मेरा त्यागपत्र

एक विचार पिछले कुछ दिनों से मन में कौंध रहा है, और वह विचार है कि शायद मुझे अब त्यागपत्र दे देना चाहिए।  कितने आराम से लिख दिया की मुझे त्यागपत्र दे देना चाहिए। पर मुझे लगता है ये इतना आसान नहीं होगा , पर फिर सोचता हूँ की शायद ये इतना मुश्किल भी  नहीं है। मेरे भारत की स्तिथि अभी बहुत अच्छी नहीं है।  कोई भी व्यवस्था अपनी जगह पर दुरुस्त नहीं है इस समय।  पर क्या इसका कारण मेरे वो निरणय है जिसको मैंने अब तक लिए हैं ये सोच कर की जो कर रहा हूँ वो सबसे बेहतर हैं।  

क्या मुझे आजकल देश मे चल रही अनियमिताएं नहीं दिख रहीं हैं ? शायद नहीं क्योंकि इस समय देश में  जो अर्थव्यवस्था  की हालत है, और उससे उबरने के लिए किये गए उपाय गलत साबित हो रहें हैं साथ ही  जो मजदूर पैदल ही घर जा रहें हैं वो भी तो एक नाकामी है मेरी।  50 वर्षो से हम गरीबी हटाओ की बात करते आये हैं मुझे याद है इंदिरा गाँधी ने 1971 का चुनाव "गरीबी हटाओ" के ही नारे पर लड़ा था।  पर इस बीच बहुत सी सरकारें आई और चली गई पर आजतक गरीबी नहीं हैट पाई।  इस देश पर राज करते हुए हम गरीबी  और  ग़रीबों को हमेशां भूले रहे। 

आज जो कुछ भी सोशल मीडिया पर या टीवी पर मजदूरों से सम्बंधित दिखाया जा रहा है वो सब गलत है ये मान लेने से सच झूठ नहीं हो जायेगा। देश को सुचारु रूप से चलने की जिम्मेदारी मैंने ली है पर शायद मैं अभी तक अपना 100% नहीं दे पाया हूँ।  इस समय जब की देश एक महामारी से लड़ रहा है और जो दावे मेरी सरकार द्वारा किये जा रहें हैं उसमे कहीं बहुत बड़ी गड़बड़ है। और ऐसे मे ये बात की भी संभावना है की जब भी हम इस महामारी से बाहर निकलेंगे एक इससे भी बड़ा संकट मुँह बाये खड़ा होगा और वो होगा बेरोजगारी का !  हम जो सहायता सरकार की तरफ से कर रहे हैं क्या वह वाकई में उस कतार मे खड़े अंतिम व्यक्ति को फायदा पहुंचाने वाली है? 30 करोड़ लोग कम से कम इस महामारी की वजह से अबतक बेरोजगार हो चुकें हैं।  ये एक बड़ा संकट है। समस्या यह भी है की शहरों से गांव को लौटे लोग अब शायद जल्दी ही वापस भी ना लौटें ये एक बड़ा अर्थव्यवस्था का संकट खड़ा हो गया है।  अब इन लोगों को दुबारा अपने पैरों पर खड़ा करना भी एक बड़ी समस्या है।  

ये समझ आ गया की इतनी बड़ी त्रासदी के बाद भी हम कुछ नहीं सिख पाये।  जहाँ तक ताली बजाना या दिया जलाना था वो एक जनमानस का विष्वास था मेरे प्रति या कहें की मेरे देशवासियो ने अपने कर्त्तव्य का निष्ठापूर्वक पालन किया और मेरे प्रति आस्था प्रकट की कि मैं उन्हे इस संकट से उबार लूंगा पर अब ऐसा लग रहा है की वो विष्वास भी कमजोर पड़ रहा है। ऐसा नहीं है की मैं परेशान नहीं हूँ पर  समाधान मेरे पास भी नहीं है शायद।  मेरे द्वारा उठाये गए क़दमों से 100% लाभ देश को हुआ है ये कहना बेमानी होगा क्योंकि अगर ऐसा हुआ होता तो वो गरीब जो आज पैदल ही 1000 की मि अपने घर की तरफ चल चूका है  वो नहीं होता।  अब इस बात को समझना बहुत जरुरी है की देश अब तक औद्योगिक घरानो से नहीं चल रहा था अब तक देश चला रहे थे ये मजदूर, जो आज मजबूर होकर पैदल ही घर की तरफ जा रहें हैं। मन  चाहता है की ये सब मेरे भाई बहन वापस बड़े शहरों  मे आ जाएं  पर शायद अब जल्द ही  ऐसा नहीं होगा। 

कभी कभी सोचता हूँ की लॉकडाउन कर के क्या पाया, एक भेड़ चाल जिसमें ये सोचने की जरुरत नहीं की बाड़े में जा रहें हैं की बूचड़खाने में !!! ये बीमारी या महामारी सिर्फ देश मे ही नहीं बल्कि मेरे आसपास व्याप्त लोगों की मानसिकता मे भी है।  क्योंकि अगर ऐसा नहीं होता तो अब तक जितना पैसा और एनर्जी इस लॉकडाउन मे और इसके प्रचार में बर्बाद किया इससे कम मे और बहुत पहले उन सब मजदूरों को घर पंहुचा सकता था। कौन मदद कर रहा है इन मजदूरों की आज? वो आम आदमी जिसे खुद नहीं  पता उसका आने वाला कल कैसा है? पर फिर भी मानव सेवा मे पूरी तत्परता से लगा हुआ है।  इस आम जनता के प्रति हमको नतमस्तक होना चाहिए। 

हम नीतिनिर्धारकों को ये छोटी सी बात अब भी समझ  नहीं आ रही है की देश बनाने वाले आज बेहाल है।  नौकरशाही इस देश को नहीं चला पा रही है।  समय आ गया है  व्यवस्था परिवर्तन का? वातानुकूलित कमरे में बैठ कर,  45' गरमी में पैदल चल रहे लोगों का मर्म नहीं समझा जा सकता।  उसको समझने के लिए खुद को उस स्तिथि में डालना होगा।  आज की परिस्तिथि में खाना और सकुशल घर पहुंचना प्राथमिक्ता है और हमसे शायद ये प्राथमिकता  का अनुमान गलत लग गया।  इस देश में अब तक मूलभूत सुविधाओं का आभाव है।  मेरे या पूर्वरत सरकरों ने अब तक इन सुविधाओं पर बहुत काम कार्य किया, और शायद यही कारण है आज देश की इस दुर्दशा का।  हम आपसी राजनीती में ऐसे उलझे की राज करने की नीती ही भूल गए और अब भी जग नहीं पाएं हैं।  

अब भी जब अकेला होता हूँ तो ये विचार मन में आता है कि क्या मै अपने कार्य में सफल रहा हूँ?  मैं अपने जनसम्पर्क अभियान में जन से सम्पर्क ही स्थापित नहीं कर पाया।  और इसका बहुत बड़ा कारण ये व्यवस्था है और इसको चलाने वाले लोग हैं, हम नेता शायद हर 5 साल  मे बदलते रहे हैं पर जो नहीं बदली है वो है नौकरशाही और इसी न बदल पाई व्यवस्था के कारण देश शायद आज भी वहीँ खड़ा है जहाँ अंग्रेज छोड़ कर गए थे। और तब जाते हुए अंग्रेजो ने कहा था की जब हम इस देश को छोड़ कर जाएंगे तो ये देश बिखर जायेगा क्योंकि इस देश को चलाने वाले आपस में ही एक दूसरे की टांग खीचेंगे।  और आज की स्तिथि को देख कर लगता है की शायद वो गलत नहीं थे।  

आजादी से लेकर आज तक किसी भी सरकार ने देश से बस सच  छुपाने का काम किया है और हमने भी इसी परम्परा को आगे बढ़ाया।  मानव सभ्यता की शुरुवात से ही कुछ दोष रहें हैं पर उन दोषों पर जिसने विजय पाई है वो इतिहास मे अमर हो गया।  शायद अब सही समय है निर्णय करने का मेरे लिए - की मैं किस राह पर चलना चाहता हूँ।         

Logical Fallacies

Embracing the absolute power cannot be the motive - rather how to transact the nation so that power will achieve its ultimate goal of serving the last person standing and this can certainly makes the difference. And we can say the goal of the government has been achieved. Political party should know this fact that it is not that political party who makes the king it is always the public is the king maker. Ever since we have achieved our Independence and from Nehru’s government to Modi’s government we are still struggling in achieving the goal of “Selfless Service”.

Reference from the present pandemic could be - the deaths of Migrant laborers on the Highways of the country. If we have really achieved the goal for which the democracy has been adopted by India things would have been different today. Unfortunately, till now all the ruling parties in this country have adopted the theory of logical fallacies.  Because of this a huge cost has been paid by the country.  For any political party through all these years of independent India – country has not developed to its full potential.  Where the countries like Japan or Germany became super power in this period and do remember we all have started at the same time! They didn’t become economic super power by having nuclear bomb in their Armory, It is not a comparison it is more of a fact check.   

Since our Independence few unfortunate decisions took by the ruling parties which have certainly changed India forever e.g. Emergency of 1975, Operation Blue Star, Mandal Commission, Liberalization, Demolition of Babri Masjid, and many communal riots. None of these ever proven an instrumental change in the society for positivity rather had always created much bigger crater amongst the society. Many elections were fought on the basis of these illogical fallacies that country is doing well and many people did vote for it as well. These blunders have had the negative impact on the country’s mindset.

Often it is been said the present government does not know how to rule the country and it is sabotaging the principles which is being setup by the constitution builders for the united and secular nation. An example since Independence till 1994 there were around 50 communal riots took place in our country and many casualties had happened unfortunately we don’t know the exact numbers of the lives we have lost. And from 1997 till now around 14 more big riots took place in the country. Honestly speaking - what have we gained out of these riots? Which took place in different times and different parts of the country? But when you ask the leaders did we achieve something out of it? They will never be able to answer it honestly. Logic is “to be in the power does not matter how it comes to you”.   

Did we achieve anything out of 1991 liberalization? Those who remembered the decision at that time must be remembering the predictions for the 21^st century India which has been given by than government. The point was India will be economic super power in coming years and we will eradicate poverty. Again I will ask did we really able to achieve even the first goal of Liberalization? Did we eradicate the poverty? Answer we all know unfortunately farmer still have to commit suicide because he does not have money to repay his loan. But of course Tata’s, Adani’s, Reliance, Mahindra’s and many more like them have become global. Even Google CEO is an Indian. Becoming a CEO of Google has a motivational value but it does not give any economic benefit to a common man of this country.     

Another Fallacies – “Demonetization”: The only positive impact of demonetization (and that too temporarily) was that the banks became flushed with cash and a lot of people came into the mainstream banking system. And the Negative is – It is more than Three years now and 66 per cent of respondents in an online survey have said that demonetization had negative impact on economy and labour employment. And if you remember the 2019 election campaign where 100s of crore money been seized by police in deferent part of the country and mostly were high denomination notes, of course they were all black money.   

At present the entire country is suffering because of COVID-19 pandemic instead of combatting with it we are still busy juggling with the data of government aids or stimulus package to fight against it. At present country needs a black & white television but we have been provided with a colour television because in the form of stimulus package if someone says we are in one of the biggest economic crisis where more than 80% people have lost their jobs is all false. The need of the hour is instant practical aid to the country. One of the sayings of Veda’s - “If a person deviates from his path he deviate individually but if a king deviates the entire nation deviates”.      

Status Quo

Few years ago I was the media advisor to one of the non-political outfit and there I use to have conversations with the head of our organization he was instrumental in the 70s JP movement a renowned reformer and the backbone of the current ruling party of our country for long time. Once I asked him about our country - government and its governance and the role of a political party in the development of the country and also the role of Bureaucracy and bureaucrats in the smooth running of the country? He gave statement and said Bureaucrats are horses and the Politician are the Jockeys – and how the horse will perform this all depend upon the ability of the ability of the Jockey. Now just think how our country is performing at present?    

Every one of us knows in our country what kind of lifestyle is being led by our ministers; bureaucratese and high officials in comparison to the first world country counterparts of theirs. ‘They are leading the life of kings”. And on the other side when we see the Global Hunger Index ranking of our country in the world India stands 102 amongst 117 countries according to IFPRI 2019 October ranking. This ranking proves so right when we see the plight of our migrant laborers they all are walking back home without food and money. This pandemic has unleashed every political party in our country. One is struggling to take country out of it and others are in cashing the opportunity at this pandemic time.

At present so many deaths are happening around us, I know the vast and populous country like ours we do have people die of many reasons. But at present the situation is different and the death like this is not acceptable.  If you remember a movie called “Baby” in that movie the lead actor Akshay Kumar slaps a personal secretary of a minster because the statement what personal secretary gave regarding the soldier’s death in which he said “don’t talk about the deaths of the soldiers they will die because that’s their job”. It’s a very appropriate example for the present situation which display’s the exact mindset of the system which is in place today. It seems no one cares our job is to announce packages to take country out of economic crisis and things will be fine afterwards.

The common people especially the poor and lower middle class of the society which consist of almost around 99% of the total population of the country believes – their stature has not changed since independence - does not matter which party has ruled the country and unfortunately they believe it will never change as well. It is so unfortunate for any country where the population starts losing the trust in the system. Who is responsible for this? Of course the jockey is responsible he never knew which way the horse has to move and at what speed. Of course we are doing well as far as pandemic COVID-19 and its spread in the society is concern according to the govt. statistics. Here I would say there are very few countries in the world that are providing the real data. And of course it has to be a concern for the mankind but at present you really can’t do anything. It seems whatever is going around us at present is all about numbers. If you are a TV channel you need TRP if you are a government you need the data to show comparisons and development plans. Unfortunately none of the stake holders are opposing it openly. Probably it is all about you scratch my back I scratch yours.

Has anyone ever thought what is the ranking of India amongst the world countries in terms of World Press Freedom Index - according to 2019 ranking India stands at 142 rank three steps ahead of Pakistan and 30 steps below Nepal, Just imagine world’s second largest populous country and Press does not have freedom what the first world countries Press is enjoying infect I have talked about this in my previous post in detail under the heading “Journalists and their Journalism”. Our Jockeys does not know how to ride the horse or maybe they are hand in hands with their horse again If you are an optimistic you can always say we are better than many country in this sub-continent.    

As far as marketing of the development of the country as a product is concern it is going quit well but there is a defect in the production line – kindly rectify it as soon as possible otherwise marketing can’t hold the product for very long, do remember if the product has a defect doesn’t matter how good your marketing is – it will fall eventually. Let every machine perform their work accordingly single machine cannot perform the work of the others for very long.  

Journalists and their Journalism

Who am I? I am a present day Journalist with negotiation skill. Why I require a negotiation skill when I am a journalist? I require this skill to become a liaison. Why I want to become a Liaison? I want to become a liaison to exploit my position for my personal benefits but I am a journalist and my job is to cover and present the news for my audience! Though the present situation is - Journalism is divided into two sects: One who is with the government and other is against the government. The one who is with the power has forgotten their as well as the anti-government ones. What a pro government. journalist thinks? Pro journalists – represent government indirectly and always stand with the government decisions. And the anti-government journalist didn’t want to see any positives in the government decisions and mostly he represent the opposition political party and run those parties political agendas in public. Where we in India have adopted Democratic way of governance and in that - Journalism is defined as one of the important Pillar of Democracy. 

In Democracy it is never wrong to criticize your government - especially when you are a journalist and performing your duty honestly of course the power will not going to like you but that does not mean you should not criticize the government. This is what your job is. And do not only criticize the government do appreciate when you see things are going in the right direction. But if I ask - at present are we as a journalist’s performing our duty honestly? And the honest answer to the question will be a definite no. Why we see the news on TV? We see the news channels to know what is happening around us. And at present we have so many private news channels who overload us with the information’s which are very biased and provoking towards something irrelevant. Country is run by the government and they have to take care of many possibilities and in this an important part is played by the journalists for smooth running of the system with their informatics reporting. And there are very few journalists who dared to expose the government and because of their daringness they all are suffering right now and we should not hesitate to appreciate their work. Of course it has to be with proofs and of course investigating journalism has saved the country many times in the past.  .    

The sad period of Journalism is going on at present. And the journalists in many ways have gone to their all-time low. Here I would not say that government is not responsible for this, and If you are very active on all these mediums of information you can see the biased as well as neutral views of these journalists. A journalists take an oath – “I will perform my duty as a responsible journalist towards my country and my profession”. But what am I doing now? Am I really representing the way it is supposed to be represented? Answer of this question we all know and sadly I have to say it is not the right phase of journalism which is going on. Most of the big journalists of today have a very influential family background they have not become big because of their honest and dedicated service in the field rather influent has helped them become what they are today.

In the past - there were many reporters or journalists who have achieved their name in the journalism field with their brilliant work and big political leaders use to respect them. From the past we have many examples of fantastic journalism but contemporary one would be when the country was under emergency. At that time many journalists were imprisoned because of their investigative journalism and taking out the truth in front of the country which was against the government. You can’t ignore their work because without their support and work even Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan wouldn’t have achieved his Goal of toppling the Indira Government for the very first time of Independent history of India. Also many journalists at present time had learned their skills from those early and mid-70s senior Journalists but yes the time has changed now and because of which the definition of journalisms has also changed. Present day journalism is more about agenda setting and the journalists become the tools in the hands of politicians for their agenda setting games. Now a new trend has started in which the journalists disliking their own counterpart openly. This hatred towards each other has become so big now - that they go to any extent to insult and humiliate each other on public platforms. 

There are so many examples of biased reporting are going on at present in the news – which is quite shameful. A Journalist should not favor a government rather report the event as it is - and if possible with all its pros & cons. Unfortunately now a day we don’t see any such reporting these days. At present most of these big media houses are either being owned by big business family or under the influence of big political party.  And that is why they can’t stay neutral or unbiased - one of the recent example on which a rage is going on in opposition these days is of “Central Vista project” of Central Government many of us know what it is. But the way it has been presented to masses and which raise the question about journalists and their reporting and of course it is not neutral reporting by many big journalists. This is a fine example of agenda setting politics and in which lots of renowned journalists playing important part by supporting the opposition political party. What the opposition saying at present - the country is suffering from COVID-19 - why the government is continuing with this project?  Where a big amount is involved we should rather postpone this project or suspend it for the time being and fight and help the people who are suffering from this.  If you go back in history – you will come to know that this project of building a new Parliament House and some new Ministerial buildings were proposed long time back. It never took place because a very long period rather between 1989 – 2014 no single party majority government ruled India. In spite of urgent need of a new building was required to run the administration smoothly. The present government took initiative and decided to go ahead with this long pending project. Central Vista Project is one big project - like this several projects are going on in different parts of the country which are equally important. But the journalists are not interested in reporting those projects but this one because it is taking place in New Delhi. Of course on one hand it does make sense of suspending the project at present but on the other hand if we’ll stop the project it will slowdown the speed of the economic growth of the country. The government is providing uninterrupted employment to lot of workforce at this adverse time.  In the history of Modern and Medieval as well as in Ancient India we have many examples where the Kings initiated projects to provide their subjects work when the subjects didn’t have any work to take care of their families.  Certainly this example is not the comparison or I am saying government is doing the right thing. It is just an example.

Unfortunately most of us absorb the anti-government news as it is we do not try to find out about its authenticity and this is the advantage - what these journalists enjoy afterwards. Legitimacy in the reporting of theirs has gone away from the present day journalism. If you will start following the basic idea of journalism you will definitely going to help journalists and their followings. It’s been said that the present government has a team of volunteers whose job is to follow all the news channels throughout the day and submit the report to the their superiors at the end of the day and then accordingly the directives being issued to all the news channels on what content they should run and write on their respective formats. If it is true - then it is not a good practice in the democratic form of governance. But It is also quite sad for the organization to follow these instruction. The other truth is - every private organization needs money to run their show and money has to come to them from somewhere and if the hands of the supreme are on your back you are the King. And you have to oblige them as well.  

I have a suggestion – it is in practice in couple of countries BBC England and DW Germany are the example where news agencies do not come directly under the government undertaking. And they are independent bodies there. These two news agencies get money from the tax payers directly to run. This kind of system should also be adopt in our country but in our country we have a slight problem in implementing this system as the government does not get tax from major population and collection is low directly. But we can always donate a little amount from our pocket so this organization can run independently here as well. If you think you can be a responsible citizen of India and you want your country to flourish take a pledge and start donating whatever minimum you can think of giving. This act will certainly give confidence to the organization or the individual journalist whom so ever you think is doing a good job in the field of journalism.