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Scamsutra -the art we are not exactly very proud of! Parliament has been spending the last few days debating scandals and scams that have rocked the country and left it's citizens baffled. It seemed to me more a battle between the ruling party and the opposition?
Anna and his team who had arrived in the midst of all this like a whiff of fresh air, somehow is threatening to go stale with some of their actions!
Most of the time we fall back on the Gandhian philosophy and the routines of the Freedom fight, but Friends, the point we are not realizing is that we have gotten our Freedom! Burning A4 size sheets symbolically representing the Lokpal Draft did not honestly make any sense to me! It is not suited in the present times. We have a democratically elected Government. C’mon people…We are surely not a set of oppressed people who are imperially dominated!
The Lokpal bill if found lacking in several aspects can be questioned and debated in the Parliament.The system that we have chosen surely needs restraint and patience and not pyrotechiques! The systems surely can be improved upon. Expression of divergent opinions is the hallmark of a vibrant democracy.
Calling the elected Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers names and abusing them does not serve any purpose. Why denigrate an appointee of the democratic system as established by the country... wonder what pleasures one derives when they take to recourse to publicly questioning the worth of any democratically appointed official. Somehow, this lowered the esteem I held for the social worker of pre eminence.
Is the Janlokpal Bill the panacea of all the ills facing our country? It is the “this or nothing else” stance that forms the basis of all the actions of the reformers! Surely hard posturing has it’s own negative impact and effects which would be visible very soon. Always remember the Mandal episode!Hope History won't repeat.
The public sentiment is exploited to the maximum. It is surely very easy to arouse passion amongst people but it’s the dousing that gets impossible later. I hope Anna and his team are aware of rousing people too much.
Is pyrotechnicques an exercise of the “civil society”? What a phrase! Nothing could be more amorphous! I have the gut feel of the word "civil society" being truly different from the word citizen! I do not give the right to this “civil” society to debate on my behalf. This group surely has no mandate just because lakhs of people assemble for a cause they have no clue about. Anyone can do anything under the garb of this word “civil” and none can be held responsible inn case of any loose arrangement.
I am not willing to go by referendums or the odd case issues taken up. I will not do away with my hard earned rights to parliamentary and legislative democracy. I don’t see a structure of governance even in this public decision. It seems more of something decided in the heat of the moment. Such groups only add on to the confused decisions and confused implementation leaving us at a point from where we started.
To solve one problem are we getting into a bigger one? Is there a drift developing in our Democracy in an unfavorable direction? Are we heading for a real bad joke pal?
:) :) both our views stand wide apart here on this particular subject, though not totally. :)
ReplyDeleteI, for neither endorse nor ratify the so called civil movement under Anna Hazare. That nefarious motives hid behind the entire episode is needless to say. Time will tell what the motive behind the 13 day siege, as I put it, really meant for the nation. Well, for sure it meant huge loss to the exchequer due to the stand still it contributed for those 13 days. It all goes well to say, plainly, that it was a well executed drama with some intense moments.
Be that as it may, I don not endorse the stand of the current Government either. If civil society has grouped, claiming to be on behalf of the rest of the Indians so has the CON led government gathered, claiming immunity to the the passion of the general public at large. They neither possessed diligence nor compassion when dealing with such burning issues. Narcissism, disdain and disregard abounded in the disposition. Burning issues were relegated to Iftar Parties. A lacuna was deliberately created with the presumption that they could break the back of a movement that was gaining in strength day by day. The result was, as evidenced, a quid pro quo. Neither the Government nor the Civil Society gave way until it stretched to that extreme of breaking point. And that would definitely have been a disaster if left to be so.
No doubt, constitution is supreme and parliament is its caretaker. When caretakers begin to behave like typical imperialists, there leaves not much choice other than civil strife. That the Government was pushing their luck to the edge was there for anyone to see except themselves. Anarchy matched with obstinacy brought in the Anna scenario. And I don't see this to be the end. A precedent set is a precedent repeated. And that will not only endanger the statutory composition but also vitiate its existence as a Republic of India.
We can only rest with the hope and belief that it does not happen so! JAI HIND.
Fully respect your viewpoint too!!
ReplyDeleteThe current scenario does not give us any much choice does it Prashant?