Team Anna did not yet lose the JanLokPal plot !

This article is with reference to an article written by Soma Banerjee in ECONOMIC TIMES.

Titled "Five Ways How Team Anna lost the Lokpal Plot". Reference url:
http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/energy-quotient/entry/five-ways-how-team-anna#comment-form 

The author was wise in chalking out what are the five ways how team anna lost the LokPal plot. However I feel the war against corruption has started just now. and we have to go way forward until a law is made and it comes into force. I feel its too early to say that Team Anna has lost.There are a few points which the author referred to and i would like to put my view through this blog.

The present situation in India against corruption has not evolved in a day or two. Nor did Anna Hazaree's fast brought this public outcry. It was the fire that was already there in the common man. Now with the series of scams coming up almost every two months that the common man has lost the faith in this system. He has understood that it's with this system and people involved that he needs to fight with. Today Anna has become the face of the movement and it was his fast on April 5th that gave a platform to all the common people to vent off their feelings about this system and people running the system. However Government has always tried to play safe and retain the power.They agreed to involving the civil society in drafting the bill. Today it is very much evident how much our elected Representatives are concerned with drafting a bill. I don't know how many Indian politicians over there are able to understand that the bill we are looking for is not for us at present but for the future generations. Tomorrow every politician's kith and kin may not become a politician and may be they will also have  to pay a bribe for getting things done. Its better late than never, we draft a bill now. As Kiran Bedi recently spoke out to the NRI's, " This is the time or never", really this is the time to make government realize that we are not happy with what has been happening all these years.

Coming to what author had to say about the Anna Team, I believe these are the people who have seen the common man, the system from common man's view and have seen the in and out of our present system. Aravind Kejriwal is an RTI activist honored with Roman Magsaysay Award (equivalent to Nobel Peace Prize in Asia). Prashanth Bushan a lawyer and social activist who helps people through Judiciary system. He is a strong advocate for Clean Judiciary. Shanthi Bhushan an Ex-Law Minister and a senior advocate. J.M.Lyndogh, a civil servant, former Chief Election Commissioner and Roman Magsaysay Awareed for Govt Service. The whole country knows about Kiran Bedi and her contribution to Indian Civil Service especially to the Indian Police Service.Santosh Hegde one of the eminent personalities still serving the country and has held prestigious positions like Judge of Supreme Court of India, former Solicitor General of India and present Lokayukta for Karnataka State.

The author was wrong in describing these members of JanLokPal team as "matinee idols". I wouldn't agree with that because the Team has chosen the media as a channel to make people aware about what is going on in the meetings regarding the JLP. I would go with the Idea of the team regarding participatory democracy. The word "participatory democracy" emphasizes the broad participation of constituents in direction and operation of political systems. However in the world of technology, making people participatory is not difficult.

I. The Race for the Eyeballs :

The representatives of the drafting committee – Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan, and kiran Bedi- have appeared to be more busy hopping television studios during prime time hours and giving a running commentary at the end of every meeting. This led to a verbal public spat between the drafting committee members with both sides pitted against each other, often attacking personal issues than substantive matters.

Discretion - The members would do better to respect the deliberative process and adopt discretion till the talks were on. Everyday spats led to trivialization of the main issue. --Soma Banerjee

My View Point - The author rightly said that drafting a Lokpal bill is a  deliberative process, I agree. But how many years should one wait? We have waited from 1969 when the first draft was placed in the Parliament by Shanthi Bhushan, the then Law Minister in Morarji  Desai govt. Till date there is provision where one could lodge a complaint and get the corrupt investigated.

II. Hijack by Ramdev & Co :

Baba Ramdev’s orchestered move to get the spotlight on his movement and Team Anna’s inability to distinguish between the wheat and the shaft raised questions over the seriousness of the movement. The tumbling skeletons from Ramdev’s Patanjali trust and his threat to raise an armed force led to questions over the people who showed solidarity with Team Anna in their fight against corruption.

Discretion - Stick to the path and take the process of deliberation to a logical end.--Soma Banerjee

My View Point  : Baba Ramdev was clear in his movement. He asked for the black money stashed at foreign countries to be brought back to India and be declared as a national asset. This could have been accepted and done by passing an ordinance. However Govt went way ahead starting with persuasion and finally using the stick on the peaceful protestors. Can the Govt or  the policemen who were in action bring back the people who lost their lives? Not stopping at that the government started digging in on Baba Ramdev assets. This shows how good the Govt is at side tracking the issue.

III. De-meaning Institutions :

Vilifying democratic institutions like the judiciary or even the parliament showed immaturity as it questioned the very basis of India’s democratic system.

Discretion - Fight the system though the system - Changes cannot be brought in by ignoring institutions.

                                                                                                                            --Soma Banerjee

My View Point : Most of  the members of Civil Society fighting against Corruption have been in the Judiciary and worked in Judiciary. Through the JanLokPal Bill they have made it clear that there are instances of corruption even there and that it must be brought under the purview of JLP Bill. We have been respecting our democratic institutions, but unfortunately the weed of corruption has spolied the system of judiciary too, hence it has to be cleaned out.

IV. Flip-flops and hollow threats :

Sample the times the members have threatened to walk out or boycott the deliberations. Each time, the divergence grew, members of the civil society lost little time in voicing their protest and dissent through public threats. Long before, the deliberations even came to a close, Anna Hazare had given his clarion call to restart the agitation.

Discretion - Hollow threats and flip-flops only highlight the schisms in within the members. Activist draftsmen often lose the plot in rhetoric.--Soma Banerjee

My View Point  : Having given 42 years of time to our elite politicians and they have not used this time properly to draft a simple LokPal bill  for which they have been elected and which  was their duty to do, what would one expect? Do you think we can wait for another 42 years till these politicians have brought India at the rank of more than 150 in Transparency Index, made the common man the scape goat and stashed more and more money in their banks sufficient enough for their greatgrandsons? That's the reason the civil society has given a time frame to work it out. If the author thinks taking up fast as a peace of protest is threatening then I would be proud of my country and say we achieved Independence by threatening the British. And happy enough to say we threatened our politicians to rule us properly.

 V. Utopian Solutions :

Representatives of the drafting committee appear to be banking on some unknown super honest and transparent people to form the ombudsman.

Discretion - Underestimating the very people they represent could turn out to be the biggest folly.--Soma Banerjee

My View Point  : I would disagree with the author for putting this as one of the five mistakes. The author must have been away from the news for quite sometime. Does the author want us to trust Pranab Mukherjee who had played a major role during uncalled for  emergency during Mrs. Indira Gandhi. Who has threatened banks in investing in Gujarat being ruled by BJP now? Should we believe in P.Chidambaram who is already facing allegations of having pressurized the returning officer in Sivaganga to win the elections.?

Retirement for Indian Politicians?

Couple of days back I was just thinking about our Indian Government and  its machinery. I felt confused over a couple of aspects in our daily life. First thing that came to my mind was about the retirement system for public sector employees to that of politicians. Government thinks a person who is 60yrs old must retire and enjoy his rest of life with his family. Government provides pension,gratuity,retirement benefits etc., But then why doesn't the same be applied to our elite politicians? They are also old, they can also enjoy the benefits as ex-parliamentarians and ex-members of assembly, they can also serve as advisers providing their valuable suggestions whenever required. I see some advantages to this:
a) The younger educated generation will  come ahead to contribute their services.
b) Young generation brings young blood and new ideas.
c) Seniority in Politics can be used where older generation can  teach younger generation.
since analysis would be required lets see what are the disadvantages:
a) Losing active services of experienced politicians.
b) cost of their post retirement benefits on exchequer.
But i can support these disadvantages too.
Losing avtive services of experienced politicians is i believe a dumb word today. Our present politicians are all above 60's couldn't handle a situation like RamLila and Baba Ramdev agitations intellectually. Everybody understands how valuable service they have been doing all these years, allocating 2G spectrum licences at cheap prices and the head of the govt does know what his cabinet colleagues are doing, the CWG, and the govt does know what's happening in the Indian capital city, the Maran scam,etc..This shows how incompetent our elected representatives are. Governing us at the cost of ourmoney, eating our hard earned money. Conducting inquries on those charges again at the cost  of our hard earned money even after the highest Investigating agency reports the government with proof. Pitiable that we have no choice but to elect them as our leaders.
Another confusion was regarding the voting age. Government thinks a male person who is 18 years of age cannot get married and that he can't start a family as he is underage to lead a family. But then the same government thinks the same person is eligible to elect a leader for the country who can govern them. How strange are Indian laws? Please comment !!!!!!!!!

Indian Unrest-2011

Ramlila grounds, Ramdev Baba eviction from Delhi, extermination notice on Baba!!!!!!!Today the government faces the wrath from all sides. What happened at Ramlila on late Saturday night has been strongly condemned by all parts of India. Crisis of Ramdev Baba situation was uncalled for and now the government finds it difficult to defend itself on the act carried out.  This clearly shows how timid this government feels when a political unrest is initiated demanding the bringing of foreign stacked black money. The handling of the entire situation was termed as inappropriate. 
Anti Corruption Movement-2011:
Commendable is the initiative by Anna Hazare's group to work against corruption especially towards the passing of Jan LokPalBill(JLB). JLB was drafted differently and laid in Parliament 8 times till date. However since both the houses were having differences on the draft bill, it never passed and became a law. Today people lost their patience, every one knows about corruption happening at all levels in government offices.
With successive scams like CWG,2G,BSNL,scams coming out, the public outrage is justified. Recovering from the slap of recession, public is hardly able to withhold its silence on these scams. We have already seen the Bofors, UTI, scams earlier,which have no verdict yet and the commission still conducts investigations. Officers are coming and going still investigating the scams. Those involved must have already spent the amount they secured by running the scam..but still the investigations go on..people involved may have died..still the investigations continue..only to give a final report..perhaps on which no action may be taken.
I am sure people are tired seeing all this.
All these years we were silent and let the governement take the action. We still paid our taxes, bore the burnt of corruption and never uttered a word against the government. We sincerely believed in our elected leaders,our constitution,our system and its functioning. However the leaders came, misused their positions. Today we are not able to trust a single leader. Today its very difficult to identify who is a genuine leader. May be we can count the numbers as to who came to be good leaders without money or muscle power or with no political background.
Perhaps the makers of our constitution would never have dreamt of this situation of India. The corrupt politics, the show of money and muscle power, the halting of peaceful protests by police forces, the beating up of common man at midnight, beating women and children.
Have we made our Constitution for this? Is it ok even if the common man losses his life? Are we living for the sake of rules or have made the rules for ourselves to be governed well?
When we ask about including PM under LokPal, Governement says the constitution is supreme, and if PM included will make him weak,blah,blah,blah...But is it what we call peoples democracy? If Constitution does not accept then we can Amend the constitution. Today the Indian Unrest is not going to stop. All the citizens know what is corruption,where it is happening and who are doing it. Days are gone when people were silent leaving everything to the system. Now with the media in action, we are not going to stop. WE WILL FIGHT TILL WE ACHIEVE JAN LOKPAL.

Youth of India,Arise!

 Today the Indian youth are eagerly waiting for a new political party to emerge. There are many students,young graduates, professionals who are waiting to see a ray of hope in Indian political scenario.
They wish to see a youthful organisation working against socio-economic evils like unemployment,corruption,poverty,population growth, education,water supply,roads,etc. they want to bring a drastic change in the society and don't know where to start.
Young people who have vision as to what they want don't understand where to start. They start as being the member of the youth wing of the existing political party.But again, already party drenched with corrupt practices shows the way to more corruption at lower levels. I hardly believe that there is a single party which is against evils like corruption and nepotism.
The establishment of  Lok Paritran party by a group of IITians in 2006 brought some hope to the student community. Though subsequent spilt in the party raised many questions still they persevered and contested the 2009 elections. However,today we don't find any activities from them. It was just a passing cloud that came and went making  no impact. Still there are many e-mails and blogs posted by many young Indians who still want to join and extend services to the party. Let's hope there comes a completely new energetic party that is determined to serve the people of this country with no desire for favor.

The Analysis of Elections,2011

A brief survey about the voting experience,collected by one of the websites, indicates that people really wanted 'CHANGE' in current Indian politics. Money power and muscle power had no influence on the voters this time as it previously was.
It is observed that while people from Kerala, Puducherry and Assam expected to see development of their state, the voters of West Bengal cited mixed issues like unemployment,corruption, development and law and order to be addressed by the future government.
As expected in Tamil Nadu erstwhile government faced a setback due to the 2G-Spectrum scam and inappropriate handling of after issues. Around 70% of the people cited "corruption" as the reason for their voting and expected a change in the present government.
People have shown their courage by opting for '49-O' Election Rule. Having faith in the Election Commission of India, not being influenced by money and muscle power,they have expressed how eagerly they are looking for a "change" in the political system.

ENVISION NEW INDIA

Envision New India is a blogspot created for all of us who Envision India as a developed country in the near future. Development of our country after 63 years of independence is evident today. We all know where we stand today and how our leaders have shaped up this country. Today, I  believe, not every Indian is satisfied with the road taken to development. I believe there are several people out there who are ready to work for the people and don't know where to start and how to start.
This blog-spot is inspired by all the millions of people who have virtually supported Anna Hazzare in his fast unto death campaign, representing the views of all Indians against corruption. Millions of Indians want to see Jan Lokpal Bill enacted and enforced. I believe change has to start somewhere, the change accompanied by a strong force will definitely make a difference.
Come On Indians! Let us start building the future of this country. Share Your thoughts,opinions and suggestions.Let us send a message and help the young  and upcoming political leaders to know what we expect from them. Relevant posts shall be sent to the concerned people for review.