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A Dog's Last Thoughts
There was unusual news last week that in the 'maximum city' Mumbai 4 drug addicts sexually assaulted a male dog. The dog died. A post-mortem was ordered and it was found that the dog had died of a heart attack. It is said that the last thoughts of the dog were - Man is supposed to be at the top of the order of living beings on this planet. And look to what levels of depravity he has sunk to. Even we among canines do not do anything like what these men have done to me. So there is no point in living anymore. God, I am coming to you but have mercy on all of humanity.
Do We Need Governors?
Governor Satya Pal Malik's action to dissolve the J&K Assembly was completely out of hand. The action smacks of political overtones since the BJP was unable to continue in government with its PDP alliance that it will not allow any other government to be formed in the State without it being involved. Whatever said and done it is well known about the difficulties in holding the elections in J&K and with an existing elected Assembly there was no need to force another election on the troubled State. The Governor should recognise his larger responsibility on keeping the facade of democracy going and the cost, both in money and human terms, of another election. The charge of MLA's being bought and sold made by Malik is an afterthought and made only to justify his action to dissolve the Assembly.
Somewhat similar to the J&K Governor's actions are those of Governor Mridula Sinha in Goa who firstly allowed the BJP to grab power in the State though the Congress was the largest party in terms of number of seats after the Assembly election. Then with the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar sick and unable to attend office now for the last 9 months and additionally 2 other Ministers seriously sick and another recuperating from illness leading to a complete collapse in governance, the Governor has not acceded to the demands of the Opposition and civil society to have a show of strength in the Assembly and have the present BJP-led alliance prove its majority. This has led to the continued flux in administration within the State of not having a government worth its name for close to a year now.
The above incidents show to what extent the office of the Governor has been politicised lately. Come to think of it the office of the Governor is a colonial legacy that the British left us with and it is time to dispense with it. The reasons for this are many like it has become the last resting place for out-of-use politicians, those holding office presently have no claim to any great stature or wisdom except to serve their political masters and lastly the trappings of the Governor office are again drawn from colonial times and unnecessarily add a large cost to the exchequer and consequentially to the common man. The Vice-President having nothing much to do except chair the Rajya Sabha when it is in session can as well look into constitutional matters of all the States when it is required which will bring a larger degree of uniformity and balance to decision making and also allow access for the Vice President to a more correct body of knowledge while taking constitutional decisions.
Somewhat similar to the J&K Governor's actions are those of Governor Mridula Sinha in Goa who firstly allowed the BJP to grab power in the State though the Congress was the largest party in terms of number of seats after the Assembly election. Then with the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar sick and unable to attend office now for the last 9 months and additionally 2 other Ministers seriously sick and another recuperating from illness leading to a complete collapse in governance, the Governor has not acceded to the demands of the Opposition and civil society to have a show of strength in the Assembly and have the present BJP-led alliance prove its majority. This has led to the continued flux in administration within the State of not having a government worth its name for close to a year now.
The above incidents show to what extent the office of the Governor has been politicised lately. Come to think of it the office of the Governor is a colonial legacy that the British left us with and it is time to dispense with it. The reasons for this are many like it has become the last resting place for out-of-use politicians, those holding office presently have no claim to any great stature or wisdom except to serve their political masters and lastly the trappings of the Governor office are again drawn from colonial times and unnecessarily add a large cost to the exchequer and consequentially to the common man. The Vice-President having nothing much to do except chair the Rajya Sabha when it is in session can as well look into constitutional matters of all the States when it is required which will bring a larger degree of uniformity and balance to decision making and also allow access for the Vice President to a more correct body of knowledge while taking constitutional decisions.
Goa Has Politically Become The Stage For A 'Comedy of Errors' Or A Khell Tiatr
The Goa political scene as a consequence of Manohar Parrikar's illness has been going on now for close to 9 months as a 'comedy of errors' with various acts of the play unfolding day by day or like a khell tiatr going on and on with no end in sight. The latest is the announcement in the papers that after Dec 11 Parrikar will decide on the re-allocation of portfolios within the Cabinet. Have we not heard this sometime back? Close to 2 months ago the re-allocation of portfolios was to be done. But nothing happened even with the induction of the new ministers into the Cabinet. Parrikar nowadays has nothing much to do so could he not have decided on the issue of divesting his portfolios. Instead of concentrating on doing the necessary things he is tending to do the unnecessary things which add to the nuisance and uncertainty of governance that has dogged the State. Like in the middle we had the issuance of a circular that was hastily withdrawn of making the latest minister to have been sworn in as the 'first among equals in the Cabinet'. Would any of the existing ministers have accepted this? This situation indicated that maybe Parrikar's judgment is clouded and suspect because of his illness. In which case he should have resigned as demanded by a group of activists and citizens who went to the extent of marching to Parrikar's residence at Dona Paula where he is convalescing. Then we had some of the alliance ministers claiming that the bureaucracy is not listening to them and that they are unable to meet Parrikar and have to make do with meeting or taking instructions from the officials in the CMO as a consequence of which the administration is failing. One minister went to the extent of saying this problem is so acute that he has decided not to go to his office in the Secretariat! The MGP keen not to be left out in the drama with their main candidate Sudin Dhavlikar angling to become the CM going to the extent of filing a skirmish petition in the High Court to restrain the defecting MLA's like Shirodkar and Sopte from contesting any further elections or holding any office of profit in the interim. While all these machinations are going on the people continue to suffer with no governance. There are also attempts to pass the governance buck to authorities outside of Goa to whom the people have no access as in Tendulkar indicating that Parrikar wanted to resign a 'long time back' but the Central leadership asked him to continue. Notice here that the Goan people are nowhere in the picture who require or deserve governance but someone from Delhi decides what should be done in Goa. Additionally like we layer butter on a piece of toast these are attempts to layer sympathy on the public persona of Parrikar. Not only this the other day Tendulkar made another statement that Amit Shah does not want Parrikar to resign because 'his health is getting better' after coming to Goa from AIIMS, Delhi. Now is Amit Shah a MBBS or MRCP or a cancer specialist to make these pronouncements? While we wish that Parrikar gets better the BJP top leadership approach is to continue the uncertainty relating to governance in Goa. The matter relating to running the government in Goa is required to be decided by Goan people and Goan politicians. The flux in governance in Goa has exposed the real intentions of the BJP as a political party which is to grab power and cling to it while concentrating on winning elections, governance be damned.
Save The CBI & The Other Edifices Of Our Democracy
The CBI has been honoured with many an avian epithet like a 'caged parrot' et al in recent times, but lately with news coming out of the Verma-Asthana stand-off with its related offshoots, it is more like a can of worms is what the CBI parrot has been feeding upon all this while. We all knew that everything was not right with the CBI, the premier investigating agency of the country for all these years but it seems that the rot has been accelerated and is much deeper since 2014 when the present dispensation led by Narendra Modi came to power. With the Verma-Asthana spat being played out in the media for the last many months one cannot believe that either Rajnath Singh, the Home Minister or Narendra Modi was not aware of the problem that was seriously eroding the reputation of the CBI. Neither lifted a finger to put a stop to the nuisance. Not only that Narendra Modi is known to have famously said on corruption - Na Khaunga, Na Khane Doonga. But from news coming out of the CBI the motto seems to be the opposite - Jitna Khana Hai Kha Lo, Kab Kya Hoga, Kya Pata. Everywhere you look the institutions of the country seem to be stuffed with Gujarat cadre officers be it the IAS or IPS or those who had served their master, Modi faithfully when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat. There is nothing wrong with that since Gujarat for the last 4 decades has to give credit to its bureaucrats and technocrats like V Kurien of Amul fame who propelled the economic development in the State. The politicians were mainly spectators taking credit for the work of these dedicated professionals who came from mainly the south of India mostly Tamil Nadu and Kerala. But the quality of this kind of bunch of committed officials seems to have deteriorated over the years and today we have the kind of 'yes-men' who fall over their own feet trying to please their masters. That is why when important institutions in the country like the CBI are staffed with such officials the emphasis is on one-upmanship and internecine strife as we are seeing now. One by one the institutional framework of the country is being undermined under the present regime and it is being eaten away from the insides like a white ant attack leaving them hollow, weak and crumbling. It is time therefore that the people of this country take notice of this and raise their voice against the destruction of the edifices of our democracy.
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