NavDharmyug

अनशन के आवश्यक अंश भारतीय राजनीति में भूख का अभूतपूर्व स्थान है। बँग-भंग के समय से भूख भारतीय राजनीति की दशा का निर्धारण करती रही है और राजनीति के रथ के पहिए की धुरी रही है। एक प्लेट पूड़ी सब्ज़ी राजनैतिक जनसभाओं की सफलता का, और ग़रीबों की थाली में सजी भूख चुनावी निर्णयों का निर्धारण करती रही है। यह चुभती हुई भूख जो पुरूषों के पौरुष और नारियों के सतीत्व का सौदा बन के सात दशकों तक ऐसे समाज में सन्निहित हो गई कि आम भारतीय -ऊ तो होबे करता है - कह कर निकल लेता है। किन्तु इस राजनैतिक छल और प्रशासनिक विफलता के चूहों द्वारा खाए गए फ़ूड कार्पोरेशन के अनाज से क्रान्ति नहीं होती। क्रान्ति होती है स्वैच्छिक भूख से जिसकी नींव गाँधी जी ने डाली और जिसे उन्होंने हर सामाजिक प्रश्न के समाधान के रूप में भारतीय जनता के सामने परोसा।  इस भूख के शस्त्र को हर मिडिल क्लास युवक ने अपनी बात मनवाने को भोजन त्याग कर चुपके से पिज़्ज़ा आर्डर करते हुए उपयोग किया है। श्री अन्ना हज़ारे एवम् श्री अरविंद केजरीवाल ने इस लुप्त होती कला का पुनरूत्थान किया। भूख के इस शस्त्र रूप के लिये कई चीज़ेो...

Photo Courtesy: FINDLAY KEMBER/AFP/Getty Images राहुल गाँधी की आधुनिक महाभारत  ( Below is Rahul Gandhi's Interpretation of Mahabharat) आज से कोई १००० वर्ष पूर्व महाभारत का युद्ध हुआ। रोमिला आँटी के अनुसार क़रीब 900 AD के आस पास का काल महाभारत बताया जाता है। महाभारत युद्ध के काल मे ‘यंग इंडिया’ के अध्यक्ष मोतीलाल वोरा अँकल सच मे युवा भारतीय थे और धृतराष्ट्र जी को युद्ध का वृतांत बताने वाले संजय के टी वी का एँटीना घुमा कर वही एडजस्ट कर रहे थे। धृतू अँकल को कुछ नहीं दिखता था, बिल्कुल मन्नू अँकल जैसे, और उनके जीवन का उद्देश्य भी युवराज के मैच्योर होने तक सत्ता की रक्षा करना था। समस्या वहाँ भी यही थी कि लाख प्रयास करने पर भी युवराज मैच्योर ना हो पा रहे थे, और माता गाँधारी युवराज को राष्ट्र पर ठेले पड़ी थीं। माता गाँधारी ने गाँधार से भारत  आने के बाद लगभग दशक तक भारत मे बसने के बारे मे विचार किया। गहन विचार के उपरांत उन्होंने भूरे रंग के भारतियों के उद्धार का निर्णय लिया।  मूढ़ मगज भारतीयों ने उनके उनके इक राष्ट्र का उद्धार करने के भार का निरादर ...

                 The Bard am I, my father, a healer;                 My mother grinds Corn in the quern.                 Striving for wealth, with varied plans,                 We follow desires like a herd of Cows.                                                 (RigVeda, Mandala 9, Hymn 112) The above Hymn from Rigveda, which is not intentionally a social commentary of the times to which it belong, explains how men (as early as 3000 BC) would move in one directio...

“ I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail…The poet’s, the writer’s duty is to write these things. It is his privilege to help men endure by lifting his heart. ”- William Falkner , Nobel acceptance speech, December, 10 th , 1950 The moments of crisis brings out the best and worst of human spirits. Then there are moments which rewrite the course of a nation. For India, the wars of 62, 65 and 1971 were such moments, so was the Emergency imposed in the late seventies by the Congress government. When we look at those moments, we wade through the old, black and white pictures of those family photographs and wonder where our parents were when these events were unfolding. I am writing this on #Demonetization, which is one such historic event. Before you sigh, roll your eyes upwards and throw your arms up in despair, and walk away, let me put forth the disclaimer. I am not an all knowing economist; I am also not an all-feeling journalist. I am the common man, wh...

India for all practical purposes refers to the East of the East and US of America is the West of the West, and the twain, wise men said, shall never meet. In the span of two days, one rolling after another, like the wheels of a great Juggernaut, bashful, arrogant wheels, changed the way we look at the world. We have been raised with a concept of right and wrong. It was a good idea which provided a pattern to a world which is as illogical as the forces of nature, its whims unfathomable, its furies uncertain. But those ideas were formed in a dynamic world, and were as volatile as ecosystem in which they were formed, raised and eventually flourished.  Wisdom is like a freshly caught fish and goes stale quickly. The biggest wisdom which survives time is the one discovered by good, old Darwin, whose law of survival, the survival of the fittest is one which has survived change of civilizations, change of regimes, and change of political seasons. Men are feeble animals. We have noth...

I decided to write on this matter, and had almost given it up. There were strong reasons for the same. The policy matters of Defense are pretty complex and then there are great minds who spend days on end to decipher, understand and explain it. The people who have spent a life time in uniform and are directly impacted by those policy decisions. I have neither the knowledge nor experience to talk about it. But then Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to the Defense Minister, Manohar Parikkar. He knows and understands the matter less than me, even with his months of introspection in exotic foreign locales. I am sure about it and I have valid reasons for it. He has always been rich and therefore few thousand Rupees that is the bone of contention is not even a blip on his mindscape. Secondly the closest he has been to soldiering is when his dad, a commercial pilot was called on to service during 71 war, which he escaped by applying and getting annual leave at the same time. I felt I ought to w...

I have been of late pretty particular about posting one post every week, if I could get enough time and enough emotions pushing me towards it. There are some weeks like this one which had multiple thoughts nudging against each other. There were some truly political thoughts, political events which were quite disturbing and distressing. Communal riots in a part of country and a reaction by the government of the state, lacking any conviction. This is the same government which had sacked an IAS officer merely for following Supreme Court guidelines (the latest input on the same is that the lady in question has been re-instated, ostensibly on rendering apology to the CM) on account of creating communal tension thereby. The space left vacant by the legit government of the day was duly occupied by forces which made the environment conducive for communal disharmony. Debates spread over the media and cacophonous  monologues, totally immune of the human loss spread across social ...