Recently Team Anna ended up yet another "Fast" very fast and decided to enter in politics. Finally they realised that the politicians can not be changed by sitting outside the system and going on fast or satyagraha. These things used to work in 1940s when even brutal British government had to care about the people, but same is not case in 2012.
Even in the ceremony when our Parliament completed 60 years, all politicians agreed that they need to behave to make it a respectable place. So politicians also agree that functioning of Parliament needs a re-vamp.
If you ask any middle class Indian , if he will like his child to enter politics ? Answer will be a "BIG NO" !! Then one asks himself, which channels a parent will not allow his kid to watch. it will surely include the channel which shows live telecast of Parliament , as people will not like their kids to watch elderly people of her grand parents age fighting, abusing and throwing things at each other in a place meant for discussing issues of national concern.
So one thing is for sure that all people including the politicians, the social workers and even the general citizens of India feel that the political system has deviated from base values on which it was set up just after the independence and this deviation is not towards betterment of system. So as a citizen of this country some random thoughts came in my mind in regards to the betterment of this system
What are the visible problems in our political system ?
Power hunger:
Democracy has become a number game than a social system. Since last few elections a single party is not getting complete majority in the house. Any political party supporting the government has more say than people running a government and can make things happen like policies twisted, decisions reversed and ministers toppled. One can feel a lot of power game or Horse trading happening in the background, some times clearly visible when members of parliament show the currency given as bribe in the house itself !!!
Corruption:
If a news paper prints without a news on corruption charge related to any prominent leader then citizens of India will feel that they are out of India. In fact sometimes one can feel that the rise in amount of bribe given in each scandal can be considered as a indicator for devaluation of rupee value !! It is not sure if there is zero corruption in other countries, but it is sure that no one can bit India's ranking in this criteria. Just refer the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_in_India for details !!! As per the site first one was worth 80 lakhs in 1948 and latest one in 2012 is worth 1,070,000 crore (Hope I have not missed any zeros ;) )
Criminalisation:
One can see many people sitting as member of parliament with a number of pending cases against them. In fact it will be easy if one tries to find out the number who do not have any case against them. But no one can say that parliament is full of criminals, as our judicial system says one can not be considered criminal unless proved in the court (and then there are so many courts on top of each other to go :)) .
Family politics and boot-licking:
Indians are traditionally known for their devotion towards gods , kings or gurus than a thought process. Now a politician families have become a part of this list. In fact many people even do not feel it odd to present them as 'Avatar' of gods !!
Lack of behavioral decency:
Throwing shoes microphones and talking loudly has become part of basic culture of house both in parliament and assembly. When one looks at the functioning of Parliament in other countries like Great Briton or United States,it makes us feel shameful the way world's largest democracy is run.
What is the root cause?
India has undergone a rapid social and economic change following opening up of economy, in fact it is still undergoing the changes. The economic growth has given ample money and sudden visibility of numerous luxuries to the people who had to wait for a year for scooter or had never seen a mall in their life. This has resulted in grid for all pleasures even when a person may or may not afford it which in turn has made people opportunist and characters have developed ethical deficit forgetting previous traditional values.
What needs to change?
Selection process:
How many of us actually go for voting ? Looking at the percentage of voting declared it feels that the decision of forming a government is taken by handful people and most of the people are not bothered as they are very busy either in worries of their life or in the luxuries of their life.
Also out of the people who vote, how many know the person whom we vote? Traditionally people have set mind to vote for a particular party irrespective of the candidate of that party being capable.
Can we have some educational and ethical pre-requisites and criminal or legislative limitations to make sure sensible people lead this country than the ones who have a tainted records ?
Appraisal process:
Every school has exams at regular interval or at least a periodic evaluation process and success or failure of the student is decided based on that. Every professional organization makes an employee undergo appraisal and their salaries are made to vary based on the rating they get !!
How ever one can not see any appraisal or assessment process for any of the government organizations including Parliament. Why is this so? When these member of parliament are meant to serve the country and run the most critical house which can decide the fate of of country why is their no appraisal process for them and why are their benefits / tenures dependent on that ?
Not sure if people who are actually responsible to bring upon these changes but sadly are busy in filling up their own pockets will care about these changes, but at least mentioning these on a blog give a common man satisfaction of expression.
