May 20, 2011

IDENTITY CRISIS IN INDIA



According to me, Aadhar card is a multi-purpose utility card for Indians being issued by the Government of India now, in some parts of India, to some extent. It’s a unique identity card, which can be used for availing the services of different public and private agencies in India.

I have been looking for an identity card of this nature for long. I am reading a few news items in dailies now and then about it. I am interested in getting it because I am suffering from identity crisis for long in India. Whenever I have to apply for change of address, they want a solid proof showing that I am really an Indian and am living here physically. They are not bothered about my looks, words or views but my identity proof only. It means for them lifeless documents are more important than living human beings.

I did not see even one advertisement in my familiar local daily with the details of place and process related to this identity card. When I recently enquired a fellow about it at Chintal Basthi area in Khairabad, Hyderabad, he casually said that it is being done at some point of place nearby on week days. I remain in our office from 9:15 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on all days except Sunday. I have natural holiday on Sunday. Those folks too have natural holiday on this day. So, their service delivery schedule is against my personal and professional time availability schedule.

Then, even if I go to these folks, according to their convenient timings, they ask for address proof. I have the following problems in this regard.

Ration Card

Since I am a rich man of India (employee), I don’t have a ration card. I am honest (though many millionaires also possess these cards in Andhra Pradesh now). I don’t have a pink ration card also because I don’t have time to go to the dirty offices of these civil supply folks, stand in those queues, apply for it and go back to them on another day to collect it. Above all, I don’t belong to one particular place to apply for this card. I keep moving from place to place like a gypsy. They generally live in tents by roads and I live in some rented abodes. This is the difference between them and me in terms of identity crisis as Indians living and working in India.

Passport

I got one in 2001 when I was studying at the University of Hyderabad. They wrote the address of the Department of English on it. It is going to expire in five months’ time. During these 10 years, I never used this passport. I never had the status and privilege of going to some foreign country during this time. I cannot present it as proof of residence to these folks.

PAN Card

I have it but my address won’t be given on it. So, they don’t accept it as proof of residence.

Driving License

I cannot drive two-wheelers with gears because I always keep thinking and worrying about me or others around me. I cannot change gears when engaged in this continuous pursuit of thoughts, observations and regrets in public places. I can drive an automatic bike, which works like a bicycle. I could not buy one of them till now. So, I don’t have driving license.

Landline Telephone Bill

I think many are now using BSNL landline phones for the purpose of address proofs only at homes. Since the private telecom operators dominated these folks in every imaginable segment of business in this sector, BSNL is dying slowly. I don’t have a landline phone.

Electricity Bill

Since it would be in the name of the owner of my rented abode, I cannot use it.

Domestic LPG Bill

I keep moving from place to place. Accordingly the address also changes on these bills. So, I cannot use them for this purpose.

Photo Voter Identity Card

I got one two years ago when living in Karkhana area but later I left that place, moved to Vanasthalipuram and now living at Khairatabad. I cannot use that old card and Mr. Bhanvar Lal does not issue me a new voter identity card with my present address even if I commit suicide in front of his house. He knows that he is dead as a public servant. What can that idiot do for me in this regard?

Bank Account

I don’t have a permanent address. So, they should not depend on my bank account details.

I don’t know what other documents they accept as proofs of residence. What I mean by the aforementioned statements is that I don’t have a reliable proof of address to apply for this Aadhar card.

If this is the account of a fellow like me, who is considerably educated, rich, manageable and bearable, in India, what about those who don’t know about anything happening in India. I mean the poorest of the poor in India. Won’t these rogues consider those Indians as countable ones because they too don’t have a permanent residence like me in any part of India?

I think about half of the Indian population is facing this kind of identity crisis in India now. In these gloomy and risky circumstances, I think, Nandan Nilekani, who is the chairman of this massive project in India, must be considered as innocent or foolish or stupid or mentally retarded creature. I blame the leader if something wrong is happening under his supervision because he consciously took up that role.

Cigarette and liquor companies are successful in reaching every corner of India.

Poor and rich prostitutes are able to cater to the diverse needs of their clients in every part of India.

Coca Cola and Pepsi are able to reach every part of India selling their harmful carbonated drinks.

Christians are able to build small or big church in every imaginable spot of India, including forests.

But, Nandan Nilekani, who is authorized fellow of the Government of India, is unable to devise such plans, as to reach every part of India and issue these cards to every imaginable Indian, within weeks.

Check how you can do it online. I think you cannot get it done in your lifetime following those criteria.

So, I assure you all that Nandan Nilekani cannot issue Aadhar cards to every single authentic Indian in his lifetime because he is not an ordinary Indian like me, who knows the pulse of India and Indians, but one who reached a privileged status of life through what he gained as part of Infosys.

Above all, the main reason for why the Government of India fails to implement any policy of this kind, meant for every Indian, is that it is not working for the people of India, but for acquisition, retention and enjoyment of political power and related false prestige. They are interested in politics and power only but not the prosperity and peace in this nation.

I am least bothered about Aadhar card now because India made me so and compels me to remain so. You may or may not do anything advised by the Government of India. They are not serious about anything, except political power. If a few folks like me do not attend their campaigns and massive meetings voluntarily, they spend money and bring masses to those places artificially, distributing food and liquor packets. Democracy is already dead in many parts of India. So, it is enough if you can manage to live on your own, without depending on the government for anything. This is what beggars, lunatics, saints, naxalites and many legal and illegal residents of India are doing now silently or violently.

You need proofs to beg something from the Government of India or your respective state or local government bodies. Since these cards are meant for such beggars only, Nandan Nilekani, his brother Manmohan and their common friend and well-wisher Sonia Gandhi think that some beggars anyhow struggle hard to get these cards presenting those proofs of residence. Why to bother about other eccentric and old-fashioned nuts like me!

I dream of a system of personal identification in India by which the identity of any Indian can be easily finalized through a few casual questions by some real Indians in any part of India. Until such a system evolves and comes into existence in India, gypsies like me, who are in millions in every corner of India, cannot get identity cards like Aadhar as easily as they can get a cigarette, a Thums Up bottle, a liquor bottle, a ghutka packet, a call girl or a condom.

So, this is how Mr. Nandan Nilekani is contributing to the development of India through his “National Drama of Aadhar Card”. All are invited. Entire India is the stage. He should realize that India is not like Infosys and Indians do not think and act like his employees at Infosys. Since he is paying salaries and providing many benefits to those employees at Infosys, they are remaining as disciplined and cultured creatures in association with it. Let him know how many employees of Infosys so far got Aadhar cards in India and why they did/could not get them?

In India, we are talking about Nandan Nilekani or Narayana Murthy or Ratan Tata or Mukesh Ambani because they mean huge money and false prestige but not essential standards and values of real India, which the dreamers and visionaries of this nation aspire to see in them. They do such businesses which bring them huge profits but not such ventures which improve the culture of Indians. Profit or loss is their concern but not whether what they are doing is good or bad for India or Indians. All celebrities of India are thinking in this fashion now. The toppers in this list are those promoting cricket with investments in dirty ventures like IPL. They want money and false prestige. Let Indians degrade mentally due to it. They don’t lose anything if India becomes into a huge dustbin. They play with trash there fashionably.

These buggers can never change India except creating wealth and distributing it to many undisciplined and uncultured rogues, who spend most of it for cigarettes, parties, liquor, girls and foreign tours. Culture does not mean huge money and grand celebration now and then but admirable discipline and vision in every single citizen of a given society, state or nation. Ninety percent of Indians, living in India and abroad now, do not have them. So, no policy or scheme meant for developing India can bring any change in the lives of these Indians because they want to live with narrow outlooks and unreliable characters.

I think a nation changes when a kind and visionary dictator kills all the wrongdoers brutally or when a saint changes all their mindsets metaphysically.

When does either one of these two things happen in India?

I am waiting for those great moments of change in India.

It may or may not happen because nothing is certain in this mysterious world.

So, what if I have Aadhar card or not?

In India, everybody struggles to live somehow, somewhere, for some time, because nobody else is interested in his or her life, at any given point of time, purely and honestly, except deep and mad lovers.

Every birth has a death.

Bear with your life even when it is unbearable because it is your Karmic schedule.

You will die one day.

Don’t worry.

I think they don’t ask for Aadhar card to burn or bury your corpse according to your religion.

That’s where you attain absolute liberty from all pressures, pains and regrets of this material life.

From there flies away your liberated soul happily.

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