SANJOG MAHESHWARI,
C1A-42 B M.I.G.FLATS, JANAKPURI,
NEW DELHI-110058
WE ALSO WANT CHANGE
-SANJOG MAHESHWARI
It would be in the fitness of things if the year2009 is designated as the year of change. Perhaps that could impel the think-tank in India to do some out- of-the- box thinking; for example, they may spare a thought or two to ponder over the urgency of change at the highest level of our democratic governance where it has since become overdue for the very survival and sustenance of democratic values that our country cherishes.
Evils such as rampant corruption which has put us in the club of five most corrupt countries in the world trace their origin from the system itself- inherent weaknesses and loopholes in the Westminster model. A guesstimate puts the figure of M.Ps and M.L.As facing criminal charges ranging from murder to rape and extortion at 25% of those get elected to Parliament and State Assemblies. This shows the extent to which the politics has been criminalized. Money and muscle power is what that matters in the elections. Allegiance and loyalty of the elected representatives of the people remains severely limited to their respective constituencies and the party to which they belong whereas they are supposed to represent the people of entire country or the State . Even the Prime Minister does not have a Pan-Indian face, image or persona. He remains consummately absorbed in fostering and nurturing the constituency from which he gets elected and following the party lines as it is the party which enables him to become the Prime Minister. Thus the dirty party and identity politics of vote-bank turns out to be the mainstay of the democratic governance. The provision of so-called “collective responsibility” ensures that no body is accountable for anything he does or does not do as a member of the ruling-class. His politics gets wrapped up in following the party line and dictates and nurturing the vote-bank of his constituency. No wonder that a Railway Minister from Bihar will see to it that Patna is accorded top- priority in getting connected with every nook and corner of the country by rail and the railway lines pass through his and his in-laws villages where all trains, including the super-fast ones, must have stoppage. Powerful in the ruling party not only rope in the public but also the private sector actors to set big industrial complexes in their constituencies. Identity and vote-bank politics make a mockery of balanced development and democracy. Demagogues, who are long in rhetoric and short on every thing else, have a field day. The totally endangered tribe of statesmen is at the brink of extinction. No Jawaharlal Nehru around; the one who kept smiling while the socialist Ram Manohar Lohia, waving his finger accusingly at him, said: “Aaj aam aadmi ki rozana aamdani 3 annas hai aur yeh hazrat jo yahan baitthe hain, inke kutte ka rozana khurak 25 rupaiah hai (An average Indian earns about 3 annas a day but this man’s dog eat meals worth Rs.25 every day).” This, however, was not because of the system, which even then was as faulty (counterfeited Westminster) as now, but in spite of the system; for the simple reason that most of the leaders of those days were the product of the freedom movement and, therefore, enjoyed the respect and recognition of the whole country and their political career did not depend on the courtesy of electorate of their constituency or the party. Mr. Nehru could afford that ‘smile’ as there were no compulsions for him to stay blindly loyal to and firmly tied up with Phulpur. That phase long over; the system is now manifesting in its murky form which is getting murkier by the day. While the Indian youth of the day is in desperate need of an Indian Obama, the quest for him is doomed to end up in getting, instead, many more politicians like the Yadavs, the Patils and the Deshmukhs for the simple reason that our very system of political governance and administration is such that it can produce and promote only the corrupt and irresponsible demagogues and no statesman. A country of more than a billion people do not have any one like George W. Bush who saw to it that 9/11 did not happen again in America or for that matter, his worthy successor who has already pledged to protect his people against any such act of terror. Obama is already a big enigma to them, a sort of challenge to which they can never ever dare to measure up in the wildest of their dreams. “America wants change, and I stand for change”, thundered Obama and got elected to occupy the highest position of the mightiest nation. Far more than U.S. of America, we, in this country want ‘change’ and need it most desperately. If not for any other reason then to get rid from the scourge of terror violence- the way America has done after 9/11- the terrorism, created by soft-on-terror state policies which politicians have to pursue for the sake of staying in power. We also need the ‘change’ to affectively answer the grave challanges of 'now' and decisively curb and contain the monster called “Corruption” which is eating into the vitals of our economy. At stake are our security mechanism and democratic institutions. It is also fostering fissiparous tendencies, inimical to the national integrity and solidarity and the divisive identity politics of vote bank and state policies of ‘quota and reservation’ We need to extricate ourselves from the quagmire of economic disasters and highly criminalized ‘mobocracy’- run by tainted politicians-which we are made to believe to be the world’s largest democracy for the sake of delusion and self-deception.
In the closing years of the forties, on 26th November, 1949 to be précis, the clever politicians of the day transposed a counterfeited Westminster upon Raisina Hills, leaving behind the healthy legacy of conventions, traditions and norms which are the very soul, substance and spirit of the Great Britain’s unwritten Constitution which easily gets morphed in tune with the changing times. The soulless dead body transmuted here has since decayed and still decaying emitting foul smell. That now stinks; and stinks sky-high, polluting the whole socio-political environment of the country. The sooner it is replaced by the American Presidential model, the better it would be for the common citizenry. Of course, the very idea would be totally repugnant and thoroughly repulsive to the entrenched vested interests of the powerful political class across the board throughout the country. May be the strong public opinion in favour of the big change induced by the clarion call of the Prophet of Change, who is now occupying the most powerful office in the world, impacts the public opinion in this part of the world as well in a big way. The whole nation is witness to the fact that all cosmetic changes brought about so far by the reluctant political class have proved counterproductive thereby underlying the fact that big change is needed at the top of the pyramid and not at the bottom of it.
- SANJOG MAHESHWARI
C1-A-42 B, M.I.G. FLATS,
JANAKPURI, NEW DELHI-110058.
C1A-42 B M.I.G.FLATS, JANAKPURI,
NEW DELHI-110058
WE ALSO WANT CHANGE
-SANJOG MAHESHWARI
It would be in the fitness of things if the year2009 is designated as the year of change. Perhaps that could impel the think-tank in India to do some out- of-the- box thinking; for example, they may spare a thought or two to ponder over the urgency of change at the highest level of our democratic governance where it has since become overdue for the very survival and sustenance of democratic values that our country cherishes.
Evils such as rampant corruption which has put us in the club of five most corrupt countries in the world trace their origin from the system itself- inherent weaknesses and loopholes in the Westminster model. A guesstimate puts the figure of M.Ps and M.L.As facing criminal charges ranging from murder to rape and extortion at 25% of those get elected to Parliament and State Assemblies. This shows the extent to which the politics has been criminalized. Money and muscle power is what that matters in the elections. Allegiance and loyalty of the elected representatives of the people remains severely limited to their respective constituencies and the party to which they belong whereas they are supposed to represent the people of entire country or the State . Even the Prime Minister does not have a Pan-Indian face, image or persona. He remains consummately absorbed in fostering and nurturing the constituency from which he gets elected and following the party lines as it is the party which enables him to become the Prime Minister. Thus the dirty party and identity politics of vote-bank turns out to be the mainstay of the democratic governance. The provision of so-called “collective responsibility” ensures that no body is accountable for anything he does or does not do as a member of the ruling-class. His politics gets wrapped up in following the party line and dictates and nurturing the vote-bank of his constituency. No wonder that a Railway Minister from Bihar will see to it that Patna is accorded top- priority in getting connected with every nook and corner of the country by rail and the railway lines pass through his and his in-laws villages where all trains, including the super-fast ones, must have stoppage. Powerful in the ruling party not only rope in the public but also the private sector actors to set big industrial complexes in their constituencies. Identity and vote-bank politics make a mockery of balanced development and democracy. Demagogues, who are long in rhetoric and short on every thing else, have a field day. The totally endangered tribe of statesmen is at the brink of extinction. No Jawaharlal Nehru around; the one who kept smiling while the socialist Ram Manohar Lohia, waving his finger accusingly at him, said: “Aaj aam aadmi ki rozana aamdani 3 annas hai aur yeh hazrat jo yahan baitthe hain, inke kutte ka rozana khurak 25 rupaiah hai (An average Indian earns about 3 annas a day but this man’s dog eat meals worth Rs.25 every day).” This, however, was not because of the system, which even then was as faulty (counterfeited Westminster) as now, but in spite of the system; for the simple reason that most of the leaders of those days were the product of the freedom movement and, therefore, enjoyed the respect and recognition of the whole country and their political career did not depend on the courtesy of electorate of their constituency or the party. Mr. Nehru could afford that ‘smile’ as there were no compulsions for him to stay blindly loyal to and firmly tied up with Phulpur. That phase long over; the system is now manifesting in its murky form which is getting murkier by the day. While the Indian youth of the day is in desperate need of an Indian Obama, the quest for him is doomed to end up in getting, instead, many more politicians like the Yadavs, the Patils and the Deshmukhs for the simple reason that our very system of political governance and administration is such that it can produce and promote only the corrupt and irresponsible demagogues and no statesman. A country of more than a billion people do not have any one like George W. Bush who saw to it that 9/11 did not happen again in America or for that matter, his worthy successor who has already pledged to protect his people against any such act of terror. Obama is already a big enigma to them, a sort of challenge to which they can never ever dare to measure up in the wildest of their dreams. “America wants change, and I stand for change”, thundered Obama and got elected to occupy the highest position of the mightiest nation. Far more than U.S. of America, we, in this country want ‘change’ and need it most desperately. If not for any other reason then to get rid from the scourge of terror violence- the way America has done after 9/11- the terrorism, created by soft-on-terror state policies which politicians have to pursue for the sake of staying in power. We also need the ‘change’ to affectively answer the grave challanges of 'now' and decisively curb and contain the monster called “Corruption” which is eating into the vitals of our economy. At stake are our security mechanism and democratic institutions. It is also fostering fissiparous tendencies, inimical to the national integrity and solidarity and the divisive identity politics of vote bank and state policies of ‘quota and reservation’ We need to extricate ourselves from the quagmire of economic disasters and highly criminalized ‘mobocracy’- run by tainted politicians-which we are made to believe to be the world’s largest democracy for the sake of delusion and self-deception.
In the closing years of the forties, on 26th November, 1949 to be précis, the clever politicians of the day transposed a counterfeited Westminster upon Raisina Hills, leaving behind the healthy legacy of conventions, traditions and norms which are the very soul, substance and spirit of the Great Britain’s unwritten Constitution which easily gets morphed in tune with the changing times. The soulless dead body transmuted here has since decayed and still decaying emitting foul smell. That now stinks; and stinks sky-high, polluting the whole socio-political environment of the country. The sooner it is replaced by the American Presidential model, the better it would be for the common citizenry. Of course, the very idea would be totally repugnant and thoroughly repulsive to the entrenched vested interests of the powerful political class across the board throughout the country. May be the strong public opinion in favour of the big change induced by the clarion call of the Prophet of Change, who is now occupying the most powerful office in the world, impacts the public opinion in this part of the world as well in a big way. The whole nation is witness to the fact that all cosmetic changes brought about so far by the reluctant political class have proved counterproductive thereby underlying the fact that big change is needed at the top of the pyramid and not at the bottom of it.
- SANJOG MAHESHWARI
C1-A-42 B, M.I.G. FLATS,
JANAKPURI, NEW DELHI-110058.
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