Re: [IAC++] [HumJanenge] Plan to Prevent Corruption & other Democratic Evils

Dear Sarbajit

I really appreciate the sentiments expressed in your mail.  However, it is important that we all understand and always remember that the Government - in that I mean in all its arms - does not have to listen to, much less act on, any of the views expressed in these or any other such columns unless such opinions signal a ground swell which threatens its very existence of the Government machinery. In fact, at the first incline of such an event, what we can realistically expect is to feel the heavy arm of the law in restraining and restricting personal freedom of the voices, or blocking of the messages, or at the very least, totally ignoring the messages, depending on the degree of discomfiture to the concerned individual taking the action. We all have been witness to all these actions and can realistically only expect all these to increase 

I do not share your views on Arvind Kejriwal, etc. Nor do I wish to contest your opinions as I am sure you have your own reasons for your feelings, and every one is entitled have his/her opinions based on their own experience, interactions, and analysis. Nor is any such discussion productive to the stated objectives of these columns

Corruption has become such a menace in our society that the very existence of the society as we now know is under threat. A thinking population in excess of one billion is bound to throw up in excess of one billion ideas on what needs to be done and what can be done. If the number of ideas is less than the population, it is only indicative of the fact that some are not thinking. Needless to say, all thrown up ideas may not be practical nor for that matter be even sensible. But among the multitude, there is bound to be some which are eminently implementable, even if at first sight they seem idiotically stupid. so let us give every idea a fair hearing without judging it on the basis of our own individual perceptions

However laudable it may be to feel that it is the duty of every citizen to monitor to ensure that the Government functioning is honest, efficient, and corruption-free, we must understand that the citizen's resources in monitoring and gathering information are extremely limited and is often restricted to what the Government machinery deems necessary for the population to know and is often designed to "nurtures false hope, expectations, and illusions". More often than not, the press and electronic media also mirror only the information content as monitored, dictated, or put out by the Government machinery. So much for press & media freedom has been said so often that I need not repeat it here 
  
Under these circumstances, for effectiveness, it is first necessary that we work out and then device the methodology and machinery that would get the people in power to first listen to and then act on the voices from ground level. Any step other than that is akin to building a multistory structure without a foundation

Nandhu