Thaapad Ki Goonj

We had a marvelous event few days back. A someone by the name Mr. Sharad Pawar, a top political honcho, a man who commands money and people power in ample, a man who has no reason to even be touched by air breath out by commoners, was slapped by a COMMONER.. A hard, right on-the-face slap.

Honestly, all we zoombies want to do something like this, but are coward to make it into a reality. But we saw a man actually go ahead and do it. Even if he did this for money, he made every penny paid worth while..

If I may say, this Mr. Sharad Pawar, beats every other politician in the degree of corruption. He actually tops the list of corrupt politicians. He very famously left his last party, The Congress, as he was denied the privilege to become the Prime Minister, a post at which he could have sold India in open market and made millions, billions, zillions for himself, unhindered. Not that he hasn't without the post, but imagine what the scale would have been if he was the Prime Minister.

I wonder how many millions, billions, zillions will he be able to take to his grave, but I am sure he would definitely not miss one things.. And that is, Is Thaapad Ki Goonj...

A game of ALLIANCING

I felt most sorry for this democracy when Atal Bihari Vajpayee's 13 day old government was overthrown by the Third Front Alliance. An alliance was realised and brought into existence within few days all in the "interest" of this nation which has a huge population of under-privileged and over-looked communities. Various losing parties with a bleak patronage came together to form a ruling government. Even though these parties had parallel / non-colliding thoughts and interests but had one common goal - POWER. A common manifesto came out in a flash and suddenly we saw some great friendships broiling. The political fraternity truly understood the potential of alliancing then.

Consider a scenario - Congress with Muslim League as one of its ally contests the elections. They are able to harness Muslim votes due to the pro-Muslim image created. They win the election and form the government. Then suddenly in between their tenure there is a fallout between the two due to some boiling issue and Congress breaks its ties with Muslim League. But, to keep its numbers right, Congress joins hands with RSS. So what should be derived out of this? That Congress has back-tracked on its loyalty towards Muslims and suddenly has become a Hindu supporter.

My point is, how does our constitution allow such a big loop-hole in our democracy. Parties are allowed to shift loyalties, change policies in a flash to keep their vested interests alive. We have seen parties trying out all possible moves to keep the numbers right in case of a fall-out of a ruling alliance. Back-door agreements are made between parties in exchange of support. Nothing happens in a clean manner. India and its integrity is kept at stake just to retain power. WHAT A MOCKERY OF DEMOCRACY!!!!

I wish to raise an alarm regarding this. I want that constitution should change and not allow political party alliances to change after elections have started. And I want Indian citizens to endorse this move.

Constitution should be ammended to ensure the following:
* POLITICAL PARTIES SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO CREATE AND DECLARE ALLIANCES ONLY BEFORE THE ELECTIONS BEGIN (because that determines their policies and loyalties).
* AN ALLIANCE HAS TO BE A REGISTERED ENTITY.
* THE ALLIANCES SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO CHANGE ONCE THE ELECTIONS BEGIN.
* IF THERE IS A FALL-OUT IN THE RULING ALLIANCE, IT SHOULD MEAN END OF THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT.

I may not be factually correct, but I know that this game of ALLIANCING is causing a very big damage to us and us alone. We citizens are the only losers and so we need to raise our voice.

My country, My responsibility

I would love to be known as a RESPONSIBLE CITIZEN of this country. But most of the times I am more bothered what will happen to me rather than to my country. Then am I a responsible citizen?

Because I too like most others:
- Never think twice before littering the roads.
- Never raise my voice when I see a road mended just recently being dug again for some other job.
- Never implicate the groups that made me miss a day's business and destroyed public property in the pretext of a "bund".
- Never calibrate the amount of electricity, water and wood consumed in my family.

I am just a CITIZEN due to birth. I do not possess any traits of being a responsible citizen.

But then I wonder what being a responsible citizen means.

a. Does it mean to follow all the rules of the state, whether just or unjust.
b. Does it mean to live in peace and harmony with the surroundings, even if others are not.
c. Does it mean to pay all the taxes, even when we know most of public money will fall in wrong hands.
d. Does it mean to cast vote every elections, even if all the local goons are contesting in it.

So what does it mean for you?