Right to Protest

 Democracy has some inbuilt assumptions.

One of them is a right to peaceful protest. The prime example of non-violent protest would be Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.

It really does not matter how serious the ruling party thinks the issue being raised is. If a number of people think it needs to be raised, it is serious for them. The rest of the citizens can decide for themselves and either support, oppose or be neutral to them.

But if you take away that right, it can have serious consequences, as history has often shown.

It is in the interest of the government in a democracy to heed such protests, and do something about them before they go out of hand. It's just a part of the democratic structure.

Tughlak Parallels

 In our history of monarchs, Tughlak became famous for quirky decisions which went unchallenged because he was the King! Now Trump seems to be giving him a run for his money.

Making sense used to be one of the benchmarks for administrative decisions- at least ostensibly. But new benchmarks are being set in a so-called Democracy. Is there nobody who can stop him? MAGA is likely to be Make America Grovel Again, looks like.. 

Well, everyone has an expiry date and so will he.. so what are our options as a common man? Take the R.K. Laxman view, and laugh at his quirky decisions which make zero sense, on the back of whatever America has stood for, all these years. 

Luckily, I don't need a visa to go to the U.S... I went in saner times, when Universities weren't persecuted. When it was actually Great!

Anopheles Takes Stock

Anopheles, my winged friend, was back. Her first question to me was, "Why are you perpetually having elections?"

"Because we are a democracy, of course," I had to say.

"Yes, but so many of them? With so much of misleading misrepresentation of truth?"

"You can call them lies, I have no problem with the truth," I told her.

"But the real issues get side-tracked, don't you think?"

"Not really, the bullet train is still on track," I told her.

"Hope that's not the SILVER BULLET,  the end of the story," she replied. I could sense some sarcasm.

"No, of course not. We have Vikas."

"Who's he?" she was curious, having known some names of my human friends.

"Well, it's not a 'he'. It's a word for development, in Hindi."

"Oh, you mean the stuff that's happening ever so slowly since the British left you to your own devices?"

I was amazed at her knowledge of history AND electoral rhetoric.

"And how are all the bans doing?" she persisted. And I started counting them...I promised her an update on her next visit, along with the election results, and went back to sleep.

Monarchy in Modern Times

This is triggered by the visit of William and Kate (just found that it is short for Kathryn, many years after that lesson called Late Kate in school). Why is it that we (England in this case) persist with Kings and Queens in a democracy?

The urge to have a Messiah, a figure that is larger-than-life, perhaps? But God already serves that purpose for most of us in most faiths. So why is it that we need a King/Queen?

Not that I would mind being a  King. I feel qualified too, because my name at home is an exact translation of the word. And who wouldn't want a bit of extra-constitutional authority and a limitless expense account? Or to be waited upon by the likes of Tendulkar and Vengsarkar (at the Mumbai Oval maidan yesterday), or maybe Aishwarya Rai (yet to happen in this case)?

There's more. I could probably send little notes to the Head of the Nation (the one who people elected) on what I think he should be doing in various spheres that I knew nothing about. Not to mention the numerous meaningless inaugurations and speeches I could try my hand at, when I was not attending Grand Balls, receptions or just good old parties, and having a good time. Who wants an account in Panama when you can have it all right where you are?

Long Live the Queens, and Kings.

Gee, It's the Greeks

A crisis by any other name, would it sound the same?

For example, a Geek crisis could also include default on payments, because the geek was neck deep in his geeky activities. By the way, is a nerd a geek, or the other way round? Not quite sure.

But coming back to crises, they are more interesting when the Greeks are involved-geeky or not. In fact, most things get more interesting when there are Greeks or Romans (as Asterix would have said, these Romans are crazy) in them. Caesar's salad and Greek salad compete for the palate. You know what? The Greeks are supposed to have given us the Modern Democracy. So we have someone to blame. When we were happily lurching from one monarch to the other, where was the need to upset the apple-cart?

Anyway, what's done is done. We will now lurch from one party to another in a democratic whirlwind. And default (whose fault is it anyway?) on payments sometimes, to add zest to the proceedings- in between the elections, I mean.