to give another proof of his patriotism? You know me, I seldom write about such incidents but like you, when I encountered it yesterday, I was unable to discuss/think anything else. Today, Mr. Rajdeep Serdesai (A Renowned TV journalist) too raised this issue on Facebook. Later Our Honourable CM (of Uttar Pradesh) came up with an INR 1 million compensation for the 'lynched' Mohammed Akhlaq. See our lives are just as cheap. And then our PM talk about Digital India. For all I know, we have following issues to talk about: Naxalite, Madhesi Issues, Nakhalistan in Punjab (Go to Rajouri/Subhash Nagar Localities in Delhi, it's still,there), Thousands of separatist factions in North East, China, Pakistan, Kashmir, Hindi-Dravidian Languages clash in South India, Casteism politics in Bihar and whatnots. And then, there is the challenge of tackling 'communalism', the most sensible yet the least talked about issue and there I believe no PM/CM could ever come up with a plausible solution. For God's sake, Bhutan and Mongolia are better off than us. And all we want is a permanent seat in UNSC. Am I missing anything else?
So I believe digital India campaign is not going to help us with all this disturbing tidbits. And the tidbits they are for growing India. We shall very soon become Zombies devouring each other flesh and blood, whereas we should have become more 'Indians' with passing passages of time........I'm done.........#NakedEmotions
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