Thursday, August 25, 2011

The Struggle for a Strong Lokpal




This is the Story till Now guys…. For those who are STILL SLEEPING!!
 


 
Some brave men (and women) came forward to fight this situation..
Not for their OWN GAIN!!
Not to EXTORT something out of the Govt.!!
Not to derive POLITICAL MILEAGE out of this situation!!
 
But to fight the spreading tentacles of Corruption..
FOR A BETTER FUTURE FOR ALL OF US!!!
 

 
And what was the Govt.’s RESPONSE????
An entire NATION has been UNITED for the FIRST time in our lives, yet the Govt. can’t hear their voice..
A 74 year old Gandhian is FASTING for Nation’s future, while the country's PM enjoys sumptuous food at Iftaar parties..
 
 
Till when will we keep thinking this is not MY problem??
Till when will we avoid taking charge of OUR destiny??
Till when will we keep accepting the system INSTEAD of changing it??
Till when will we let such initiatives FIZZLE out coz of our LETHARGY??
Wake up people!

 
This is MY fight, this is YOUR fight..
Not a fight in support of ANNA, a fight in support of YOUR OWN RIGHTS!!
Even if you don't AGREE with the JAN-LOKPAL,
At least remember this fight is much bigger than being about just a Bill!
Its the ENTIRE country getting together for the 
RIGHT to live in a 
CORRUPTION-FREE NATION!
 
Be the change if u have the GUTS to face the system..
Be the change for the sake of Your OWN FUTURE...
Be the change to preserve the future of Your KIDS!!!
 
Jaago India Jaago!!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Master Stroke by Anna!



As the ANNA WAVE sweeps across the Nation, a high-risk gamble by the Govt. to arrest Anna early yesterday morning turned out to be an ill-fated move! Government cronies must have thought that their Knee-jerk reaction would nip the movement in the bud; but they failed to foresee both the extent of support for Anna as well as the intensity of the backlash that such an action would generate!!




As Anna Hazare was being whisked away in a SUV, it was the day for GANDHIGIRI as a Rajouri Garden trader turned to the cops wrestling with the crowd to ensure smooth passage for the activist's vehicle, and said with folded hands "Thank you so much sir". Red-faced, the cops had no option but to look away!

As a fresh truckload of cops came in, a young man crying "Bharat Mata Ki" joked with them "Bhai Jai to bol de". There were attempts to fraternize with the force deployed to control them and aggression was only towards the government. High on Anna's message of Non-Violence, protesters have shun the stone to embrace peaceful SATYAGRAHA. Delhi University students cajoled the Policewallahs to revolt "Delhi Police bagawat karo, hum tumhare saaath hain" (Delhi Police rebel now we are there with you)!!




A strike of auto-rickshaws has been called in Delhi on Wednesday as a mark of support for Hazare: a sure sign that his camp has now spread beyond the middle class. At Civil Lines, a young couple braved the rain to shout slogans for "Mother India". As policemen started hustling them into the waiting buses, the woman looked at the man uncertainly. "Get in, they are taking everybody," the man said with a reassuring pat!!

In the northern region, protests were held in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Jammu and Uttar Pradesh. Punjab Chief Minister Badal condemned the police action against Hazare and termed it a “Murder of democracy.”





Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Jharkhand counterpart Arjun Munda said one cannot snatch one’s right to protest peacefully. The police crackdown is “Rehearsal of Emergency and murder of democracy which people will never tolerate,” Kumar said, while Munda described the incident as “Dangerous for democracy.” The mood seemed to be reflected throughout the length and breadth of the Nation!
 




Anna’s village Ralegan Siddhi in Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra witnessed protests with people coming out on the roads along with their cattle and blocking the traffic. “The entire village is observing a bandh today,” 73-year-old Hazare’s associate Datta Awari said, adding that villagers have decided to observe a fast to express solidarity with him.

In Pune, supporters of Hazare gathered at a square in the city to condemn the police action and his detention, while in Nashik, a rally was taken out. In Nagpur, a large number of people courted arrest. Donning ‘Gandhi’ caps with slogans ‘I am Anna’ supporters gathered at the Reserve Bank of India Square in Civil Lines on busy Nagpur-Jabalpur national highway.


 



In Assam, rights activists sat on a dharna in Guwahati demanding Hazare and other leaders be released immediately. Demonstrations and dharnas were also held in several places of Orissa. In the south, protests were staged in several parts of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

In Hyderabad, Chandrababu Naidu called the police action “Undemocratic and Unconstitutional", asking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to apologise to the nation for action against Hazare and other social activists. In Bangalore, a counter was set up at Freedom Park, where 87,000 of 100,000 IT employees signed up to join the India Against Corruption movement, took a break from work for an hour and gathered at the Electronic City as a mark of support for the veteran activist.






There were salaried people who had taken a day off from work, DU students who had skipped classes and traders - many of whom were obviously uncomfortable with the rough and tumble of street protests. This protest has united the diverse sections of Indian Society everywhere, with supporters waving the national flag lending the movement a real patriotic flavour.


 


And while all this was happening in the nation, there was backdoor diplomacy taking place in Tihar jail with Rahul Gandhi meeting the PM and Home Minister to find a way to diffuse the situation. They decided to relase Anna and here came the Master Stroke by the venerable veteran!!

Anna rejected his release, saying he would leave Tihar Jail ONLY IF the Govt. ALLOWED THE PROTEST by Indian Citizens TO GO ON Unconditionally! 



Hats off to Anna who managed to turn the situation on its head and forced the Govt. to let the protest continue! Supporters of Hazare said they would sit on a hunger strike outside the jail gates if Anna was forcibly evicted from prison. Delhi police officials confirmed that Hazare and his associates were to be set free and some 1,500 persons detained through the day were also let off.

After having sought to nip the protest in the bud to prevent a repeat of the April surrender to the Gandhian, UPA has definitely compounded its woes. Hope they have the sense to let democracy bloom and deal with protests in a democratic fashion.


Jai Hind!



Monday, June 20, 2011

Lokpal Bill vs. Jan Lokpal Bill!



The Jan Lokpal Bill is a proposed anti-corruption law designed to effectively deter corruption, redress grievances and protect whistleblowers. The law seeks to create an Ombudsman called the Lokpal which will be an independent body similar to the Election Commission of India and will have the power to prosecute politicians and bureaucrats WITHOUT prior permission from the Government!




Needless to say, the bill is being opposed tooth and nail by our beloved, overfed, over-pampered, over-paranoid politicians and they have their own tooth-less, fang-less power-less version called the Lokpal Bill as a substitute to this. The Govt. proposed bill wants the Lokpal to be just an ADVISORY BODY which will simply forward complaints to the respective departments with NO right to register and FIR complaints NOR execute Police Powers.




The Bill DOES NOT give powers to Lokpal for ANY investigation against the Prime Minister who deals with important portfolios such as Foreign affairs, Security and Defense and also NO jurisdiction over Bureaucrats and Govt. officers. These are the major LACUNAE of the current version of the bill hence we need a JAN LOKPAL BILL adressing the above issues!




 
The Jan Lokpal Bill gives the Lokpal COMPLETE POWERS to initiate suo-motu investigations in any case and also to directly entertain complaints from the public makin it an effective deterrent to all corrupt politicians. That is why we see ALL POLITICAL PARTIES finding this a threat to them!! Let us ensure we give the leaders spearheading this movement our complete support and do whatever we can to enhance the cause. CLICK ON THE TITLE OF THIS POST TO VOTE FOR THIS BILL.




You can click on the link on this post and send a message directly to the inboxes of Kapil Sibal, Pranab Mukherjee, Chidambaram, Moily, Khurshid, SOnia Gandhi and the Prime Minister and make your voices heard!!Lets join hands and take a step forward to make India CORRUPTION free!!


Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Assault on protesters, Assault on Democracy

Yet again the forces of anarchy prevailed in Delhi!!

As we watched in mute horror the treatment being meted out to people participating in Baba Ramdev's camp at Ramlila grounds, it again brought back memories from the past year when Security forces had brutally cracked down on protesters in Kashmir!!

The combat forces arrived late at night at the Ramlila ground where Baba and more than One lakh of his followers had camped protesting against the corruption rampant in the Govt. and demanding the return of Black money stashed abroad. At 1:30 am in the morning when most protesters were asleep, the forces descended on them and started rounding them up and throwing them out of the ground.




When people protested, they were LATHICHARGED(!!) and tear-gas shells were fired to disperse them! The pandal was VANDALIZED and put on FIRE! What the hell have people done to deserve this treatment??? No one, not even the Govt. has the right to stop people from protesting in a peaceful way.. its the violation of basic citizen's rights granted by the constitution to all Indians!!


Lathicharge on sleeping protesters!



 



Its heartening to talk about India overtaking China economically in the next twenty years.. but its equally disheartening to realize that Human rights conditions in India are also going the China way!! Is this the way a democracy treats its citizens? Is India a functional democracy anymore? Will our politicians ever think of the country and its future? Does the life of a common man hold any value whatsoever in this country?

The India Today put it succinctly into words - 'A government that is forced to act because it has only one option lacks both leadership and statecraft.' Anna Hazare called the action 'A Blot on Democracy'.


Manhandling of old people in the middle of the night!



Meanwhile, taking suo motu cognizance of this forceful eviction, the Supreme Court has sought Centre's response on the incident. How flawed the Govt.'s action has been that the judiciary has to intervene and question them for it!

Corruption, Unaccountability, Misappropriation of resources, Bungling of funds, Frauds, Criminal cases have all become synonymous with Indian politics.. Now they even want to stifle the basic rights of citizens.. ALL citizens of the nation have constitutional right to protest in a peaceful manner.and NO authority in the nation can take away that right from us. But are We, the people, ready to fight for our rights?

These are the answers we need to ask ourselves as citizens of a nation with a great history and a brilliant future ahead.. The assault on citizens' basic rights are a step towards the end of our nation's democratic system.. Are we too gonna end up like the pseudo-democracies and military states in our neighborhood?

Are WE ready to FIND an ANSWER????

Jai Hind!