HATS OFF TO SHAH RUKH KHAN FOR STANDING HIS GROUND! IT’S NOW TIME TO END THIS HOOLIGANISM ONCE AND FOR ALL AND MAKE MUMBAI A UNION TERRITORY!

SRK is great! Not just because he is such a star, but because he genuinely is the most amazing person and has such a logical and sound brain. And now the entire nation idolizes this man all the more because he has become a symbol of sheer courage as well! And I think all it required was someone like him to stand up coolly and say, “This is not right, I’ve done nothing wrong and I won’t apologise.” When he was saying this, one could almost see the schoolboy rebel in him – not ready to cow down to an illogical man trying to act as the school headmaster. I am writing this editorial immediately after coming back from a show on NDTV 24x7, which was on the topic, “Is Sena the real power in Mumbai?” I was one of the speakers. It was sad to see Uddhav Thackeray, who was another speaker in that show, sticking to a stance that cannot be defended by any sense of logic. When questioned on the show by the NDTV anchor on his tendentious comments against SRK, Uddhav’s reply was that one should ask the average man on the streets how many times had he (Uddhav) troubled him on similar issues. True, he hasn’t. Then why now? Uddhav’s answer was an illogical “everyone should do their own work rather than commenting on everything” – implying that SRK should keep acting instead of speaking on issues! What a joke! We live in a democracy – and look at what we are saying! That we don’t have the right to speak on subjects of national interest? Unbelievable! And then, there was Gul Panag too on the show, who, in a most apologetic manner, kept stammering that after all, Shiv Sena had the people’s mandate, so they should be respected; and that issuing these kinds of threats wasn’t fair on the Sena’s part. It’s unbelievable we don’t realise that in an illiterate democracy, many people get the so-called “people’s mandate” often; but that doesn’t automatically make them or their actions right!

And then, we had a few others on the show giving exactly similar diplomatic answers. It’s so sad that despite seeing that someone had taken a brave stance and decided to stand up to illogical hooliganism, no one was ready to speak forthrightly in his favour! What’s more amazing is that the entire Bollywood is standing like a mute spectator virtually. It’s sad... Very sad... They make us really feel as if the real power is with the Sena. But the truth is that it isn’t! The real power rests with the State and the intellectuals. Unfortunately, with the intellectuals abandoning their duty and most people more interested in protecting their personal interests, it all becomes an illusion.

Barring once, the Sena has never ever won the assembly elections in Mumbai; and never got more than a 25% mandate in the state! Despite that, we not only see the film fraternity – filled with security-less individuals – not coming forth, but also notice a similar shameful behaviour from the State. It’s time for the State to show its power. And with Rahul Gandhi showing a clear tilt against the Sena, let’s hope this will happen soon. However, what I want to say goes much beyond this.

I want to challenge the very concept of Bombay belonging to Marathi manoos – not just from the perspective of India being a democracy and the city belonging to everyone, but even from the perspective of history. Bombay, till 1960, combined Gujarat and Maharashtra till the two states were separated. What then came to be known as Bombay – that is, today’s Mumbai – was built literally by the Gujaratis and the Parsis, with the Marathi manoos playing a much lesser role. It symbolises the ‘city of the great dream’ – if we were to borrow this phrase from the Great American Dream – where people from everywhere came and chased their dreams. They made Bombay what it is today. Even today, fi ft y percent of people are non-Marathis who run this city – a city that is the backbone of the Indian industry. So even historically, this concept of Bombay being for the Marathi manoos, is incorrect. Of course, one doesn’t really need to care too much about history when the key question is about the democratic right of an Indian to live anywhere he wants and say anything he wants. It’s a shame that such an incident is actually happening... and there is still no guarantee that this will be stopped soon!

The solution is to make Mumbai a union territory. Give it independent statehood if required, because the heart of the Indian industry cannot be held to ransom by a few parochial politicians whose last hope depends upon dividing a great city on the basis of language and regionalism for no real cause. Of course, they are free to do so in a democracy, but the majority must come together and destroy such forces without a real cause.

If the cause of Marathi manoos was really so important, then the Shiv Sena should have been holding the state government to ransom for keeping the Marathi manoos hungry and jobless for years and forcing them to commit suicides. What a shame that when it comes to the real Marathi manoos, the Sena’s heart doesn’t seem to beat as aggressively. So Bombay needs to become free of Maharashtra and acquire a character of its own. The character of the great melting pot of languages, religions, values and beliefs. The character where every Indian is safe and goes on to fulfi ll his big dream! Something that SRK symbolises so well!

And till then, I would say the same things as my colleague Sutanu has written in his editorial in Business & Economy’s latest issue. It’s time for the Nana Patekars, Ritesh Deshmukhs, Madhur Bhandarkars and Ashutosh Govarikars (all Marathi manoos) to come up and show the same courage in real that their reel avatars are about. It’s time for the Marathi manoos to come up and repay the love that they have got from every non Marathi. And speak up! Get inspired from Sachin. Lataji where are you? You wouldn’t have been what you are without the RD Burmans and Yash Chopras. Speak up… Sing a song. Not just for SRK but for the cause of India and its democracy!

THE SANCTITY OF PADMA AWARDS ARE AT QUESTION, AND WITH THAT THE DESTINY OF OUR PRESENT AND FUTURE GENIUSES!!

Resul Pookutty was an obscure name and would have remained like that, had he not won the Oscar. In his own country, he would have always remained a dispensable and not so important sound technician, had the Oscar jury not decided to give him the coveted award. When the Oscar jury had shown to the world what Resul Pookutty was and what talent he had, his country’s government suddenly realized that it was time to give him something. And thus, he was given the Padma Shri award – thanks to the Oscar of course! One is forced to think then how many such Resul Pookuttys might be there in this country, people who are never recognized.

Since Independence, the Padma awards have been one of the most coveted set of awards of this country, and for not just the award in itself, but for the prestige and honour that it carries. It is meant for the best and is meant to encourage others to strive for excellence. Yet, in spite of all these, and in spite of the supreme importance attached to it, one is left to wonder how the decisions about conferring these awards are taken. One is also forced to wonder who all decide the awards and how much can personal interest or influence decide the matters vis a vis institutional procedures. The Oscars – awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – are considered to be one of the best in the world for not just the fact that the awards are given only to the best of the best and that too in the US, but also the fact that the whole process of selecting the films and scrutinizing nominations by a large jury of eminent individuals, reflects the level of scrupulous transparency. Thus, it becomes very difficult for anyone to influence the ultimate result. Needless to say, the Oscars have their own process in place wherein the government of US has no role to play. And the same is true for all globally recognized awards. The question is, for the Padma awards, do we have a jury of eminent people who decide the winners’ names based on certain transparent and structured processes? On the contrary, it has been revealed most shockingly through an RTI (Right to Information Act) application that it is the Cabinet Secretary, Home Secretary, Principal Secretary of Prime Minister and the President’s Secretary, along with four non-official members, who decide on the names (of the winners) and then send the same to the Prime Minister and the President for final approval. The ‘exclusive’ credentials these secretaries ostensibly have to decide about who all deserve to be given the highest national award of the country, remain questionable in themselves! And what guarantees that there is no scope for lobbying and favouritism in awarding the awards? To top it all, there exist no set parameters for these awards, which makes it even simpler for the above team to act on their whims and fancies. Isn’t the whole Padma award process getting transformed into the way the bureaucracy runs this nation? Today, no one bothers about who becomes the minister and who votes for whom in the Parliament – as it has become rather an open and perhaps an acceptable secret that everything can be bought with the right infl uences in place. So, are we witnessing a scenario wherein the Padma awards too are going in that direction? How does one justify then that in response to an RTI application fi led in 2009 by Subhash Agarwal, it has been revealed that Olympic medalists Vijender Singh and Sushil Kumar’s names were not included in the final 2009 awardees list by the Padma Awards Committee, even when their names had been forwarded to the Committee by the Sports Ministry within the due date.

When someone like Aamir Khan or A. R Rehman receives a Padma award, one can only feel happy for and proud of them because of the incredible contribution they have made in performing arts. But to believe that some US-based Sant Chatwal would be getting this award even when there are allegations of his being involved in some financial scam and being charge-sheeted for the same by CBI on four accounts (he reportedly has a $9 million default with SBI and some other public sector banks), raises the questions in terms of the veracity of these awards. And now, one is again forced to wonder how could someone like him receive the nation’s most coveted award? Let’s get it straight – Sant Chatwal is no Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, and neither has he conjured up any major contribution to society, barring some failed efforts to promote his son Vikram Chatwal in Bollywood. So, is it for all of these that he is being awarded and put on the same league as the brilliant Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, an Indian American and a Padma awardee who won the most recent Nobel Prize for Chemistry?

One has to accept that there are very few institutions on which the common man of India today has trust and faith. The Padma awards are precisely one of them. If this too gets mired in red tape, nepotism and bureaucracy, then that would probably be the worst conspiracy against our existing and future geniuses!