First time u heard about politics and actually took interest

[Guest dada_rocks]

Mine was 31st october 1984 Indira gandhi shot, youngest brother of my Dadaji informs my Dadaji who was teaching me addhaiya ( it's a old school mathematics table for 2.5 i.2 2.5 5 7.5 .... ) . His words verbatim were, "Bhaiya Indira Gandhi ke goli laig gel. ( brother Indira Gandhi got shot)" My dadaji shifted both his hands instantly to his forehead, a sign of deep thinking, and exclaimed, "Julum bha gail (It's huge crime)" It was couple of days before or after Dipawali we were also busy cleaning our Darwaza ( those who don't know it's sitting area usually inhabited by males and away from the house where women folks live. It intrigued me becaseu my Dadaji was simple man. His daily routine used to be to visit farm where laboureres were working on that day then come home take bath do Ramayan path and take me to the village primary school. He also used to tell the teacher when I feel bored then to let me leave. I used to be with him till that point like shadow again in the evening amidst his religious discussion with other oldmen of village he used to teach me few things while I used to pretend like studying but most of the time my ear used to remain tuned to their debate. I had never seen him depressed. I knew who indira Gandhi was by virtue of rote reading in school where they teach you Pradhan Mantri kaun Rashtra-pati kaun but had no idea about anything beyond that. She meant so much to him was kind of new revelation to me. Dadaji who otherwise hardly even tallked to any female member cud care so much about some lady sitting in New Delhi was weird. I remember the routine conversation between my Dada/Dadi used to go on lines, Dadaji: Aha ke akil na hai ta ki bataw e ladika ke nashi kahai chhi e dekhbai engineer banatai (U have no sense, how can u call him (meaning me) waste he will become engineer oen day. Boy wasn't he prophetic there) Dadi: Jehan baba tehan pota ( like grandpa like grand-son) and then she used to leave.):haha: I kept asking dadaji "Baba ke goli maar delak kaila maar delak ( who shot her, why shot her)" but no answer came forth. in coming 3-4 days there was heavy atmosphere people glued to radio set in coming days listening to the running commenatry of Indira Gandhi's shav-yatra. It took at least a week before atmosphere came back to normal. My dadaji a freedom-fighter Gandhian and congressi was never the same till he died couple of years later. He kept talking about Indira Gandhi this Indira Gandhi that all those time. During same period I also got fully acquainted with the word riot needless to say it was no comforting thought. In next couple of months during peak of winter season of 1984 famous 415-seat election took place and all my uncles were present in village due to winter vacation. Election time used to be kind of festival whole night everybody huddled around bon-fire radio blowing election bulletin at full volume. Mother/aunt brigade complaining about this tamasha because they too had to keep themselves awake for preparing tea every hour. My cousins used to go to sleeep but I for some reason found this interesting. Learnt all the big name politicians and figured out all the nitty gritty of politics which a third-standard kid could grasp. All the big names like Hemwati Nanadan bahuguna getting beaten by Amitabh bachchan, Atal Bihari Vajpayee beaten by Madhav Rao Sindhiya, Lal Krishna Advani still holding his fort in Ahmedabad . Although they all were stanuch congressi cheering one after another victory of that party but I sensed a liking and some kind of weird despair over the loss of certain Vajpayee and kind of awed appreciation for certain Lal Krishan Adavni for holding his forte even in that wave. These two names got stuck in my head. Then in next election I got further knowledge about Atal Bihari Vajpayee ( may be that word Bihari was the key for this name getting endeard to me at that early age) by sloganeering like. "Mangal Bhawan Amangal Hari, Desh ke neta atal Bihari" We even got to eat ample sweets over a bet which my father had placed with one of his colleague in school viz a viz Amitabh Bachchan's victory over Bahuguna. He won 200 Rs which bought us enough rusogulla to party whole day. Do share ur politicization story.

[Cricketics]

tell u what, it was the same day 1984, 31st october.. Delhi was bloody closed.. shutterz down.. whole maket closed now take this, - my very own Sikh Friend told me "aaj mai khelne nahi aaonga" there used to be one press waala, i mean the one who does iron on clothes in our colony near my house.. he was never seen after that.. i wonder where he was.. he was a good person.. today when i try to remember that.. i really do feel sorry for my sikh brothers for the torture they had to take..

[Guest dada_rocks]

It must haunt you man....Hope he is safe and left Delhi for good

[Guest dada_rocks]

77 how old were u then I used to think u are +/_ 1 year to me now I will have to giev u senior's respect..:haha:.. peer wala privilege ka gala ghont diya :D

[Ram]

96 was my first introduction to politics. Then, Jayalalithaa's elaborate wedding of her adopted son made lots of headlines in the news. The marriage apparently cost 100 crores.

[theguyinallblue]

i think i came into major politics..when Rajiv Gandhi was killed....and everything on TV was about Rajiv Gandhi... Otherwise..while in calcutta..it was all about.. "Hasua Hathoda Tara...Jisne desh ko Bigada" ....anto communazi slogan..as i was in congresi majority area.. never was interested in elections...it was only during Mandal commission when we had forced leave in our school....and afterwards...that i started taking notes of things which were happening around me..

[sandtest]

Excellent Thread Dada_Rocks ji :two_thumbs_up:...you are truelly rocking these days. It seems I am a pretty young compared to you guyz. When Bheem started following politics, I was not even born on this planet. :sad_smile: Started following politics only after 1991, particularly when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. Bimaru face of then powerless PM Chandrasucker is still in m,y memeory. ( we have had many useless babus as PM and Chandra Shekhar is one of them). In fact taking interest in politics happened as an accident, when V.P. Singh (another useless PM) government collapsed and Chandrashekhar was manipulated by Rajiv as PM. Since childhood I was more inclined towards defense and army. A few relatives being in army, got me excited. Still follow army and defense very closely. Early days, attended RSS shakha in Andheri (Mumbai), during schooldays (althogh RSS is far from being political). Most of the folks in shakha use to be Marathis -- so that helped learning Marathi quickly.

[Guest dada_rocks]

96 was my first introduction to politics. Then' date=' Jayalalithaa's elaborate wedding of her adopted son made lots of headlines in the news. The marriage apparently cost 100 crores.[/quote'] Jaya aunty mere ko adopt karengi kya :D

[Ram]

Jaya aunty mere ko adopt karengi kya :D

Just after that marriage, she lost the elections and DMK came to power. They raided her house and it was covered extensively by all the satellite T.V. 96 was the time when private channels were making the mark in India and I vividly remember the channels showing the ridiculous riches of Amma. Her mansion was splurged in Granite, she had atleast a 3 dozen pairs of Sandals, her jewelry. I wasnt even a teenager then and these sights left a profound impact on me. Of course, I have a very faint memory of Rajiv's assassination, mainly because he was such a charismatic leader and the killing took place in T.N But with the advent of English news channels, mainly NDTV, my interest in Indian politics sky rocketed. I used to follow so much news that every day i would have challenge with my Dad, saying that i would predict what the headlines would be and i was correct on many occasions. Kargil was the first instance of war journalism in India, which gripped my attention. I still recollect many names from the battle... Drass, Batalik, Tololing, Tiger Hills. Names that were till now merely a speck in the Indian geography had now become household names. The attack on Tiger hills was glorified by many in the media. Cant also forget captain Vikram Batra, who was martyred in the war and had a peak named after him. The other aspect of Indian politics that i liked the most of Indian elections. For the first time, you had the media giving live coverage of the campaign, the election AND the results. You had these experts and news anchor giving their opinions all through the day the election results came out. It was quite fun to see how the numbers used to shift from one alliance to the other, through the day. The 99 Delhi election ( i think) was particularly memorable because the vegetable , specifically onion prices had skyrocketed so much that it was the main election platform of the Congress and they won ! Besides, The 2001 attack on the parliment, the ensuing troop build-up along the border, the politics of it were too interesting to miss. This was the time i had gotten interested in world politics and specifically US foreign policy. 9/11 had just happened and the following Afghan and Iraq war captivated my attention. BBC was like my best friend.

[Guest dada_rocks]

time for my fav dialogue : I can beat all you "yengsters" at anything I can put my mind to .. :eyedance::giggle::hysterical:

bhaiya main kaun sa young hun

[The Outsider]

Nice thread, DR with a lot of good information. For me the budding part was the anti Bofors campaign against Rajeev Gandhi by VP Singh (I wasn't in India at the time of the '84 riots or that might have been it). Coupled with the Shah Bano BS that our country managed to pull off was when I got interested in politics. Mandal and Babri Mazjid played their part along with terrorism and state sponsored terrorism in Kashmir and Punjab. So, you can book down my initiation years between '87-'92, active interest as between '92-'04, and after that realization that every party is a thug out there (barring and exceptional few individuals cutting across part lines), and unless I seriously think of making a change to it all just restrict myself to social causes and keeping up to date with what's going on in the world.

[Guest dada_rocks]

Just after that marriage, she lost the elections and DMK came to power. They raided her house and it was covered extensively by all the satellite T.V. 96 was the time when private channels were making the mark in India and I vividly remember the channels showing the ridiculous riches of Amma. Her mansion was splurged in Granite, she had atleast a 3 dozen pairs of Sandals, her jewelry. I wasnt even a teenager then and these sights left a profound impact on me. Of course, I have a very faint memory of Rajiv's assassination, mainly because he was such a charismatic leader and the killing took place in T.N But with the advent of English news channels, mainly NDTV, my interest in Indian politics sky rocketed. I used to follow so much news that every day i would have challenge with my Dad, saying that i would predict what the headlines would be and i was correct on many occasions. Kargil was the first instance of war journalism in India, which gripped my attention. I still recollect many names from the battle... Drass, Batalik, Tololing, Tiger Hills. Names that were till now merely a speck in the Indian geography had now become household names. The attack on Tiger hills was glorified by many in the media. Cant also forget captain Vikram Batra, who was martyred in the war and had a peak named after him. The other aspect of Indian politics that i liked the most of Indian elections. For the first time, you had the media giving live coverage of the campaign, the election AND the results. You had these experts and news anchor giving their opinions all through the day the election results came out. It was quite fun to see how the numbers used to shift from one alliance to the other, through the day. The 99 Delhi election ( i think) was particularly memorable because the vegetable , specifically onion prices had skyrocketed so much that it was the main election platform of the Congress and they won ! Besides, The 2001 attack on the parliment, the ensuing troop build-up along the border, the politics of it were too interesting to miss. This was the time i had gotten interested in world politics and specifically US foreign policy. 9/11 had just happened and the following Afghan and Iraq war captivated my attention. BBC was like my best friend.

I know about that marriage and that IT raid too .. One of the biggest road-contratcor company in Bihar came out of that raid. I have shared this story before how Jaya's driver a Bihar was given a car filled with gold to dump somewhere smart guy drove the car all the way to Bihar and started his own contracting company... Talking of corruption I keep bombarding my younger brother with words like; when are u becoming the official chor. He would say I know it's wrong but bureaucrat's corruption is drop in the ocean; politicians are the big fish. Their inappropriation of money runs in thousands of crores not few lakhs here and there.

[Lurker]

DR, Your Dadaji seems to be Magahi, atleast the sentences you put were Magahi. For me it was the Indira Gandhi assassination as well. I remember getting an early holiday from school, coming home to anxious parents. It is hard to put the sentiment in words but lets just say there was great scale anxiety. The biggest question on everyone's mind was - What happens next to India? I do feel that it was as close as we had ever come to disintegrate. Thank God that did not happen and India came out stronger. What stands out in my memory is the funeral. I distinctly remember my living room packed with neighbours watching every movement going all weepy everytime they would show Rajeev Gandhi or his family. In a strange way it seems so remote now. You are correct that your Dadaji took it to heart. The assassination was not part of Indian culture at all back then. Within less than a decade Rajeev Gandhi got killed and it did not evoke similar sentiments at all. xxx PS: I bet you never got hold of that adhaiyya.

[Guest dada_rocks]

My dadaji was rebel son of a father ( who was tehlsidaar hence loyal to british) had roamed around alot and his dilect was mix of maithili vajjika magahi sort of everything.... It's not that easy for India to disintegrate Lurker fear is but natural. So u had access to TV back then no such fortune for me.. Remember my youngest uncle visiting some distant relative in nearby village in order to have a dekho of the final journey....Then he gave us account of what actually happened, who all were present how Amitabh bachchan was the shoulder of support for Rajeev Gandhi etc etc Rajeev gandhi when he died my brother comes and wakes me up saying Bhiaya Rajeev gandhi mar gaya.. I snapped marne do saale ko when I woke up and found he had really died then felt bad about mouthing those words.... I knew it back then then forgot everything.. My parents were little too geedy ye bhi padho wo bhi padho.. Urdu padho english padho sanskrit padho bachche ki jaan lene par tule the... all those addendums on top of real syllabus got lost somewhere down the road.. My dadaji was so sharp in calculation thanks to those weird tables I bet he cud ace CAT exam easily:haha:. ..

[Lurker]

My dadaji was rebel son of a father ( who was tehlsidaar hence loyal to british) had roamed around alot and his dilect was mix of maithili vajjika magahi sort of everything....

Good on him. Much respect. My Dadaji was a rebel too, dumped his zameendari and got into freedom struggle. Will write about him some time.

It's not that easy for India to disintegrate Lurker fear is but natural.

It is not that eay DR but there were enough anxious moments back then. Not only were the rumours flying ad-nauseum there was little one could do to quell them. I mean newspapers were available only the next day and TV with one channel was basically whatever the Govt wanted to say. During this time lot was happening in Bihar. At the time there were three cantonments - Ranchi(Namkum), Ramgarh & Gaya who were on high alert. Ramgarh cantonment was the key as it was the base for the Sikh regiment. The rumours were afloat as to how the Sikh regiment would rebel after 84 riots that immediately followed the assassination. The Army Service Coprs(ASC) Gaya and Namkum Ranchi were pressed to avoid such issues. In the end nothing happened and hats off to Sikh regiment for being professional but lets just say it was some troubled times. Even in Patna the situation was dire, specially in Patna City area which has a lot of Sikh population and is also one of the Takhts of Sikhism(Guru Gobind Singh was born here). In the end there was no Sikh riots in Bihar but the atmosphere was vitriolic and I would not be surprised if this affected the migration of Sikhs from Bihar. They were lot more in numbers in 80s. xxx

[Lurker]

Okay picked this from Wikipedia. Following Operation Bluestar, a large number of recruits at Ramgarh mutinied. They shot and killed the Commandant of the Sikh Regimental Center, Brigadier S.C. Puri and wounded some other officers. They then got hold of a number of trucks and started to proceed towards Punjab, but were stopped by army men in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Yes I remember this better now. There was a mutiny and the mutineers tried to get on to the GT Road that led all the way to Delhi and beyond but were stopped at UP/Bihar border. We need to find out more on what transpired.

[Guest dada_rocks]

Good on him. Much respect. My Dadaji was a rebel too, dumped his zameendari and got into freedom struggle. Will write about him some time. It is not that eay DR but there were enough anxious moments back then. Not only were the rumours flying ad-nauseum there was little one could do to quell them. I mean newspapers were available only the next day and TV with one channel was basically whatever the Govt wanted to say. During this time lot was happening in Bihar. At the time there were three cantonments - Ranchi(Namkum), Ramgarh & Gaya who were on high alert. Ramgarh cantonment was the key as it was the base for the Sikh regiment. The rumours were afloat as to how the Sikh regiment would rebel after 84 riots that immediately followed the assassination. The Army Service Coprs(ASC) Gaya and Namkum Ranchi were pressed to avoid such issues. In the end nothing happened and hats off to Sikh regiment for being professional but lets just say it was some troubled times. Even in Patna the situation was dire, specially in Patna City area which has a lot of Sikh population and is also one of the Takhts of Sikhism(Guru Gobind Singh was born here). In the end there was no Sikh riots in Bihar but the atmosphere was vitriolic and I would not be surprised if this affected the migration of Sikhs from Bihar. They were lot more in numbers in 80s. xxx

I have always believe had the Khalistani movement had popular support among sikhs no power in india would have been able to control it. Sikhs basically run indian defence and I have paramount respect for them for this reason; although in my personal life I don't have nice stories to report about my interaction with them....

[maggot_brain]

I have always believe had the Khalistani movement had popular support among sikhs no power in india would have been able to control it. Sikhs basically run indian defence and I have paramount respect for them for this reason; although in my personal life I don't have nice stories to report about my interaction with them....

I would have thought you of all people loved Sikhs. It could be argued that their existence is one of the reasons why India was not completely Islamicised. Seeing as you like 'ROP' so much.

[Guest dada_rocks]

Well I do love sikh community there is no two way about it.. Merely poitnign out my llike or dislike doesn;t get governed by my personal expereince it's always dependent on holistic picture..

[maggot_brain]

Well I do love sikh community there is no two way about it.. Merely poitnign out my llike or dislike doesn;t get governed by my personal expereince it's always dependent on holistic picture..

I'm second guessing here, but this is like the opposite of what you think of members of 'ROP' isn't it? Here you're saying there's a few bad Singhs, but most of them are good, but vice versa for ROP....correct me if I'm wrong.