Transparency

It seems when it comes to transparency, everyone wants it from others. When it comes to provide transparency to others, everyone steps back and offer excuses (which are always lame) why it cannot be done. A horrible, but suitable, analogy is that everyone would like to watch others in a transparent outfit but one would not like to wear one.

I have been reading all the brouhaha about RTI (Right to Information) Act, and the recent upheavals related to its trimming down, or whatever you want to term it as. I am refering to the so-called clarification by the government, which details that the file notings are outside the purview of RTI Act, and hence can not be disclosed. If you look at the root of the problem, it is like first you create a bunker of sorts and then you drill a couple of holes in it so that anyone can peep inside it. The point is - why to create a bunker in the first place? In case, inadvertently, it has been created, then just by drilling holes, one can't expose what is hidden; the bunker has to be destroyed.

As we all know, exposure can be misconstrued as nudity also. So, the pertinent questions would be - can people handle the exposure? Are they informed enough to understand various economical, social and political hues of our society to create a proper context in which a specific decision was taken? More than that, do we have the necessary setup which can help people create/build that context so as to see things in proper perspective? Do people have patience and egalitarian attitude to digest certain harsh realities, appropriately? Well, I don't think I can answer these questions with any legitimate authority because I haven't met very many people who would pass the above test, but then, I have met only a very small fraction of this populous country. Even if we don't have many people who would pass the test, is it justified not to provide transparency on the pretext that people can't handle it?

Humn... good question !!! This is where probably everyone will have one's own opinions, and rightly so, because I believe there is no perfect answer. So, here is my point of view - as a principle, there is no alternative to transparency. Though, we need to work hard to create appropriate contexts for people to see things in right perspective. Hence, I believe, we should start with baby steps and create a framework where successively, as people become more aware, we can move towards higher levels of transparency. This will work only if we have matured individuals providing information to public at large, so as to ensure that right context is built while providing information. Media's role, as main carriers of information to public, at large, will be very crucial to help build these appropriate contexts.

While the above seems to be a lot of hard work, it is well worth the toil. If we all want to be part of a fair society, where discrimination is a passe, we have to sweat it out. Though, sometimes I wonder, if we all "really" want such a society?

What is in a name?

Really, what is in a name? For a long time, I used to perceive name as something which is used to address someone. I still have the same perception but with a small difference - when I say name, I am refering to only the First Name or the Given Name of the person. I, generally, address people by their first name only because, especially in India, lot of times, people's last name is either their husband/father's name or the name of their village. So, the best thing to do is to call people by their first name.

It wasn't that I used to call people by their first name, right from very childhood. When I was studying in my engineering college, there was this guy by name Sanjeev Kassi, who used to be my class mate and I used to address him as "Kassi". He was a bright, intelligent and studious fellow. Actually, there were handful of Sanjeev's in our class and, therefore, it was a convenient way to distinguish him from them. In fact, I think, most of the people used to address him as Kassi. I guess, none of us knew what "Kassi" really meant, until the day Mandal Commission recommendations got implemented by V P Singh regime. Everything turned around in just a couple of days. There was lot of uproar out on the streets and there was high tension in the college and hostels also. I still remember the night, when we got a tip that a so-called OBC group from the city is going to attack the non-OBC students in the hostel, and apparently, the OBC guys from the college have hatched this plan. We spent whole night awake, sitting together in few adjacent rooms in the hostel with preparation to defend ourselves from any violent attack. Fortunately, nothing happened, and from morning, the city administration imposed curfew in selected areas of the city, including the hostel locality.

The curfew imposition was a big relief after a night full of tension. Since I couldn't go out of the hostel, I thought of studying a bit, and went to Kassi's room to borrow a book from him. Unfortunately, his room was locked and I had to return back empty handed. The next evening, I saw him on the road adjacent to hostel. He was carefully looking around while walking slowly as if trying to hide from someone. I called him out, "Kassi, wait !!!" He kind of jumped at his place and looked terrified. I was surprised and asked him if he is alright. He looked at me with surprise and said, "You don't know, do you?" I was confused, "What are you talking about?" He said, "You know my last name - Kassi. It means that I belong to OBC. Why the hell are you shouting? Do you want me to get caught and killed?" In a complete state of shock, I murmered, "No, I didn't know that you belong to OBC." With contempt he retorted, "Now you do."

Well, after few weeks when everything slowly came back to normal (so as to say), I had a good conversation with Kassi. He told me that the night of tip off, he was caught by non-OBC group guys and was tortured to reveal the plan of OBC group, which obviously he didn't know. He told me that he himself was hiding out because OBC group had told him that non-OBC group is going to attack them. It seems that rumour mongers had a field day at the expense of us. It was that day, when I decided that never ever I am going to call anyone by last name.

Slowly, this concept got stuck to my mind that calling people by last name is nothing but a manifestation of casteism, something which I hate from the core of my heart. Then, I had this other experience, which actually reinforced by belief that last name does promote casteism. I met this lady who, when gets to know someone's name, would first find out the caste of the person, by analysing the last name. Then, she would diagnose, from her previous so-called experiences - most of which are actually narrated by others - what kind of traits this person would have. I find the whole process really annoying, and I used to ask her not to straightjacket people just on the basis of their last name. But, it seems, she has tremendous belief in her hypothesis.

Today, when I was reading the newspaper, I found a writeup where views and counter-views were given on a latest media report about some students of IIT Kanpur changing their last names to Bharat, in order to prevent any kind of casteism related issues. While I liked both the views, I still firmly believe that it is the right thing to do. For long, our society and its development has suffered from the evil of casteism. Time to say it goodbye once and for all. If we get rid of the most common way of finding one's caste, then I am sure, it will ease some of the tensions arising out of it. I know, that it won't wipe out this evil completely, but I firmly believe that it would be a big step in the right direction. For a society as large and diverse as ours, it will take several baby step to eradicate such kind of deep rooted evils but we need to start somewhere.

I wish, we could have few generations which don't have any last name at all. Would it matter to anyone? One, anyway, would know one's lineage, village, father, husband, caste etc etc, so, just wondering what is the need to reflect it in one's name ???