Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Inert UPA: A weakness born of bad intent!

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SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN / tHE Hindu.

Supporters of Baba Ramdev wave black flags in Mumbai on Sunday to protest the late Saturday police crackdown on the yoga guru's satyagrah in New Delhi.
Supporters of Baba Ramdev wave black flags in Mumbai on Sunday to protest the late Saturday police crackdown on the  yoga guru's satyagrah in New Delhi - AP.

The UPA government's unwillingness to act against the abuse of political and corporate power has created a vacuum which others are rushing to fill.
Like millions of others across India, I have spent the past week repelled by the spectacle of a weak government entering into improbable contortions over the naive and somewhat bizarre demands of Baba Ramdev. And when the “toughness” followed in the early hours of Sunday, it came in a typically cowardly fashion — with police action in the dead of the night against unarmed supporters who did not pose an immediate or even potential threat to law and order in Delhi. Kapil Sibal, the government's chief negotiator, said permission to assemble at the Ram Lila grounds had been granted for yoga exercises and not politics. But people in India have the right to assemble peacefully and to put forward political demands if they so wish. If tomorrow, the organisers of a classical music concert in Nehru Park put up a banner demanding a strong Lokpal Bill, will it be OK for the police to wade in?
The fact that the Manmohan Singh government swung from abject capitulation to unnecessary confrontation in less than 48 hours does not surprise me. Its credibility on the issue of corruption is at an all time low. The pressure it is under has blunted its political instincts. However, sending four senior ministers to the airport to welcome the yoga instructor-turned-upstart politician and then hundreds of policemen to extern him were both acts of gutlessness which the Congress party will find hard to live down. Particularly when the Baba was not even serious about the issue of black money.
Everybody with any sense agrees that corruption is a serious issue and that all efforts must be made to end the curse of black money. But it is meaningless and even nonsensical to demand the framing of a new law to confiscate black money when we do not know where this money is, how much it consists of and who it belongs to. If the authorities had this information, they would be legally empowered to seize the funds and place their owners behind bars. But the passage of a new law will not make the gathering of this information any easier. Either the Baba is not a very serious person or he has allowed emotion and his broader political ambitions to cloud his judgment. Which is surely not a good thing for someone well versed in yoga.

All Indian opposition parties of Right, Left and Centre too haven't been sensitive to the core national issues and been waiting for the media and RTI activists dig out scandals after scandals to jump the gun.

And even some were into such a deep slumber that they woke up only Yesterday to question the constitution of Jan Lokpal Bill: Joint drafting committee, which was done in early April, 2011.

And, as of Today, not one political party in India has a declared policy on 'Comprehensive Anti-Corruption Act.' nor do they have a concretised suggestion how to bring back the stashed away sleaze money abroad and to ferret out the black money in circulation well within Indian economy.

Further, each political party has its own black-sheep in some case in their top leaders and in others middle and lower cadre.

And finally,  none of our Political Parties or Leaders do have serious intentions of implement or help implement any permanent solutions to any of our National malaise: Corruption, Nepotism, Black-Money, Crony Capitalism, et al.

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