DEMOCRACY VINDICATED
The happenings of the past fortnight as witnessed in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkatta and many other towns/cities/villages of the country, wherein people joined together in one voice to fight corruption, was an unprecedented event in the history of pre and post independent India. Never has an apolitical movement of such magnitude and purposeful nature galvanized the masses in this manner. The simmering disgust and anger of the people against government inability to rein in corruption in public life, over the years, was given a window for expression under the altruistic leadership of Gandhian Anna Hazare. The symbolic temple of our democracy ‘the parliament’ was literally pushed and shoved by the moral force unleashed by a long suffering mass of humans, demanding the resolution for an effective Lok Pal Bill to become law and deter/mitigate the disease of corruption in public life. What was witnessed thereafter in this temple of democracy were some astute, mediocre and political grandstanding debates which culminated in the thumping of tables to indicate the ‘sense of the house’ and adopt the resolution as desired by civil society.
While it is nobodies case to sabotage the parliament and usurp its supremacy and rights as articulated in the Constitution, but it is also not acceptable to the people that the parliamentarians who constitute and animate it, take their authority for granted and transgress the privilege of office. The veteran and dyed in the wool politicians who cling to the shibboleth of eternal supremacy of the parliament and indulge in shenanigans to protect their turf, did not cut much ice with the aware, responsive and informed people. Who have seen through this shrewd political maneuver of assigning Constitutional propriety, only to their rights but not duty. The fuel which stokes the fire within the people against the political class, is the genuine apathy for the sufferings of the masses by the latter. In the years which elapsed between our becoming a republic and now, it is the class of the politicians who have brought this day upon themselves by taking their position for granted and indulging in political expediency. It is they who cumulatively eroded the supremacy of the parliament and belittled the Constitution, by violating both its content and spirit in equal measure.
Democracy like freedom does not come for free, but instead entails sacrifice, responsibility and restraint. Thus, as a form of government ‘by the people, of the people and for the people’ it demands of each one the ability to analyze, evaluate and decide upon the merit of those who represent us in the Constitutional forums. In a plural, multi religious, multi cultural and multi caste polity where education and literacy continue to remain marginalized, there exists a great opportunity for politicking to take centre stage and thus belie the essence of democracy. The hurt utterances of the members of parliament, who singled out civil society and the media for lampooning them and thus belittling their status, is a consequence of their own doings and pathetic conduct. The People who found the politicians lacking in the political will to purge the SYSTEM of corruption and lack of probity in public life, seized their chance under the stewardship of a selfless and committed septuagenarian from Ralegaon Siddhi and literally arm twisted the Parliament to accept the proposal of civil society to introduce and enact an effective Lok Pal Bill and make it Law, respectively.
The perpetual whining of the politicians and their hollow claims to declare an unprovoked assault by civil society on the principles of the Constitution, undermining the supremacy of the Parliament, has been flayed and trashed by the might of the People. This is predicated on the acceptance of the demand made by civil society, who continue to remain a sounding board for the Government. This is indeed a defining moment in the country’s political history, wherein corruption in public life which has become a bete noire for most will be tackled with a firm hand, despite the Government. The much denounced and flogged SYSTEM will get a breather to redeem itself and purge the country of corruption and lack of rectitude in public dealings by public servants of all categories. Democracy will then have been vindicated.
Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal
E-102 Arborea Luxury Homes
Tarla Nagal
Pargana Purva Dun
Dehra Dun-248001
07895131861
No comments:
Post a Comment