An Open Letter to Prime Minister – Part II

Dear Mr Prime Minister,

India is the largest democracy of the world, it's not a monarchy or autocracy where the excess of government can be tolerated by its citizens without blinking an eyelid. What happened on June 4 midnight at Ramlila ground, New Delhi not only reflects the extreme brutality of police forces and atrocities on innocent women, children and old people, but at the same time it exposed the collective base mentality of a government (read a bunch of diehard sycophants of a political dynasty) towards the universal democratic principles that once upheld by the forefathers of our Constitution. It's not only shocking that over five thousand police forces swarmed into action at the midnight to evict a yoga guru who just two days before the incident received a red carpet welcome by the cabinet ministers of this country, but it's equally deplorable that this kind of miscalculated action by your government landed you in a situation where you again committed a glaring blunder by admitting to the fact that “the excess of police action was though unfortunate but unavoidable as there was no alternative” and subsequently lost your credibility as the prime minister of this country.

What your government has done in this incident not only reflects the naivety of statecraft, but also it corroborates to the fact that the collective knowledge of your cabinet on the fundamental rights of citizens empowered by our Constitution is null and void. This is a dangerous proposition for a parliamentary democracy. No amount of argumentation however powerful can justify the brutality of police forces on innocent, unarmed, sleeping women and children that these critical mass can be dangerous to the law and order situation of the capital city of India by immaturely drawing a parallel between Babri masjid incident and an unfounded similar dangerous situation that maybe lurking in the hindsight of your government. No, Mr Prime Minister, this argument doesn't hold any water in the current scenario. What your government has done here to the democratic fabric of this country is irreparable. No amount of apology even from all ranks and files of your cabinet including you can't repair the humongous loss that it has done to the families of victims in this police atrocities.

Mr Prime Minister, there are scores of alternatives to handle the worst dangerous situation even with grace and within the ambit of democratic principles. The Ramlila ground incident is a murder of democracy, which you can't understand it, forget about acknowledging the blunder because you are not an elected representative of people of this country, rather a representative of a dynasty for political convenience. Perhaps, that's the prime reason as to why political compulsions have always overshadowed your intellect and conviction during national crisis whether it's all-pervasive political corruption or crushing of democracy in the recent event. It's still live in public memory when you justified systemic corruption as “coalition dharma” and “political mandate” can even wash away the democratic sins like “horse-trading in the Parliament.” No parliamentarian can claim such immature, unconstitutional statement.

Mr Prime Minister, it won't be quite surprising to notice another emergency during your tenure given the uprising of civil society against systemic corruption and black money issues that have entangled your government in deep soup, and subsequently you will give the same lame excuse that “though this is unfortunate but unavoidable as we don't have an alternative” a cliché that you have got by your heart to fire it whenever condemnations on your actions from public or political parties loom large.

Sir, we are living in 21st century, not in an era of colonial rule where all actions, however dangerous or anti-human or antagonistic, of a ruler stand legitimate. People of India are not subjects of British Raj. We are living in a vibrant democracy where every citizen has fundamental rights to lead his or life with human dignity and grace. Any excess by the government is extremely deplorable and condemnable. As head of the government, you must first oblige to the democratic principles and the Constitution of India, and then probably you can discharge your duty as a prime minister. If you fail to uphold the democratic principles, people of this country will not hesitate to consider you a man of no reason.


Yours sincerely,

An honest citizen

Curbing the free speech

When IT has made India one of the fastest emerging economy in world market, the regulatory move against virtually free online media including blog sites and other social networking sites is a clear indication of the fact that the rotten politicians and bureaucrats in this country are trying to tighten the noose against unbridled free speech, primarily because the ongoing exposures of their corrupt practices in unconventional media like Facebook, YouTube, Blogger, etc., have attracted huge public attentions and reactions, which become a deterrent to their clandestine corrupt practices. In the recent Anna Hazare's crusade against corruption, the social media played a significant role by spreading the awareness across the world, and this became another jasmine revolution.

Now that politicians think the educated, IT-savvy citizens are well-informed and their collective free speech can bring down their supremacy in a society that they have legitimately exploited for decades, which furthermore won't be possible and this fear psychosis has triggered an authoritarian regime like situation to nip any future online revolution in the bud. This is a serious contempt of freedom of speech provisioned in a democracy. No matter how blasphemous or hateful be the views on an individual on any subject, that should be given a benefit of doubts in the ambit of “personal interpretation”, not as interpreted by a motley group of “pseudo-intellectual bureaucrats” who have continuously blocked the social innovations in this country.

Every time when a corruption news breaks out in this country, people blindly blame politicians without analyzing the length and breadth of the crime, but the time has come now to look beyond the lopsided view. The systemic corruption in India is a phenomenon dangerously propagated by the bureaucrats since independence. Their feudal attitude to keep every policy inherently flawed has stumped the progress of this country. If we have witnessed any social, economic or technological revolution, be it market liberalization, IT revolution, or mobile revolution, in this country, that has been possible just because of the sincere efforts of some good politicians, technocrats, and intellectuals. Though there are very few bureaucrats who have helped executing the policies with due diligence, the majority of this power block have continuously manipulated the system on their side, and the recent move on curbing the free speech in a democratic system is again their misadventure to prohibit public reactions, but this act of despot will never succeed. Controlling the internet framework across the world by any local government agency has never been successful, and this wild act of authoritarian governance will rather raise more conflicts in a working democracy.

How can India eliminate systemic corruption?

India has been witnessing corruption in public domain since independence. However, in the last few decades the length and breadth of corruption net has been manifold. Literally, in every walk of life one can experience the toxins of carcinogenic corruption. Even today the lowest rung government official doesn't hesitate to ask for few bucks to facilitate a service, which on the contrary is a legal right of citizen though to avail it freely. Analyzing the gravity of systemic corruption, many anti-corruption laws have been enacted in this country and nothing has changed the topography of rampant corruption. And of late the much publicized draconian Jan Lokpal bill draft initiated by a civil society organization and supported by Anna Hazare has been a hot debate not only in media, but also in public domain. There are cynics and optimists as well who contribute their piece of argument to galvanize this bill as the mother of all anti-corruption bills ever enacted by any democratic nation in this world. For some time, I was quite optimistic and elated and was holding my trust in the civil society committee, which is an equal partner in drafting and debating on the Lokpal Bill draft. The irony of the draft is that it's a one-stop shop to handle corruption charges against anybody and everybody in public service.

Given the corruption charges getting rounds against Bhushans, now a fundamental question hammers me is that, can human greed be controlled by the stringent laws of land? Maybe, the charges against Bhushans not be true, but one critical aspect about elder Bhusan's declaration of assets looks unbelievable that how just a lawyer can accumulate the personal wealth to the tune of Rs. 209 crores in his life time? Though most of his legal practicing time has been spent on PILs which are certainly not a high yielding specialty in legal domain, but his wealth amassed speaks the contrary. If at all we seriously think about a committee that would pull off the huge responsibility of drafting a stringent anti-corruption bill, the primary attributes of the composition must hinge on the human attributes such as impeccable propriety other than sharp legal acumen. Of course there is no dearth of finest legal luminaries in this country who are honest and an incorruptible. The civil society should not be restricted to the crony professionalism, rather they should weigh high moral grounds against the skills, which are anyway don't rest within Bhushans only.

Well, that's one part of this anti-corruption drive to design a stringent deterrent mechanism to check corruption. However, if we look at the other developed democratic nations, we find a curious contrast that rather taking preventive measures as others strictly follow, why we Indians still wait a disease to inflict us and then take medicines? Probably, this perspective is inherited from a serious feudal mindset that still we preserve in our biological gene. We need to change that mindset first. We cant rely on the old school of intelligence. We must transform our old believes and think something innovative and out-of-the-box. First, we should pan our vision from curing a disease to preventing it. Let's understand that in an age of IT revolution, nothing is impossible to ensure a thorough transparency in the execution process of governance. Consider this: if the bidding process for 2G spectrum could have been executed through an automated process without human intervention, perhaps this scam could have been avoided. Let me tell you that the corruption is an indication of exponential human greed in a society, rather not a reflection of unavailability of stringent laws against corruption. So, the main culprits in the game of corruption are human beings. The more discretionary power of human beings means the larger chance of making corruption. To deal with this scenario, we need to minimize human intervention of human being in the execution process and promote automation, which would certainly curtail the chance of corruption in public domain.

When India is boasting its IT revolution in international forums and certainly has proved its mettle, then why at domestic front we are reluctant to adopt the best practices in automation to curb the corruption in governance process? The best way to eliminate the corruption is to prevent it. Are our old politicians listening? Or do they need to go back to new-age schools to take lessons on how to lead the nation in a technologically advanced manner? The old time is over, the old thoughts and beliefs as well. If still we believe in the status quo, better forget complaining about the corruption. We cant falsely claim or take it seriously that the most seasoned political leaders in this country are capable enough to guide a billion of youth powerhouse bubbling with ideas and innovations. This is the time for intelligent, dedicated, dynamic, and honest young leaders to take over the governance of this nation. We must challenge the unchallengeable. Then only we can aspire for a developed India, free of corruption.

Is India heading towards another emergency?

Is India dangerously running towards a 1975 like internal emergency? If the symptoms of political instability at the centre due to loads of high level corruption charges against UPA ministers and impeding loss of Congress in state elections are any signification, then probably a forced emergency is not far off from today. There is also another important incident that will also add fire to the fuel is the inability of UPA in passing the Lokpal Bill in the monsoon session, which would anyway erupt the ire of middle class citizens who just took part in the trailer orchestrated by Anna Hazare. The nation will be compelled to watch the whole movie “India rises against corruption”, if the UPA government fails to pass the bill or deliberately stages series of conspiracies in diverting the public attention.

Maybe, there is no pertinent sign yet which can trigger the worst political crisis for the UPA government, but the things are not going well either in governance front, as every other day another scam is being unearthed and ministers are entangled into the larger scheme of that scam. Perhaps, few months down the line some more new scams will catch the headlines and the pressures from each block of democratic setup will be mounted on the UPA government beyond a tolerable limit, and that could be a tempting point for the ruling party to do something unusually gross, but not unprecedented.

If we analyze the political and economic situation in 1975, India was living in a complete dark age, no growth, no aspiration, no citizen empowerment, extremely battered by poverty, state-run sick enterprises, no consumer power, and moreover, sycophant media houses who were licking the boots of the then ruling party leader. However, 36 years after India has proved to be an emerging superpower in many dimensions, be it IT/ITES, telecom, biotech, pharma, R&D, retail, finance, or media, each segment has significantly contributed to the growth engine of this nation. The liberalization has completely transformed the image of India among the first worlds.

An interesting case of highly people empowerment can be drawn from this incident. During 26/11, when the government displayed some false empathy to Ratan Tata for supporting the security of Taj in the aftermath of terrorist attack, the legend of Tata Group snubbed and retorted that he can better take care of his property than what the state can afford to. What could be a more befitting response than this to the political masters of this country who think they are still the epicentre of power? There is much power polarized outside the Parliament. A country with 1.21 billion population coupled with boundless consumer power and 24x7 access to information can negotiate the gargantuan power of state with extreme tact and efficacy, and that's the beauty of democracy. I wish that nothing of that emergency-like scenario would happen again in India, but if that still happens it will be the permanent death of political democracy in this country. People are innovative now and they can formulate a new form of governance in this country with accountability, transparency, and certainly free of corruption.

Heading for a disaster?

Why India is so rigid about pursuing its wildest dream to enter into a sizable civil nuclear program at a time when the most developed countries are in state of quandary by noticing the imminent consequences of Japan's worst nuclear disaster in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake followed by a widely destructive tsunami? Why India is in a hurry to clear all new nuclear power plant projects, even without considering the dire consequences that the world super powers have already been haunted, be it Chernobyl, Pripyat, or now the Fukushima? Why the proposed Jaitapur nuclear power plant, which was in a dark chamber for many years due to safety considerations, has got the environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment while the same ministry did play foul with a large-scale steel plant, which of course doesn't have a comparable risk index vis-a-vis a mega nuclear power plant, in Orissa? There are many uncomfortable questions though which would raise doubts about the intention of this Government at the Centre, for a sustainable development in India.

The party in power in different regimes has shown sheer disregards to humanitarian values and public safety standards whenever it inks large industrial deals with foreign companies. The people of India have already experienced the apathy of government in the Union Carbide case. Even after 27 years of that industrial disaster, which killed thousands of innocent people and crippled many more thousands for generations, the culprits are roving free and the victims are still waiting for the justice. When most politicians and bureaucrats escape the public anger by simply toning it down to the most unfortunate event, the sufferers take the pain for go. And now that this government has again in a hush-hush deal with US and France companies for nuclear power plants, the pressure from international forums, often driven by US, is mounting high, which is clear from the hotfoot of administration.

Many nuclear scientists though opine that India's nuclear plants have the highest safety standards and they have endured the fury of 2004 tsunami and Latur earthquake and nothing has happened, the larger point of the debate is that whatever precautions may be taken to ensure the safety of these plants, if anything goes wrong, the consequences will be disastrous. This is the high time for Indian leadership to reconsider the options available before heading for another Chernobyl like situation.