When the Fence Eats the Crop

My good old friend and classmate had just come to Bangalore on a vacation from the US, which he has made his adopted home.Being old time Bangloreans, our conversation wound around old times and finally on to traffic in Bangalore. As we were discussing the chaos or may I call it madness that we have which we euphemize as ‘Traffic’ in Bangalore, we heard a huge ear splitting roar of a 2-wheeler , driven by, maybe, some kid , whose dad was rich and wanted his progeny to be noticed !!

As I was complaining about the Din, my friend looked puzzled and told me that I should be complaining to cops to solve the problem. Having spent over 20years in the US, my friend seemed to have forgotten the way police in India in general and Police in Bangalore, in particular, operate. He drawled on in his American Accent, as to how the ‘Cops’ way back in the US were the peace makers and the trust the common Man had in him, I thought it not right to argue and more than that my Indian Pride did not let me update the ground reality to my friend , now an American.

After dinner and after seeing my friend off, my mind lingered on what my adorable friend had mentioned, as an Indian and as a Bangalorean, touch wood, I have had the misfortune of going to a police station only half a dozen times in my entire life, and this was to report on Loss of Pager, Loss of Mobile, verification for passport and on two occasions to register a complaint of accident where the offending vehicle just drove away with impunity!!

Was a Cop looked at as a friend by a lawful citizen in this city?? I do not know what experience others may have, but most people that I have spoken to including me , see cops as opportunists who will harass you in the name of law, and make a quick buck. These guys are highly avoidable, and most try and avoid these specimen!!

One could reach for a compromise in the traffic related skirmish rather than go register a complaint because both the parties know it is futile. The influential offender will dare the other to register the complaint while the lesser law abiding mortals will try and settle the case by paying the damage money on site. Going to the cops would mean, a painful process and where you would land up spending double that stuff. I’m fascinated when almost every time a new police chief comes in he talks about building the police –citizen trust, I do believe that these chiefs are sharp ( else considering the system.. they would never have reached this far), so these are just sound bytes for public consumption, they have hardly done anything concrete in this direction.

knows what he actually is looking for, not that this would change if he had six packs..but When a pot-bellied cop waves you down and asks for your papers, any law abiding Bangaloreanat least there is hope that he would be fair.I thought of listing out some of the most common anomalies in traffic in and around Bangalore . The scene is not very different in other cities either

a) We have so many traffic laws, nobody respects them as these cannot be enforced and we make even more , forget cities, even on highways you have HTV’s coming in the wrong direction with their headlights on!!

b) In Bangalore, today ,there are many vehicles with Number Plates in non English versions.In a cosmopolitan city and more importantly in a country where we have had terrorist activities like we have common cold!! What are the cops waiting for?? A catastrophe to happen before we crack down on this?? There is an old adage, A stitch in time saves Nine… and I believe this is very apt here, even the cops cannot read a kannada number plate in a panic situation, so why wait , Nip the offence at the bud.

c) The Cops wait just after a traffic light for people to break the law, while they should strive to ensure that the law is enforced in the first place.

d) We have the traffic offences and the fines listed on boards at various junctions, more a reminder on the options a cop has in booking you once he waves you down, I cannot see any other purpose.

e) Stroll in your neighbourhood and you see that 80% of the no parking signs are violated, yet we never tire of framing more laws and creating more avenues for harrasment of the law abiding public

f) Drive on to the Highway and you see many large vehicles with no tail lamps or Brake lamps, some don't even sport a readable number plate!! The heavy vehicles occupy the right-most lane, I'm sure we may have a higher compliance if we were to declare ourselves a left hand drive country.

The news papers, the local TV Channels and the denizens of Bengaluru never tire complaining about the state of the traffic. We talk of technology like synchronised traffic lamps to be deployed, fly overs to be built and speed cameras to be installed. Yes, these are necessary. These are necessary, but not sufficient.
If we need to solve issues we also need to ensure processes in place, learn to own our city and treat this like we would , our own home. We need to believe and practice that abiding the law has to begin with each of us. We need to stop circumventing the law, we need to ensure enforcement of the existing laws, failing which, we need to simply have them deleted. Law when not enforced, makes people take it too lightly as is seen in most places in Bangalore today.

But in order to do all this we need Law enforcers who are men of , we need honest enforcement officers, the respect and trust of the denizens will simply follow... A fence that eats the crop is a real nightmare...

In The Name Of God...

India for long has prided in being a country showcasing unity in diversity, frankly as an Indian and as denizen of this country I have never seen any fellow Indian in the colour of cast , religion, region or language. I have been intrigued and many times distressed at news and images flashed across media on divisions along these lines. May it be clashes of religious communities, or on state border disputes or disputes relating to castes. Where are we as a country headed? Where is our famed quality of tolerance and unity in diversity?? Who is to blame for the state of affairs and who is accountable for the trauma, the hatred and the emotional and economic losses that these incidents result in?To say that we as Indians are responsible and accountable for this; is way too motherhood a statement to make. We need to get down to a lot more of introspection and soul searching , the rot has to to stemmed, we need to do something to ensure that we look at ourselves as Indians first and everything else comes only after this, this is key for our survival as a country called Bharat. We have in cooperation with our so called leaders abused and twisted the meaning of democracy and these leaders have in turn used it to further their wealth and power through a old British tactic of divide and Rule. The prompt for this blog was what I have been reading in the newspapers for a few days now ; about the attack on Women in a Mangalore pub by self anointed "Moral" police.These chappies believe that they are the custodians of Hinduism and that they are the selected imposers of Hinduism on the lesser mortals. Sadly it took over 72 hours and a lot of mud-slinging between political parties before the 'Long" arm of law went around to grab the culprits. Here too we have the Secular parties and the " Communal" parties. Frankly there is nothing in this branding, all the parties use religion as a plank to divide and grab votes; some do it covertly (Secular) and some do it overtly. As an individual I would rather be more wary of the "secular " variety as they have more than one face . In the Mangalore incident the secular parties are blaming the ruling party which has been labelled as communal (read BJP) for fostering the moral brigade. Before anybody jumps to conclusions let me assure you that I speak for no political party and empathise with no party.My consternation stems from the fact that the politicians along with the media have really insulted the collective intelligence of the Indian public yet again, if any person with an modicum of intelligence is to believe the media that BJP is responsible for attacks on churches earlier and now the attacks by the moral brigade, think again. Our willy politicians who have collaborated to keep India as a "Developing Nation"even 60 years after independence are NOT stupid to loose a chance to stake their claim to governing at the center, by sponsoring such skirmishes. On the contrary, it benefits our 'secular' netas to sponsor such clashes to ensure negative publicity to the 'communal' netas. The media anyway is spineless and will report keeping their selfish interests in mind. This trend is even more unsettling considering the fact that we have both the polity and the press working towards their selfish ends rather than to the betterment of the nation.This situation calls for concrete action; to keep religion out of politics and ban any party that targets the electorate in the name of religion overtly or covertly. Even the distribution of party tickets on religious, communal and caste lines should qualify for this ban. I have seen for myself that religion in itself is never a barrier to unity among Indians, most people are agnostic to the religius moorings of their friends , neighbours or business associates, the fact that some of my best friends are Christians or Muslims has , enriched the bond that we have and the respect we have for each others religion. Ask any thinking Indian and they will reflect this sentiment, my interaction with many people who where branded as radicals on this subject has reinforced my conviction on religion that, by itself is a soothing medium , which bonds and provides a safe and peaceful vent for differences among men. It is when the greed for power and deceit for gain of the politicians mix with this balm called religion that the explosive mixture called hatred is created; where there is no Indian, only Hindus, Muslims, Christians...where man looses his ability to reason and gets to his root and becomes a savage, where men kill, burn and maim their own kind and further the selfish cause of the perpetrators of this event who like, vultures swoop down on the carcasses for their own survival and gain. This has to stop, logic and reason needs to prevail. If the daily TV footings, of wailing women and children, of smouldering buses and public property, of simmering homes and of people screaming in terror and pain has to stop. If daily wastage of newsprint on covering charges traded by politicians and banal details of findings of committees and commissions are to stop, we need to cover a lot of ground and the best place I believe we can start, is to stop politics....In the name of God.