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Elections in Bihar |
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by K. Gajendra Singh |
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Continued from: Will India Ever be a Nation with Rule of Law, Unlikely! Many people say that MP (member of parliament) stands for maha pindari (big time highway robbers–eliminated by the English colonialists) or maha pakhandi (big fraud). Many politicians would certainly fit this description. Some rightly say that elections only mean one set of the pindaris replacing another. The same attitude prevails when the BJP and its allies are caught with their hand in the till. They start accusing the Congress and other parties of corruption in the past, as if to justify their own corruption now. And it continues unabated. The people of India continue to suffer as they have over centuries. The political class and their supporting "industry" have become a burden on the poor masses. Indian democracy has been reduced to ritual festivals of meaningless polls and ministry formations, both occasions for free-for-all money exhorting. With many jaded film stars invited and joining politics and elected with some even getting into the cabinet, the tamasha (play acting) is now complete. India has verily entered the Nautanki Yug. Regardless of whoever is in power, though, the wheel of unending suffering of the Indian masses will continue. So apart from defeating the current "rascals" in power, what purpose is served? The political class has totally destroyed the instruments of governance. And no country or corporate organization can last without good bureaucracy or administration. The Ottoman Empire, based on the merit system for recruitment and promotion, lasted for 600 years. When distortions entered the system, the empire rapidly declined and collapsed. The Roman Empire also lasted long because it, too, was initially based on merit. It was possible for a citizen from anywhere to become an emperor. US is also collapsing because of the greed and corruption of its ruling financial, military-industry and other corporate interests. In the Indian system, under the spreading pernicious system of reservations, a variation of the Brahaminical caste system, the Indian political class has institutionalized mediocrity and decay. The loyalty of the bureaucracy and other levers of power is to individuals, families, caste dynasties, and not to the state. In this situation, dynastic families and mafia continue to misrule. Apart from the judiciary, the media was to keep a watch on political parties and the bureaucracy. There may be a free-for-all in the Indian media, but they have largely lost their mission and professional integrity. Many of them are compromised by study grants and well-paid visits to the West for seminars and short courses. Many media barons have an unholy relationship with politicians, not for principles, but for pelf and power. Many have become politicians to promote their interests. They feed on each other. Verily an unholy nexus again! Ombudsman or Lokpal Bill under consideration since 1966! The body of the fish rots only when its head gets infected. Unless cabinet ministers, members of parliament and other politicians are brought under the ambit of the law and the guilty punished, their ill-gotten wealth confiscated, there is little hope of India taking its place in the comity of democratic and fully-developed nations dispensing justice to all speedily. There is something rotten in the (Judicial) State of Denmark. At a seminar in Chandigarh two years ago on the 'Responsibility of Judicial System towards the Society', Supreme Court judge G S Singhvi said that the judicial system had become a business in the eyes of the people. He said that due to the harassment suffered by the common man in his struggle for justice, 95 percent of the people do not go to courts at all, suffering silently. "Those 5 percent, who do go, wait in queue for many years, empty their pockets to hire a lawyer. It's a nightmare for the common man --," adding that this was the reason people had started taking law in their hands. (The judicial system is therefore openly and brazenly misused by the government, the rich, the politically powerful and the criminals) Corrupted Judiciary The judicial redress will remain a far cry in India where eight of the last Chief Justices of India’s Supreme Court were proclaimed to be corrupt according to a public declaration by senior Supreme Court advocate Shanti Bhusan, a former federal law minister of India. He has challenged the Supreme Court to charge him for Contempt of the Court. There has been no takers so far. On August 17, 2010 the Supreme Court observed that the criminal justice system has almost crumbled since High Courts stay trials and then forget them. According to its information 10,541 criminal trials were stayed by Allahabad High Court. Of these, nine per cent had been pending for more than 20 years and 21 per cent for over a decade. This means stay of trial in 30 per cent of heinous offences continued for more than 10 years. Justice delayed is justice denied. Recently the Supreme Court passed strictures against the Allahabad High Court about the integrity of some of its justices, whose relatives practicing in the same court have become millionaires. The last Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan, now head of the Human Rights Commission has been involved in many unsavory controversies during his tenure and now. The last is about accumulation of wealth beyond his means by his son-in-law. Politicians prefer to have tainted judges and civil servants in important post retirement posts and commissions of enquiries, since they can be easily manipulated. A classic example is of retired Police Chief of Haryana, who after being accused of molesting a minor girl and abetting in her suicide, decades ago, did well for himself and perhaps did all right by his political patrons. India resembles the 11th century era in its history at the time of the invasions from the northwest, or during the last centuries of Moghul rule, when every job was for sale. Groups of Marathas, Jats, Rohillas, Sikhs and invaders roamed around the country looting and inflicting misery on the suffering masses of Hindustan. Now these gangs have formed political parties and loot and oppress common people. It is said that to become a police constable a bribe of Rupees 3 to 5 lakhs has to be paid. There are reports that the job of Mumbai’s Commissioner of Police is auctioned among the senior policemen. |
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28-Dec-2010 | ||
More by : K. Gajendra Singh | ||
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