Topical

Sunday Column 17-09-2023

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I seriously did not want to do this but I have no choice but to start this column with Bharat’s favourite past time, cricket. Like any other retired senior citizen, I have been watching the Asia cup, and something struck me.

BCCI, private governing body, a charitable institution to boot, awards broadcasting rights to TV channels running into thousands of crores of rupees. These TV moghuls in turn earn their revenue by garnering advertises, which again run into thousands of crores. Do you know who the advertisers are? Bharat Petrolium and Indian oil, the only companies who can sell petrol to you and me. They in turn pay crores to likes of Amitabh Bachhan and Rahul Dravid. First of all, they need no advertising. Secondly, these are public sector companies spending our hard- earned money. This money is used by people like Jay Shah and Aashish Shelar to travel all over the world to watch cricket matches. A very legitimate but immoral way to siphon off public money for private use. And we stupid Bhartiyans happily watch this happen, nye, pay money for this to happen.

Manoj Jarange, a man nobody had heard off, brought the mighty Maharashtra government to its knees. What a perfect blackmail! Everybody, including this Jarange, know that Maratha reservation is not possible under the present constitutional setup. But who cares if common people suffer, a few die, a few crores worth of property is torched. It is in the interest of the opposition parties to keep this issue simmering. Government too cares less. How can you call a community backward which has given all the chief ministers to Maharashtra except a couple of them?

I feel our whole society is backward thinking and there should be (sic) 100% reservation !!!!!

Last week it was dahihandi which blocked our roads for a few days. (In an aside, we pride ourselves as pro-govida by setting up high human pyramids. But we still cannot beat the ten pyramid record set by the Spanish, despite offer of so much prize money. Some professionalism!) Now, it is the turn of The Ganapati pandals to do it, that too for a couple of weeks. The need for public ganapatis is long gone with the British. But now it a thriving industry running into crores of rupees. Everybody cashes in. Does anyone know what happens to the money collected by these roadside pandals? The high court has time and again told the authorities to stop using public roads for pandals. But the so-called authorities indulge in subverting court directives. But who cares? Look at the mile long queues for Ganapati dharshan.

It is time we revert back to celebrating Ganesh Utsav privately in our homes. That is where it belongs. But who is listening?? Many of my friends have started using permanent Ganpati idols at home. Or they carry out visarjan in buckets in their gardens. This is a real eco-friendly step. I wish everybody does this.

Ganapati utsav has become a multi-crore industry. It gives lively hood to lot of people. But these gains are offset by lost man-hours during the festivities. In our case the festivals follow one after the other. This will be followed by Navratri with their road-side shows. It goes on and on. We need to find the right balance.

I know that many will call this anti-religious propaganda. But it is not that. Everybody should follow his/her own beliefs. But we should also observe social responsibilities. And this applies to every religion.

Anyway, Happy Ganesh Utsav to everybody! May the bappaa fulfil all your dreams!!