The Hindu : New Delhi News : Demonocracy?

Staff Reporter

Staff Reporter

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 28, 2008
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Demonocracy?

The whole trust vote episode in Parliament this past Tuesday was the most interesting chapter in Indian democracy in a long time. It forced even the most ignorant young fools like me, who never gave a thought to the doings of our politicians, to read through the front pages of newspapers. It had all the ingredients of a good action thriller blockbuster: high stakes, high betrayals, alliances, misalliances and what have you…. The feverish interest generated by the vote made me watch a TV channel that I had watched never before: Lok Sabha TV. Everything seemed all right in the beginning and things were proceeding smoothly but soon there was a twist. Suddenly, while the Chair was asking one of the MPs to wind up his speech, one MP trooped up to the desk below the Speaker’s podium, plonked down a bag, and, dismissing the protests of the surrounding officials, started pulling out wads of thousand-rupee notes from it. Instantly everything digressed to a pandemonium. From the beginning of our civic education we have been told that our Parliament is a Temple Of Democracy. It is frightening to think we have elected such a breed of people to be our representatives who can sink to such levels for their vested interests. While all of us are questioning the 123 deal (funny thing, such a complicated issue having such a simple name), I would like to question the capability of our respected Members of Parliament to handle the fate of a billion (and counting) Indians if they resort to such practices. An ideal politician is hard to define, let alone find. But to be an ideal politician, or for that matter just a politician, a person must have the will and courage to put the nation’s collective interests before their own. This defining quality seems to be missing in the character of most of our politicians. It makes one wonder: are we a democracy or demonocracy?

Hari Nair,

27, Teachers’ Flats, Miranda House, Delhi - 110 007.

Reforms, please

The whole drama surrounding the confidence vote in the Lok Sabha has necessitated urgent political reforms. To begin with, there should be an upper age limit for MPs so that aged people like Atal Bihari Vajpayee need not risk their health for the compulsion of participating in such neck-and-neck voting. There should be some minimum qualification to become an MP in order to avoid the shameful episode of some law-makers being ignorant of simple voting procedure. All such controversial voting should be done secretly through electronic voting machines to effectively check the practice of MPs being bought and/or acting like bonded slaves of their political bosses. Criminal acts like voting in Parliament after being bribed should be de-immunised so that the bribed MPs may not escape punishment like they did in the infamous JMM bribery case. I feel it is best to elect the Prime Minister by a secret and compulsory vote of all Lok Sabha members through EVMs on nominations signed by at least one-third members. Such an elected PM may be removed only by the same process but with the compulsion to name an alternate leader in the same motion. Unholy bargains for ministries should be avoided by giving ministerial berths only to non-MPs who have not contested any election in, say, the last two years. It will pave the way for talented people to become ministers rather than the corrupt breed of notorious politicians running politics as a family business to accumulate enormous wealth.

Subhash Chandra Agrawal,

1775, Kucha Lattushah, Dariba, Chandni Chowk, Delhi – 110 006.

No ragging?

Has anyone thought about the unintended repercussions of the initiatives taken by the Supreme Court to stop ragging inside college campuses? I respect the steps taken by the honourable Court to stop ragging by categorising it as a cognizable offence. But, as a final year student at BHU, I have observed certain unintended repercussions of the same in the form of an undefined sense of fear among the senior students – so much so that they shun even the shadow of newly admitted students. The fanatical involvement of the university administration, on the instructions of the Supreme Court, and its sceptical attitude towards the senior students, who are unreasonably interrogated, has scared the senior students so much that they are reluctant to even look at the freshers. I am afraid these restrictions will have a perceptible impact on the freshers’ academic performance and overall development. I think the Court should have taken steps to ensure a healthy interaction between the newcomers and the senior students so that the former can feel at home in the unfamiliar new campus environment. My batch-mates and I owe much of the credit for our satisfactory academic performance to our seniors, who acted as caring guides for us. But now with the mortifying interference of the university administration on the pretext of “curbing ragging”, I feel that sharing such a relationship with the fresh batch is impossible.

Sachin Kumar Singh,

Room No. 45, S.R.K. Hostel, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University

Lucknow calling

I live in a rapidly changing semi-residential area of Lucknow where houses, shops and storehouses are coming up alike. As soon as one construction finishes another begins. Old buildings are razed to the ground without caring for proper disposal of the rubble. It lies on the road for days as does the mortar used for the new construction. Such unorganised construction work has led to deterioration of the aesthetics and traffic in the area. Accident rate has increased as have cases of dust allergies. Contacting the civic officials has been of no use because one cannot reason with them to take firm measures against such construction work. In short, development here has become a matter of concern.

Vivek Agarwal,

126 Model House, Lucknow – 226 001.

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