The Dance of Democracy

As always I have been a strong believer that the ultimate triumph of democracy lies in the fact that the vox populi is supreme and is the bloodline of the system. I had some time back voiced the same vein in “Whose Democracy is it anyway ?”

The drama that was enacted for twelve days both in the House and in Ramlila grounds had kept us glued. We have had raving and ranting from Mr.Sibal and his friends on the supremacy of the Parliament and the finality of the parliamentary procedure. However we saw a big resistance from most of the politicians to accept the writing on the wall. Finally better sense has prevailed and yesterday we saw one of the most serious debates on the floor of the House in recent times. The parliament has unanimously accepted to agree to the three conditions put forward by Team Anna. What was unfortunate was that it took 12days of fasting by an old man to do this.

Is this one of the major tests our democracy went through ? I would say yes and although it staggered in the initial run up, it passed the muster reasonably well at the end. I do not for a moment think that this process has undermined the position of the Prime Minister or the Parliament.

On the contrary I feel that this has only strengthened the position of the elected polity in redefining their stature as the representatives of the people , having a Herculean task before them to deliver each time correctly according to the wishes of the common man. I feel that most of the times our political class forgets that their position in power is not that of a ruler, but in a democratic environment it is merely a representation of the wishes of the people. The quicker they re-adjust their lenses to these basics the sooner will they have fewer problems in understanding and standing by the wishes of the nation.

So therefore what was enacted yesterday after twelve days of the saga was actually the real dance of democracy further strengthening the belief of all in the process and ensuring that the political class is part of the people that they have chosen to represent.

Whose Democracy is it anyway ?

Anna Hazare brigade has taken all of us by storm. It is not an agitation but a crusade. We all as a nation have suddenly united to free the country once more. While we all support in our own ways and keep track of the proceedings , we also watch the theatrics of our learned Members of Parliament who rave and rant about the supremacy of parliamentary democracy and how civil society has to keep away from that.

Long back when countries used to be ruled by kings and the like, there was the royal family and the commoners. The royal blue blooded gentry used to live in separate parts of the town always wary that mixing with the commoners may dilute their blue blood. The commoners were treated like slaves and used to do the menial work for the kings.

The world changed forever when Abraham Lincoln framed the government of the people, by the people and for the people. More and more countries over the years adopted the democracy as the supreme method of governance. It is heartening to see countries like Egypt and Libya trying to join the bandwagon.

The blue blood has left. However a new blood type has been formed. It is the green blooded (Green as in money, honey, mostly ill-gotten !). It is indeed a medical marvel. The class system has shifted focus and there is now a ruling class and a ruled class. The irony is that the ruling class is chosen by the ruled class generally every five years. What astounds me is that our learned parliamentarians who are so eager to keep the parliament sanitized from the whims of the civil society have actually forgotten that neither are their seats in the august house given to them by their heritage but by a small little button on the EVM machine nor are they there to discuss issues related to some species residing in the faraway lands in Neptune or Pluto.

They have been sent there to discuss, debate and decide on a course of action that the people of this country want. They are the representatives of the very people who have given them a mandate to sit there and the very people who can take away that mandate as and when they wish. If the majority of the country wants the Lokpal bill in the way that is good for the country it is the duty of these parliamentarians to deliver. They have been sent there to deliver for the country not to discuss private Swiss bank account codes.

It is high time Mr.Singh and his friends understand this and the quicker they do the better for them. It is indeed sad that our learned parliamentarians do not understand the basic tenets of democracy which they have pledged to serve.

Hope Afloat

Scam time for India. We are keeping ourselves busy – with one scam to another. The cameras roll, the 24x7 news feeds abuzz with the latest on the latest scam. People on the roads test each other’s general knowledge by quizzing on scam.

We have ministers, bureaucrats, business tycoons vying with each other to get into the scam page of the newspaper. I think there seems to be some gradation system working with scams being rated – I heard the title “mother of all scams” in a news channel recently. Tihar jail and 5-star hotels have almost similar guest list nowadays and the jail authorities are seriously considering introducing “frequent guest schemes” to give the hotel programs a run for their money. It would really be popular like if one person tainted in a scam stays so many nights in Tihar, he can get some points which can get him/her some freebies…

Watching the news or reading the newspapers have become funny too. Crocodile tears are putting crocodiles to shame. People are forgetting to remember and then forgetting to forget (technique copyrighted by Mr. Kalmadi). We are familiar with tantrums of toddlers and the racket that they can create when they are deprived of their favourite toy. But an outgoing chief minister slapping another minister and smashing a laptop in anger at having to resign – where have we got ourselves to ?

In this gloom and doomsday scenario a news report stood out of the paper yesterday. In Bellary, the same scam tainted Bellary, where mining has shaken skeletons out of many cupboards, we have a 76year old businessman doing the same business with dignity, running schools for the under-privileged, pledging part of the wealth for the upliftment of the society and in general doing a bit more for the public than most. Even his business has been bunched together in the recent ban. He takes it with a smile knowing how difficult it is to be a good apple in a basket of rotten apples.

He is one Mr.Ghorpade , Chairman Emeritus of Sandur Manganese Ore. Such news keeps the hope afloat for the country- it gives us that light at the end of the tunnel that we are all looking for. May there be more like him in these times of gloom.