Enough is enough Mr. Prime Minister

Enough is enough Mr. Prime Minister
Dear Prime Minister,

Ever since you were selected to occupy the Prime Minister’s post, we have all along thought of you as an honorable man. We were proud of you as one of the most highly qualified heads of state ever in the whole world.
You were the person to whom Narsimha Rao turned too to save the country from the verge of bankruptcy in 1991. You are also unanimously credited for being personally honest.

Your personal goodwill with the people of the country was such that inspit of a insipid first term, the people of the country gave the Congress a ‘thumbs up’ in 2009, when the choice was between you and Mr. LK Advani.
Having said that, I would like to add that your record in UPA-2 is nothing but a disaster. And you have proved yourselves to be the weakest Prime Minister ever to don the chair.
Your real and perceived weakness has accentuated your reputation for personal integrity. Which leader would remain personally honest but allow wanton dishonesty under his nose?
With all the respect I have for you, I am unable to comprehend much at your personal integrity. Whether it is Raja or Kalamadi, 2G or CWG, whatever the fig-leaf the PMO may try to hide behind, the fact remains that you were sleeping – for a very long time – as the country was being looted under your nose. You were the honest security guard, of highest integrity, who was sleeping on the job as the thieves emptied the country’s coffers.

Apart from all this, two of your recent statements made in the last week have shocked the entire nation. First, your Independence Day speech from the Red Fort – where you lamented that ‘ you don’t have a magic wand to get rid of corruption’ and then your statement in Parliament regarding Anna Hazare
Your Statement: “…the path he has chosen to impose his draft of a bill upon parliament is totally misconceived and fraught with grave consequences for our parliamentary democracy.”

Well sir, you are twisting the truth. I have heard Anna Hazare a dozen times on the TV (as must have my brethren all over the country) clarify that he is not trying to “impose his draft of the bill upon the parliament”.
He has only been asking that “his draft of the bill” (to use your phraseology) too be placed before the parliament, so that both the views (yours, namely the Government’s and his, namely the Civil Society’s) are also discussed at the floor. Otherwise, the discussion is by definition bound to be limited only to your version.
From all reckoning it does appear that the cup of corruption has indeed been overflowing in this country for some time now. A great majority of the so-called political leaders, the armed forces, the babus, the cops, the businessmen, the industrialists, the university professors , the railway ticket collectors, the peons outside government offices, the lawyers, the judges, the journos, the doctors, the traders, the engineers, the contractors – apparently none of these groups can claim to be relatively more clean than the other.
When corruption and ji hujoori is the culture of a nation, ethics, pride, excellence and patriotism must all become casualties. And that’s all that has happened.
That is why the gentle Anna Hazare undertaking fast-unto-death assumes significance. People like Anna Hazare are evolved souls not given to jumping the gun like many of us are wont to. It takes a lot of doing for their patience to be tested. It is hardly surprising that Anna Hazare regards the corrupt politicians entrusted with the task of drafting the anti-corruption law as akin to a bunch of thieves appointed to design our home security system, when the thieves are still loose!
It is a fact that no politician, not even the most popular mass leader, could perhaps have garnered such crowds across the length and breadth of the country as Anna has.
Well, it may well be that neither the Government’s nor the People’s bill by itself will achieve very much, without a lot more that ought to be done alongside, which your government and the party had ample time to initiate, but has not.
Perhaps Anna Hazare could have been more reasonable in his approach. Yes. But then, what reasonable man achieves larger purposes? After all, 1.2 billion Indians, yourself included, have known that corruption in our public life has exceeded all sense of proportion. But it took Anna Hazare to bring the matter to the forefront ? Even you, a man of great personal integrity, could not do it.

I am too small a person to advise you – I can only request. It is time that you spared a 75 year old man any further suffering. Enough damage has been done to the reputation of the country, the ruling government and your own, already. Perhaps you should set aside the government’s ego, disregard for once the advice of your advisors, Sibals, Singhvi’s, Chidanbaram’s et all and sit with Anna and incorporate those six key points on which your government seems to be at loggerheads with him, and then leave it to Parliament to decide what it wants or does not want to do.
This is exactly is what Anna’s has been asking for. This would spare the avoidable international glare on India for the wrong reasons, improve the confidence level in the country and would for sure salvage some of the lost goodwill, respect and confidence for the government and the ruling party, not to mention yourself.

Lack of accountability is the seed, fertilizer, sun and water – all rolled in one to promote a corrupt culture. Let us contribute to bringing about wide ranging reforms in our public systems for greater accountability.
It may not be feasible for every citizen to make a beeline to Delhi. But all patriotic and right thinking citizens of the country provide every conceivable support to Anna Hazare.
Anna’s fast may be the most significant mass movement in modern India yet and can redefine the history of India.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Vanjari caste

शेतजमीन विषयक वहिवाट रस्ता

5 +3+3+4 school system explained