Do we deserve better?
It's been a very long time since I updated by blog. The last two posts were on India - Pakistan and to my dismay I find that it is still as relevant today - with the way we got snubbed by Pakistan during SM Krishna's disastrous visit recently. But having written enough on that, let me turn to something else - the monumental corruption in Commonwealth Games and why we should care and see the larger point behind that for us Indians.
It's bad time for Suresh Kalmadi - he is being battered like anything for all the alledged misuse of funds, shoddy work, shady deals and all that. And everyone's response has been on predictable lines. Opposition cries foul, disrupts parliament, Congress distances itself from Kalmadi, promises a probe, there's one-expose-a-day in various TV channels, talk shows, expert opinions etc., etc., And then what? May be few cases, interrogations, arrest etc., and we'll forget it after that. Then we'll get another scandal and this cycle goes on.
Frankly, I didn't find it amusing that there was corruption in this. Implementation of any government scheme involves corruption. Why go that far? Any interaction us public have with any government deparment - does it not involve corruption in someway or the other (apart from few shining exceptions)? I only find it amusing when commentators talk as if this was something which no one expected.
To clean this up doesn't involve too much - you only need an iron hand at the top and everything else will fall in line. Unfortunately, that is what we are not getting. And it's only our fault - there's no use blaming the politician. We get a short sighted government if we vote them to power based on their short sighted promises. Instead of not voting, voting with blind faith/blind prejudice, voting for money, voting for freebie schemes, what if we vote for parties objectively? If we vote for parties with long term vision, long term promises and reasonably good track record, then they'll get the point. And we need to change governments as and when we get a chance if they don't perform.
For that, first us public have to be far sighted - Voting - Voting properly after thinking objectively that is, trying as much to not dirty the road and jump signals would be a start. Until we are vigilant as a society, we only have ourselves to blame for the kind of people we get to rule us!
It's bad time for Suresh Kalmadi - he is being battered like anything for all the alledged misuse of funds, shoddy work, shady deals and all that. And everyone's response has been on predictable lines. Opposition cries foul, disrupts parliament, Congress distances itself from Kalmadi, promises a probe, there's one-expose-a-day in various TV channels, talk shows, expert opinions etc., etc., And then what? May be few cases, interrogations, arrest etc., and we'll forget it after that. Then we'll get another scandal and this cycle goes on.
Frankly, I didn't find it amusing that there was corruption in this. Implementation of any government scheme involves corruption. Why go that far? Any interaction us public have with any government deparment - does it not involve corruption in someway or the other (apart from few shining exceptions)? I only find it amusing when commentators talk as if this was something which no one expected.
To clean this up doesn't involve too much - you only need an iron hand at the top and everything else will fall in line. Unfortunately, that is what we are not getting. And it's only our fault - there's no use blaming the politician. We get a short sighted government if we vote them to power based on their short sighted promises. Instead of not voting, voting with blind faith/blind prejudice, voting for money, voting for freebie schemes, what if we vote for parties objectively? If we vote for parties with long term vision, long term promises and reasonably good track record, then they'll get the point. And we need to change governments as and when we get a chance if they don't perform.
For that, first us public have to be far sighted - Voting - Voting properly after thinking objectively that is, trying as much to not dirty the road and jump signals would be a start. Until we are vigilant as a society, we only have ourselves to blame for the kind of people we get to rule us!
Good one. Corruption is quite rampant whenever congress is in power. This time its 60000 crores Telecom scam, godknowshowmany crores CWG scam etc. However corruption was much lesser when vajpayee was in power.
ReplyDeleteRegarding voting i have a hunch that the congress might have tilted it in its favor by tweaking the software in the EVM. This could be the topic of another post in your blog :)
:) I don't have much data on that 'tweaking' part - so once I get some more data, may be I can. :) But largely I found people also somehow feel congress is 'succular'. I think many people now realize that they are truly secular in being corrupt :)
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