exasperation at traffic!

This is to bring into the notice of the authority regarding the crassness of our traffic system and the utmost degradation of morality of some of the traffic cops of the department in kolkata. Few days back while driving on the EM Bypass I was caught on the ground of exceeding my speed limit and was charged a fine of Rs.300. though I was quite confident that my speedometer never escalated 60 kmph. ,it was a wild goose chase to convince them. They claimed that their SPEC aided speed camera installed at the last crossing, has caught my vehicle committing the offence.
Several cars and bikes were queued at the side of the road. Just by then, a motor bike sped away under the nose of the sergeants with three people on it,two on the rear seat without any helmet. When I countered him about their inaction in this case,to my dismay, he answered with perfect nonchalance that sometimes they fail to grab the collar of the actual lawbreakers, if the later are really fast (as the one happened then).he even cleared that he will never go in pursuit of those speeding vehicles as that would either cost his life or mean a loss in the chase for him. ”amader ki janer maya nei”(Don’t we care for our lives) was the unabashed and audacious reply! I cried in vein, “but it was actually them who were supposed to be detained, not us” this was what they are assigned for. I was aghast by seeing that one after the other highly speeding cars were let gone…though anyone,without the help of any sophisticated instrument, could easily and accurately have pointed out the real fast ones! The point man Jay prakash saha said that they need not catch all the speedy ones as it is not America! I never knew, a developing country needs to be a developed one to eradicate the disparities in their law enforcing procedures! Being infuriated at the remark & despaired I kept mum. To top it all, the prosecutor of public nuisance and crime, Mr.Saha justified their apathy and lopsidedness by stating that its their ‘target’ that needs to be fulfilled any how at the end of the day and it’s the quantity that matters to them not the amelioration of the quality of the city.

excerpt of the above post can be seen at http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091116/jsp/opinion/story_11675496.jsp

story of a syncretic shrine being turned into temple!

Flouting laws, inciting communalism, vitiating public taste is what the people of western Karnataka (to be more precise, at chikmagalur) witnessing from their district officials and the leaders of BJP, a national party. Violating Supreme court’s stay order, they begun the reconstruction work at the contested shrine of Sri Guru Dattatreya Bababudan Swamy Dargah to restore a part of the cave that collapsed in June 2008 with the holy spirit depicted in the act of “bhumi puja” that they performed, at the onset of the project, on September 2008 with alacrity. Members of the Karnataka Komu Souharda Vedike (KKSV; Karnataka Communal Harmony Forum), a State-wide forum of activists has raised their voice in protest against the sangh paarivaar’s endeavor to raise the shrine to a hindutva status and convert it into an exclusive place for hindus.
The shrine is believed to date back to the 11th century. Given the obliviousness and uncertainty of its creator, both hindus and muslims regularly visit the place. This picturesque hilly area has been holding up the true spirit of togetherness and the ideology of the real India for years, in its true sense. But the integrity might be lost if being tinkered. As seen after the babri masjid demolition, when abruptly a small hindu festival “datta jayanti” was turned into a massive,grandeur “datta mala” to gain public legitimacy and to establish it as an exclusive hindu temple.

BJP claims the actual muslim created place to be few kilometers away from that shrine and has denied to call the shrine as “a disputed one” any longer. Therein, I would like to place a question for the leaders and their hangers-on, what bugs them if the two deadliest rivals in the world, can find a place, for themselves, where they can offer their prayers to their (and ofcourse,’our’) “Father” in common? why can’t they restrict the use of their perverted brains in the realm of mainstream of politics? Instead of morally supporting and radiating and publicizing the mighty effort of the local inhabitants to befriend others ( that could have been a little help in fostering harmonious feeling ), the putrid minds of those vicious netas are up for harvesting yet another seed of communalism by hurting the religious ethos of the people.

the excerpt of the above post can be viewed at the following link ('frontline' magazine):
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20091106262212100.htm