AIRPORT SECURITY

Airport Security

One gentleman, identified as jattzp on youtube, was to fly from Amritsar to London via New Delhi. He faced some difficulty at New Delhi Airport regarding the alcohol bottle he says he had purchased at Duty Free Shop at Amritsar Airport. He recorded the happenings at the New Delhi Airport and has uploaded it on youtube. He has added a lengthy narration, a long story of how he felt that the police - CISF officers were trying to steal his bottle of whiskey. He says he had his wife, 2 children (under age of 4 years) and his parents with him and all had to face trouble due to bad treatment by CISF.

There has be some reason for the gentlemen jattzp having done so much and it looks like his hurt and anger is still on the boil. The behaviour of the policemen appearing in the video is strange in the fact that they allowed this gentleman to record it on his phone and they are also looking sheepish in it. 

I happened to see this youtube video and was unhappy to see the abusive comments appearing there. I tried to reason with this gent known as jattzp but he first abused me, then gave some explanation in somewhat decent language but again reverted back to rudeness the next time. Please see it here.

My  Comment : Not to defend rude behaviour but this man travels with 2 young kids (babies), wife and old parents and yet he buys booze and does not keep the receipt handy, which could have avoided some discomfort. Guys, do not abuse. India is beautiful and graceful.

jattzp commented like this :  your Gasti mom put it inside and sealed that's whst they do on Indisn airports...duty free is duty free anyway. fly and buy once before commenting

To this I wrote back : This shows your ugly attitude. You are rude and abusive yourself.

Meanwhile I had made another comment : Guys, please do not abuse. No airport will allow unsealed liquid bottle (that too alcohol) in cabin baggage. It is just not permitted anywhere. There seems to be no basis or any justification for the comment that police tried to steal the bottle. If you are not allowed to take something on board, then it will remain on ground. India is beautiful. Welcome.

After a while, I also added this comment : Please do not abuse India. Kindly see this video on youtube, "Border Security Australia 2011 Oversmart Indian couple". See how the Indian origin doctor and his wife had to pay fine for carrying home cooked food items. India is graceful and beautiful. Welcome.

At this point jattzp writes back : mr ............ bottle is sealed. Duty free is inside the airport and is open only for flights going abroad. Domestic Flight passengers in India are not allowed to buy duty free as they see your boarding cards and take copy of that and your passport to sell it to you. we bought that bottle on 4 passports. if you have been to Delhi airport and bought alcohol then you might know they put receipt in the bag and seal your bag from the top. customs if i have to pay i will pay in UK on arrival but that bottle was in allowed limit anyway. as i said before they stole bottles in front of me and all were duty free bottles. Thanks

Seeing his somewhat sober response, I wrote like this : Now you are being decent. Note that I am as old as your father, and you abuse my mom. She is over 85. Why did you use abusive words ? It can be seen that you faced some trouble but part of it was due to your own mistakes and due to not being well prepared for the journey.The day you can realise this, you will yourself delete this video. Next time, better not to buy booze or at least keep a scan of the receipt on your phone. If you are still angry and hurt, write to CISF HQs, New Delhi. God Bless you.

Meanwhile, someone commented like this : All those brainless bastards commenting on airport security in India. These same guys who quitely abide by security protocol in a foreign country tries to be smart in India. To carry a liquid content it must be in a sealed pack and not as shown here.

At this point, jattzp again went back to his rude manners, and said like this : .....(my name).....easy to preach others on YouTube. have you ever confronted any policeman for your Right in India?

My reply :  Yes my dear, I live in India and face all that comes my way and you know, all is not well all the time, but I will not abuse or ridicule my country on internet. One can see it easily that you are an unhappy soul. It is not preaching. Thank your stars that they did not arrest you for recording it.

He came back with this : if you read description it states i asked for permission and the three star guy said what will you do by putting on youtube. but it did work. lot of guys got confidence to record any kind if corruption happening over there. Now, airport personnel better as well as i visited in May this year. Therefore, i decided to keep it on. cheers!

look at comments how many people faced corruption on airports over there. its over 5 years i m waiting for the reply of my complaint to cisf? anyeays, Sokhs waiting for justice for last 31 years in that great democratic country..so my wait is nothing in comparison to them. do you call ridicule if someone expose corrupt personnel???

It is strange that though the incident relates to 2010 but he is still so unhappy about it, and has not yet been able to get out of it. I feel pity for the guy, but it is also to be seen that did not even have the decency of saying "sorry" for having used abusive words.

My last comment : My dear jattzp, I can see that you will not do all this without having some good reason. It looks like you faced some serious trouble that has made you so angry. I can not say if the police behaved well or not. You would know it better. See, as you first used abusive words and later you did not even show the decency of saying sorry for using abusive words, in the same manner, these policemen are also human beings like you, full of ego and sometimes having petty greed. My concern is that because of few policemen, all and sundry should not get a chance to abuse 'India'.

I have sent the link to this vedio and the entire conversation to CISF HQs, on the mailing ids of their 4 senior officers as seen on their official website, but have not received any response as yet.

The controversy is making businessmen unsecure

The ongoing controversy surrounding the topic of hate, intolerance, and award wapasi, etc., is making the county's businessmen insecure. They are worried about its impact on business environment.

Yesterday, some eminent persons from industry and business said something in this matter and the media published it with grossly misleading headlines.This is the headline in one paper and below is the main para of the article. "Now Kiran Shaw, Lord Desai voice concern over intolerance in India"

 

Sorry folks, the following lines (from that article itself) do not gel with the headlines given by you :

“Let us face it, investors want a sort of harmonious kind of environment to invest in. If they feel there is turmoil, there is unrest, that their investments are not safe, that’s what Moody’s is talking about... Therefore it is important that government actually act fast and corrects this image,” she said.
 

And here is an excerpt from my blog - a piece I had penned / keyed / typed on Oct 31 (early hours) :

"A free for all is not in anybody's favour, and must stop immediately. With the passing day, it is getting internationalised and our enemies are looking at it with glee. Already, the portents are not good since a purely financial body like the global credit rating agency named Moodys has come out with what can be seen as a political statement that looks like a repeat of the common accusations flying around. So guys, bury the hatchet now for the sake of Mother India and its millions of poor children, please."

So, as I have already said, "simple well meaning people are getting sucked in to it." Basically, these high level persons from fields of business are essentially concerned about the impact of this ongoing controversy on business environment. As may be seen above, flight of capital is their main concern.

Unlike, the liberals, business is not accusing the ruling combine of indulging in hate or of intolerance. They want the govt to get this controversial issued closed here and now. Same holds for liberals too.

Now, how do you feel when a person like SRK, darling of the millions across India and of the Indians around the globe, starts saying things that militates against any logic. Fellow was in a happy mood yesterday on his 50th B'day and now I am afraid that the guy who was almost a kind of mascot for secularism till yesterday might now become a hate target like his other counterpart 'Bhaijaan'.

Off course, despite the accusations of this or that kind, Salman Khan has always maintained (and rightfully so) that their family home is the perfect example of secularism and religious harmony.    

Regards

About intolerance of liberals -when will it stop

I am member of a forum comprising of professionals who were earlier working in one institution and were placed in certain geographical peripheries. Though most of us have since moved on but the bonds developed in those days, are still strong and we share our thoughts in a common forum.

As an aberration, I remember with deep regrets that sometime prior to the 2014 lok sabha elections, a topic featuring NaMo / BJP was banned in this forum. However, something cropped up today which appears to be critical of liberals and their award wapasi etc. Though I too feel that the liberals are overdoing it but then I had to ask the forum members of their conduct in the past and to desist from being critical of the said pseudo secular left liberals who are returning their rewards. In my view, most of these left leaning liberals are well meaning persons but misguided.

Well, it is not rocket science to see that some of them (not all, not even the most but only some) have received their awards and also a whole lot of patronage from the previous regimes, for holding and propagating certain kind of ideologies, and some of them (not all / not even so many / but some at least) do not expect to get the same patronage and preferences from the present ruling combine.

Well, like one can not expect Lalu Nitish Azam Owaissi etc to be friends of Modi, like wise any one who thinks on the lines of say Irfan Habib can never be a friend or well wisher of Modi and BJP.

I am at loss to understand and decipher as to why these so called secularists and liberals, mostly well meaning persons, are protesting against so much. Things are not bad at all and if there is still some tension in the air, then they are to blame for it, at least partially, for keeping it alive - in the news.

I wonder and would like to know as to what they are wishing for, and often feel constrained to think that their whole shebang is going to be counterproductive. If they are under some kind of illusion that this will impel people to vote for the so called self proclaimed secular parties (in 2019) then it is a pipe dream. Congress has no future - at least under this leadership, and Communists are now history - everywhere in the world. (China is a military dictatorship - they use the term 'communist' to hide it).

I hold a firm belief that India is secular solely because of its majority community holding true liberal and secular ethos and the world knows it. It is wrong to blame the entire community for few stray incidents. Look at the names of these liberals itself, most of them are from majority community.

Shallow character of so called secularists liberals is visible in their treatment of one lady from B'desh. What is her fault - just that she wrote a small story about the plight of minority community in her country of birth - from which she now stands banished for life - and some wish to see her dead, and yet, there is no protest, not even sympathy, from the self styled "liberal" thinkers of this country.

Besides, I often wonder as to why these people opposing Modi so bitterly and why they can not see that they have made him the PM of India (by carping about him constantly for the last several years).

It is so clearly written on the wall that NaMo became what he is today because the opposition feared him and kept criticising him all the time and that is what some clever people in BJP used (and they were supported by RSS). Otherwise Modi had little chance of even being raised to the top league in the party forums. He was much below in the ladder. The undue criticism made him what he is now.

In all this, I have few concerns. NaMo, despite being the pet hate object for some and an ordinary political leader for many more like me, still remains the only hope for India at this juncture and his failure means economic catastrophe for the nation. At least, he seems to be a good salesman.

Award Wapasi By Left Liberals

Award Wapasi By Left Liberals

The saga of award wapasi continues unabated and it would perhaps end only after the Bihar election results are out. Well, if BJP / NDA wins, then it may halt for a while, to resurface again a little later.

And if BJP does not manage to win in Bihar, then again the matter would go to background while the winners rejoice but then, it will be brought back with more force to destabilise the NaMo led Govt.

BJP/ NDA have to analyse and understand the situation with a lot more care and caution. After all, being in power, it is the responsibility of NaMo led Govt / BJP / NDA to maintain social harmony, and to combine it with political stability and economic growth. They need to see that the powers opposed to the present ruling combine are unfair, unjust, intolerant and arrogant, to say the least. BJP leadership must not fall in their clever trap. To begin with, the bayanbaaji of its few big mouths has to stop completely. Also, ministers must stop reacting to sundry statements made by opposition leaders. 

Besides, BJP / NDA / NaMo / Arun Jaitley / Rajnath Singh and all others in the ruling combine must recognise that the whole shebang is being played out to make them look like a failure. Hence, they have to work doubly hard to ensure that the message reaches the people and that can be done through mass contact on a regular basis. Prime Minister and his senior ministers must hold periodical rallies in various states, and they need to avoid the old practice of visiting people only during the elections.

More so, rather than talking of 'development' as an agenda, Govt needs to tell people point by point (and repeat it) the steps taken for welfare of people, and the steps taken for the said "development" agenda and to harp on 'how the opposition is thwarting the development' by their unreasonable criticism, highlight the non cooperation in the parliament, and tell / explain to the people that much of the accusations of the opposition are actually falsehoods, tell the people that opposition is actually spreading canards in the name of opposing the policy. You got to be vivid and clear and you must ensure that the language used is judicious, and is unambiguous leaving no chance of distortion.

Guys, you need to win in 2019 too and must ensure that 2004 is not repeated again (despite good work done by NDA under the brilliant leadership of Atal ji). India can't afford another UPA so soon.

Intolerent Indians

Intolerant Indians

Well, the ruling party members scoff at their detractors for manufacturing a protest and staging the drama of award wapsi. Some have gone to the extreme calling them sleeper cells of anti BJP forces.

It is also a fact that certain elements will continue to be critical of anything and everything that BJP and its leadership may do be it some of the so called secular leaders, the main opposition party that is presently deep in dumps, and most of die hard communists. It is unfortunate that despite their claims of being secular or plain and simple atheists or rather anti religion, communists are communalists of the worst kind. Also, one can not expect the darbari mandali of old regimes to praise NaMo and BJP.

Someone accused Nayantara Sehgal of starting it all and it prima facie appears true too and one can not rule out the allegation in entirety but then there is another facet which says that Nayantara Sehgal is more like her illustrious mother, who had an ambivalent relationship with her niece Indira Gandhi. Vijaylaxmi Pandit was never seen with Indira Gandhi as was the case earlier when her brother Pandit Nehru was in power. In those days, Ms Vijaylaxmi Pandit was once even seen in high chair at UNO. Nobody has ever seen Nayantara Sehgal taking sides with Congress or its reigning first family.

It is said that PUCL (decidedly one of the premier institutions fighting for civil rights and liberties in India), has a deep connect with both the mother and her worthy daughter. Still, one would like the lady and her ilk to come forward and initiate a dialogue with the parties she is opposing or rather, talk to them about the actions, and the policies that, in their view, needs to be opposed and stopped.

A free for all is not in anybody's favour, and must stop immediately. With the passing day, it is getting internationalised and our enemies are looking at it with glee. Already, the portents are not good since a purely financial body like the global credit rating agency named Moodys has come out with what can be seen as political statement that looks like a repeat of the common accusations flying around.

So guys, bury the hatchet now for the sake of Mother India and its millions of poor children, please.

Is it true that Modi is attacked for being "Desi" (not of privileged class)

A newspaper headline goes like this,"Modi is not privileged class, thus faces attacks: Chetan Bhagat".

If he (Mr Bhagat) has actually said what the newspaper website says he has said, then it may be a point worth considering. I wish to thank Mr Chetan Bhagat for speaking out what was in my mind for some time. Actually, I have mentioned this in few of my previous posts here in this blog itself.

Times Group too deserves praise for publishing the article and for baring the truth. It has been seen time and again that similiar or worse incidents have happened under the previous regimes and keep happening in opposition ruled states but somehow the blame is invariably and so incorrectly being directed at NaMo & BJP. Somehow, the idea of manufactured dissent raised by BJP seems to be so much true / genuine. Somehow, it will still make sense if one declines to accept an award but the very idea of dismissing an accepted award and honour earned by virtue of hard work makes no sense.
  

It has been a notable aspect of elections of 2014 that BJP fought and won under the leadership of someone who is essentially not a career politician. Mr Namrendra Modi had never been in the mainstream politics and never even contested an election before being anointed as Chief Minister of Gujarat in Oct 2001. Thus, it was people's wish that BJP rules the country for the next five years. 

Besides, to me it holds much higher significance that BJP fought and won this election under the leadership of an ordinary person, that is someone who is son of poor parents, who used to earn their livelihood through a hard days toil. His parents were no royals, no feudal landlords, no industrialists, no traders, no contractors, not even local advocates or even influential Sarpanch of the area. 

For the first time, people had a candidate who genuinely gave his entire life to social work and this enthused the  people. Besides, it is also seen that having no offspring of his own, he did not have the burden of securing the future of his heirs. This is seen as a really big plus point in our political scene.

Besides, in my view, what appealed to the youth was his unbelievably good health, high level of motivation and dynamism unseen till now, his ease with the computers, technology and the gadgets. His team came up with innovative uses of technology to reach out to maximum numbers of voters.

And then, in the end, it is his ease with words, that makes him a unique inspiring leader of masses. Fact is that he is communicator par excellence and even his detractors are forced to acknowledge this.

Hence, the opposition parties and the intelligentsia should refrain from too much criticism, or else, the critics of this regime will sooner or later loose credibility and it will turn out to be like the story of the shepherd boy and the wolf. Constructive criticism is fine but too much carping is not justifiable.

Talking of intolerance and returning of awards

Talking of intolerance and returning of awards

Much has been said about the rising intolerance in society and also about the act of returning of the awards by some eminent persons who are considered to be greats in their respective fields of work.

Before we move ahead, let it be clear that lynching by mobs was so far heard in parts of Bengal, and in some other pockets where poor old ladies were killed by falsely labeling them as chudail or dayan.

It is hard to see such things now happening in places like Dimpaur in Nagaland and Dadri in NCR. Also, it is heart rending to see that in both the cases, at least one member of the victim's family was serving with the security forces. While, one victim was labelled as 'foreigner', and the investigations seem to confirm that both the victims were falsely accused of the 'crimes' that they never committed.

Such is the guile and cunning of the perpetrators of these crimes that ever since the political parties and people worth a name in this society are indulging in mud slinging and bad mouthing each other.


Print media has already wasted paper worth several millions in discussing this topic and has still not reached anywhere. The issue is all over the television screens and can not be missed either on the net.

But what is the truth. Are these people really interested in what they seem to say or whether they are just the hit-men of some political parties who have lost elections but do not wish to give up as yet.

Being abused by opposition is not new for BJP and its present face, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As such, some of the so called men of wisdom, self appointed champions of secularism, have always been critical of BJP and particularly that of NaMo. Both are anathema to some sections of the so called intelligentsia. The secularists just can not tolerate them both. Strangely, even some of their own people, usually estranged from the present regime, have been critical of their own government.
These days, it has become difficult to believe the written word, be it on net or in newspapers. Almost everyone seems to have an axe to grind and thus, a genuinely honest opinion is difficult to come by.

Hence, talking of intolerance and to comment on return of awards, by some authors, is a difficult proposition for an onlooker but one may also not ignore some points raised by BJP sympathisers.

NaMo came to power after BJP gained a simple majority on its own and this has happened after long long time indicating that people were fed up with the past regime and also did not want a coalition.

It is not if we have any dearth of eminent personalities who are genuinely disturbed at the growing chasm between the different sections of the society but it is also true that the last regime was the most corrupt, its leaders have cornered oodles of money that can easily buy some of the opinion makers.

What adds significance to the BJP's stance of it being manufactured dissent is the fact that it started with the lady named Nayantara Sehgal, and everyone knows her ancestry and the political lineage.

Despite doubts, let us assume they are all genuinely concerned but still, the question is whether they are going to achieve any tangible results by doing what they are doing. Let all of them think over it.