Forgive me, but I shed no tear….

21 year old Shaheen held for Facebook Post questioning Mumbai ‘Bal Thackeray Shutdown’. A friend held for ‘liking’ the same post. Shocking. What is not shocking is local Shiv Sainiks going on a rampage and damaging the girl’s uncle’s clinic.

With the news of Thackeray’s death spreading, businesses pulled their shutters, people rushed home, police and security personnel went in a tizzy and the P.M of the country appealed for calm. That to me is a pretty damning statement on the brand of politics that Mr. Bal Thackeray practiced during his life time.  He was not assassinated. He died peacefully. Yet, the whole of Mumbai was apprehensive, anxious and fearful about what the Shiv Saininks might do. The apprehension and fear of course was not unfounded going by their history.

The romantic in me finds it difficult not to make comparisons of Bal Thackeray to Mario Puzo’s Godfather. Just like the Don, Vito Corleone, Thackeray seems to have had a solution to everyone’s problems. He ran a parallel justice system. He could ‘fix’ things. As a result, the inevitable visit to his residence, Matoshree. From billionaire industrialists to powerful politicians; Bollywood Superstars to pretty damsels in distress. They all paid homage to the Godfather of Mumbai. Just like the Don though, Thackeray was shrewd and had a ruthless streak in him. He was a consummate politician who saw an opportunity to turn the anger of Maharashtrian youth against the migrants from other states, into votes.

Bal Thackeray launched Shiv Sena with the sole purpose of protecting the interests of Marathi Manoos. He first directed his ire towards the South Indian’s. Particularly the Shetty’s, who had a strangle hold on the Restaurant business in Mumbai. His next target were the Communists who controlled the powerful labour unions in the mills of Mumbai. Finally he moulded himself as a champion of Hindutva.

He had the occasional tiff with Bollywood and of course cricket matches against Pakistan was a strict no-no. Lately migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and artistes from Pakistan working in Mumbai’’s film studio’s were his favorite targets. Icons like Dilip Kumar (for his refusal to return the Nishan-I-Pakistan award), Shabana Azmi (for the film Fire), Shahrukh Khan (My Name is Khan) and recently Asha Bhosle (for playing judge on a reality show which included Pakistani artistes) came under his attack. He and the Shiv Sena had taken to moral policing. All along, violence, intimidation and blackmail were the tools employed to make the opposition bow down to the Sena command. A few uncharitable commentators said it was all designed to extort money from the business community and that extortion was his real calling and not politics.

His fiery oratory instigated many a youth to run riot. The Shiv Sena have been held responsible for a number of riots that took place in Maharashtra from the time Shiv Sena was launched. But it was the 1993 Bombay riots that gained Bal Thackeray national notoriety. After the Babri Masjid demolition, on 1^st of Jan 1993 there was an article in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece, Saamna under the caption "Hindunni Akramak Vhayala Have" (Hindus must be aggresive now), openly inciting Hindus to violence. 900 people lost their lives. Crores of Rupees worth of business destroyed. The Srikrishna Commission squarely blamed the Shiv Sena for the riots and indicted Bal Thackeray.

The Shiv Sena threatened to burn Mumbai if the supposedly long hands of the law ever caught up with Thackeray. The threat was taken seriously by successive governments in Maharashtra. No government was able to bring Thackeray to a court of law to answer for his crimes.

But the ultimate insult to law abiding citizens of this country has to be the State funeral that was given to Bal Thackeray. What kind of message does this send out to people? It says, you can p**s on our laws as long as you can scare the c**p out of us. You can get away with murder and arson as long as you can threaten to do more of the same. The message this Diwali of triumph of good over evil is a good bed time story fit only for innocent children.

The Dark Ages in Cyber Age!!!

As reported in the Times of India on 25/8/12 under the headline, ‘Watch your post on FB, Hirers all eyes’, there is supposedly a new trend emerging in the corporate world, in particular the H.R world. Corporate’s are running reference checks on social media as part of the filtering and hiring process. Some companies do it at random; others do it for all candidates. Irresponsible Facebooking, Tweeting or any compromise of social media hygiene could lead to summary rejection.

To me, this new trend is extremely disturbing and is just another example of the corporate world ignoring basic ethical and legal principles, one of which is Right to Privacy.

 When I apply for a job or accept a job, did I sign a contract allowing my potential or present employer to snoop in my living room? What is social media after all if not a virtual, online, cyber living room? Friends ‘chat,’ ‘share’, ‘tag’, ‘poke’, listen to music, watch videos, share jokes etc. etc. The only thing missing are mausiji’s piping hot samosa’s and chai!!

Defenders of this outrageous practice will claim that words put out in cyber space cease to be ‘private’ and have in fact entered the public space. Let me rebut that by pointing out, most social media sites, particularly Facebook, privacy settings enable you to communicate and interact only with your ‘friends’. Communicating with ones friends or inner circle implies a certain amount of trust, casualness and being carefree. Within this social space you are allowed to lower your guard and be yourself.  We all know that what behavior might be acceptable among friends might not be acceptable while in the company of elders. Views differ when we are among colleagues and when we are among management. I may confess to my wife that my boss is a pain in the neck (the watered down version) but would never admit the same to the boss himself. If every boss actually knew what was in the minds of his subordinates, I dare say, most would be out looking for a new job! Human beings are no saints and do a fine job of hiding our true feelings, faults, even our eccentricities, depending on our company.

As reported in the same article, a young technology professional had to return his offer letter because he had posted on Facebook, a picture of himself with his roommate with a ‘gay language’ caption. Wow, this keeps getting better! A civil rights lawyer would love to sink his teeth into this one! I am presuming based on this ‘gay language’ caption, this H.R genius has automatically presumed this candidate to be gay! How in the world is this not discriminatory?? How is my bedroom behavior, sexual preferences or tendencies related to my capacity to do my job diligently, honestly and to my best ability? Do these H.R professionals realize that homosexuality has been decriminalised by the Delhi High Court?

Further, there are instances of HR heads asking for clarifications or explanations from their new recruits on the latter’s “unhealthy” or “questionable” social media posts. How is this different from living in communist China, Cuba, North Korea and the erstwhile U.S.S.R? When I think of these H.R managers, the word ‘Gestapo’ leaps to my mind!

The last time I checked, reading someone else’s mail was considered an unpardonable social sin. How is, this new H.R trend not an invasion of one’s privacy? Isn’t it tantamount to listening to ones telephonic conversation? I thought the concept of ‘Big Brother’ was generally referred to the government eves dropping and was long buried with the end of the cold war. (Of course the likes of Jason Bourne and the ‘evil’ CIA and its numerous, notorious secret cells are exceptions!!) Now, it seems the corporate’s like to play ‘fly on the wall’. They would do well to listen to Pink Floyd’s ‘Brick in the Wall’ which emphatically declares “we don’t need no thought control”!!