Where is a peoplefriendly government ?

Jagdish N Singh

Lord Rama Historically, all modern political institutions have originated to foster good governance and the multifaceted development of people.
The welfare of the masses was at the centre of governance during monarchical eras too.
The legendary mythological King Rama practised simplicity all his life and worked for the prosperity of all his subjects .
Lord Rama's commandments on the ruler's duties towards citizens have continued to inspire conscientious Indians since ancient times .
In the Mahabharata patriarch Bhishma also preached his king's duties towards the people.
Regrettably, however, our post-colonial leaders have hardly done anything substantial to promote the well-being of our people. To them their own economic prosperity comes first . They maintain a prodigal lifestyle. The masses continue to suffer in the country. Former Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri gave us the slogan of 'jai jawan, jai kisan' ( let all soldiers and farmers prosper). That has remained a distant dream.
Thousands of farmers have reportedly committed suicides in the country over the years .
Around 100 defence personnel commit suicides every year in our country. The predicament of our workers, particularly in the unorganized sector , has never improved.
The stark truth is our politicians have hardly cared for our constitutional directives for people's welfare . Our Constitution directs the Government to see to it that there is no concentration of wealth in select hands. But the successive political leaderships have increasingly been indifferent to it. In the process certain antinational forces have been stealing away our economic assets and laundering their black money in different ways.
Our politicians in general, have scant consideration for the values of democracy . At a recent media conclave President Pranab Mukherjee stressed the freedom of expression . Mukherjee invoked our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's quote "I do not want India to be a country in which millions of people say 'yes' to one man, I want a strong opposition."
Mukherjee said : "Constitutional provisions must be respected in letter and spirit by all of us, especially those in positions of authority and in public life. Executive action and legislation must indeed conform to the Constitution .... The tendency of individuals and groups taking the law into their own hands should be strongly resisted."
There are few takers for such gospels of freedom . Most of our politicians just swear by righteous gospels . In practice , they are absolutely undemocratic and feudal . We all know freedom can flourish only in the culture of reason . That culture has increasingly been missing from among most of those in authority. Their behavioural pattern reflects a deep inclination to a culture of sycophancy .
The successive dispensations at the Centre and in the states have seldom encouraged an environment in which the views of intellectuals outside the comfort zones of the ruling class could get appropriate space.
Will the current governments at the Centre and in the states realize where things have gone wrong ? Will they be really democratic and peoplefriendly?

Justice to the victims

Chief Justice J S Khehar There is something terribly wrong with our justice system. Last month our Chief Justice J S Khehar lamented "Ours is a strange country. The bigger the criminal, the bigger is the outrage. As we have seen before that the convict in a terrorist crime who has failed up to the Supreme Court and also in his review, can get access to justice in a manner that we extend.. What about the victims .... what about the families which have lost their bread earner.... what about that acid attack victim who has been defaced and cannot survive the society ? I think about rape victims and their lives and I wonder why we don't reach out to them.... Let us reach out to the victims. Make 2017 a year of the victims."
Will our political leadership must introduce appropriate legislation on the matter ? Given the culture of Indian politics, it would be naive to expect our politicians to change . Citizens must assert . They must not believe politicians , officials or corporate media agents blindly. They have their own reasons to say what they do. The Ground Zero is the best source of information. And we have the blessings of technology to get there .

Designs of the privileged

Irom Sharmila Famous human rights activist Irom Sharmila's recent observation on the communal forces across India is accurate .
She says in a media interview : "Indian politics is turning extremely complex with communalists using facilities of corporate agendas to turn popular mandate in their favour. Political parties must engage in serious introspection about their follies apart from evolving strategies to counter the communal designs."
I would add communalism is not a new phenomenon in our country. Communalism is the politics of hatred against followers of other religions. It is the politics of one e c o n omi c class against the other. It d i v i d e d British India into two. In our post- C o l o n i a l lands cape most of the p o l i t i c a l parties have long been resorting to the evil of communalism—whipping up the passions of different religious communities to get votes. Also, we need not overlook the feudal, casteist forces' heinous alignments with the corporate mafias in the country. Communalism is not about any religion. It is much broader and heinous in scope. Most of our politicians do not seem to have an idea of India and our Republic's values .
Almost all parties are too power and moneyobsessed to care for the implications of their present greed on the future of the Nation. Time we citizens asserted to keep all anti-India forces away.

Fighting terror

Rajnath Singh In an address to the 'Counter Terrorism Conference 2017' the other day Home Minister Rajnath Singh reportedly suggested the "identification of State-sponsored terrorism and isolating such State-sponsored groups." I wonder how long we will continue hearing such vague prescriptions. We all know the kind of class that represents most of the states in the United Nations . It would be naive to expect them to come together and isolate the terror groups.
Charity begins at home. In India there have been some local elements affiliated to al-Qaeda and IS. But the current government in New Delhi is yet to abandon its predecessors' stress on the need for strong international mechanism to counter the evil. New Delhi must rein in the internal forces that fuel terrorism from across the border. Pertinently, a leading expert has warned against the strategy of deradicalisation. His argument is it is difficult to deradicalise someone who is radicalised. Counter radicalisation could be the best answer to this evil. India might use its progressive Muslims and Imams to promote real Islam that is against terrorism.

The Dalai discourse

The Dalai Lama I wonder why Beijing has made so much of hue and cry over the Dalai Lama's recent visit to Arunachal Pradesh. In her regular press conference ( April 6 , 2 017) Chinese Foreign Ministy spokes person Hua Chunying said : "By extending an invitation to the Dalai Lama and approving his activities in the disputed eastern section of the Chin a-India boundary, the Indian side has breach edits commitment on Tibet-relate diss ues , further escalated the boundary dispute, and undermined mutual trust and relations between China and India . The Chinese side opposes the Dalai Lama 's visit to the disputed area." Beijing has even renamed six towns in Arunachal Pradesh i n its of ficialmap . The Beijing behaviour is strange . The Dalai is the most popular spiritual leader across the whole Buddhist world today . Last month ( A pril 7 to Ap ri l 10 ) the D al ai w as in the G ad en N am g y a l Lhat se G o nph a, pop u l a r l y kn ow n as Ta w an g mo nas tery . Th e s ixth Dal a i Lam a w as b orn in Tawa n g . T h is mo nas tery is the se co nd m ost i mp o r ta nt sea t of T ibetan B uddhi sm aft e r the Potal a P a lac e in L has a. Bud dh is ts f rom acr os s A run a chal Prad esh , Bhu tan a nd ot her states had a r riv ed t o att e nd the Dalai di sc ou r ses t here . N e w Delhi i s ful ly j us ti fie d to i nv it e th e Dal a i to th is area o f Budd hi st in fl uence in Indi a . The Dalai has sp iritu ally been gu iding the T ib etans in e xil e in Ind ia since 19 59 . Th ere are fou r s ec ts o f Ti b et a n Bu d dhis m : Ge l ug , Ny in g ma , Saky a and K ar g yu . All of t hem c on si der th e D a lai the ir h ighest gui de. N eedles s to say, Tawang i s i n Aru na chal P r ad es h , a pa r t o f Ind ia. It is ab ou t 4 7km south of t h e M c M aho n L i n e w hic h separa te s I ndia f r o m Ch i na (e a r lier T ibet).
Peo p l e of T a wang lo v e I n dia. T he y see th ei r fu ture in Ind i a . Re cent ly, the I nd ian Rail w a ys has st a r ted it s s urvey for a 37 8 -k m r a ilway ne twork to T a wang. T h e y have o th e r two pro jects – 248- km N ort h L akh i mp u r -Ba me- A lon g-S ila pa th ar l ine and 22 7-km P as i g h a t- T ez u - Paras uramkunda-Rupai line. They a r e t o be comp le ted b y Oct ob er 20 2 0.
T he D a lai has vi si ted Tawa ng earl ier to o . He had st a yed at the Taw a n g mon as te r y a ft er he es cap e d t o C hina in 1959 . It w as t he D al ai La ma ' s fi ft h v i sit t o Tawang and seven th to Aru nacha l P ra des h. He v is it e d the st a te last i n 20 09 . Si gn i fic a n tly, the co mm u n is t go vernment in Beij ing can sol ve whatever pr ob l em s it h a s ha d with th e Dalai Lam a eve r sinc e he fled off Ti bet after it came un der Ch in a' s c on trol . T he Dal a i has no thi n g aga i ns t C hina . In a m e dia in terac tion i n T a w a ng he s a id :
"I wish one Chinese official were here to see what I'm doing and what I'm saying. The Chinese people, who are about 1.4 billion-strong, have every right to know the reality. ..Once they know the reality, they will be able to judge... Until now, there has been only onesided, wrong information. They are only fooling their people." The Dalai has never found fault with China. The Dalai is for the unity of entire humanity. He loves all nations, China no less. He wants to return to Tibet . In his Tawang media interaction the Dalai made his intention to return to Tibet very clear . He said , " As soon as China gives the green light, I will to return to Tibet. At the moment, the Chinese government is very negative because of some hardliner officials.... I've long forgiven China's Communist government for occupying Tibet. But as long as problems in Tibet lie unsolved, Dalai Lama will remain a sensitive issue for China.... Whether the Chinese government admits it or not, there are problems in Tibet. You (the Chinese government ) have to solve these problems for our common interest." The Dalai Lama also said, " China and Tibet have had a close relationship for thousands of years. We support 'One China' policy and we want to be inside the People's Republic of China. All we want is the right to preserve our culture, language and identity.... " He added, "In the long run, India, China, Pakistan and even Japan and Afghanistan can form a union. Smaller unions can join bigger unions and can form one family with common interest..."



		EDITOR'S MAIL MATTERS OF PUBLIC POLICY MARCH OF AYODHYA INDIAN PRESIDENCY REALPOLITIK FOR CREDIBLE OPPOSITION A GAME CHANGER DEFENCE MODERNISATION STATE OF EDUCATION DELHI MCD POLLS FRANKLY SPEAKING SACRILEGE IN PUNJAB KASHMIR WATCH CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN POLL-YEAR HIMACHAL KERALA UNDER LDF CHANDIGARH DIARY U.S. FOREIGN POLICY AMERICAN DIARY JADAV ISSUE INDO-BANGLADESH TIES CIVIL AVIATION HITS & MISSES TEST CRICKET SPORTS BOOK BAZAAR SIGNS OF THE TIMES MIGRATION & WOMEN'S RIGHTS YOGA IN DAILY LIFE-XIII ART OF LIVING Issue:May' 2017 Subscribe Now	REALPOLITIK Where is a peoplefriendly government ? Jagdish N Singh Lord Rama Historically, all modern political institutions have originated to foster good governance and the multifaceted development of people. The welfare of the masses was at the centre of governance during monarchical eras too. The legendary mythological King Rama practised simplicity all his life and worked for the prosperity of all his subjects . Lord Rama's commandments on the ruler's duties towards citizens have continued to inspire conscientious Indians since ancient times . In the Mahabharata patriarch Bhishma also preached his king's duties towards the people. Regrettably, however, our post-colonial leaders have hardly done anything substantial to promote the well-being of our people. To them their own economic prosperity comes first . They maintain a prodigal lifestyle. The masses continue to suffer in the country. Former Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri gave us the slogan of 'jai jawan, jai kisan' ( let all soldiers and farmers prosper). That has remained a distant dream. Thousands of farmers have reportedly committed suicides in the country over the years . Around 100 defence personnel commit suicides every year in our country. The predicament of our workers, particularly in the unorganized sector , has never improved. The stark truth is our politicians have hardly cared for our constitutional directives for people's welfare . Our Constitution directs the Government to see to it that there is no concentration of wealth in select hands. But the successive political leaderships have increasingly been indifferent to it. In the process certain antinational forces have been stealing away our economic assets and laundering their black money in different ways. Our politicians in general, have scant consideration for the values of democracy . At a recent media conclave President Pranab Mukherjee stressed the freedom of expression . Mukherjee invoked our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's quote "I do not want India to be a country in which millions of people say 'yes' to one man, I want a strong opposition." Mukherjee said : "Constitutional provisions must be respected in letter and spirit by all of us, especially those in positions of authority and in public life. Executive action and legislation must indeed conform to the Constitution .... The tendency of individuals and groups taking the law into their own hands should be strongly resisted." There are few takers for such gospels of freedom . Most of our politicians just swear by righteous gospels . In practice , they are absolutely undemocratic and feudal . We all know freedom can flourish only in the culture of reason . That culture has increasingly been missing from among most of those in authority. Their behavioural pattern reflects a deep inclination to a culture of sycophancy . The successive dispensations at the Centre and in the states have seldom encouraged an environment in which the views of intellectuals outside the comfort zones of the ruling class could get appropriate space. Will the current governments at the Centre and in the states realize where things have gone wrong ? Will they be really democratic and peoplefriendly? Justice to the victims Chief Justice J S Khehar There is something terribly wrong with our justice system. Last month our Chief Justice J S Khehar lamented "Ours is a strange country. The bigger the criminal, the bigger is the outrage. As we have seen before that the convict in a terrorist crime who has failed up to the Supreme Court and also in his review, can get access to justice in a manner that we extend.. What about the victims .... what about the families which have lost their bread earner.... what about that acid attack victim who has been defaced and cannot survive the society ? I think about rape victims and their lives and I wonder why we don't reach out to them.... Let us reach out to the victims. Make 2017 a year of the victims." Will our political leadership must introduce appropriate legislation on the matter ? Given the culture of Indian politics, it would be naive to expect our politicians to change . Citizens must assert . They must not believe politicians , officials or corporate media agents blindly. They have their own reasons to say what they do. The Ground Zero is the best source of information. And we have the blessings of technology to get there . Designs of the privileged Irom Sharmila Famous human rights activist Irom Sharmila's recent observation on the communal forces across India is accurate . She says in a media interview : "Indian politics is turning extremely complex with communalists using facilities of corporate agendas to turn popular mandate in their favour. Political parties must engage in serious introspection about their follies apart from evolving strategies to counter the communal designs." I would add communalism is not a new phenomenon in our country. Communalism is the politics of hatred against followers of other religions. It is the politics of one e c o n omi c class against the other. It d i v i d e d British India into two. In our post- C o l o n i a l lands cape most of the p o l i t i c a l parties have long been resorting to the evil of communalism—whipping up the passions of different religious communities to get votes. Also, we need not overlook the feudal, casteist forces' heinous alignments with the corporate mafias in the country. Communalism is not about any religion. It is much broader and heinous in scope. Most of our politicians do not seem to have an idea of India and our Republic's values . Almost all parties are too power and moneyobsessed to care for the implications of their present greed on the future of the Nation. Time we citizens asserted to keep all anti-India forces away. Fighting terror Rajnath Singh In an address to the 'Counter Terrorism Conference 2017' the other day Home Minister Rajnath Singh reportedly suggested the "identification of State-sponsored terrorism and isolating such State-sponsored groups." I wonder how long we will continue hearing such vague prescriptions. We all know the kind of class that represents most of the states in the United Nations . It would be naive to expect them to come together and isolate the terror groups. Charity begins at home. In India there have been some local elements affiliated to al-Qaeda and IS. But the current government in New Delhi is yet to abandon its predecessors' stress on the need for strong international mechanism to counter the evil. New Delhi must rein in the internal forces that fuel terrorism from across the border. Pertinently, a leading expert has warned against the strategy of deradicalisation. His argument is it is difficult to deradicalise someone who is radicalised. Counter radicalisation could be the best answer to this evil. India might use its progressive Muslims and Imams to promote real Islam that is against terrorism. The Dalai discourse The Dalai Lama I wonder why Beijing has made so much of hue and cry over the Dalai Lama's recent visit to Arunachal Pradesh. In her regular press conference ( April 6 , 2 017) Chinese Foreign Ministy spokes person Hua Chunying said : "By extending an invitation to the Dalai Lama and approving his activities in the disputed eastern section of the Chin a-India boundary, the Indian side has breach edits commitment on Tibet-relate diss ues , further escalated the boundary dispute, and undermined mutual trust and relations between China and India . The Chinese side opposes the Dalai Lama 's visit to the disputed area." Beijing has even renamed six towns in Arunachal Pradesh i n its of ficialmap . The Beijing behaviour is strange . The Dalai is the most popular spiritual leader across the whole Buddhist world today . Last month ( A pril 7 to Ap ri l 10 ) the D al ai w as in the G ad en N am g y a l Lhat se G o nph a, pop u l a r l y kn ow n as Ta w an g mo nas tery . Th e s ixth Dal a i Lam a w as b orn in Tawa n g . T h is mo nas tery is the se co nd m ost i mp o r ta nt sea t of T ibetan B uddhi sm aft e r the Potal a P a lac e in L has a. Bud dh is ts f rom acr os s A run a chal Prad esh , Bhu tan a nd ot her states had a r riv ed t o att e nd the Dalai di sc ou r ses t here . N e w Delhi i s ful ly j us ti fie d to i nv it e th e Dal a i to th is area o f Budd hi st in fl uence in Indi a . The Dalai has sp iritu ally been gu iding the T ib etans in e xil e in Ind ia since 19 59 . Th ere are fou r s ec ts o f Ti b et a n Bu d dhis m : Ge l ug , Ny in g ma , Saky a and K ar g yu . All of t hem c on si der th e D a lai the ir h ighest gui de. N eedles s to say, Tawang i s i n Aru na chal P r ad es h , a pa r t o f Ind ia. It is ab ou t 4 7km south of t h e M c M aho n L i n e w hic h separa te s I ndia f r o m Ch i na (e a r lier T ibet). Peo p l e of T a wang lo v e I n dia. T he y see th ei r fu ture in Ind i a . Re cent ly, the I nd ian Rail w a ys has st a r ted it s s urvey for a 37 8 -k m r a ilway ne twork to T a wang. T h e y have o th e r two pro jects – 248- km N ort h L akh i mp u r -Ba me- A lon g-S ila pa th ar l ine and 22 7-km P as i g h a t- T ez u - Paras uramkunda-Rupai line. They a r e t o be comp le ted b y Oct ob er 20 2 0. T he D a lai has vi si ted Tawa ng earl ier to o . He had st a yed at the Taw a n g mon as te r y a ft er he es cap e d t o C hina in 1959 . It w as t he D al ai La ma ' s fi ft h v i sit t o Tawang and seven th to Aru nacha l P ra des h. He v is it e d the st a te last i n 20 09 . Si gn i fic a n tly, the co mm u n is t go vernment in Beij ing can sol ve whatever pr ob l em s it h a s ha d with th e Dalai Lam a eve r sinc e he fled off Ti bet after it came un der Ch in a' s c on trol . T he Dal a i has no thi n g aga i ns t C hina . In a m e dia in terac tion i n T a w a ng he s a id : "I wish one Chinese official were here to see what I'm doing and what I'm saying. The Chinese people, who are about 1.4 billion-strong, have every right to know the reality. ..Once they know the reality, they will be able to judge... Until now, there has been only onesided, wrong information. They are only fooling their people." The Dalai has never found fault with China. The Dalai is for the unity of entire humanity. He loves all nations, China no less. He wants to return to Tibet . In his Tawang media interaction the Dalai made his intention to return to Tibet very clear . He said , " As soon as China gives the green light, I will to return to Tibet. At the moment, the Chinese government is very negative because of some hardliner officials.... I've long forgiven China's Communist government for occupying Tibet. But as long as problems in Tibet lie unsolved, Dalai Lama will remain a sensitive issue for China.... Whether the Chinese government admits it or not, there are problems in Tibet. You (the Chinese government ) have to solve these problems for our common interest." The Dalai Lama also said, " China and Tibet have had a close relationship for thousands of years. We support 'One China' policy and we want to be inside the People's Republic of China. All we want is the right to preserve our culture, language and identity.... " He added, "In the long run, India, China, Pakistan and even Japan and Afghanistan can form a union. Smaller unions can join bigger unions and can form one family with common interest..."