Lemon Revolution!

Hi there!

Hope you all are in the pink, maroon and violet of health! I was pale pink, if you all wanted to know :)

Well, as an Indian, the past month has been tremendous. For mainly 2 reasons:

• Epic World Cup win \m/ and
• Anna Hazare's fast and victory [regd. the Lokpal Bill]

Since I've already talked loads about cricket, in a blog as well as a video, I wanted to blog on the bill today.

Being the patriotic Indian that I am, just like everyone else, I too joined the 'India against Corruption' motion. Why?  Because, even though I (and basically millions of other people I guess) had no idea  about the bill, I did know one thing. Apparently, this ensured a 'Corruption free India'. And I loved the concept!

Few days back ( accurately, 10/4/11), I was interested in knowing what I/we had campaigned for. It was just a matter of time that that feeling comes in any of us! I g-searched quite a bit aand...

The Lowdown:
Well, the most important change, is the establishment of completely independent institutions, namely Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayukta in each state. Point to note, I guess, is that no minister or bureaucrat can influence investigations. They have the powers to initiate any action on its own, without any need of permissions from any other authority.
The selection committee seems to be broad-based. It is said to include members from judicial background, Chief Election Commissioner, Comptroller and Auditor General, retired Army generals and outgoing members of the Lokpal. [apparently ensures that there is no govt. influence, whatsoever]
The CBI's corruption branch will be merged into the Lokpal, which simply means that the Lokpal now would have powers to  register FIRs, conduct investigations under the Criminal Procedure Code and launch prosecution.
Cases against the accused will be seen within 1 year and the trial will also be completed in the next year, thus ensuring that the corrupt politician/officer is sent to prison by 2 years. [that sounds awesome!! =D]
If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose fine on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant.
 __
Yeah, well, that just sounds awesome, right? Feels uber-empowering. It like it is the one-stop, one-shot solution for the rampant corruption in dear ol' India!
Its super that most of India voluntarily rose up to this movement, and has shown spontaneous interest in bringing about a desperate change in the current state of affairs.  But, here's the catch.

• The Lokpal has wide ranging, potentially destructive powers, from dismissing a case outright, to blacklisting a firm. With such unrestrained powers, all we can hope to do, is to appeal to the hearts of the panel members, and hope they are benevolent!
• The selection policy is really screwed up. Since the Lokpal is given such immense power, an important question is, Who will wield this power? As such, there is no way to make this selection, idiot-proof.

• Apart from the people mention in the previous section, Nobel Laureates (Indian origin), last 2 Magsaysay award winners (Indian origin) and Bharat Ratna winners will form part of the Lokpal. The first thing I found weird is, 'Why should Nobel Laureates, who have spent their entire life, outside India, have any say in the Lokpal?' And whats the point in bringing in Bharat Ratna winners? Why not Padmasri awardees then? I found the selection way too random and senseless.

• Lokpal, apparently is to be a deemed police. They are also the court. Thus, they have, seemingly taken the security and judiciary positions as well, reducing the 'burden' on standard courts and police across the country. How can you confer such powers to a group mentioned above? Insane is a mild word to use.
• We are a democratic nation. Infact, India is the World's Largest Democracy. Keeping that in mind, its outrageous that unelected people will take decisions on who will be arrested and who should not.

Well, that's about it. I still, have utmost respect for Anna Hazare and I am NOT saying that he fought for a wrong cause. The Lokpal bill should be amended. It should be made more democratic.
It cannot blatantly seize property, shut down establishments or act as the court. It should, rather, accept complaints from the public, file reports, get evidences, and share it to the general public; the media and us bloggers will surely gobble it up!
If not, an important question would arise:
"Who will guard the guards?"


(*In the title, lemon refers to such a scenario. Looks beautiful outside, but may be sour inside =D )

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Politico!

Howdy! :)

Been a while I suppose! What with my lappy having power issues and numerous other obstacles, blogging took a back seat.
And fine, I did fall into a lazy patch too :P

Politics. One the few relatively sensitive topics people love to discuss and debate on. Personally, I hate discussions on politics. The discussions are generally about who is better and frankly, unless in those once in a Very Blue Moon (VBM) cases, I don't get how anyone of the (Indian) politicians are better!

One of those VBM cases was when IIT Madras held its elections for various Sec post, both at Insti and Hostel level, about 2 weeks back. That was when I first witnessed, in first person, a full scale election.
And believe me, I was awe-struck at the sheer depth and planning, at just the college level!

Voting - Choosing from different shades of grey.

Coalitions, Spies and the sort are stuff I've just read about in various articles in newspapers. My mind always said, "Newspapers! They exaggerate everything!". Post elections, the mind said, "Sonu, anything is possible in this world!". [Note: Sonu is what I'm called by family. You ppl stick to Sree/Srdp :P]
Intricate webs of wacky alliances, false masks, vehement campaigning and anti-campaigning... We had it all!

The fun part of election is obviously, when we get to question the candidates. This is when the general public literally, verbally 'rapes' the person on the dais! Some helpless candidates almost pee in their pants when struck with an awesome question! :P

In today's politics, the trend is 'To Hell with Manifestos!'. So what is the deciding factor?

Answer: Votebanks. A term we (painfully) read throughout civics without really actually knowing how powerful they really are. Insti election showed me just how powerful they can be. To win an election, all a candidate really has to do is to appease that votebank! IITs have the general tendency to have more Telegu population, more so in Madras. After election, a running joke among us was, if you wanted to win a post here, the only requirement was to say, 'I am from Andhra Pradesh and I speak Telegu.' xD
On a more serious note, winning the elections for someone else, all depended on how they manipulated the majority votes, by making really crafty alliances with other candidates.
Something like,
A-"Ok macha! We'll deal up. I'll put coordship benefits to your people, if you ask them to vote for me"
B-"Hmm, What about the allaince between C and D?"
A- "Light le, Ive sent spies to cup their plans."

[If the language stumps you, that is close to a typical convo in our coll. :D]

Here is the funny thing: If say, the majority is supporting the cause of some fellow and the 'group leader', who may have had sudden diffrences of opinion, suddenly comes and says, "This guy is waste, lets vote for that other guy!". Everyone, without even thinking of batting an eyelid, switches decisions!

So, when all this goes on, a real, deserving candidate, who may as well have the power to bring radical and useful changes in the existing system, is sidelined. All because, he was not from the majority!
I just feel that the very purpose of holding elections is defeated, if such a situation arises.
But then again, Who is the deserving candidate? 

The answer to that, maybe you should read the Blog's subheading. :)

Cheers! :)

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