I find the shaky Indian Government’s nervousness and challenged-beyond-the-obvious state of existence very amusing!
Led by an economist by education but politician by profession, the Indian Government is being held at ransom by two individuals who have shown the guts as whistle-blowers.
What needs to be seen is, how strongly the Government dodges the second googly, thrown at them against shielding the corrupt and not being proactive to bring back the black money, hoarded and boarding in foreign banks for ages, back into Indian soil! (This IS a long sentence!!).
Why did Baba Ramdev’s fast shake our leaders to have made go to receive him at the airport, whereas Annaji fasted for days till they agreed to meet him? Were they wary of what the proposed fasting would result across the nation? Is it that they wanted to negotiate with the Baba before he set camp up in the Ramlila Ground? But WHY is the government so scared?
If they had nothing to hide or rather nobody to hide why negotiate and make the entire nation sigh with exasperation on their inability to manage two individuals who have proved they can SHAKE a democratically elected government with a single statement of a decision to go on fast.
What led Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev to go on fast? It is definitely not to be in media’s glare. Not for getting newsprint space! Not to test their popularity! Not to be showered with national, international awards for national leadership.
It is sheer frustration about a spineless, puppet government who lives on corporate houses making policies, corporate deciding how much a common man would pay for gas on alternate weeks with prices hikes going up like a sensex out of control. The blind-to-common man who forms 90% of India but seeing, hearing, doing for the 10% of corporate houses Government brought it on themselves! Now live through the nightmare of common man’s strength of voice and choice!
With no such media coverage, with no super fast communication media, no news channels covering every sigh from the action ground, Mahatma Gandhi woke up an entire nation with his freedom movement. Sheer will, belief in what he wanted for the nation and of course a unique leadership quality missing in the two new-age crusaders against corruption.
I wish the government gets more life into themselves, get back the pawned spine from funding sources to who they have mortgaged the nation and its wealth for helping them hoard funds and make their life safer in a nation reeling under price hike, scams, land takeovers, bursting-on-the-seams population with metros becoming more richer diminishing rural India into micro sized villages lacking in basic amenities.
Will Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev usher in a new-age revolution in India and be known as IT-age crusaders against corruption and black money? Or will they be forgotten as Indian citizens whose voices were hushed by a puppet government?
And will the ‘civil society’ ever know how it is to live in a land of no black money? High hopes!
5 comments:
sure it would shake government, but I doubt if it would move corruption out. corruption is so deeply embedded in our culture and it needs some sort of mass reniassance/movement to happen and even then it is going to take another few generations.
This can be addressed only at low level school perhaps at primary school level onwards. the children should literally be brainwashed. civic studies need more emphasize. you need an evolving list of plenty of examples under different scenarios to show what is corruption and what is a good civic behavior, that way those thoughts will get embedded in to their little minds better and will start questioning their parents/peers.
I have been out of India for almost 18+ years now and off late I have started engaging more with India - work related. The corruption I see now is way above what I have seen 18 years ago. it saddens me to see even some senior and young bureaucrats (civil service is supposed to be have cream of Indians)involving openly on this.
perhaps legitimizing party funds is one way to go. also the new UID initiative also would help a lot, but primary education I think is the key to help combat this in the long term.
sure it would shake government, but I doubt if it would move corruption out. corruption is so deeply embedded in our culture and it needs some sort of mass reniassance/movement to happen and even then it is going to take another few generations.
This can be addressed only at low level school perhaps at primary school level onwards. the children should literally be brainwashed. civic studies need more emphasize. you need an evolving list of plenty of examples under different scenarios to show what is corruption and what is a good civic behavior, that way those thoughts will get embedded in to their little minds better and will start questioning their parents/peers.
I have been out of India for almost 18+ years now and off late I have started engaging more with India - work related. The corruption I see now is way above what I have seen 18 years ago. it saddens me to see even some senior and young bureaucrats (civil service is supposed to be have cream of Indians)involving openly on this.
perhaps legitimizing party funds is one way to go. also the new UID initiative also would help a lot, but primary education I think is the key to help combat this in the long term
If the base is not strong, the system will collapse one day. Indian democracy is not strong in "Punishments".(Reason for increase in crimes) Bribe is something which cannot be controlled, just because one Anna Hazare/ baba Ramdev came into picture. Bribe will be there unless you bring in strict Laws/punishment for the same. This can be also avoided by developing a culture which, I think, is quite difficult in Indian scenario. Bribe is a part of our life - we are trained to give and take bribes right from birth. Only thing that restricts bribe is fear of punishment. The second thing is to not to let those who make black money, enjoy it. This is also difficult compared to the vast geography of India and the loose system in place. So we need strict capital punishment and black money should be treated as sedition.
Thank you for the great post here! Do you know that the Gandhi family holds the largest amount of black money outside India? It was reported very vividly in the Swiss press in May but none of mainstream media in India reported it. There were a few reprints in the print media and a few blogs - that's it. Since most media has heavy investments backed by Congress, they managed another successful blackout.Most news channels including NDTV has established conduits to tax havens outside India to siphon money out off this country. This was facilitated by some well-connected politicians.And no, Shashi Tharoor doesn't have a clean background either.He holds all of his wealth outside India in US dollars!
After the death of Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia was involved in exporting archaeological artifacts to Italy in the name of M/s Ganesha which was incidentally owned by her sister. She had a tie up with Sothebys UK to auction off the artifacts - mostly from temples in an around North India. Ganesha has closed down since but the fact remains that many of those political icons you hold close to your heart are the ones who have been looting you since the very beginning. The sooner you wake up to the facts, the better. I was struck by the recent news about the temple treasures there hence pointing out this example. Do you know that the current ruling Govt. has been blatantly violating the constitutional provisions with the Caste-based census and UID programs? Those are bigger scams than 2G and CWG which will cut deeply into the sovereignty of the nation. Hazare's LokPal has to be our break-through. Atleast for bringing the fractured middle-class together.
Your blog is gud.
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