Indian Democracy...Are we Served or Ruled????

Me and MangoMan were watching Republic Day parade yesterday and don't know how this discussion started...does our government rules us or serves us? MM, the pessimist he is, told me that our government rules us as ruler but I told him that it can't be possible as we are living in democracy and government serves us. MM scoffed at me and told me to open my eyes and see the kind of life our elected representatives live and how much they are inaccessible to the people who elects them and even the party who forms the government either in centre or in state is called ruling party. I didn't want to tell MM but i guess he had point.

Lets start with king size life of our Politicians! May soul of all the Kings and Nawabs rest in peace as they must be restless in heaven or hell when they see our politicians in Lutyens Bungalow, roaming around in array of cars and protected by army of guards. Gosh they ever look like servant of people. They do wear Khadi and practice austerity in public but is it for real. I don't know what kind of life they lead but when a communist like Late Mr. Jyoti Basu use to have Single Malt Whiskey daily and spend his summer vacation in Europe it gives you a rough idea and still you have iota of doubt then gate crash the wedding parties of our austere politicians. Man! they can bring shame to Queen of Elizabeth!! I know I can keep on bashing our politicians but the most shameful thing they do while running this dog and pony show is taking we the public as fool. Now the accessibility to our politicians! Try reaching to any local politicians and you will feel that indeed they are very busy...yeah busy in opening showrooms, managing sports federation, inaugurating their statues and doing lot many things which i can't mentioned but they don't have any time meeting electorate who have voted for them. Now we know why they do that...one their is no obligation to meet us and second again they feel that we are fool and going to elect them again and again. I have another problem with our politicians, why the hell they need state sponsored security. A politician with all the body guard surrounding him doesn't seems like a public servant but a monarch and seriously it makes me wonder do we have abolished monarchy or just replaced one set of people with other. Politicians say that they need security as there is threat to their life...hmmm...If this is the case then i guess all the policemen and army men need security personnel.

Now there is no meaning in pointing out the issues but not suggesting the solution. To realize our politicians that they are not ruler but public servant we have to do few things. In India with great power comes great money so to change that to with great power comes greater responsibility i suggest Income Tax Department should form a special cell to only monitor the assets of Member of Parliaments and every year (till the time they are in parliament) IT should publish their findings. I guess this will help to solve the corruption problem as it is very easy to monitor 500+ parliamentarians and when these parliamentarians will not be able to do corruption they will obviously not let other people do it. Regarding the accessibility of politicians, i suggest that in this net era they should surely have their web-page which should tell about their schedule, work, initiatives and things like that. Public representatives should also have one office in their constituency and they should spend mandatory time in parliament and in their constituency. Coming to security of politicians, i want to tell these guys that there is something called occupational hazard. If your work for society creates threat for your life then you can very well leave it and rather then just securing your life you can work to make law and order so good that nobody dares to kill anybody and everybody feels safe. I do believe that in national interest some constitutional post such as the post of the president, the prime-minister, the chief justice of India etc should be protected from all external and internal threat. The list of important constitutional post can be drawn by competent authority and should not be change too often. I hope all these suggestion will work to make our politicians humble servant of public from the ruler as they are right now...

We don't need no Rouge Police...We don't need no Corrupt Bureaucracy

One late night MangoMan was singing We don't need no education by Pink Floyd while returning home unaware of the fact that our beloved beat constable was also taking round that night not for the safety of people but to collect payoff from pimp, prostitutes, drug peddlers and usual suspects. MM shrilled voice pierced silence of the night and reached to ear of beat cop who was just round the corner. Cop, flashing his baton,came running to MM and asked why he is singing so loud in the night and is he drunk or on dope. Our poor MM thought that cop is just enquiring so he told that he is not singing loud and he is absolutely not drunk and he will mind his business but the cop was in no mood to relent so he told MM that he was creating noise pollution and under blah blah article its crime to make noise after 10:00 PM so MM needs to come with him to nearest police station. Hearing this from Cop, MM got into argument with Cop without realizing the outcome of the argument. Cop asked MM about his background and after making sure that MM is just an ordinary Joe without any connection he gave a tight slap to MM and told MM to keep his mouth shut and never to argue with a Cop and if MM will keep on arguing with him he will give a beating of his life and put him in Jail. MM a law abiding and tax paying citizen never thought in his wild dream that he can be so badly treated by a beat constable...a constable. A slap from a constable directly impacted the pride of MM who is an IIT graduate doing perfectly good in his job and was schedule to go to USA in couple of month. MM got misty eyed and asked cop what he wanted and pleaded with cop to let him go. Cop flashed a crooked grin which will bring shame to hardened criminals. Cop asked MM to pay him 100 buck and ask for forgiveness. MM did the both as fast he could and sprinted back to our apartment without looking back. I was as usual goofing around at our place but when i saw MM entering crying. I sensed something happened wrong with MM so gave him a glass of water and asked him what happened. Sobbingly he narrated me the horror story of which he was the hero, in between taking break to drink water. MM kept on crying and saying how a cop that too a constable can behave so inhumanly with him. When i tried to remind him that he is just an regular joe without any connection i.e. neither name of his father nor anybody from his middle class family hold any significance so he has to be more careful while dealing with Police or to say any government officials. MM who had enough from the cop poured all his frustration on me. He started yelling at me, telling me how indifferent i am to his sorry state and because of people like me the government and its official behave the way the cop behaved with MM. Once MM was done he went to sleep but he made me realize that seriously not me but most of the indians will react as I did to MM's situation which is of Indifference and Apathy.

Seriously we Indians speak about becoming World Superpower and all but in the first place we don't expect our government and its subsidiaries to deliver, in-fact we even don't expect officials in government to behave with us in dignified way and the worst of lot is our Police Department. You don't believe me, walk into any government office and specifically police station with your work and ask the officials to get your work done. You will get real nightmare and the taste of India. The public servants, who are there to serve us are the new feudal lords of India. They are there not to help us but to harass us, to mock us, to ridicule us and to make our life miserable and the best part is we take all this. We are use to non-performing government and their officials till the time they don't bother us and don't come to our door step. Hope we will all wake up before they come to our doorstep with this thought i started humming...We don't need no Rouge Police...We don't need no Corrupt Bureaucracy in the privacy of my house in a very hush voice so that my neighbor hood beat constable doesn't get disturbed.

Note: Some horror stories of our Police force:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Police-State-Terror-in-Uniform/articleshow/5451782.cms

MangoMan Jumping The Signal

If somebody wants to know how much we Indians are busy or running short of time…she should observe the behavior of people waiting at traffic signal for red signal to turn green under the auspicious presence of a Traffic Cop. After spending 2 years in United States where traffic laws are tough, breaking them brings high penalties and the aggravating factor is cops don’t take bribe easily, I have somehow come to respect the traffic signals. So after coming to India when I started driving my friend’s bike, I kept my good habit going i.e. to stop at red light. This exercise has given me ample opportunity to observe the behavior of people waiting at Traffic Signal and I can authoritatively conclude that we Indians are very busy or running short of time, after all it requires lot of effort as a nation to catch up with our beloved neighbor CHINA on growth rate and economic indicators.

Here is a shorty on how a person approaches a traffic signal in India. Our MangoMan (whom now onwards I am going to refer as MM) is cruising on a busy road on a Monday morning in a perfect Brownian motion which will bring shame to particle suspended in fluid. MM has got perfect space detector and locking system embedded in his eyes so he can use space available on the road to the optimum. Our MM is in total control of his vehicle while dodging other vehicles, pedestrians, pot holes, cows, dogs, pigs & blah blah, maneuvering his vehicle like guided missiles, taking sharp turns which will bring shame on F1/Bike racers, racing along like a tiger which is after a gazelle to get to his destination in minimum time possible and while doing all this he suddenly sees Traffic Signal turning to red at approaching busy cross section. MM looks twice at the signal to make sure it is red and approaches it with disdain and cursing. The red light brought redness on MM face as he feels that the signal has turn red just for him and mocking him that dude you are going to see me mostly in red whenever you will approach me. Now there is an invisible war between MM and Red Traffic light and MM wants to beat the Red Traffic light and to do this MM accelerates his vehicle to full throttle which made him smile on the very fact that he is going to jump the signal to show Red Traffic light its worth but alas the smile was on MM face is ephemeral as he spots a traffic cops at the far corner of cross section. The Traffic Cop is a fat man with no interest in his job and is in animated conversation with somebody but his mere presence there was bringing traffic to halt at Red Traffic Light and our MM was no different. MM looked at Red Traffic Light and found a smiling smiley there, he has to act fast and think something so that he doesn’t have to stop despite the odds against him. As first course of action MM started de-accelerating his vehicle in order to buy more time. The logic here is before he reaches the white marker on the road where he had to completely halt, the Traffic signal will turn green. So now our MM is inching slowly to the coveted white marker on the road and simultaneously watching traffic signal. It looks like that today traffic signal is in no mood to turn green so when our MM reaches the white mark at the traffic signal where he had to stop, the signal is still red. MM has to stop now but he keeps on moving but now his speed is comparable to the speed of an ant but the fact that he is moving is providing mental satisfaction to our MM. He has crossed the white mark and the Red Traffic Signal and now he is moving toward the zebra crossing creating issues for people who by mistake using it to cross the roads. Now MM is not able to see the Traffic Signal of his traffic so he is looking jealously at green signal of crossing traffic praying very hard that it should turn red before traffic cop spots him and finds that our MM is moving on disregarding the red signal and worst him. But today MM luck is very bad as it is always so Traffic cop sees MM ahead of the rest of the impatient traffic and still moving slowly on the zebra crossing. By some heavenly intuition MM also founds out that the Traffic cops has seen him violating the red traffic signal and his pride and he is coming menacingly towards MM with baton in his hand. Eureka, suddenly MM founds out that crossing traffic signal has turned red but the crossing traffic is still coming. The frustrated cop which was after MM has to stop this traffic and this gave ample time to our beloved MM who blares the horn and speeds his vehicle zooming past the helpless Traffic Cop who is trying to stop traffic. MM turns once last time to see the swearing traffic cop and the traffic signal which were about to rob his pride but when he looks ahead he sees another impending red signal on his way.

Note:I am damn sure if we will factor all the obstacle faced by our MangoMan on the road, his timing from point A to point B can go into Guinness Book of World Records very easily.