This Blood Group Is Backward

"Letters to the editor" is a part of any newspaper that I would not miss reading. You can judge me on this alone, but it is a fact. It is very interesting, for me at least, to know what people think about the news and views expressed in the newspaper. Today, in Deccan Herald, one reader had written to the editor, his strong views against reservation for minorities proposed by the present United "Progressive" Alliance Government. In that, he said, "No sensible person can think of reservation based on religion, colour of skin, blood group etc. ". Now the last bit, about blood group, struck me. This, I thought, was an avenue not yet explored by our reservation-hungry politicians.

Reservations based on blood groups. How to achieve this? Simple. All that needs to be done is first establish a committee; this committee will be entrusted the responsibility of conducting nationwide blood tests, determining the blood group which has the least population.(For the first time in the history of committees, this one will generate revenue for someone outside the committee. And that someone is hospitals conducting blood tests.), then proving officially that, that blood group is a socially and economically backward blood group.

Then the Government has to announce special reservations for those belonging to the oppressed and backward blood group. The opposition will then come out strongly saying, "This is nothing but blood-group politics. ". This will lead to polarization of polity on the basis of blood groups. We will then have 'A positive leader', 'B positive leader', 'O positive leader' etc instead of 'Dalit leader', 'Brahmin leader', 'OBC leader', 'Muslim leader', 'Hindu leader(if there is any)' etc that we have now. Consequently the number of types of leaders will decrease, which is really good.

This blood-group politics will enable us to overcome caste system and politics based on it and politics based on religion. This, to me is the biggest positive that will come out of all this apparent nonsense. And this positive, has come out of that seemingly innocuous "Letters to the Editor" space of the newspaper. Now, I hope, you understand the significance of this oft ignored part of newspapers.

Left to paagal hai!

"As long as the left has any future in this country, this country has no future left", was a pithy and witty remark made by Cho Ramaswamy, editor of the magazine Tuglak. How true this statement is, becomes very clear when we look at how the left has conducted itself after propping up a weak Congress led government led by a remarakably spineless Prime Minister two and a half years ago.

First came their demand to scrap the anti-terror law POTA enacted by the previous government. It was a necessity for them in their ideological warfare with the right. It doesn't matter to them if the nation loses because of that. Then they wanted the Government propped by them and headed by one of India's weakest Prime ministers, to have a relook at the improving Indo-US relations. How can you become friends with a 'Capitalist' state like US! If it were in their hands they would have even gone to war with US.

With their minds warped in an ideology that is definitely past its time, they wanted India to not even say 'Hello' to Israel. It doesn't matter to them that Israel is very important for our defence needs. Again if it was their own Government they would have probably derecognised Israel as a nation, thinking that this will teach Israel a lesson.

Then they used their new found powers in helping Maoists in Nepal to overthrow the Hindu Kingdom in Nepal. This was again a stupendous ideological victory for them. Then one day the Chinese ambassador says "Arunachal Pradesh belongs to China". When all political parties condemned the remark and reiterated that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India, the loony left fell way short of doing so and said that "This was a historical dispute". This can only happen with the Indian prototype of a communist.

Their obsession with China is so insane that, they were complaining that the government was not allowing investments from China. This is also blatant hypocrisy as they are the ones to show the red flag(pun intended) whenever the Government considers increasing foreign direct investments. Any other country other than China, will invest in India with the sole intention of curbing India's independence is what the Indian Communists strongly believe. J P Narayan, once said that "the communists are Soviet stooges". Now the only difference is they are Chinese stooges.

The fact that they can condescend to any level was evident when they wanted India to strongly condemn death penalty to Saddam, a person who had killed millions of people during his tenure. What US is doing in Iraq may not be the most appropriate thing, but that does not necessitate India to condone the heinous crimes that Saddam did. But these are things beyond the scope of the Left's anachronistic ideology driven intellect. But the country cannot sufer because of them. We have to get rid of this loony left menace as soon as possible. Otherwise far greater dangers than we have seen are definitely in store.

Will Afzal apologists now campaign for Santosh Singh?

Today's 'New Indian Express' carried an article by Gurumurthy on the subject of the contrasting approaches taken by the media and the secularists towards the death sentences to Afzal the terrorist and Santosh Singh the murderer. Excellent articulation. In our media, its rare to find articles like these, that expose the mindless, outrageous, harmful 'secular discourse' happening in our country. Please, please read this article if you haven't already done so.

Kannada, Kannadiga, Karnataka

Today, is a special day for Kannadigas. This day marks fifty years of Karnataka. Ironically in this fiftieth year, in this state formed to promote Kannada, Kannada finds itself in very miserable situation. Kannada is increasingly being neglected and Kannadiga is facing a big challenge in preserving his identity. But, the reasons for the plight of Kannada as well as the Kannadiga lies in the Kannadiga himself and not anyone else. Unfortunately this realisation has not dawned upon people who can make a difference.

Particularly, a majority of the people(not everyone) among today's Kannada literati, I dare say, should take the major blame for the ills facing Kannada. Whenever they are asked as to what should be done to improve Kannada consciousness among Kannadigas, their one and only answer is to make Kannada the medium of instruction in schools. This response is so inane and lacking in maturity that I, although being a Kannadiga, seriously doubt their ability to produce creative works. In a globalised world of today where good English knowledge has become imperative, making Kannada or for that matter any other regional language the medium of instruction would make children handicapped right from the beginning. Also it does no good to Kannada. Instead, have Kannada as a compulsory language in schools. Not only that, discard the current Kannada textbooks full of same old history lessons and omnipresent Ambedkar stories (the same story about Ambedkar appeared in all the ten years of our schooling) and replace them with textbooks containing chapters that can make students eager to read more of Kannada literature(which , I admit, I haven't done till now but I am determined to change that soon).

Another knee-jerk reaction of these militant kannada activists is to stop theatres from showing other language movies and blame those movies for the sad sate of Kannada movie industry. They are not ready to admit that the Kannada film industry, that once was adorned with men like Rajkumar, Narasimharaju and Balakrishna, is so pathetically lacking in talent that its only resort these days is remaking Telugu and Tamil films with the less than mediocre acting talent available in Kannada cinema today. Despite this, if any good movie is releaased, people have received it well as it was in the case of "Apthamitra" or for that matter "Jogi"(this film had a good story but mediocre cast in my opinion).

Non-kannadigas are also the target of these bellicose self-proclaimed saviours of Kannada. Even in this case it is our fault that we do not market our native language well enough to them. One simple thing you can do to market Kannada to non-Kannadigas is to tell them about BeeChi and Master Hirannayya and give them a peek into the works of these master satirists.

Popularisation of "Kannada Sugama Sangeeta" is another way to promote interest in Kannada.
I haven't read Kannada poems other than those few we had in our schools. But for laymen like us, people like Mysore Ananthswamy have composed music and sung them in the form of "Sugama Sangeeta"(light music). They are not only well composed and pleasant to listen, but they also familiarize us with Kannada poems. If you understand Kannada and you haven't listened to these songs please do listen and enjoy. Thats the least service we can do to Kannada.

And last but not the least, what we all Kannadigas can do is to speak Kannada and do so without feeling apologetic about it. Remember, only we Kannadigas together can save Kannada. Neither the Government nor the bearded-bespectacled men in the Kannda literary world like Anantamurty offer us any hope. The only hope lies in awakening the Kannada consciousness in every Kannadiga in a peaceful, dignifed manner that befits Kannadigas and without antagonising our own countrymen in other states.