Monday, December 1, 2008

Seedhi Baat / Aajtak, November 30, 2008


"I have no reason to resign"

Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Raosaheb Ramchandra Patil, better known as R. R. Patil says on Seedhi Baat that India should ask Pakistan for answers to the latest attacks in Mumbai. He even stated that there was a Pakistan link in every terror attack that has shaken the country so far.
आज तक के साप्‍ताहिक कार्यक्रम 'सीधी बात' में महाराष्‍ट्र के उप मुख्‍यमंत्री आर आर पाटिल ने कहा कि उनके इस्‍तीफा देने की कोई वजह ही नहीं है. पाटिल मुंबई में हुए आतंकी हमले के बाद उनके इस्‍तीफे की अटकलों पर बोल रहे थे.
watch video: part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4 and part 5

2 comments:

Traveler said...

Dear Pradhu Chawla,

I thought of writing this here as you are in a better position to have an influence than I am.
I am surprised that we, the people of India, want our politicians to be accountable to us. They are accountable, not us but to the party chiefs who appoint them in their positions. Our PMs, CMs and Presidents are all appointed these days. The party candidates for the MP and MLA positions are selected not elected through primaries.

Having watched the U.S. election process closely, I am convinced that this is a big difference and the main reason for our troubles. Till the candidates have been around long enough to be considered for these positions they make enough compromises that choosing one candidate over another doesn't make much difference. They try to remain loyal and accountable to their chiefs. This removes any possibility of someone with fresh ideas and limited political clout, such as Obama, to be elected and bring any true changes. I believe our political system has been rigged by the party chiefs and their cronies to perpetuate their rule.
We need a political system more along the lines of U.S. which allows individual accountability to the public and fresh ideas.
I hope if you feel convinced by this argument you would take actions to bring some fundamental changes. It is stupid to continue doing the same things and expect different results.

Yashodhan

Anonymous said...

Mr Prabhu

India has paid a very heavy price on account of it's politicians. I would propose the following solution, that I put up on my blog as well (http://invulnerabilities.blogspot.com). It is reproduced here below for your reference. India has to do a total strategic re-think on it's national priorities. There are so many divisions within society and so much corruption, that a strategic re-think is very essential. I present some of my thoughts on the same here:

- Remove the concept of reservation based on caste, religion and creed altogether. The only criteria should be economic. This will ensure that no politician can take advantage of caste, creed or religion, and focus on nation-building.
- Uniform civil code.
- Criminal offence to deprive children howsoever poor, from basic education. Fines for trivial offences like traffic rules violations should be made at least 100 times more to make everyone obey laws. The same Indians, when in foreign countries obey laws as though they belonged there.
- Switch over from a secular state to tolerance based state.
- Death penalty for corruption. There should be zero tolerance towards corruption.
- Increase salaries and capabilities of defence, police immediately. At a salary of Rs.6000 per month or just less, no one will have any incentive to do their jobs normally, anyway.
- Remove concept of states. India should be a collection of districts only, and smaller administrative blocks, that are easy to manage and monitor. No state government concept.
- National identification numbers for all citizens with biometric authentication.
- Every single citizen pays flat percentage tax. In return, state will ensure they have full social security. This will also be an incentive for everyone to pay their taxes. To do this, build a full-fledged e-Governance infrastructure.
- Have professionals run ministries like Home, Defence, Finance.
- No politician should be allowed to get back to Parliament after 2 consecutive elections. No dynastic rule.
- Compulsory military training for all citizens for 2 years.

I know there will be no political will to make a difference, but collectively, this can be made to happen.