Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Rang De Basanti ?

I happened to watch Rang de basanti today. Just happened to relate the movie with current political scenario. Raj Thackrey's comments have definitely aroused a lot of sleeping souls. It has managed to create a lot of commotion.

What has followed i.e. Riots, arson, communal hatred is shocking. We as Indians have always been a diverse group. Our high school social science took pride in preaching the concept of "Unity in Diversity". Yet whenever elections are around the corner, some politicians successfully utilise the british legacy of "Divide and Conquer".

I grew up in Mumbai with kids who were multi-lingual and each of us had a different mother tongue. But the language we spoke was only nothing more than a barrier to communication. Ironically we had the British legacy English as the common language (apart from hindi) to break the barrier.In essence Mumbai has been the melting pot of India. I am sure every person who has spent some time in Mumbai has expeienced this melting pot at some time or other.

Despite this how do politicians manage to divide us? Consider the latest issue of jobs. We all know that there are always more unemployed people than the jobs on offer. In a situtation who is snatching the jobs ? Isn't it the case where every jobless individual is competiting against every other job less person? Isn't healthy competition important to progress ? Is regional reservation in jobs really the answer to provide a fair ground for every one ? Has 60 years of reservation in education changed anything ?

These are just some questions that spring to my mind as I reflect upon the news around me.Thoughts welcome.

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