I wrote this article few months back, but indeed it is relevant today also.
I am the Lord your God.
Thou shall worship no other god before me.
--first commandment(Old testament)
First of all let me make few things clear:
1. I am against corruption like any other human being. But if anything we ever learn from history is that, every change comes with a prices. So be prepared.
2. I have no problem with Anna and their right to protest. I may overstepped a little yesterday during the debate by saying some things especially to my good friend Vinay. I agree that they all want India a better country and have a good heart. But when we do so many good things to society for so many years (as Anna and their following did ...I think) then we start developing a feeling that only us are capable to doing all goods and others are creating problem. This is true for both parties in this case team Anna and the government(and may be me too). And when that happens then we all need some into-inspection.
If I can draw parallel with history, same thing happens in 70's when Indera Gandhi developed this feeling after the Bangladesh triumph. Indira Gandhi,‘empress of India’,storms into power with a massive mandate. She is Durga,invincible. She hones her populist moves:having already nationalised banks,she abolishes privy purses in 1972,stops food imports and coins the slogan ‘Garibi Hatao’. She becomes increasingly autocratic and imperious,purging Congress of any possible dissenters. Sycophants surround her with Dev Kant Barooah declaring ‘Indira is India,India is Indira’. Then emerges JP and rest is history.
Some days ago Kiran Bedi remarks "Anna is India, India is Anna" .. so you can guess in which direction this movement heading.
3. I have some very serious concerns with Jan lokpal bill, which I will explain in details but as there is one old saying:
The devil you know beats the devil
you don't and I like the devil I got.
4. I am not a pro establishment or anti change. In fact I have great many hopes and dreams for future of our country.
5. I do not think that popular support is for jan lokpal. It is against corruption and these two are separate issues.
6. And last this is free society and every body has right to express their opinion. But it seems we are growing a kind of intolerance towards a deterrent view especially if it against elites or popular sentiments. This will explain why I put quote from first commandment on top of this article. Anna but their followers are behaving like mosses(orator of commandments) and commanding all of Indians that you shell put your faith in me and do not dare to have other opinions. We may or may not agree with each others view but we all should agree on the right to express that opinion.
Second of all We all should be thankful the CAG Vinod Rai (man behind CWG, 2G and KG basin, defense deal scam exposure)for shaking and shocking every one. I do not think that without his hawk eyed audit reports any one (including team Anna or opposition parties or us) would have bothered about corruption in India.
Let me try to answer the question of why this government can not pass this law within 7 days. We can argue that this government is week or its a complex law or politicians do not want this or they do not have stomach for it. But I guess best explanation of this lies in the human nature. We do not like changes, especially if it is demanded by others or controlled by others or affects us in negative way. We all agree that its a big thing( at-least on papers) and it will affect higher bureaucracy and politicians most. Like every body they do not want to write their own death sentence.
I just want to ask all of you one simple question that every thing that you write in your performance reviews is it 100% correct in your conscious? Well last date for filling goal sheets is 2nd September, so will have answer of this soon.
Now we should move to discussion on democracy and fundamental rights. So let us be clear we are not living is a true democracy but Its a republic. We do not govern directly instead we elect our representatives to govern. Purpose of republic is to control The Majority strictly, as well as all others among the people, primarily to protect The Individual’s God-given, unalienable rights and therefore for the protection of the rights of The Minority, of all minorities, and the liberties of people in general. The definition of a Republic is: a constitutionally limited government of the representative type, created by a written Constitution--adopted by the people and changeable (from its original meaning) by them only by its amendment--with its powers divided between three separate Branches: Executive, Legislative and Judicial.
In short currently we have three independent and powerful branches. They may have from time to time some issues like separation of power etc. but it is the core of our constitution. Now by creating an all powerful lokpal which will be above all the three branches and controls them, is like putting all the eggs in one basket.
the beauty and Bordon of democracy is this, no idea prevails without the support of majority. The people decides the moral issue of the day not the majority of one. Now do not this that Anna has support of majority. Anna has support of creamy layer and upper middle class. Real India has no voice in the media as will as in the government. We neither know nor imagine the pain and suffering of a common man. But it has one power, that is called “vote”. Right now both the parties(pro and anti Anna ) are claiming that they have popular support. I guess the best way to find out the truth is to go to the public. Next year we have elections in UP. In this state we all know the condition of Congress. So Congress and team anna can fight a good election. But I doubt that Anna and his team will agree on the that because those who speak in the media or talks of revolution hardly ever vote.
Now I would like to quote Thomas Hobbes on social contract:
Human life would be nasty, brutal and short without political authority. In its absence we would live in a state of nature, where we each have unlimited freedom, including the “right to all things” and thus the freedom to harm all who threatens our own self preservation, there would be an endless “war of all against all”. To avoid this, free man established political community through a social contract in which each gain civil rights in return for subjecting himself to civil law or to political authority.
All the fundamental rights provided under constitution comes with constitutional duties and as Gandhi says “ Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having”
The question that we all need to ask is how much we surrender to the authority and when did we start reclaiming our natural rights? The moment we stop trusting established rules, we must also stop expecting protection under social contract.
There is two types of corruption one is where taker demands and giver not willing to supply and outer is where giver is very much willing to supply but taker may or may not want that. This bill only address the first kind of corruption, as it need some kind of complain/signal or information in order to initiate the investigation. But we all know most of this kind of corruption happens at the bottom of pyramid. And they will either be ignorant or afraid of this new system like existing ones.
Most of the big or if I say glamorous corruption cases (2G, CVG, KG basin, Adarsh, bellari mines etc) are second type of corruption, where both the parties are very much happy with the arrangement. In order to expose this a do not need another agency, existing institutions like CAG, CVC and supreme court and doing fine job in this regard. They just need some more empowerment and resources.
In the end I just want to say we all have to live with some kind of disappointments, we can not get everything we desire. So everything concludes with one question what is the thing without which you can not live. And this very much depends on each individual. For me I can not live without my freedom, republic and constitutional values. We already has so much checks and balances. Remember government is best when it govern least. By creating one more parallel institution called lokpal and giving so much power to him, is like creating one more point of check or put it straight one more point of corruption.
What we really need is to empower existing system, one good example of which is judicial accountability bill, company act(I would like to add corporate accountability in it) which was pending in parliament. We have live example of CAG, until some years age its just an auditor. CAG reports are considered boring and nobody used to give them any kind of attention. Now with change of leadership it becomes a symbol of transparency. I will discuses all this and weakness of lokpal in my next articles along with my solution to corruption.
Thou shall worship no other god before me.
--first commandment(Old testament)
First of all let me make few things clear:
1. I am against corruption like any other human being. But if anything we ever learn from history is that, every change comes with a prices. So be prepared.
2. I have no problem with Anna and their right to protest. I may overstepped a little yesterday during the debate by saying some things especially to my good friend Vinay. I agree that they all want India a better country and have a good heart. But when we do so many good things to society for so many years (as Anna and their following did ...I think) then we start developing a feeling that only us are capable to doing all goods and others are creating problem. This is true for both parties in this case team Anna and the government(and may be me too). And when that happens then we all need some into-inspection.
If I can draw parallel with history, same thing happens in 70's when Indera Gandhi developed this feeling after the Bangladesh triumph. Indira Gandhi,‘empress of India’,storms into power with a massive mandate. She is Durga,invincible. She hones her populist moves:having already nationalised banks,she abolishes privy purses in 1972,stops food imports and coins the slogan ‘Garibi Hatao’. She becomes increasingly autocratic and imperious,purging Congress of any possible dissenters. Sycophants surround her with Dev Kant Barooah declaring ‘Indira is India,India is Indira’. Then emerges JP and rest is history.
Some days ago Kiran Bedi remarks "Anna is India, India is Anna" .. so you can guess in which direction this movement heading.
3. I have some very serious concerns with Jan lokpal bill, which I will explain in details but as there is one old saying:
The devil you know beats the devil
you don't and I like the devil I got.
4. I am not a pro establishment or anti change. In fact I have great many hopes and dreams for future of our country.
5. I do not think that popular support is for jan lokpal. It is against corruption and these two are separate issues.
6. And last this is free society and every body has right to express their opinion. But it seems we are growing a kind of intolerance towards a deterrent view especially if it against elites or popular sentiments. This will explain why I put quote from first commandment on top of this article. Anna but their followers are behaving like mosses(orator of commandments) and commanding all of Indians that you shell put your faith in me and do not dare to have other opinions. We may or may not agree with each others view but we all should agree on the right to express that opinion.
Second of all We all should be thankful the CAG Vinod Rai (man behind CWG, 2G and KG basin, defense deal scam exposure)for shaking and shocking every one. I do not think that without his hawk eyed audit reports any one (including team Anna or opposition parties or us) would have bothered about corruption in India.
Let me try to answer the question of why this government can not pass this law within 7 days. We can argue that this government is week or its a complex law or politicians do not want this or they do not have stomach for it. But I guess best explanation of this lies in the human nature. We do not like changes, especially if it is demanded by others or controlled by others or affects us in negative way. We all agree that its a big thing( at-least on papers) and it will affect higher bureaucracy and politicians most. Like every body they do not want to write their own death sentence.
I just want to ask all of you one simple question that every thing that you write in your performance reviews is it 100% correct in your conscious? Well last date for filling goal sheets is 2nd September, so will have answer of this soon.
Now we should move to discussion on democracy and fundamental rights. So let us be clear we are not living is a true democracy but Its a republic. We do not govern directly instead we elect our representatives to govern. Purpose of republic is to control The Majority strictly, as well as all others among the people, primarily to protect The Individual’s God-given, unalienable rights and therefore for the protection of the rights of The Minority, of all minorities, and the liberties of people in general. The definition of a Republic is: a constitutionally limited government of the representative type, created by a written Constitution--adopted by the people and changeable (from its original meaning) by them only by its amendment--with its powers divided between three separate Branches: Executive, Legislative and Judicial.
In short currently we have three independent and powerful branches. They may have from time to time some issues like separation of power etc. but it is the core of our constitution. Now by creating an all powerful lokpal which will be above all the three branches and controls them, is like putting all the eggs in one basket.
the beauty and Bordon of democracy is this, no idea prevails without the support of majority. The people decides the moral issue of the day not the majority of one. Now do not this that Anna has support of majority. Anna has support of creamy layer and upper middle class. Real India has no voice in the media as will as in the government. We neither know nor imagine the pain and suffering of a common man. But it has one power, that is called “vote”. Right now both the parties(pro and anti Anna ) are claiming that they have popular support. I guess the best way to find out the truth is to go to the public. Next year we have elections in UP. In this state we all know the condition of Congress. So Congress and team anna can fight a good election. But I doubt that Anna and his team will agree on the that because those who speak in the media or talks of revolution hardly ever vote.
Now I would like to quote Thomas Hobbes on social contract:
Human life would be nasty, brutal and short without political authority. In its absence we would live in a state of nature, where we each have unlimited freedom, including the “right to all things” and thus the freedom to harm all who threatens our own self preservation, there would be an endless “war of all against all”. To avoid this, free man established political community through a social contract in which each gain civil rights in return for subjecting himself to civil law or to political authority.
All the fundamental rights provided under constitution comes with constitutional duties and as Gandhi says “ Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having”
The question that we all need to ask is how much we surrender to the authority and when did we start reclaiming our natural rights? The moment we stop trusting established rules, we must also stop expecting protection under social contract.
There is two types of corruption one is where taker demands and giver not willing to supply and outer is where giver is very much willing to supply but taker may or may not want that. This bill only address the first kind of corruption, as it need some kind of complain/signal or information in order to initiate the investigation. But we all know most of this kind of corruption happens at the bottom of pyramid. And they will either be ignorant or afraid of this new system like existing ones.
Most of the big or if I say glamorous corruption cases (2G, CVG, KG basin, Adarsh, bellari mines etc) are second type of corruption, where both the parties are very much happy with the arrangement. In order to expose this a do not need another agency, existing institutions like CAG, CVC and supreme court and doing fine job in this regard. They just need some more empowerment and resources.
In the end I just want to say we all have to live with some kind of disappointments, we can not get everything we desire. So everything concludes with one question what is the thing without which you can not live. And this very much depends on each individual. For me I can not live without my freedom, republic and constitutional values. We already has so much checks and balances. Remember government is best when it govern least. By creating one more parallel institution called lokpal and giving so much power to him, is like creating one more point of check or put it straight one more point of corruption.
What we really need is to empower existing system, one good example of which is judicial accountability bill, company act(I would like to add corporate accountability in it) which was pending in parliament. We have live example of CAG, until some years age its just an auditor. CAG reports are considered boring and nobody used to give them any kind of attention. Now with change of leadership it becomes a symbol of transparency. I will discuses all this and weakness of lokpal in my next articles along with my solution to corruption.
hazaaron Khwahishain aisee ke har Khwahish pe dam nikle
bohot nikle mere armaan lekin fir bhee kam nikle.
nikalna Khuld se aadam ka sunte aayain hain lekin
bade be-aabroo hokar tere kooche se ham nikle
bohot nikle mere armaan lekin fir bhee kam nikle.
nikalna Khuld se aadam ka sunte aayain hain lekin
bade be-aabroo hokar tere kooche se ham nikle
(PS: For now I just want say one last thing that we need good leaders, not policemen. More then policing, it is leadership that will bring about a dramatic change in the way we see the world and our self.)
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