India and It's Democracy

On the face of it the state of the Indian Union looks as good as it can be. We are a young stable democracy, tried and tested, living in a nation where the head is held high, and freedom prevails.

We have an enviable growth rate of a healthy eight percent, which many developing nations wish to emulate. The IT and the industrial growth has put money in the pockets of our middle class, and many of us are seeing affluence in the post Manmohan Singh reform era which just a few years ago was beyond our imagination.

The bulk our population is young, bursting in its seams, full of energy and knowledge, ready to have a crack at an even higher pay cheque. Let’s face it we could have never had it better, “or really is it so”? Scratch the surface and the cracks begin to appear. Never has the divide been the rich and the poor or the have and have not been starker and greater. One hundred and sixty three districts are under Naxal threat, or class war.

The writ of the government does not run fully in thirty three percent of our country. The Hindi heartland is so poorly governed, that the bulk of its citizens are classified as migrant labour. The neglect of the agriculture sector, brings down the growth rate of the Indian economy, and that is where the “aam admi”, stays, that means he is taken for granted and in the process, also for a ride, because he will vote on caste basis. Why is it that cities prosper and villages are neglected? Why is it that one India surges ahead and another lags behind? Why is it that a fellow citizen, who breaths the same air, has the same blood group, is as religious as any one of us, is poor, under nourished, lacks medicinal aid, and education? The answer is complex and simple. Complex is, caste, creed, class, JAAT- PAAT, and simple is “poor governance”. As long as we will give votes on these lines we will be exploited. In our country had development come from the government aided agencies which eat up most of the funds that they have to distribute the villages would have benefited the most.

There is rampart corruption and a clear indicator is that the bulk of the disproportionate assets cases are invariably either on those who govern us or are government employees. The victory of Mayavati is a simple case of combing upper caste Brahim votes plus Muslim votes added up to the tally of Bhujan Samaj, to become the Queen of Lucknow.

Did she have a party program or was it simple you vote for me, a one point agenda. On the other hand we have the success of the Indian business man it’s an International story of Tata and Narayan Murthy. How have we as a society come to this state of affairs? It is correctly said that people get theovernment that they deserve, do we deserve criminals? How have we the clever (Chatur), Bharat Nagrik, come to this sorry state of affairs, being out classed, and poorly governed, yet accepting the same and finding answers with in the problem. If you find an answer within the problem the problem remains.

The classic case being the Gujjar agitation led by Bainsala. A word in passing about its handling. They are just five percent and people don’t take to the streets if they are not promised. When the current UPA government increased the Quotas, all other political parties stayed mum; therefore, others will be encouraged. But this precisely what we do not want, reservations are dividing us, we want to be united. What if the events could not have been controlled? Would we witness a caste war in the state? In the current scheme of things reservations was started for ten years and has not worked.

We need to change the same. Another reason why we have come to this pass is the It’s not my problem psyche while dealing with public issues. Most of us clean our house and than throw dust into the street. Some one will clean it up. This cannot happen if we do not do our duties as a citizen. As we do not raise our concerns the police have slowly been incapacitated. The government servant has learnt to live with mass transfers. The CBI is unable to stop people withdrawing cash transactions from banks. They carry out investigations and are told that they cannot prosecute. Wonder what sort of investigations they do, or are they, “government machinery”, being told to fall in line.

A national monument was destroyed and we don’t know who did it? A train is burnt and commissions are appointed but where is the answer? Thus systematically a personnel agenda is being pursued. Its Alkalis vrs Captain Amrinder Singh, Mayawati vrs Mulayam, Amma vrs Karunanidhi, in short regional parties. In Bengal the communist have become capitalist and land grabbers, in Kerala two senior functionaries are squabbling for public attention. Because of the lack of depth, regional parties have to go for one another throats, so that they can win the next round too. All this must stop because we are in a state of siege from out side and within. The judiciary remains our only hope, and attacks on it have all ready started, called judicial activism. Of course it’s a different story that we needed a campaign to get justice for Jessica, and now when Rajasthan burnt NDTV was keener on showing its Story on the BMW case. But this institution remains our only hope, if the common man feels it’s not his problem to do his bit for the nation. What is the magnitude of the siege? Look at the subcontinent, the golden democratic bird India surrounded by an Islamist Dictatorship, waging a proxy in J&K who has de-linked Northern Areas and yet we keep mum.

A communist China first grabbed Tibet which we too offered on a Platter by calling it Tibet Autonomous Region and now wants Arunachal as pudding. Turmoil in the North East ably supported by China, Burma where democracy is a historical lesson, a military ruled Bangladesh, Maoist in Nepal not ready to allow democratic vote. To cap it all the LTTE and Tamils in the south are getting ready for a possible show down. Only peace prevails in our country and Bhutan. Are we going to spoil it all, by dividing ourselves along caste lines? Think again my country men what is the inheritance we are leaving for generations to come. This siege has to be fought by all of us, united we stand divided we fall. In order to do that the first thing that we need to do is to shed the virus that divides us.

The form of governance the way in which we elect it, the manner in which we conduct it clearly needs a change. Reservations have to go, look at the pure Brahmin he is economically the weakest. This issue needs to be put before a commission who need to look at it de nova, keeping in mind many issues and not just one issue the right to privilege by birth. We need transparency in the manner of day to day administration of the country which can only come about using E governance, a better way to carry out elections a separate topic by itself, and a presidential form of government.

I have not read Arun Shourie book on the subject but feel that we need a strong man to take us out of our self induced calm. In the corporate sector Ambani could do it, the Mahatma did it for the freedom struggle, of course he had able support, it works in USA, than why not here? Time is running out. The common sense of our people is great, will the common man continue on an anti incumbency factor or does he want greater change only time will tell.

source: ndtv