Posts
A lot has happened since I last wrote. It has been 4 and a half months. Civil societies around the world have risen against something or another fueled by Wikileaks, an organization that is not a non-profit, nay a NGOs but a hand-to-mouth whistle blower, the sole Kaiser of which just sold himself, actually his autobiography, for securing running costs for the organization. "Truth in the face of total annihilation" is something that has caught up faster than the Beatles.
Where does this "nothing to lose" attitude spawn from? One would ask! Ask the student who is demanded a capitation fee from the university or college he just got through on his own merit standing at Jantar Mantar, the litigant whose writ petition has been rejected just because the judge's children study in the college or university he had hauled under the Indian Constitution for breaching his fundamental rights, the honest private sector employee who refused to bribe government officials to secure a tender, or the fourth standard student who missed the highest grade just because another child's mother was the teacher's kitty socialite.
Machinery runs in accordance with the Type and Quality of Lubricant:
Responsibility is the heaviest upon Law Firms, CA Firms, Investment Bankers, Audit Firms, and the like, to become CLEAN & CORRUPTION FREE. They are the most influential upon political & bureaucratic corruption!!!
All of us who work at such places can begin by (non-)co-operation with our employers/firms towards this goal, COLLECTIVELY.
Our Foe, Our Intelligentsia:
M.K. Gandhi's non-cooperation would be met with non-cooperation from the Indian masses in today's India, as we have evolved into a thinking not doing society!!!
After the freedom struggle was over, Gandhi called for INC to be dissolved as its work was done. He proposed "a village as a unit of economy" model for growth, what Anna has done at Ralegan Siddhi. Gandhian principles were never crystallized, even by the Man. He used political structure to meet the ends of realization of Truth & Morality. Reverse logic would be as much un-Gandhian as asking for Anna's blood by the Indian intelligentsia, the same people who have allowed Truth to be subverted and Morality to decay, just so they could engage in discourse so slow that the lethargic bureaucrats acted faster and passed them by, each time they open their mouth to brain-storm. For Gandhi, Truth & Non-violence were the ends, such ends to the achievement of which he would strive and use various techniques ... yet he never crystallized his theories for guiding people that would come after him. Truth & Non-violence were the basic social, political and economic building blocks for Gandhi, that would create a fair, just and civil society - this is all he did crystallize. Gandhi's successors have to merely keep the truth & non-violence in mind, and do what is necessary to achieve a fair, just and civil society through political action.
This said, I personally feel partisan politics, just as it has done disservice to Obama's plans (some noble, others radical, yet required) is equally harmful for India as it misplaces loyalties of a politician, that should lie only with the interest of the electorate, not with that of the party, as the latter is nothing but a vehicle to be readily discarded when hard decisions of national and public interest have to be made. However, here in India, post Gandhi, the vehicle has become its very own self serving end, at the cost of the real end it seeks to achieve!!!
It is an irrefutable truth that Civil Disobedience got us our freedom ... now when its time to reinforce our freedom from corruption, we start questioning civil disobedience in the face of our very elected governments becoming unscrupulous & the legal checks collapsing under the weight of its own decadence!!! Guess we did not deserve any freedom in the first place! Civil Disobedience is nothing but a form of respectful disagreement after all. How can it be bad?
Anti-Corruption: An Attitude that Needs Sacrifices
Corruption can not be weeded out by laws, but by change in human nature and attitudes. Creation of more and more institutions just burdens the exchequer and the tax payer. It results in no real world benefit. The Consumer Protection Act, the Competition Commission, Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, SC/ST Commission, Food Adulteration Act (now the FSSA), TRAI, SEBI, etc. are mere double edged swords like the institution of democracy itself. The rich and the powerful have and always will control the destinies of others unless the others collectively change their attitudes. We as middle class citizens never think twice when bribing our way out of a traffic challan, a driving license test, an Income Tax notice, or for that matter we as lawyers bribe in the name of securing our client's interest in courts, tribunals, PTOs, consumer fora, etc. We should start taking responsibility of our actions and should also begin to consider the spiral effects of those very actions in the context of the larger good.
It is only we who can stop this spiral effect, that shall in time reflect in the type of legislators we choose. However, today people actually find out about their NETAS, how they might be related/connected to the politician and how can he make their problems go away, by hook or by crook. This is the democracy we live in. It is not what our Constitution envisaged and if it did the words of the American Constitution should remind us:
After all, it was Chanakya who replaced the Democratic Janpada System, that was ridden with corruption, by a Virtuous & Just King, a leader to lead the people against Evil doings. I thus believe that it is sometimes imperative for the sword to dictate Good when Evil is organized.
Where does this "nothing to lose" attitude spawn from? One would ask! Ask the student who is demanded a capitation fee from the university or college he just got through on his own merit standing at Jantar Mantar, the litigant whose writ petition has been rejected just because the judge's children study in the college or university he had hauled under the Indian Constitution for breaching his fundamental rights, the honest private sector employee who refused to bribe government officials to secure a tender, or the fourth standard student who missed the highest grade just because another child's mother was the teacher's kitty socialite.
Machinery runs in accordance with the Type and Quality of Lubricant:
Responsibility is the heaviest upon Law Firms, CA Firms, Investment Bankers, Audit Firms, and the like, to become CLEAN & CORRUPTION FREE. They are the most influential upon political & bureaucratic corruption!!!
All of us who work at such places can begin by (non-)co-operation with our employers/firms towards this goal, COLLECTIVELY.
Our Foe, Our Intelligentsia:
M.K. Gandhi's non-cooperation would be met with non-cooperation from the Indian masses in today's India, as we have evolved into a thinking not doing society!!!
After the freedom struggle was over, Gandhi called for INC to be dissolved as its work was done. He proposed "a village as a unit of economy" model for growth, what Anna has done at Ralegan Siddhi. Gandhian principles were never crystallized, even by the Man. He used political structure to meet the ends of realization of Truth & Morality. Reverse logic would be as much un-Gandhian as asking for Anna's blood by the Indian intelligentsia, the same people who have allowed Truth to be subverted and Morality to decay, just so they could engage in discourse so slow that the lethargic bureaucrats acted faster and passed them by, each time they open their mouth to brain-storm. For Gandhi, Truth & Non-violence were the ends, such ends to the achievement of which he would strive and use various techniques ... yet he never crystallized his theories for guiding people that would come after him. Truth & Non-violence were the basic social, political and economic building blocks for Gandhi, that would create a fair, just and civil society - this is all he did crystallize. Gandhi's successors have to merely keep the truth & non-violence in mind, and do what is necessary to achieve a fair, just and civil society through political action.
This said, I personally feel partisan politics, just as it has done disservice to Obama's plans (some noble, others radical, yet required) is equally harmful for India as it misplaces loyalties of a politician, that should lie only with the interest of the electorate, not with that of the party, as the latter is nothing but a vehicle to be readily discarded when hard decisions of national and public interest have to be made. However, here in India, post Gandhi, the vehicle has become its very own self serving end, at the cost of the real end it seeks to achieve!!!
It is an irrefutable truth that Civil Disobedience got us our freedom ... now when its time to reinforce our freedom from corruption, we start questioning civil disobedience in the face of our very elected governments becoming unscrupulous & the legal checks collapsing under the weight of its own decadence!!! Guess we did not deserve any freedom in the first place! Civil Disobedience is nothing but a form of respectful disagreement after all. How can it be bad?
Anti-Corruption: An Attitude that Needs Sacrifices
Corruption can not be weeded out by laws, but by change in human nature and attitudes. Creation of more and more institutions just burdens the exchequer and the tax payer. It results in no real world benefit. The Consumer Protection Act, the Competition Commission, Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, SC/ST Commission, Food Adulteration Act (now the FSSA), TRAI, SEBI, etc. are mere double edged swords like the institution of democracy itself. The rich and the powerful have and always will control the destinies of others unless the others collectively change their attitudes. We as middle class citizens never think twice when bribing our way out of a traffic challan, a driving license test, an Income Tax notice, or for that matter we as lawyers bribe in the name of securing our client's interest in courts, tribunals, PTOs, consumer fora, etc. We should start taking responsibility of our actions and should also begin to consider the spiral effects of those very actions in the context of the larger good.
It is only we who can stop this spiral effect, that shall in time reflect in the type of legislators we choose. However, today people actually find out about their NETAS, how they might be related/connected to the politician and how can he make their problems go away, by hook or by crook. This is the democracy we live in. It is not what our Constitution envisaged and if it did the words of the American Constitution should remind us:
A Democratic setup of the so called "checks and balances" is for an orderly society and not the other way around. When governmental despotism sets in, even in a democratic setup, the very fabric of the Grundnorm needs to be rethought and rebuilt. Symbolic gestures such as that organized by Anna Hazare at least challenge the monolithic foe of corruption that we have perpetrated. M.K. Gandhi too questioned the very norm that governed us, rather than working within the British Legal Setup for India/Indians. Changes sometimes come by working within the box and sometimes out of the box. The latter is warranted when the very premise of such a box has become decadent and ceases to serve the ends it was supposed to meet and begins to serve its very own existence.
I have always maintained the view that it is always better to be ruled by a virtuous monarch, a true leader that people are inspired by and look up to, rather than being driven like cattle by a bunch of incompetent, directionless, selfish, squabbling, parochial, regionalistic, buffoons. People that support the latter view are nothing but opportunistic vultures at a carcass party, the carcass being the interest of the people of India.
The Nature of Good & Evil:
My experience has hardened my belief that Evil by its very nature is efficient and precise, driven by an iron-handed command; BUT Good is weak and democratic, always trying to incorporate varied interests and thus breeds non-compliance and dissent. For instance, in Libya, Kuwait and Iraq Human Rights was a Trojan horse to diminish the Truth. It is then, that those human rights asserted at that instance, are not worth the humans who deserve it, as nothing based on lies is long lasting, not even justice."But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security." -- The Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776).
A Democratic setup of the so called "checks and balances" is for an orderly society and not the other way around. When governmental despotism sets in, even in a democratic setup, the very fabric of the Grundnorm needs to be rethought and rebuilt. Symbolic gestures such as that organized by Anna Hazare at least challenge the monolithic foe of corruption that we have perpetrated. M.K. Gandhi too questioned the very norm that governed us, rather than working within the British Legal Setup for India/Indians. Changes sometimes come by working within the box and sometimes out of the box. The latter is warranted when the very premise of such a box has become decadent and ceases to serve the ends it was supposed to meet and begins to serve its very own existence.
I have always maintained the view that it is always better to be ruled by a virtuous monarch, a true leader that people are inspired by and look up to, rather than being driven like cattle by a bunch of incompetent, directionless, selfish, squabbling, parochial, regionalistic, buffoons. People that support the latter view are nothing but opportunistic vultures at a carcass party, the carcass being the interest of the people of India.
The Nature of Good & Evil:
After all, it was Chanakya who replaced the Democratic Janpada System, that was ridden with corruption, by a Virtuous & Just King, a leader to lead the people against Evil doings. I thus believe that it is sometimes imperative for the sword to dictate Good when Evil is organized.
