The Chappal is more powerful than the Constitution for Shiv Sena

Time and again there have been incidents about Members of Parliament and MLAs misbehaving with common people and displaying their high-handedness. And though some of them have totally refuted the claims, there are others like Ravindra Gaekwad of the Shiv Sena who thinks that he should accept that he did it. The incident occurred at a plane that arrived at the Delhi airport and the MP who was on board had an altercation with a 60 year old staffer of the Air India and Mr. Gaekwad beat him with his chappal and also tried to throw him down the aisle onto the stairs.

The media took up the issue and all the national TV channels pointed out his high-handed behavior. Apparently Gaekwad is not sorry about the incident and says that he did what anybody would do. He told the staffer misbehaved with him and insulted him. The Shiv Sena MP has no apologies to serve to anybody.

But what is the reason that the ministers of the country consider their privileges to be their birth rights, something that ‘they were born to own’. The Shiv Sena has no comment on this topic and Chief Uddhav Thackeray has not decided whether he must remove this minister from his party. The Shiv Sena has always been a face of violent expression in the political image of Maharashtra and time and again the Sena has been expressive to assert the Swarajya model of Chhatrapati Shivaji. But to assert their status as MP for a business class seat doesn’t seem like the right thing to do. The FIA has banned Gaekwad on any of its planes unless he asks for forgiveness.

But will that be enough. This is not the first incident where a minister has shown unconstitutional behavior. There have been fights over paying tolls at toll booths, allowing uninterrupted flows on traffic jams and more. If violence is the only answer to be given to misbehavior and insult possibly the women must go on to break every law and kill people who stalk them in buses, trains and roads. People must engage in fist fights and verbal abuses in markets. Employees must hurl chairs and tables at their bosses and parliament sessions should be done using swords and AK-47s. And everybody should accept this law of barbarianism and forget our constitution.

Otherwise the wise Chief of Shiv Sena should take an informed decision to remove this tainted minister from his party and punish him for his inappropriate behavior. This is a chance for Uddhav Thackeray to come out of his father’s shadow and emerge into Maharashtra as a powerful leader who will respect the law of the land. Or else it will a chance for MNS chief Raj Thackeray to get the center piece in Maharashtra politics.

Is Jio encouraging Internet consumption or addiction?

Time and again invaders and dictators have used their power to usurp the power of expression from people. They have taken away natural resources that have been the fundamental right of a person. A person has to pay for them. In this age of technological revolution, Reliance has come up with a new policy to enslave the Internet surge. Jio was the brainchild of Mukesh Ambani who calculated the potential of the rising number of users of Internet in India. He thinks that by being the first person to launch Jio 4G technologies in India he can make Indians addicted to the Jio experience. The initial bounty of free offers and unlimited bandwidth attracted the maximum number of unique customers to Jio. Then after the bounty period is over the people will have been quite used to the brand of Jio. This will make them pay for the usage and thus increase the usage. 

 

Internet speed and Internet consumption are just two sides of a coin. As one increases the other one also increases. People who are just concerned about the service will never understand this relation. But slowly the average consumption of a person will increase three to four times more than his current consumption. This will make them spend more on the Internet usage per day as compared to the current expenditure.

To understand this, consider a person who smokes one cigar a day at the price of a cigarette for 3 months. After the bounty period the seller can charge him the actual value of the cigar and the person will spend it. He will never think about smoking a cigarette again because he’s used to the cigar. In fact in some cases the person under consideration can also increase his consumption.

In this age of Internet proliferation even the United Nations has declared the Internet as a fundamental right of the people. Nations like Estonia and Lithuania are known for their free Public Wifi Internet. Why is then India the world’s largest democracy in the world paying for its Internet consumption? Possibly it is because the people never think of it. They never realize that Internet has now become like air and water. Will you pay everyday for breathing oxygen? But this can only be understood by the future technologies that are coming up. Like the Internet of Things, which will change the way data is used. But these are later things. Primary is to realize that it is time that Internet becomes free like an open source platform which is only under one surveillance and that is the government and not any corporates.

Cigar or cigarettes either are going to burn; or can people get away with these? But in the end the choice should be that of the people.

 

IPL is the new Cricket Arena

Cricket was not merely a sport for Indians. It was even more important than all other sports including our national sport Hockey and other sports like Kabaddi and Wrestling. The passion in the minds of people exuded and competed with those of religions. Even religion lost its ground when a match of India and Australia or South Africa was played.

But the latest test series against Australia proves otherwise. The Indian team which was in their best form was destroyed by the guest team on our own soils. But why a team- which is in their best form would, be bounced over by another team. Virat Kohli getting gutted early in the match is not something that is well understood, particularly when people say that he has been in the best form ever. What is going wrong? Are the stars not good for the Indian team? Or the Aussies have suddenly become too good for us? Well there are many explanations to it, depending on our imaginations. Another guess is the IPL series that is starting in April of this year.

Any IPL season the players are not part of any nation; rather a part of a club and that reduces the stress and tension on the players. They have a better audience to showcase their skills. The IPL arena is likely that of a typical Roman arena where each warrior has a different showmanship. This arena will not only generate recognition for him but also build his personal brand. It will increase viewers for his performance in non-IPL matches as well and also ensure a good bidder for himself during the next season of IPL the following year.

 

The players will definitely get more time for the IPL and also not lose their form. They will get an audience who was bored by the cold test series with Australia and will get more thrilled to see players at their best form playing for IPL clubs. The players’ best form will ensure a steady flow of people into the stadiums. This is where the players will be showcasing their real form, and not in an ICC stadium. The IPL has redefined the very word of cricket.

The time of the year after the IPL will be the time when the players will go back to playing for their national teams and I am sure Virat Kohli and his team will sure work the rivals after the IPL. Do we hear anybody saying, “See you after the season”?

Well, the people who throng into the stadium to watch an IPL sure get bored with the same song playing in the background. The marketing team of IPL will be out of options to promote the series with a new look that looks promising even to deceive the people into thinking that this season is a fresh theme.

I think it’s time to think of hosting the IPL in alternate years rather than consecutive years. This will not only prevent the brand from diluting its value but also prevent lack of performance in national cricket. After all we must remember that these players did come out of national teams.