Anna Movement - Marching Ahead

Most of the people would be curious to know about the next move of civil society. Some of you might be aware of all the happenings. Few might raise question that civil society members have left the issue of Jan-lokpal and have entered the battle of elections? The issue of janlokpal is neither left behind nor the movement of corruption-less society stopped, rather it is gaining momentum daily. What we have learnt is large number of lessons from the government, the way govt. showcased its fortitude against the passage of effective lokpal bill. What we’ve seen in U.P. and other election-states is awareness campaigns. Team Anna has decided to bring the ideological change in the common people, because we have showed lots of strength on road. Now the main focus is to create and build think tanks across the country. IAC has started forming Charcha-Samuha (discussion groups) at every corner of the country be it village or city. These, so called Charcha-Samuha will discuss issues ranging from janlokpal, election reforms and parochial too. When these discussion groups grew in numbers and reach to lakhs, then the change will definitely strike. Team Anna has envisaged transfer of power from politicians and bureaucrats to the common people by raising issues like Right to reject, Right to recall, etc. The plan is make citizens more powerful than bureaucrats and elected representatives. The plan is to eliminate Red-light (lal batti) system and taking away the bungalows of the politicians and bureaucrats and shifting them to flats, where common people live. The rationale behind this is that when these people start living in such state of affairs, then they will realize the troubles of ordinary citizens. What we saw in August last year, was the acrimony of citizens against govt. policies and failure to tackle corruption. When the general election takes place in 2014, it become election of ideologies, policies, etc not mere based on religion or caste. Hope common people awakens as soon as possible for a revolution is yet to arrive.

Are we really Happy?

Happiness cannot be measured objectively, it is a subjective quality. One simple question strikes the mind, then how to measure happiness? Till now, scientists haven’t succeeded in finding a test to measure happiness! In most of our actions, we try to find happiness. One step technology takes in forward direction; humanity moves the same in opposite direction. This is because we are disturbing the natural arrangement created by the almighty God.
Each one of us has some material dreams and we labor hard to accomplish them. Some of us might finish up with finally achieving those dreams, but then, are we able to satisfy our soul? As scholar enters the college life, most of them desire to have a laptop, a bike, a Smartphone and all that. But then also, we are not able to satisfy our self. After getting these, we say if I get this, I’ll be happy, but then, we all know what happens. Try to remember yourself when you had thought in that way. I’m damn sure, most of you would have thought. Though many so-called superpowers of the world claim to be developed, but then see the culture these countries have. Gone were those days, when small-small things brought lots of happiness in our home. The world is moving very fast, people want to become millionaire in a day. But after getting that, they waste the money in irrelevant stuff. When a billionaire sleep on night, he is full of stress and at the same time you can find a slum dweller sleeping very peacefully. This fact shows that money can buy status but not happiness. Then how does happiness come? How can we make our soul happy? We should stop the self-centered approach; we will have to connect our soul to the supreme personality of Godhead. We will have to stop thinking ourselves as body and stop satisfying our bodily concerns, rather be on platform of thinking where our activities are not influenced by mode of goodness, mode of ignorance and false ego. Without that, we will be striving for happiness and might wind up with messing things around us. As we’ve forgotten our constitutional position, we are suffering in this material world. We need to get back our constitutional position that we are constrained to, that is to be one with god.

AC Room Policies

India has been a developing country from more than 60 years. We have seen large number of schemes launched by the govt. for the needy and various policies are created in favour of these sections. Then why are we still developing at a slow pace? How long it is going to be that we merely remain a developing country?
Everyone has some or other reason for this slow pace, some would say corruption, Ineffective govt. sector, terrorism, international affairs, politics, etc. India has seen many policy failures. No policy is 100% perfect, but if we can implement it 80% successfully, then that’s something good to achieve. Whether we have analysed why the policies are not efficient at ground? Why such good policies on paper fail in real-world conditions? As I think, most of our policies are framed in a closed AC room, only some ministers with experts sit and frame the policies. The policy when seen on paper seems excellent, but when they are implemented by the government for the common people, it seems not to produce expected results. FDI might be a good decision as expressed by our economist and cabinet ministers, but common people, traders, trade unions were not at all happy with the decision because their bread will be at stake, when 51% FDI would have been allowed on retail sector. Though NREGA was a good policy decision, but there were various issues related to corruption in various states, so the govt. needs to deal with these issues seriously and introduce some changes that can minimize the corruption in NREGA. We have seen large number of irregularities associated with PDS (public distribution system), Why.....? I’ve personally seen that PDS shops are not fair; they use to cheat common people who are entitled for that quantity of grain. If it is not working out in its present form, then introduce some checks so that the grains reach the common people. The Anti- Kudankulam nuclear power project protest is the result of the same AC room decision, the govt. did not talk to the people residing near the project. Though eminent scientists have promulgated the idea of the project, but we need the consent of the common mob.
I think it is a time when our THINK TANK starts framing policies out of AC rooms and visualize the challenges any policy can face on ground. Its time people become an important part of policy development programme and the development takes an interactive look. It shall not remain only govt.’s task to implement policies rather people become an important part of it. We need to talk to common people, take their inputs, and then frame the policy. The time is here when policy development programme makes a shift from AC Rooms to the place of common people.

Character – The Neglected Criteria

The most important aspect of the person which is completely missing in the present generations is perfect character. How will you define about someone’s character or his personality? Let me clear you the narrow difference between personality and character. Personality is who we are and what we do when everybody is watching and Character is who we are and what we do when nobody is watching. We have shifted our focus from character building to personality building. It is very easy to find the personality development classes in the every corner of the city, but there is rarely a institute that teaches how to build character. Our modern education system is also focusing on employment, in other ways building a good personality. But the real education means building character. Character will automatically lead to competence. Since, there is no character building; everyone is suffering with something or the other. Today, you have to prove yourself as an honest man before the society, because everyone is a potential suspect. What kind of fearful society we are creating, where we cannot believe each other. The miseries of 21^st century are mostly associated with character less society.

 No character development is the root cause of many social problems such as corruption, poverty, terrorism, etc. Character-less persons entering politics will only exploit their position and countries resources. People are so crazy after money that they are entangled with frustration, enviousness, greedy and are disturbed. Today, even the wealthiest person is unhappy. See the youth of today, what type of qualities they are developing in their school and college life. They are trapped in the hole of intoxication (drinking, smoking, etc.), meat-eating, illicit sex and gambling. When they come out as professionals, all this will be reflected in their attitude and personality. This thing is neither good for them self nor for the society. We can save our country from the forth-coming scams, terrorist attacks and various ill-evils, if there is some attention paid on this serious issue. A most common example which can be witnessed in every household, when parents speak lie in front of their small or teenaged children’s, at times they ask their children’s to speak a lie to someone whom they don’t want to talk and then expect their children to speak truth in front of them. Children’s learn from their parent’s traits and children’s build a belief that even speaking a lie doesn’t do any harm to them.

There might be some traits of a good character, and it is not easy for one to define qualities. So, according to Bhagavad Gita (Ch-12), A perfect character must possess the following qualities: freedom from enviousness, should not be frivolous, should not be naughty, should be straight forward, should have the capability to subjugate the senses (self-controlled), should have a strong faith, try to build a loving relationship with every individual. According to me, it is the high time when think tank take some concrete steps in changing the education system or introducing something that would cater the need of character building. Time has arrived when due weightage is given to character, so that we can build a perfect society full of faith and trust and remove all the social-ills present in the society. 

INTROSPECTION – THE NEED OF HOUR

The campaign of Anna is almost over for the Janlokpal bill, but there still exists a wave around the country that whether the janlokpal bill would be able to curb corruption from society. Corruption is impossible to remove from society until each and every citizen of this country does not inspect himself or herself. It is the time when people of India should start introspecting themselves. Introspection means checking out our acts whether they are correct or not from all points viz. - socially, legally and morally, the point of economically (profit) comes after these three points. It is very easy to raise fingers on someone who is doing something wrong. Check out honestly how many times you have given a thought when you do something wrong? Not even a single time, you would have manipulated in your mind that it was correct. How many times do we follow traffic signals, until there is traffic police standing as surveillance? People even don’t know the use Zebra crossing. How many times do we try to escape the traffic police when caught, by paying a small bribe? We don't even care for the wrappers and chips packet while throwing them on the public places or anywhere. Yes,dustbin is not easily found but if you have a will you can find anything. These small things make the big difference. For escaping a huge line at any public offices, we try to find the agents related to that office and by giving them their fees, we try to escape the internal working of the offices because we are rich enough and then we condemn our system. Who are we to condemn our system, not being the part of it? This is the reason why only poor’s and lower middle class suffer in this country, upper middle class and riches escape by giving money. The cases might be viz. applying for a driving license, Pan Card, vehicle registration, issuing a birth or death certificate, applying for a Passport, even a school seat needs a bribe.

We may say that our time is more important than paying a small amount, but then who are these people to raise questions on someone’s integrity. They have no right to correct someone else before correcting themselves. You cannot ask someone to follow the rules, until you teach by your own example, it is one of the most effective way. Is your time more important than your country? If yes, then you will die fulfilling your sense gratification and cannot serve anyone selflessly. The fight against social evils is morally a fight to retain our traditional values. It's a fight to preserve our fundamental rights, our land, our forests, our judicial system, our faith in ourselves. If we lose all these values, of what worth is all the name and fame in the world? Your past may have passed doing such acts, but if your future continues as same ,then there is no difference between you people and animals. This appeal to the readers may prove to be futile, but I’m sure at least few minds will be ignited after reading this article.

SILENT KILLING

You might be wondering about the topic , I think it is very difficult for you to imagine the inside story behind this topic. I will try to put up few basic questions just to bring your attention on one of the serious issues of the times. Do you know why poison is prohibited ? We all know that consumption of poison leads to immediate death , in most of the cases, so it is illegal to be in possession of poison. You might be thinking that there are various other products available in market which also leads to death but not immediately. Now you might be wondering about those products . Few of those are liquor, smoking, sheesha, gutkha, and various other stuffs. But do you know why these products are not prohibited ?Think a little ….. you'll find the answer. Both the stuffs lead to killing of people ….. one legal and another illegal .... Sound strange ….!!! There might be efforts such as increase in age of drinking, printing cancer photographs on cigarette packs, etc. Do you think this much is enough ? The consumption of liquor, both the local and branded leads to high revenue for both central as well state govt. Is it morally correct to put the citizens under trouble for few percent of revenues. The opening of new bars , pubs and sheesha lounge would cover more population coming in contact with these stuffs , thereby increasing revenues. But few people might characterize this as a sign of developing society, I characterize this as a influence of western culture. In this country taxes on petroleum products is more compared to liquor because govt. knows that petroleum products have become necessity. Poison is one-time revenue generator where as smoking and liquor consumption increases exponentially. Most of the people don't discontinue these habits until they are dead.

                                       The govt. says that person above 18 yrs is mature enough to differentiate between right and wrong. If the person is mature enough to decide his fate , then he should also be allowed to decide between Poison and Liquor or cigarettes. Then why there is a need to ban poison. I'm not saying that poison consumption should be allowed , rather I'm putting a Question before you that whether liquor , smoking should be banned or not? I've just tried to put up the basic facts and the govt. policies towards safeguarding its citizens. I hope this post is helpful for bringing the attention of the people of this country on such a serious issue of Silent killing. 

Bringing The Jan Lokpal

Before Anna ji's fast on 4^th of April , I haven't heard about Jan-Lokpal , but since then I'm committed towards Jan-Lokpal and learning more and more about the bill because of value it contains. The problem is that only a percent of country's population knew what the lokpal bill is all about, remaining are just happy by seeing that civil society is doing something good for this country and few others are also critisizing the govt. This is the time for every individual to warm up thier chairs and learn about the bill and then decide whether the govt. or Anna's team is correct. What Anna has done is a voice of common people, they are frustrated by paying bribes for pitiful works to be done . They want complete freedom from this day -2-day corruption prevaling in the society and want complete security of what they pay as Income tax and various other taxes. We want an effective agency similar to CALL 108 or CALL 100 ,etc which could be called for help when there is a demand for bribe. We don't pay taxes to be the part of wealth of a minister or a MP or any other bureaucrat, but for nation's development. The govt. is trying to fool the people of this country by saying that –We can't allow a parallel govt. to function , that's a safe excuse .To what extent this is correct let us analyse. What govt. has proposed in the bill is very strange -:

1. If the complaint is found to be false or vexatious then it has proposed a min. of 2 yrs of imprisonment for the complainaint whereas if govt. servant is found to be corrupt , then min. imprisonment of 6 months.
   
2. Accused can register a cross-case against complainaint in a special court,before any preliminary investigation in which govt. would provide a free advocate to bureaucrat.
   
3. All NGOs would be covered at center as well as state(even a small group in village will under Lokpal) whereas govt. does not want this bill to be implemented at State .A matter of fact is that only 0.5% of govt. employees would be under purview of Lokpal.
   
4. Govt . wants only higher bureaucracy to be included in the lokpal ….. knowing that 120 crore people interact with lower bureaucracy where it is bribed for small works like : Ration card, Driving license, getting a Loan, dealing with traffic police, buying or selling property, getting a transfer, etc…..
   

I think it is the last chance to make or break LOKPAL