Welcome
the ANGRY YOUTH for Change Effort
A
society whose dominant tone is snark* is ultimately one that is politically
disengaged.
A
culture that is mostly about pointing out how vile, venal, stupid and
hypocritical political leaders are, and how ineffective if not downright
harmful government is, is a culture in which people will conclude that there is
no point in being politically involved, even with a slight commitment as
voting.
Chrystia
Freeland, former journalist and current politician
in Politico Magazine
* an
imaginary animal (used typically with reference to a task or goal that is
elusive or impossible to achieve). e.g. "pinning down the middle
classes is like the hunting of the snark"
We
can't wait any longer. Our democracy and its famed pillars: Executive,
Legislature, Judiciary and Media have failed miserably to deliver promises
and live up to the voter citizens expectations. There is some hope left with the Media if we can make it work
with social activism and Social Media
Last
few generations have lived on whatever had been achieved earlier with
incremental improvements. NOW IS
THE TIME FOR YOUTH TO WAKE UP AND LIBERATE INDIA FROM THE CLUCTHES OF
CRIMINALS peacefully through participative democracy questioning and
changing the systems quickly
The
legal system must be taken on to improve delivery of justice within cost and
time frame limits. BLOG ON, carry the message
forward, rest not till the goals are achieved; Lead, Follow or Move
Justice
Markandey Katju former Supreme Court judge and ex-Press Council of India
chairman
Quote
I do not want to sound alarmist, but it looks to me that
some kind of French Revolution is inevitable in India. Consider the facts:
all our state institutions have become hollow and empty shells, and the
Constitution seems to have exhausted itself. The last two weeks have shown
that we have a Parliament that hardly functions-what with its members
shouting and screaming all the time-and hardly any meaningful debate held
or business transacted. When the UPA was in power, the BJP members were
always disrupting the House, and now when the NDA is in the saddle, the
Congress and others are paying it back in the same coin. It seems the same
will be repeated in the winter session of Parliament, then in the budget
session, and so on ad infinitum.
To add
to this is the criminal antecedents of a large number of our MPs. We have
politicians who are mostly incorrigible rascals who have no genuine love
for India, are bent on looting the country, squirrelling away its wealth
to secret foreign banks and havens, and manipulating caste and communal
votebanks, often by inciting caste or religious riots. Our bureaucracy has
largely become corrupt, and alas so has a section of the judiciary, which
anyway takes an inordinate time to decide cases.
Our
democracy has been hijacked by the feudals, and now elections in
most places are on the basis of caste and religious votebanks, and no one
bothers about the candidate's merits.
There
is massive poverty in India, massive unemployment, massive malnourishment
etc. It is estimated that ten million youth enter the job market every
year, but only half a million jobs are created in the organised sector of
the economy. So what do the remaining youth do? They become hawkers,
street vendors, stringers, bouncers, criminals, prostitutes or beggars.
Healthcare
is almost non-existent for our masses. There are no doubt some very good
hospitals and clinics in India, but most are exorbitantly expensive. So
what does a poor man do when he or a family member falls ill? He goes to a
quack.
Half of
our children are malnourished. A UNICEF report says one out of
three malnourished children in the world are Indian. Meanwhile, the prices
of foodstuffs are skyrocketing. There are numerous farmer suicides in many parts
of India, eg. Vidarbha, Gujarat, etc. There is covert and
overt discrimination against minorities, Dalits and women. Honour
killings, dowry deaths, female foeticide etc are a fact of life in many
regions. Meanwhile, astrology and other more superstitious practices run
rampant-even among many so-called 'educated people'-and fake godmen and
babas befool a gullible
people.
In most
Western countries there is very little air or water pollution. This is
because there are very stringent rules against it, and violations
entail heavy penalties. There you can safely drink the water from the taps
in the house. It is as clean as mineral water. In India, on the other
hand, almost everything is polluted. There are no doubt anti-pollution laws-for
instance, the Environment Protection Act, Air Pollution Act, Water
Pollution Act, Food Safety and Standards Act etc. But no one complies with
these laws (the lead content found in Maggi noodles is but the tip of the
iceberg).
Meanwhile,
our politicians, our "rahbars" are behaving like Neros fiddling while
Rome is burning.
If you
have an industry discharging toxic effluents into rivers, you find
it easier to give a few thousand rupees every month to the pollution
inspector who turns a blind eye to it than set up an effluent treatment
plant which is capital-intensive. For our industrialists, this is
cost-effective, the public be damned.
When I
visited Varanasi a couple of years back, I was told by the late
Veer Bhadra Mishra, the bade mahant of Sankat Mochan temple (who was a
professor of engineering at BHU and whose son, also a professor of
engineering, is now the mahant) that there are 30 canals discharging
sewage into the Ganga, in the city. I was told by a friend in Allahabad
(my hometown) that the Sangam area, where pilgrims coming from all over
India bathe, is highly polluted.
Most
cities in India are becoming hellish and practically unlivable. There is
congestion and traffic jams regularly and building laws are openly flouted.
Even in "posh" areas in Delhi like Defence Colony, South
Extension, Greater Kailash etc, cars are parked all day on the roads-thus
turning them into garages. The situation is the same in all our big cities
like Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Calcutta, Hyderabad and Lucknow, where
living and travelling on the roads is like going through Dante's
purgatory. Soon it will become like the Inferno.
And our
politicians, our "rahbars", are behaving like Neros fiddling
while Rome burns, or like the Bourbons before the French Revolution. I am
reminded of what happened on April 20, 1653, when Oliver Cromwell entered
the British Parliament with his soldiers and said to the members assembled
there:
"It
is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you
have dishonoured by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by
your practice of every vice.
"Ye
are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of
mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of
pottage, and like Judas betray your god for a few pieces of money.
"Is
there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do
not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your
god; which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a
man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?
Ye sordid prostitutes, have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned
the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and
wicked practices?
"Ye
are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by
the people to get grievances redress'd, are yourselves gone! So! Take away
that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors. You have sat too
long for any good you have been doing lately. Depart, I say; and let us
have done with you. In the name of God, go!"
The
soldiers then made the MPs get out of the Assembly hall, and locked it up.
I wonder whether India's Parliament is heading for the same fate.
A drastic and total change in the system is now essential. Tinkering here
and there will not do. The Constitution has exhausted itself. The whole
system in India, including our state institutions, is like a building
which is totally dilapidated. Renovation and repairs will achieve nothing.
It calls for demolition and fresh construction. We have to create a new,
just social order in which everyone, not just a handful, get a decent
life.
But it
is not possible to achieve this within the system. The solutions to our
country's problems lie outside the system. Which means we have to have some
kind of French Revolution.
Unquote
This is a Call for the Youth of
India.
Let us Identify and start the
process of setting India right.
Logo depicts fully loaded youngsters willing to wear Gandhi topi respecting his principles
They are angry about state of affairs with parliament as their mouthpiece literally sealed
Where is judiciary and justice? Exploit the media to ring in drastic change. Blog on…
Jai Hind !!
