THE 'SAVE KERALA' INITIATIVE

THE 'SAVE KERALA' INITIATIVE

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

The Political Mafia

In Kerala, if you see 4 mallus talking, one thing that you can be sure of is that one among them is an aspiring politician.

Over the years, the politicians have invaded so deep into our lives and minds that we cannot
think of anything without the help(?) of the politicians. Be it admission for your kid to the next door primary school or an electricity connection or a proper drainage facility.

The local library committee, has to have equal portions of the two major political parties.
The founder of the library, who spent his life time for it, is simply left out. The people who read
books, or the local writers, does not have any say in the functioning of the library.
I am just taking this example of a library, but if you look around you, I am sure you can find
hundreds of hijackings done by the political mafia.

Take any unnatural death. The local chotta netavu is the first one to reach the place. He sniffs
around the place, tries to leak a clue from the relatives or friends to find if there any chance for
him or his party to gain anything from the sad incident. At least a few votes. Or a few seconds for himself on the news.

If they find anything that can be utilized, its like winning a jackpot. They are least bothered about the relatives or the person who is dead. They start their campaign. Either against the other political party or the govt or the police or the CBI. All that they want is that their name should be heard. Their faces should be on TV.

The political parties take so much prominence in you daily life, they start speaking for us.
Like the master speaking for the slave. Of course, twisting the facts according to their political
agenda.

In any issue, the political parties take a stand that fits their interests and forces it on to us. We
are to swallow it, without a word. Even if some one dares to oppose this, all of the political mafia
is quick to brand him an outcast, crazy or even personally assault him.

Remember Ajitha ? or Echara varrior ?

The political mafia has now a days started thinking and deciding for us. They have institutionalised us. so without their command we cant do anything.

Consider the reservation issues in the higher education.
All over India, the students are agitating against it. They don’t have any political party to support them. They have formed an association, “students for equality” and they are fighting their cause.

Did you hear anything from Kerala? The most literate state ? The land of stikes, hartals and
bandhs ?
Nothing.
Why ?
because no political parties or their sibling students unions have asked the students to fight. They didn’t start a campaign. Does not the politically un-affiliated students have an opinion in this case, which affects them more than anyone?

We the common people who have not submitted our souls to any political party are left out. We
have lost our voice. We cant express ourselves. We are so dependant on the political mafia.

Now in such a case, the people who are supposed to voice our fears and thoughts are the
sahithya-samskarika nayakar. But if you see what they are doing, you would very much find it just apt to replace the last letter with ‘L’. You show them an award, they come all around you wagging their tails and flexing their flimsy spine. When was the last time a person got to the chairman of any literary organization for his skills than his ability to sing praises for their masters?
“Deepastambham mahascharyam, Namukkum kittanam award!”

The media, which side to they take in this clash between the common man and the political mafia ?

Some time back there was a report in the local televisions about the recent SBI strike.

“Even on the sixth day of the strike, the government has not agreed to the demand of the 2 lakh employees of the SBI. The employees said that they want their pension to be at least 50% of the last salary drawn”

What they didn’t mention was, the strike by just 200,000 employees of the State Bank of India affected transactions, cheque clearing, forex and corporate business across the country. Just 200,000 people holding the money of crores of Indians at ransom. And see the timing of the strike, first week of a month. How else could you blackmail the govt when payment of pension and salaries are affected?

Did any of the local media, tell you the story of an old man who could not withdraw his meager pension amount ? Did the media tell you about the business man whose payment to the international client, worth crores was delayed and hand to pay a penalty?

Forget it, in the much debated smartcity issue, did any media care to go to the local engineering college and ask the students about their opinion ? or the the people who are supposed to get jobs in smartcity ?

Even worse, the media join hands with the mafia. Yea, you know what I am talking about.

What is the solution ? Who will save us?

I dont know.

But blogs are defenitely a step in the right direction. The bloggers are not governed by the editors. They dont rely on favours from the political overlords. They dont need advts from huge corporates. They dont fear if certain groups of people would turn thier ire on you for speaking the truth, creating a fall in the subscription.

We dont have anything to loose, but a whole new world to gain !

( Oops ! sorry if the last line sounded like a political slogan, but didnt I tell you that the politics has made deep roots into our minds ? )

16 comments:

Shinu Mathew said...

Bang on mate!
It is an excellent post in terms of the malicious influence that dirty politicians and their eunuch ways. The Library is an apt example how these people hijack institutions that has no realation to their interest.
I still remember an incident. A boy was in love with a girl and the girl's parents were against it. The father belongs to a leftist party which boasts of strong cadre nature and had many Rikshaw drivers attached to it. He tipped the party office and the over-eager cadres beat up this boy and his father. Now the boy belongs to another left party and this has become an intra-alliance cock-fighting. I don't know what happened to their love, but after a few months, they settled the issue "amicably".
When an existential dilemma arises, these fools use these institutions as a cover and divert public gaze from their wrong-doings. and they consider these as their heirlooms.
Our root-level politics is mafia-ised. No doubt. The ear-to-ear grin and nice words are only a facade for TV cameras. Deep within, almost all the opliticians are thuggish and would go to any extend to protect their interests.

silverine said...

This is so disquieting, to think that an entire State waits for cue from it’s political masters like zombies. The deafening silence from Kerala on the “reservation’ issue drives home the point that The political mafia has now a days started thinking and deciding for us. They have nstitutionalised us. So without their command we cant do anything.

This means the agitation after an Engg student’s death (after being denied an education loan) which dominated TV screens was then just a political PR exercise and not an outpouring of helpless anguish by students? Really scary!

And the people of Kerala too are unbelievable. Political parties are like football teams they support and cheer for. This kind of fanatical support can be seen only for soccer clubs. Kudos to the Kerala political parties for achieving the kind of fan base enjoyed by Arsenal and Juventus.

But it is a losing game anyway I guess.

Please excuse me too for any political slogans in my comments :)

silverine said...

p.s. A real eye opener of a post and very well written!

Anonymous said...

You said it dude.
Let the bloggers bring in the change that the media which has turned itself into mouth peices of political parties cannot.
Its the bane of our state that the over educated unemployed youths are being manipulated by the political establishment for their advantage. These youth have stopped thinking by themselves, their brains are held hostage by the political pundits. Lets help them break these shackles.

Mind Curry said...

welcome onboard hari! and what a post to mark your entry! i am soo happy to see such frank and excellent writing on such a topic..something that affects each one of us in some way or the other.

you are so right on politicisation of our system. i can think of so many aspects where politics is so ingrained into our daily lives.

i remember my maid telling me, whenever she and her husband has a quarrel, the local politicians visit their house to mediate! such is the influence.

as more and more people realise the value of employment and thereby empowerment to make choices, this trend should change. but ofcourse, politicians wouldnt want to easily lose their brigade of unemployed and loyal party workers!

when we started this blog, we were looking at tapping the power of the internet and blogging. today we have 8 contributors, who are excellent writers and thinkers, with just one goal - a better and developed Kerala.

congrats to all of us

JK Vijayakumar said...

കേരളത്തെ രക്ഷിക്കാന്‍ ബ്ളോഗന്‍മാരോ?


സുഹൃത്തേ, ഇതൊരു മാധ്യമം മാത്റമാണ്‌, ഇപ്പോഴും ഒരു ചെറിയ ശതമാനത്തിന്‌ മാത്രം പ്രാപ്യമായ ഒരു സാങ്കേതിക വിദ്യ. ഇതിലൂടെയെങ്ങനെ കേരളത്തെ രക്ഷിക്കും? പല തരത്തിലുള്ള മാധ്യമങ്ങള്‍ ഇതിലും കൂടുതല്‍ ആഴത്തില്‍ വേരോട്ടമുള്ള ദിനപത്രങ്ങളും, ചാനലുകളുമൊക്കേ കൊണ്ടു പിടിചു ശ്രമിച്ചിട്ടും നടക്കാത്തത്‌, നിങ്ങളെങ്ങനെ നടത്തും?

കേരളത്തിണ്റ്റെ ഇപ്പോഴത്തെ രാഷ്ട്രീയ കാലാവസ്ഥയില്‍ അതിയായ ദുഖമുണ്ട്‌. പക്ഷേ മറ്റ്‌ പല സ്ഥലങ്ങളെയും അപേക്ഷിച്ചു നോക്കുമ്പോള്‍ ഇന്നും കേരളം അതിണ്റ്റെ തനതായ രാഷ്ട്രീയ പാരമ്പര്യം കാത്തു സൂക്ഷിക്കുന്നുണ്ട്‌.

രാഷ്ട്രീയ മാഫിയ എന്നൊക്കെ കേറി പറഞ്ഞു കളഞ്ഞില്ലേ? അത്‌ എല്ലായിടത്തും കണ്ടു വരുന്ന ഒന്നാണ്‌, കേരളത്തില്‍ ഒരു പക്ഷെ, അതിണ്റ്റെ ചരിത്രപരമായ രാഷ്ട്രീയവല്‍കൃതമായ സാഹചര്യങ്ങള്‍ മൂലം ഇത്‌ കൂടുതലായി ദൃശ്യമായേക്കാം.

നമ്മള്‍ക്കൊക്കെ, ഞാനുദ്ദേശിച്ചത്‌, പഠിക്കാന്‍ പാങ്ങില്ലാതിരുന്നവര്‍ക്കുള്‍പ്പെടെ നല്ല വിദ്യാഭ്യാസം ലഭിക്കാന്‍ സാധിച്ചതും, കടല്‍ കടക്കാന്‍ കഴിഞ്ഞതുമൊക്കെ മറന്നു പോകരുത്‌. കേരളത്തിലെ ഗ്രന്ഥശാലാ പ്രസ്ഥാനത്തിണ്റ്റെ വളര്‍ച്ചയും, അതുമൂലമുണ്ടായ സാമൂഹിക പരിവര്‍ത്തനവുമൊക്കെ മറക്കാനാവുമൊ?

അരാഷ്ട്റീയതയല്ല നമുക്ക്‌ വേണ്ടത്‌, മറിച്ച്‌ നമ്മെപ്പോലുള്ള ചെറുപ്പക്കാര്‍ കൂടുതല്‍ രാഷ്ട്രീയത്തിലേക്ക്‌ വന്ന്, ആദ്യം രാഷ്ട്റീയത്തെ രക്ഷിക്കുകയാണ്‌. അപ്പോള്‍ കേരളം താനേ രക്ഷപ്പെട്ടു കൊള്ളും. ഒരുപാട്‌ പറയാനുണ്ട്‌.... തത്കാലം നിര്‍ത്തട്ടേ?

Anonymous said...

An interesting post re Political Mafia. I think you make many relevant points regarding the grassroots 'organisations' gone beserk.
However, I hope you dont fall into the trap of generalising this to mean that all local level organisations and/or people involved in such organisations have only malicious motives.
If there needs to be progress, the way forward is not to just harshly criticise the wrongdoings of such cadres, but also approve of the good deeds.
Engaging more with the local organisations would help in vocalising ones objection to their actions. Disengagement does not help.
I dont know the intricate details of the SBI strike. However, I would not deny the right to strike IF the grievances are not addressed through other means.
Please do keep blogging.

Babin said...

Very True Hari. Wonderful first post. Welcome to the blog.
Kerala is at least 10X more over politized than what is normal. And this alliance among our media, political goonz, and the samskarika naayakan maars is really screwing mostly naive keralites.
We have to break this alliance of convinience to free kerala from its dark clouds.

Dew Drops said...

cool down dear. let us not forget it "we" who make the people mentioned in your post.

it is again "us" who live a dead life, content to ourselves. "we" are the ones who don't want to move even a little finger toward the change and expect misiahs to come and save us

quills said...

Excellent and powerful post! You are so right about the political mafiosi and the control they wield.

The smart city project has been dragged on for so long, I think it has become some kind of joke. Will it happen or won't it, still remains to be seen?

I am glad blogs like this exist. It is time that people finally get to air their opinions without fear of the political mafia or their thugs striking them down.

Sarah said...

Beautifully written and I must say bloggers like you are lucky. You can write about what you feel needs to be changed in Kerala.
As a Malaysian, anything I say against the Malaysian government can be taken as a seditious act and I could be arrested and jailed without a trial for 2 years using the internal security act.
You guys are lucky..if only we had 1/10 of the press freedom you guys have...

ശശി വര്മ്മ said...

Yes !!!

I also want to be a part of the Save Kerala Project!!

Thanks friends
JM

Myna said...

Did I see these lines in one of the earlier posts?

"Kerala going to DOGS".

If the DOG thinks that he is the master and master has short term memory of a maximum of 5 years, this is bound to happen.

This is the time of 'Alzheimers' in Kerala. A medicine is yet to find out for this disease. Till then, HOPE FOR THE BEST AND EXPECT THE WORST.

Anonymous said...

Regarding reservation- The merit died long time back in Kerala. Most of the students/public either enjoy the reservation or are rich enough to buy seats in educational institutes. The percentage of Keralites in All India Tests/Exams is a proof for the death of Merit/Competitiveness.

Brijesh Nair said...

Hari-Good post.
Talking about media-they all compete to make "sensational news" so that they can increase the profit. One thing which comes to my mind is the "ISRO spy case". All leading newspaper started series which described how the spy case when about. Later when Supreme Court gave the verdict that no spying has ever happened did any newspaper or media apologized? Did any one paid compensation to the scientists or to their families whose life was ruined because some media people want to sensationalize the news.

You are correct. The media in Kerala is hand in hand with the political mafia. Both have the same goal. Make money

Anonymous said...

yes it is to think by all us
altogether. your article is excellent. appreciate your open mind nature .. rgds

Terms of Use and Disclaimer