12 May 2015

Anglos in the wind ... not in the Lok Sabha ?

The winds of change blew in a brand new Indian Parliament, but has it blown away the Anglo-Indian representation as well?

It’s been almost a year since the Modi government came to power, and guess what? The 16th Lok Sabha has no Anglo-Indian member. There are usually two nominated members there, as per Article 331 of the Indian constitution.

It’s probably skipped the Prime Minister’s mind. After all, does this predominantly Christian, Angrezi speaking community, this micro-minority really matter? These half-caste, half-breed, beef-eating fellows aren’t the kind that should be taken seriously. And come on, they are just about 4-5 lakh in number, that’s all. Less than half a million!


Seriously, if a Supreme Court ruling says that the gays who are about 10 per cent of the Indian male population are ‘a miniscule minority’, do these Anglo-Indian fellows even come close?


The 16th Lok Sabha is completing its first year soon. The Narendra Modi government doesn’t seem keen (understatement of the year) to nominate two Anglo-Indian members to the Lower House. Well, that’s had the Anglo-Indian representatives asking President Pranab Mukherjee's to intervene.

They wrote to Modi in December last year, the Bangalore-based ‘Federation of Anglo-Indian Associations in India’. Well, fat lot of good that did!



 
Dr Charles Dias, a former MP from the community and federation president, has said several memoranda have been submitted to the Prime Minister, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptullah. Well, what happened?

 "But, there was no response from them so far. This is an injustice perpetrated on a microscopic and weak minority," Dias said in the memorandum submitted to President Mukherjee last week, saying the community is “anxious and eager” to know why their representatives are not nominated to the Lower House.


Really? haven’t seen any signs of restlessness or anguish among most of the Anglo-Indians of Bihar, nor Jharkhand for that matter. Do the Anglo-Indian 'youngsters' care a fig about what we're talking? Are any of the 'community' under 30 ever seen in the forefront of any civic action?

 According to Article 331 of the Constitution of India, if the President is of the opinion that the Anglo-Indian community is not adequately represented in Lok Sabha, he may nominate not more than two members of that community to Lok Sabha.

 “This Article was followed and acted upon all these years since independence. The community is forced to believe that this is yet another cruelty shown by the NDA Government towards a minority community,” the memorandum said.

 La,la,la,la,la…. who are these Anglo chaps anyway? The BJP should know. After all, a decade ago, it relied on the vote of the nominated member in the Jharkhand Assembly to ensure it remained in power during those very shaky initial days!


The Parsi community is tinier than the Anglo-Indian, but look at the clout it has.

It's not good enough for the Anglo-Indians to dream of past glory and how they contributed
to the workforce of modern India.

We are in post-modern, fluctuating times, which as Dylan says are-a-changing. And fast.

It's high time that the young Anglo-Indians sit up and smell the... well... the c-c-coffee!  Before the sh** hits the fan!

Just wearing a badge that reads 'Courage is Destiny' isn't enough. If you are indeed a community with intellect, education, and courage, then give us a sample. Introspect about the double standards and the prejudices within. Address them.  It's nice to recognize your  own rights, and stand in solidarity with others fighting for theirs. And rights have duties as well!

So if Modi and his government don't nominate your chaps to the Lok Sabha, what are you going do about it? And what if he's planning yet another tweak to the constitution of India, saying let's get rid of that redundant  article 331?

Any Political Party ready to shoulder you cause? H'm....?


Author: Frank Krishner also published on NEWSNET ONE

3 comments:

C.J. George Michael said...

My dear Anglo- Indian brothers in Christ,
I have read your post regarding your communities distress about our prime minister not yet filling up the vacant post of two MP representation in Parliament.

Well, myself an Indian born elderly Christian of 67 years wants to share my sad experience with your Anglo- Indian community.

Being a highly educated and having put up a lot of experience in film industry during my hey days and well connected with your community in my place (Coimbatore)and Chennai,myself with good faith through your Coimbatore Anglo Indian Association's strong recommendation and well wishes proposed a great 'Mega English Musical Movie' production of Our Jesus Christ's Musical Passion, an unique proposal / genre, so far none have attempted any where in the globe in any language as a community funded Billion dollar revenue generation holy venture to your Anglo Indian head quarters at Delhi and Calcutta enclosing all my credentials along with the project report.
My project report carried the strongest recommendation from the Local (Coimbatore) Anglo Indian Association .

I have with me the complete Holy Script of the movie,Lyrics of all nine songs, Scratch music composition awaiting orchestration
(Already up loaded in the
'YouTube')for want of proper vocalists / Orchestra and above all the complete story boards for the movie.
My holy work has been certified by our Late Archbishop of Chennai, many Bishops of TN and above all the famous Ex. Vice- Chancellor of a great university in TN who is also a Jesuit priest as a master piece and also a Billion dollar Box Office hit throughout the world being an unique musical genre and a fit holy proposal for the Anglo Indians to show case their talent / involvement in New- Evangelization of Our Christian faith .
For your information my whole work ( Script,Lyrics and story boards )has received the Indian Copyright sometime back .

Myself with full faith and prayers
sent the copy of my project report as a community funded holy venture to many of the so called Famous Anglo Indians living in India and even to your Australian and UK Associations.

To my dismay so far none have even acknowledged my holy proposal. This mega English movie would show case / prove all your hidden talents as I was very much specific that this project should involve only Anglo Indians in all departments of film making and through their contributions / investments as shares. This Mega movie production being community funded would come under a low budget movie,the budget of it would not cross 4 Crores . Being an International release and through direct distributions the box office collection would cross a Billion dollar as per the calculations mentioned in my project report.

Through this disappointing experience I came to know that you people are a divided lot and there is no Christian brotherly love towards other Indian fellow
Christians .Of late I came to know through mixed marriages many have lost the title of an Anglo Indian.

I wish this post / comment will enlighten all the people who go through this and request to share and pass on this message to all your known people, so that something good may turn out by the blessings of our Lord. Hallelujah.

With my best wishes ,
Sincerely in Christ,
C.J. George Michael.
.> cjgeorgemichael@hotmail.com <

Anonymous said...

This proud community will survive all odds Allen.
A nation cannot forget their sacrifices even though 80% wagged
their tails at their ex Master the British in 1947.
It was the British who thought of them as "half castes"

They even wanted to form their own nation - but why not?
When Jinnah could.

Still Bharat must be proud of our ethnic mix and acknowledge the
proud community of oue Anglo Indian brothers and sisters.
So please don't de-mean them by using such words as " half-caste,
half-breed, beef-eating fellows" or compare them to the Gay
community.

Let us say aloud Vande Mataram, Jai Hind and Long Live our
Anglo Indian Community.

Regards.
BIPIN BHAI

allenbhai said...

Hey Frank, waity and have patience. yopur contribution are being recorded...you may the next mp.God bless