The Water wars!

Bengaluru is on the boil on Cauvery water release to Tamil Nadu. An anguished post!

Source: The Water wars!

The Water wars!

The fragile peace between people Tamil Nadu and Karnataka hangs on the knife’s edge, the fringe elements stoking the fire over the water share discord. The TV crews are rushing to cover and increase their TRPs.

I recall a similar situation, when a noted author from Bangladesh was coming over to Kolkata, spontaneously sparking protests in many parts of Kolkata. The administration acted swiftly and severely warned the TV channels of the consequences, in case of any escalation resulting from their broadcasts. The news papers too blacked-out all news regarding the incidence which otherwise had all the elements to explode into a major protest.

There would be continued skirmishes, over water, power and other major resources. Not too long back, oil shortages in the North East resulted in resentment against Delhi, as Bengal stopped movement of potatoes to Orissa due to acute shortage, hoarding and resultant spiraling of its prices. The Orissa government retorted with threats of holding up all trucks entering into Bengal from the southern states. Fortunately, wisdom of the leaders prevailed, before the issue reaching unmanageable proportions.

The problems become even more acute if two different political parties with varying stand rule the warring states. I wonder why the courts, which act sometimes with alacrity, tolerate vandalism and destruction of public property. The judiciary should come out and warn the government as well sternly punishes the mischief mongers.

Any disruption of any state within the Indian Union will make the nation vulnerable at a critical juncture and severely dent the dreams of ‘Make in India.’ Those who are rioting are anti-nationals and are no less than any terrorists and should be treated as such. The government happy to slap sedition charges at the drop of a hat should slap sedition charges against scoundrels who cause losses of crores of rupees.

More than politicians, we need a statesman in our country, urgently and now, to whom the nation will listen to.

Sampath Kumar
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A poet in jail!

Of the much news in bold letters hogging the front page of a leading daily, one bizarre news did not miss my eyes for more reasons than one. It was about a 50-year-old lady, Baby Ghosh from Howrah,…

Source: A poet in jail!

A poet in jail!

Of the much news in bold letters hogging the front page of a leading daily, one bizarre news did not miss my eyes for more reasons than one. It was about a 50-year-old lady, Baby Ghosh from Howrah, a poet, who had sent over her poems to the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, for her comments. She has also been going over to Nabanna, trying to seek an audience with the Chief Minister, in vain.

Apparently her works are appreciated by her neighbours and friends, which might have emboldened her to send it over to the CM, a well-known poet herself. Failing to elicit any response from the CM, the aggrieved poet threatened over the phone to blow up the Secretariat resulting in her arrest and remand in 14 days judicial custody. The lady confessed her extreme disappointment in being snubbed and denied an appointment. Mamata herself may not be aware a wee bit about the poet or her poems and her cultural czars manning the departments may have been the culprit.

Mamata, before becoming the CM was easily approachable and was a peoples’ leader. The over-zealous officials in their effort to create a halo over Mamata have erected a wall around the CM, distancing her beyond the reach of common people. This paradigm shift may not be understood by simple rural folks, much so any poet, who live in the world of their own.

The other aspect is the explosive emotional mindset of the people, who seem to get angry too soon. The threat to bomb could not have been intended at all and could have been the result of pent up frustration and anger at being denied a certification of her poems worthy by the state’s greatest poet of all, or so, Baby Ghosh must’ve thought.

I hope the law will take kindly and warn her sternly before letting her off. The CM and we could have an opportunity to read her work, if it really was worth going to jail

I wrote this many months ago, as a last stanza of one of my poems:

i long forgot to ever react
devoid of anger and of tears
the wind too seems cold with me
blowing the paper and my soul free

Sampath Kumar
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