August 01, 2008

State Funeral ????? !!!!!

Did Ishmeet Singh deserve a State Funeral ??

Do not doubt the fact that I'm saddened by the death of a young aspiring singer and a very fine human being. The point here is quite different.

Ishmeet Singh was no big celebrity (frankly, I'd never heard of him earlier!). He was neither a politician nor someone who's done so much for the nation that we are forever indebted. He was just a normal 19 year old, who had topped an exam he appeared for. That it happened to be in singing and was lucky enough to be aired on national TV is another thing. As yet, he had not rendered any service that could either label him a martyr or even a patriot. He was neither a leader of a state nor of any party. He never faced the bullets and the bombs at Kargil, never trooped the forests of Chattisgarh in search of naxalities, never tried to stop the corruption in Bihar. Then why a State Funeral for him? Why should the Indian Government bear the cost of his funeral and the security arrangements that accompany the same. What makes him worthy of the Indian Tricolor covering him on his last journey?

As I mentioned earlier, he had just topped an exam. Would the Indian Government provide a state funeral to the person who had topped the CAT or the IIT or the Civils? Naah.. they would not even know what happens to those real heroes. Then why Ishmeet ?

37 comments:

Sriram said...

why ask me? :/

Anonymous said...

Well.. coz maybe he is a Sardar and was the first one to win any kinda contest... and our PM is also Sardar :)

i dnt knw... in cases like this the normal people will say the thing i said.

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Sriram

Coz u can think, unlike the bozos on gaddis.

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Veens

I'm not sure if he was the first winner of any contest. He won last year. I remember Sunidhi Chauhan winning Meri Awaaz Suno some 6-8yrs back.. or was it more?

If he was Italian I could have understood.. but sardar, no...

Solitaire said...

Crazy!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Sneha

Agree !

ceedy said...

Thats crap!

Anonymous said...

No comments !

Keshi said...

State funeral or not, does that change the dead person's status? Im not someone who believes in tagging funeral's as State etc. Whether it's great icon's funeral or not, we r all human, we all die and we all get buried/cremated.

We must all learn to Respect and Appreciate a person when he/she is alive...not at their funerals!


Keshi.

RiĆ  said...

right said! He definitely doesnt deserve a state funeral. Its sad tht he had an untimely death, but why a state funeral....i think the govt got confused and thought tht since he pulled a lot of crowd there he shud b given a state funeral.

Aarti said...

Completely agree with you.. i was like"what, state funeral"... cos i too hadnt heard of him till yesterday on the news...

oh,well.. our Govt works in mysterious ways..or rather does not work!! :P

Meher :) said...

Saaaame feeling!! :-|

Surely a sad thing to have happened but worthy of a State Funeral?? Naah!

If the govt starts giving State Funerals to all & sundry, then the concept of having a State Funeral itself is lost!

And if am not wrong.. I guess this sentiment is echoed by more people than us...

Meher :) said...

BTW VB... its a nice template that you have...more pleasing on the eye :)

Cinderella said...

I agree...I mean as much as this is a very sad incident. Par state funeral was kinda carrying it too far.

Perhaps just to mollify the media n glitterati.

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Ceedy

Yep. It is.

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ HOBO

Hmmm.. itni chuppi kyon bhai?

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Keshi

The dead person's status does not change, and he/she would never know if he got a state or a royal funeral or even if he was dumped in some graveyard. But what is pertinent is when u have a system for something, you just dont break rules so easily. That too for someone who wasnt really so big. With no disrespect to the dead person here, I'm sure even his family would have been surprised at the event!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Ria

He pulled crowds because of the hype done by news channels.

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Aaarti

Very true..

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Sindhu

Yep. Exactly my thots.. if Ishmeet gets a state funeral then a lot more people who have served the nation deserves the same.

And reg the template, lemme tell u that templateguru is at work again ;)

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Cindy

yep.. they carried it quite far.. donno who was trying to mollify whom though! Sad case.

Prakhar said...

I completely agree wid u...but thats India...dun we have security check for all armed forces chiefs...but Mr. Robert Vadra goes without check...(i think i saw the poster in ur blog only)...

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Prakhar

Yep.. u remember it right. It was very much on my blog!

Down to Earth said...

Forget whether he dserved a state funeral or not..think whether he deserved to die ?? @ such an early age ?? innocent guy with hi fly dreams..i feel really sorry abt the whole episode of his death n for his family..may his soul rest in peace

Down to Earth said...

Sorry..this is orchid..down 2 earth is my other blog roll

Unknown said...

hi there
i was taken aback too when i read bout Ishmeet getting a state funeral. It is indeed sad that a talented singer lost his life in the most unsatisfactory circumstances. Ishmeet was only 19, so many dreams, all lost in an unfortunate drowning incident. But i dont see any point of a state funeral. Media coverage was a given, but state funeral? i dont think that was really needed, when there are so many nameless soldiers who fight day n night so we can breathe easily here.
take care
ciao

Unknown said...

And heres your set of Railway Questions that i could think of whilst travelling.

RQ1 : This was somewhere in Ratlam junction, MP, i saw a lot of poles with thick discs placed around them with numbers like TL633. what were those discs? and what did those numbers indicate?

RQ2 : at the rearend of the coach there were some descriptions in abbreviated forms. couldnt really make out what it meant.
TARE 40.00t , POH GKPS 29.4.08(i guess this is da date)

RQ3 : theres a very common thing written on the back of many coaches. WGSCN - what does it mean?

thanks in advance:D
take care
ciao

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Orchid

I have clearly mentioned that the two are different topics altogether. I too am quite shocked at the loss of Ishmeet's life. What I wrote about should be taken as a completely different thing.

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ TD

Exactly my point :)

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ TD

Would reply to ur train comment as a separate post .. maybe tomorrow itself :)

aneri_masi said...

Isey kehtte hain ...it happens only in India...

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Kashmira

True !!

Mysterious Mia said...

well i dunno if he deserved it r no.....but i think a a funeral like this shud be for ppl who have done something for their country....not for anyone who just passed a beauty pagent or an exam...

Anonymous said...

I very well deserved it. But I dont expect bastards like you to understand. Keep your sick thoughts to you!!

Soulmate said...

Thats what the sad part is. For someone like Field Marshall Sam Maneckshaw who deserved the presence of our three service Chiefs on his funeral and got none, state funeral is being given to a boy who had simply won a contest.

Stupidosaur said...

Thats how human world works.

Rewards are only for 'visibilty' and power is in numbers.

Otherwise, the filmstars who get paid big money are not doing 'qualitatively' better work than some scientist in ISRO.

Its just that the 3 hour film that the actor stars in can be made into a large number of copies, and earns large revenue from the masses, though each individual pays only little out of his pocket.

So as the filmmaker makes huge profits out of the masses, actor can demand fat amounts and film-maker can afford to pay it.

On the other hand the ISRO's scientists work may be highly demanding, have real depth of hard work and quality, etc etc but since it is not immediately encashable through the masses, he may get a paltry salary and drive by bajaj scooter.

Actually I came to know about this sardar chap only after reading here and googling. Yes I am one of those blessed sould not much concerned about media.

But I think his case is also about the economics of masses. Punjab state gov gives him state funeral. Everybody is in love with him. So everybody will fall in love with the gov. So brownie points earned will help in getting votes.

Plus there is another human world reality here. The special talented don't matter. Only the 'unique' specially talented matter.

All (most) of us have the special talent of being able to speak. Its really a talent, no animal can do it, and dynamic speech synthesis based on ideas is in the realms of hi-funda AI. But still we are not valued because of that. But if one machine does it, it will be world famous. Even a monkey wil get world famous by doing so. Then the monkey will be treated like royalty. Perhaps even UN will give it international funeral if hyped enough and used for 'world peace' or such cause. State funeral is nothing.

I think I am going little off-point here. I am not calling the singer monkey. No. I am not comparing his work with 'world peace efforts'. These were just off-track and misunderstandable points that came out just like that.
Getting back on track,
Ishmeet here is the 'unique' specially talented person. While the soldiers and leaders and such people you were talking about are just 'specially talented', not unique.

So if a state government wants to endear itself to the public by holding state funerals for them, doing it once will set trend for doing it always. And state treasury cant afford to hold funeral for every soldier from the state or every 'great' being of regular fields of life.

Ishmeet was winner of some contest, which is relatively rarer. So the leverage gained by giving him state funeral would be cheap. because it is not highly probable that another person from the same state will
1) Win some talent contest
and
2) Die.
So setting the trend is not an issue and the public support and liking gained is welcome. So be it! Thats how managers and politicians will think I think.

Unknown said...

"Ishmeet who?"

the above comment can be termed rude but that is what i said when the news channels flashed the breaking news....