When the teacher asks the eternally troublesome kid in the class to solve a tricky math problem to put him in his place and restore order, the way the kid goes about the assigned task is very interesting; guessing something here, writing something there and gauging the teacher's face and those of his classmates every now and then, looking for some hint, some leakage of emotion to ascertain if the guess was satisfactory and decide the future course of action. He may, in the process utter vague and meaningless words hoping to confuse his audience but everyone including the kid knows that he is just trying to delay the inevitable, perhaps hoping for the school bell to ring a bit early, and rescue him from the difficult predicament he got himself into.
It of course becomes difficult for the boy concerned when the teacher is as strict and adamant as the infallible Anna Hazare, who has made a hapless kid out of the whole Indian government. It is almost comedic to see this government's functioning in face of the mass agitation that this septuagenarian has whipped up.
Absolute chaos and uncertainty had become the rule for the present government for the past few months as it dodged and ducked sustained attack in the parliament, the media and the courts, but quite expectedly it has encountered a tremendous roadblock in the form of Anna Hazare and his Band of Merry Men.
So why do they fear the Lokpal?
For one, the Lokpal with the limitless power at his disposal combined with the popularity and support of the urbane and the educated as well as the almighty media may become the most influential man in the country; in certain aspects more powerful than the Prime Minister himself. A man who has the authority to pull up the prime minister, his cabinet, the Chief justice of the Supreme Court cannot be taken lightly. As he goes about his task of cleansing the system, he may be rewarded with even more powers and authority by the amenable civil society. Overtime, as the hero of the civil society hauls out deep-buried carcasses of corruption, the public may start warming up to the idea of having him as the Chief Executive of the country. When that happens, where will these thousands of Oldies (read politicians) go with no other acquired skill or source of income?
So, our ministers, having guessed what might be in store for them in the future, are scampering around on the stage, hoping for some divine intervention to strike this organised movement and divert the public's attention from their filthy hands.
who will stop the lokpal from becoming corupt...????..........absolute power corrupts absolutely
ReplyDeleteNo one is giving the Lokpal absolute power; he is actually the buffer to check the influence of those in seats of absolute power. The Lokpal will an eminent member of the civil society, a professional of impeccable integrity; He won't be selected based on caste or religion or appeasement politics, so I don't think there is reason for you to fear him getting corrupted...
ReplyDeletethe agitation is based on the premise that the "netas" are coorupt...i see the activists blaming the netas for the current state of affairs.....NO ...we are equally corrupt....how many of us have paid bribes to the traffic cops???? how many of us have forged PUCs.....how many of us have forged caste certificates to gain benefit from reservation???....we all have done one if not more of the above mentioned corrupt acts...perhaps even worse...t
ReplyDeletelets face it...we indians are corrupt.......theres no escaping from the truth..
ReplyDeleteSo, is it that you don't agree with the premise? I accept that all of them aren't corrupt, but many of them are. See, I have never had to bribe someone until now, so may be I am not the right person to say this, but no one really wants to shell out money for getting work done, when there are established legal ways to get them done. Not getting into technicalities, the things you have mentioned are on an insignificant scale to the scale of corruption that the Lokpal will deal wih. You won't be able to make $ 25 billion by forging PUCs or certificates. This is serious money that is being siphoned out of the system. As for the corruption you mentioned, an efficient redressal system may be enough to put these over-zealous nobodies in their place...So, it won't do to accept corruption as a way of life; we don't stop studying in schools when dealt with statistics that show much of India is illiterate, we work hard to counter that; that should we our motivation in the case of corruption too.
ReplyDeletenobody wil help you unless u help yrself...........the lokpal wont help u unless u do smthing to stop corruption....look at wats happening in karnataka..there is a lokpal there..i believe....there isnt a single silver silver bullet for an evil like corruption...thats wat i am trying to say..btw
ReplyDeletethe jan lokpal isnt the only answer to our problems.....to quote narayan murthy it is very easy to lose hope in a country like india....restore peoples faith in the existing institutions..(i.e police judiciary etc..)...
ReplyDeleteSo, you are saying if the average citizen was wearing a helmet while going to work everyday, then, A. Raja or Kalmadi would have undergone a change of heart, and would have functioned efficiently?? The Lokayukta in Karnataka is borne from the same toothless law that the present government suggested and that was opposed by Anna Hazare..I agree it is not the only answer, but it can give us the instrument to answer our problems...If we are corrupt someway, the Lokpal can bring to light and intervene for an effective Executive in our country that has until now looked the other way in face of corruption in the society, since they were busy making and stashing away money of their own...
ReplyDelete