Tuesday, November 15, 2016

My Fellow Countrymen



                My fellow countrymen, I urge you today not as a non-resident Indian but as a common man of my motherland. We as a nation have faced gravest of challenges since our independence. From poverty, to illiteracy, from socialism to corruption, one decade after the other we have seen our dream of prosperous India fading away. And yet we keep on hoping. Hoping for an India that gives equal opportunity to all, for an India were justice is equal for all, for an India without any corruption.
                This is one of the rare occasions in independent India were benefits of a policy are going to be visible to the common man. Abolishing the 500-1000 bills can right many wrongs for our country. But some pain has to be shared. The intentions of this policy are very clear; it is for the national good. I don’t belong to any political party, but I am aligned to a leader who works for the betterment of our nation.
                Through all the chaos that is our history, through all of the pain and suffering, through all of our times, there is one thing that has always kept us going and that is our hope, our hope for believing in the future of India.
                This is a very rare occasion where the dreams of an entire nation are focused not on a politician or a leader but on the ‘patience’ of a common man.


Wednesday, November 9, 2016

America got Trumped by Americans!!


                 “So what now?” is the question on everyone’s mind? Including Donald Trump.
                48% of Americans decided to make one of the most polarizing figures in recent history to be there 45th President. You are right Mr. Obama, Sun did rise today, but for some the warmth might not be the same as yesterday. What happened on the night of Nov 8th 2016 in America, says a lot about the 48% Americans. It says that it’s totally fair to trade nebulous promises of economic success for racism, sexism, and xenophobia. I am no economic or social expert, but would love to see how the rust belt will get their jobs back and why will Mexico pay for building the wall.
                Last night was hard, and I certainly didn’t sleep much. But I like almost all working class Americans are at work this morning and we need to do the best we can to address the issues deep within our society that led us here. The idea of ‘America’ can’t be lost because of one election cycle. Remember: There was no perfect time in American history. America is a work in progress. This great democracy always had problems and hardworking Americans have always been working towards fixing them.
                There are many Americans across the United States who woke up this morning and are apprehensive because of their skin color, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. They might feel that their political voice is lost. I will urge to those Americans, please don’t give up, for America needs you more now, than ever before.


Tuesday, November 8, 2016

This time its different – 2016 US Presidential Elections


                
                It took almost 80 weeks & over a billion dollars for America to arrive on the ‘2016 Election Tuesday’. The world’s greatest democracy is going to exercise their right to vote in the 58th quadrennial Presidential elections. 146 million will be lining up in the polling booths or sending in their choices via mail.
            These elections have been anything but cordial. Election is all about presenting different ideas and perspective so they tend to be heated, but this one went to the extreme. These are my fifth US elections that I am following and it has been definitely unlike the previous four.

·      The level of anxiety among ordinary people is palpable. For some reason almost the whole voting population of US is aware of everything that both the candidates have said or believe in; And strangely everyone whom I have spoken to have extreme views about the one that they dislike. Some dislike the ‘two faced’ Hilary while the rest don’t trust Trump’s ‘right leaning’ views.

·     Another jarring thing about these elections is the ‘outside’ influence. This would be the first time when news networks in America are mentioning Kremlin with US election night. There has been convincing proof of Russia being involved in STEALING (not leaking) internal materials to damage one candidate.

·        Not to mention the involvement of the Federal Bureau of investigation - An unprecedented bungling of public handling of the (legitimate) Clinton email investigation by Director Comey.

·       Finally the ‘slowness’ of the traditional media to learn about candidate’s inaccurate statements and how to handle candidates during national debates that are supposed to be focusing on their future policies and strategies. Instead the three debates became a slugfest of personal attacks.
                
     These elections almost became a ‘reality TV drama’. I strongly believe in the democratic institution and hope that after all of this United States of America will begin to heal starting Nov. 9th. But one thing is for sure (& this is very unfortunate) 2016 US Presidential elections will go down in history as the one were in people voted for the candidate they ‘disliked’ less !!