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Saturday, January 25, 2014

ANARCHY Vs CORRUPTION---REMEDY WORST THAN DISEASE



REMEDY WORST THAN DISEASE!

Men become monsters, when self - righteousness over powers them. Once in a while, we all indulge in asserting our judiciousness. But if we persist being self righteous, then, we transform into demons. Self-righteousness of political leaders and their supporters does not auger well for the Indian polity. One might not question the righteousness of the cause AAP stands for, but certainly the righteousness of the methods chosen to undo the wrong in the polity and the society, do send a message that remedy was worst than the disease.

The ruckus that took place in Delhi over a non-issue on January 21-22 gave an impression of " Hitler like philosophy", fully drenched in self -righteousness. The issue made out was on the self righteous demand for the suspension of some Police officials, who did not respond to illegal commands of a Law Minister of Delhi. Do I take it that philosophy of this new political outfit and its supporters was that police officials were meant to obey wrong and illegal orders of politicians? Is this why Delhi governments, now or before it, have been clamoring for getting police under their thumb?

Frankly speaking the demand for placing of Delhi under Delhi government was misplaced. I say, the very "Statehood of Delhi" was wrong. It should have been a union territory placed under a commissioner or a Lt Governor, as is Pondicherry of Daman & Diu. Its administrative control should have been with the Union government. There can not be two swords in one sheath. It would definitely lead to confrontation. Crazy leaders can always justify their acts on self righteous virtues.

Union Government can not be an appendage of a state (Delhi) government. Therefore Police is rightly placed under the union Home Minister. To say that Law and Order was a state subject is not applicable to State of Delhi. It can not equate itself with other states of the union. In fact Mumbai and Kolkotta had better claims for statehood than Delhi.

Placing of Delhi police under State of Delhi can create a number of administrative and constitutional problems for the federal structure of the nation.Self righteous and a strong headed Chief Minister can make functioning of Union Government difficult. He can order arrest of an inconvenient union minister. He can threaten and dictate to judiciary, as has been done by the present law minister of Delhi.

Self righteousness of nw political outfit in Delhi is visible, when it backed its Law Minister for his illegal and wrong acts but demands suspension of police officials without inquiry yet not prepared to sack its Law Minister on the same premise.

All sort of reasoning is being given that what can a minister do if a police official does not listen to him. FACT IS THE POLICE OFFICIAL IS NOT SUPPOSED TO LISTEN TO A WRONG ORDER, EVEN IF POLICE WAS UNDER THE STATE. Unfortunately, this is what has gone wrong with the polity, where Police has become a mere personal fiefdom of political masters. Those who support such moves should NOT blame Police but themselves for making police the doormat of politicians by supporting such moves.

I am of the view that in view of rising problem of INTERNAL SECURITY and WOM (War By Other Means) Police be made an ALL INDIA SERVICE, under the union government. Else switch over to a different model of political system, where the role of STATES is reduced to barest minimum. More POWERS are placed in the hands of LOCAL SELF GOVERNMENT at District and Block levels.

I suggest a new model of Political system, where "CENTRE" should have just Six -Seven subjects; States or Provinces should deal with only three subjects and rest all subjects be placed under LOCAL SELF GOVERNMENT at district and Block level. Let there be direct relation between Centre and local Self Government. Pimping Interference by mediators at State level must be banished from our political system.

I suggest empowerment of Local Self Government, at the District and Block levels. I recommend that devolution of power should aim at :

(a) Centre : Handle only seven subjects i.e.1. Defence & security, including internal security and Nuclear defence; 2. Media & Electronic Communications ; 3.Law-making for the Union, including elections for the Centre, state and District councils; 4.Foreign Affairs; 5. Research & Development including Space research 6. Currency.7. Rail Transportation.

(b) States: Handle only three subjects i.e.1. Law Making for the state; 2. Surface, both road and water alongwith air transportation and Infrastructure; 3.Excise and Taxation including Land records.

(c) District Councils : All other subjects from local law and order problems to formulation of local laws as approved by state legislature councils. This would include, industry, local taxation, surface communications, education, jails, agriculture, urban & town planning and so like.

I want the posts of GOVERNORS of States to be revitalized and empowered, too. . They should NOT be politicians but emminent persons from various other fields. I want President of India to be empowered, too. At the moment, both governors and President are toothless tigers, mere puppets in the hands of politicians. They must be rid of politicians. In fact political connection should be a disqualification for these posts. I also want the right to recall of a MP, MLA , District Council member and Panch to become instituted into electoral reforms?

India has some 610 districts. Each district must send two representatives to Parliament----- first winner to Lok Sabha and Second Winner to RajySabha. The party with combined strength in Parliament should form the Federal Government. Besides, we should have 610 local self governments, along with CENTRALLY MANAGED UNITS (CMUs) of Some important cities, such as Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkotta, Bengluru, Chandigarh and so on.

India needs to move away from a political system selected some 67 years back. It has not failed but outlived its utility in a different socio- economic moralities of its people. It needs to be modified according to the needs of the time. The makers of the constitution could not envision such scenarios. And I personally feel we need to have a direct democracy where people participate directly.the role of middle level brokers need to be cut. Local Self Government empowerment is a step towards this.
 


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Tuesday, January 07, 2014

IS 'AAP' REALLY INFALLIBLE?


My NEW YEAR resolution was TO KNOW MYSELF and refresh my self on my visible shortcomings. I analyzed myself over the years and came to a conclusion that I WAS OVERLY CRITICAL of people and issues I am NOT endeared to.

This kind of attitude reflects a tinge of SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS, which in my own philosophy is a terribly wrong thing to possess. ...And I am always guided by what British thinker and philosopher, BERTRAND RUSSELL, had to say when asked by his student if he (Russell) would like to die for the principle he had held so dear to his heart? Bertrand thought for a while and then said, "No". Student asked "Why"? Russell responded, " For, all I know, I might be wrong" . That is it. So, I tell myself that all my pronouncements and critical views on AAP might be wrong, therefore, do not bet on them.

But, then, I am reminded of a French Philosopher, Francois de Roche, who observed: WE PROMISE ACCORDING TO OUR HOPES; WE PERFORM ACCORDING TO OUR FEARS. What do you make out of this? I have my fears---- as does AAP. I tell you what------ AAP promised MOON to the people before Elections and now after the elections, it is acting with FEAR. AM I wrong? You might say "Yes" Do so. But I have something else to say.

Before elections, AAP leadership was promising everything without realizing that it might have to deliver one day. Even AAP did not realize the effect of its promises of ridding the common man of the side effects of all pervasive corruption in this country. Of course, courtesy, their partner in Power now in Delhi. So, it has dished out two Cheap gimmicks of 50% subsidy on power bill up to 400 units and 700 liters of daily water to every METERED HOME in Delhi.

How many houses are metered for water in the slums of Delhi? Well! As per information, only 5 Lakh houses might be having water meters. However, AAM ADMI should not know it? Where is the subsidy of Rs 200 Crores every month going? Well! AAM AADMI is NOT supposed to know. But it is going to TATA Power and RELIANCE POWER (Rs 60 crores+140 Crores respectively). Secrecy and misleading information about governmental and administrative decisions is the key feature of Indian political leadership. The Indian political leadership, however of all hue and cry, fails to realise that TRANSPARENCY was the buzz word of the success of modern leadership.

But to "govern by gimmick's seems to be the "mantra" of new political kid on the blocks. This is the new POLITICS of Arvind Kejriwal, the NEW MESSIAH of COMMON MAN ----- who makes no bones about teaching this brand of politics to others also. You would obviously say, " What's wrong"? My overly critical brain does not agree with you. Because this man has delivered nothing. It is all a media hyped announcements.

Ask yourself, "Has water started pouring into 22 Lakh non metered houses?" Just walk out of your AC rooms into some slum. Where would the subsidy of Rs 200 Crores to be paid every month to Power companies come from? You have no idea? Well! You are a good AAM ADMI!! To be deliberately UNAWARE is your special characteristic !!! If you ask me, where would it come from? I would unhesitatingly say, " Of course, from people of Delhi?" The AAM AADMI of Delhi would pay for it, directly or indirectly. This joy is only short lived. Let the reality hit them in the face, after KHICHDI government comes in power at the Centre, with the help of AAP, who would join hands with SP or BSP or even DMK or many other DYNASTIC POLITICAL OUTFITS, now hogging limelight on the Indian political space. But Arvind Kejriwal Knows he would have achieved what he was supposed to have been indented to achieve i.e. install a WEAK KHICHDI GOVERNMENT at the Centre. And if it does not happen, then there is CENTRAL GOVERNMENT to be blamed for not giving an economic package.

Remember the year 1991, when MMS had to mortgage all the gold of the country to a London Bank. It was the result of such cheap economics gimmicks of populism or what I call SOCIALISM TRASH, in the decade preceding the year 1991, marked by turbulence and JANTA DAL rise that led to the economics fiasco. Is AAP going to be another JANTA DAL or their previous avatar JANTA PARTY? I wonder if there is any difference in the meaning of AAM ADMI and JANTA?

My worry is NOT these cheap gimmicks. My worry is the media hyped attention to AAP----- which is coming like a TSUNAMI. And when Tsunami comes it uproots everything. This TSUNAMI is not from within but engineered from outside. Foreign powers, who do not want to see a strong central government in India, are heavily investing in this ANTI CORRUPTION FACADE of AAP.

ARVIND KEJRIWAL, the mascot of new politics in India and alleged MESSIAH of common man has been cleverly projected to bring this AAP Tsunami. The USP of this man, now, assumingly donning the skin of mythological God, KALGIDHAR, of Indian mythology, has been anti corruption sentiments of the people. This has been systematically and cleverly exploited----- first, he was given Ramon Magsaysay award in 2006 for something which no one in India knows. Then, he was appended to ANNA HAZARE and slowly projected as his main advisor. Once, he was a house hold name, he was pulled out with a well selected team from Media persons---- who became his PUBLICITY AGENTS. and they jumped into electoral foray in Delhi with all sorts of promises and now surprised by their own victory doing everything to gain cheap popularity and against the tenets of good governance and good economics. They are riding high on the CRUTCHES OF SOCIALIST POLPULISM------ which ought to collapse one day. It will definitely fall. Remember, it is the fallibility of infallible that often causes discomfort.

Well! This fallibility of the "infallible" is certain---not even an iota of doubt. However, its fall would have damaged India in an irreparable manner. People with good intentions, who are fed up with ten years of corruption and non - governance, are making a beeline to join this political road roller called AAP -----storm is picking up on MEDIA,s sudden love for it and AAP TSUNAMI is gathering mass----- soon it would engulf whole of India. But when it subsides, India would be in ruins. AM I RIGHT? This is my gut feelings. You never know, I might be wrong. What says thou?

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A GLANCE AT PAST AND A PEEP INTO FUTURE---03 January 1967 to 03 January 2067 !



03 JANUARY 1967------03 JANUARY 2014------03 JANUARY 2067

Some dates you never forget------they etch on your memory because they were the turning points in your life.

This day, 47 years back, on January 03, 1967 to be precise, I had joined National Defence Academy at Khadakvasla, Pune, Maharashtra . I was a young man of 17 years with lot of dreams of the future which was yet to unf...old itself. This was sure a turning point in my life. Hereafter I was to don olive green till I came out of it in September 2003.

How has the journey been, you might ask? It has been of agony and ecstasy. Agony, because a number of sad things took place----- I lost my near and dear ones; environments I grew up to be 17 years old have disappeared; nothing , just nothing has remained the same, so much so even my physical profile has undergone a change. This does agonize me. I yearn to be amongst the same people and same environs. I say to hell with all this modern gadgetry, communications and awareness level.

Increase of Knowledge and information have separated everyone from every one. More knowledge and education have made us merely aware of our animal instincts and nothing else. They have individualized us because everyone now yearns for SELF IDENTITY.

We have become a human jungle. Thus, the laws of the Jungle have become applicable to our existence. Darwinian concept of SURVIVAL OF FITTEST holds good not only in the physical structure of the mammals but it also incorporates economic and community strength. The family, community and the national interests have been dwarfed by desire to seek SELF ADVANCEMENT at whatever cost. Social relations have fallen apart. Everyone is on his own. Social institutions are becoming almost defunct. Definitions of family have changed.

In June 1967, during a term break from NDA, when I went back to my village, BALACHAUR, I had an outing in a different house for every meal of my 15 days stay. There was so much love and affection----- there was great sense of belonging----- you touched every elder's feet and got the blessing.

In January 2014, hardly any person in my own street in BALACHAUR knows me. What to say of my village, even the place, I have been living for the past 11 years, people in my block (15 houses) do not know me, though I might be the President of the society of 332 houses. We are strangers in a human zoo.

No, no!! You got me wrong. I am NOT looking for recognition, nor I am lamenting about the present state of affairs. I am only drawing the differences between THEN and NOW. It is up to you to decide as to what was good for your social living. It is for you to know what brings in the SOCIAL HARMONY. it is for you to evaluate what creates MUTUAL BONDS. It is for you to learn how Love begets love and respect begets respect.

It is a UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE that unless we care for others; they won't care for us. Why are there rising cases of Corruption and violence? Have you ever wondered? It is because everyone is on his own. There is lawlessness and disorder in our social, political and individual lives.

Why is this lawlessness? My take is : TO GAIN SOMETHING, ONE HAS TO LOSE SOMETHING. The principle of ZERO SUM EQUILIBRIUM is as applicable to our social and political life today, as it was applicable in the days begone. We have to sacrifice some of our freedom and liberty to feel safe and secure. We can promote FREE FOR ALL environments only at peril to our own existence.

Society and the polity needs to be disciplined. Fear of authority , which has disappeared because of individualisation of society and the polity in its variant forms, has to be re- established. Regionalism, Castism and religious manifestations are the social and political variants of "Individualism", I have been talking about.

Having said all this, I must now take a look at the GLOBALISING WORLD. George Friedman has called it a FLAT WORLD. Alvin Toffler, in his treatise on social transformation had stated in POWER SHIFT that world shall split up into 5000 states and concept of Nation State would disappear. Instead, we would have some 5000 inter connected but interdependent ECONOMIC NODES flourishing in the world, somewhere around the advent of 22nd Century. Simple,in your computer language , they would all be MICRO DOTS ON A BIG COMPUTER CHIP called the Globe.

What is likely to happen , then? Why am I harping about the glory of the past, which is not retrievable? I say I was only tracing the path of human journey from a MASSIFIED SOCIAL SYSTEM to interconnected DEMASSIFIED SOCIAL SYSTEM. Most of my life I had lived in that era ---- so, I liked it.

What seems strange to me, might not be the same to Gen "X" and Gen "Y". They would grow up in the new social system, which is perhaps would endear them. But they might feel the same way, some FIVE DECADES LATER, as I do now. Because the journey of the humans continues forward.

Alvin Toffler had defined this journey of humans into THREE waves----- First wave of Agriculture; Second Wave of industrialization and Third wave of Information Age , which started somewhere around 1950s. He has defined them as periods of shifting emphasis of POWER. George Friedman, in a some what oblique manner, has defined them as FOUR STAGES of GLOBALISATION. He laid emphasis on the economic factor leading to FLATTENING OF THE WORLD and thus, man becoming a CONTINENT HOPPING MAN. Globe becomes a real village. And it is happening. SILLICON REVOLUTION has reduced the geographical distances. Well, this revolution might be SILLY and CONING, too. So, remain mentally alert to ward off its adverse effects.

Today, one can chat , face to face on Skype or hosts of other such sites, with your family members, friends and acquaintances. This is the impact of globalization. So, what has happened while the physical distances have narrowed down, the social and political distances have been increasing. We are living in our own cocoons. Welcome to the VIRTUAL WORLD, where you can live in total anonymity and yet be known all over the world.

This is the biggest paradox of human development in the last 50 years, I have talked about. While on one hand, he broke away from a joint family to create one's Self identity; on the other, he is deliberately effacing his identity in the Virtual world. There you are, then: In the REAL WORLD IDENTITY IS REAL, ACTIONS MIGHT BE UNREAL; AT THE SAME TIME, THE IDENTITY IN THE UNREAL WORLD MAY BE UNREAL BUT ACTIONS ARE LIKELY TO BE REAL, FROM THE CORE OF THE HEART.

" What is the paradox" , you would say? Simple, it is the crisis of growing "self confidence" but "distrust" in the things around you. It is a growing sense of materialistic insecurity that is driving man away from his environments. WHILE SELF RECOGNITION IS THE DESIRE OF EVERY HUMAN BEING BUT AT THE SAME TIMEBUT KNOWLEDGE AND FEAR MAKES HIM HIDE HIS IDENTITY. He lives in two worlds of "REAL" and "UNREAL".

Do you get me? OK, I shall explain it thus: People in my childhood were real both in acts and identity, it is not so in the world of today's i.e. IF A PERSON IS " REAL" HIS CONDUCT IS UNREAL; IF A PERSON IS "UNREAL" HIS ACTS MIGHT BE REAL.

"Where would we go from here", is the natural question on every lip? I would say from Alvin Toffler's transforming man from Agricultural to Industrial to Information, I would now add the FOURTH WAVE of COSMIC MAN------ we shall leap from CONTINENT HOPPING MAN or a GLOBALISED MAN to GALAXY HOPPING MAN or the COSMIC MAN, with their own values and social norms.

Therefore, my advice to Gen "X" and Gen "Y" is to get up and join the COSMIC BAND WAGON. My parting philosophy : WHAT WAS YESTERDAY IS NOT TODAY; WHAT IS TODAY WOULD DEFINITELY NOT BE THERE TOMORROW. Learn to live with the ARROW OF TIME. Like ever before, it continues to pierce into the abdomen of the unknown but well anticipated future.

May be the COSMIC MAN of tomorrow would be produced in the HUMAN FACTORIES, where human relations won't have any values. As it is the institution of marriage was now moving towards its extinction------the advent of "Stem cell technology" has reduced the need for a Man - Woman copulation for reproduction.

Stem cells might be made available in the market as VICKY DONORS have come to stay. Social and family relations and designation shall march into the dustbin of human history. Live- in partnership, single parent and "specific period marriages" are going to obliterate the designations of " Father" , " Brother", " Sister" and so on.

Hullo! What I have stated in the foregoing paragraph above, is going to be your journey over the next 50 years. Your leap into COSMIC AGE would throw you into isolation and solitude. So, learn to live alone.-----Here is to the COSMIC MAN of the future :----

LIVE YOUR LIFE, WITHOUT A WIFE;
LIVE IN A COCOON, SELF-GROOMED;
HAVE NO IDENTITY,IN YOUR ENTITY;
FACTORY BORN, LIVE LIKE A MORON.

WELCOME TO JANUARY 2067! CHHERS!! What drink do you have? I started with RUM, then graduated to whisky and now addicted to Indian made Scotch-----B/L or Black Dog. And now body says : CHHOD DE 'SAALE', FOR YOUR OWN GOOD HEALTH!!

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