Venom, venom everywhere. Not a drop to drink!

N. Arunkumar *

I know that all my esteemed readers are also watching the great tamasha of the Lokpal Bill intrigues unwind right before our eyes through the print and visual media, of late. There is a clear distinction between the two warring factions in this drama, demarcated as the elected people's representatives in the form of all those who have won elections to offices and those who are unelected and termed as the civil society.

We common folks, who belong to the soil, are the so called civil society, and I am one who is sickened at the way we are being treated as second class citizens by the elected elite, at least in this particular case. It seems that to get any change successfully accomplished in this country, we have to first get elected to that high portal of the 'House of Commons', the equivalent of which is the Lok Sabha in our Parliamentary democratic framework.

If not, then you are not allowed to speak up for change or expect the elected members to be accountable to the people or the nation for their wrong doings, as they were elected by us to those pristine portals of power. I am amazed that not a single politician worth his marbles is speaking up in favour of the Lokpal Bill as suggested by the civil society, which primarily aims to make the khadi clan accountable to us common folks. They are fighting against it tooth and nail and, passionately for that matter.

The venom they seem to be spewing out, especially the UPA under the leadership of Madam Sonia and the courteous though brilliant economist PM Manmohan Singh, through the media is indisputably disgusting. Why are these khadi clad (read that as designer khadi) social workers against putting themselves under the scanner for their misdeeds? The way the treasury is going about drafting the bill to be presented in Parliament in the next session is most certainly a joke and can rightly be christened as Joke Pal.

It is not going to wipe out corruption or even make any serious impact on the already mouldy system of undemocratic institutions in this country, and we are going to allow the khadi clan to loot, plunder, demolish decency, and make us the laughing stock before the rest of the world. Already, the great humiliation we had to face on account of the CWG fiasco leaves us smarting at the way we cut a sorry figure before the Commonwealth nations. Our politicians, I refrain from calling them leaders, talk eloquently of India giving China a run for its money and going hammer and tongs of making this country on par with that country.

Nothing can be farther from the truth about this and I assure you dear readers, we can forget about catching up with this neighbouring giant in every field from governance, economic activity, industrial development, culture and sports, to name just a few aspects of universal presence, as this country lacks the basic honesty to redress its past mistakes.

One mistake does not mean that we continue to commit the same time and time again, and delve deeper into the mud and spoil our image. The Chinese love their nation, and are ready to put everything aside for the sake of the nation. They may not be democratic, and follow rigid parameters of enforcing the law of the land, but it is not often that they have to find patriotism overrunning every other parameter of daily life. Our politicians only love their pockets and where are the leaders who can envision a prosperous India in the next hundreds of years?

Look at the functioning of people like Mayawati, Laloo Prasad, Suresh Kalmadi,(actually it is a jumble for 'Sir U Made Lakhs') which is doing the Internet rounds now and a host of others who have ruined their states to such levels of rot that the people are fed up and do not expect anything other than rotten governance from them. The attitudes of these politicians leave one in the lurch and good governance is nothing but a dream from them. The story is one of doom, for the country and for the people who are to live in the country.

If there are states in the Indian Republic who wish to severe every tie with a system of such governance, who can blame them? If the politicians continue to lavish their superiority over the rest of us, including our own politicians nearer home, then we might just as well see a kind of uprising that we have witnessed recently in many Middle Eastern and African countries. Regimes have been displaced and people have ensured that a new era has dawned on their collective hopes and aspirations.

If the UPA government too continues to wallow in the glory of their two terms in the treasury benches and believe that they will continue to rule the roost, they are naive. This government has already done enough damage to their own image, and we are waiting for winds of change to blow them away into oblivion for a long time to come. We need leaders and not politicians playing their games to scuttle the aspirations of an entire nation that comprises of people like us, like you and me dear readers.

Anna Hazare stands out as a true human being who is determined to bring about a change in true Gandhian style. In the midst of all this brouhaha, everyone in mainstream India seem to forget the Iron Lady of Manipur, Irom Sharmila, who has been on a marathon mega fast since many years now. However, NDTV, and especially Rajdeep Sardesai has been constantly reminding the rest of the country that this lady is still continuing with her fast unto death to abolish the draconian law in the AFSPA, which has been in effect in this part of the nation for many years now.

If we analyse the effects of this law, it is evident that it has been more counter – productive than solve issues arising out of the spectre of terrorism here. Of course, the fact that there are the rogues from the saints in this great battle called terrorism in Manipur is concerned is a fact of life for us today. Extortions, intimidations, kidnappings, fratricidal killings and what have you, are our daily dose of civilian life.

The modus operandi of these rogues are more damaging to our own psyche than the other threats, with which we are living. If only our brothers and sisters who have taken it upon themselves to liberate us from mainland India would allow our own people and our industries to function normally, we could have put on a brave face before the world and loved the idea of battle for self – determination. Sadly, it is not the case. Our own industrious labour and thrift is under attack by them, and we are not happy with that part of this battle.

Their guns are trained on us and we are sitting ducks at most times, and it is depressing, psychologically, physically, and economically. Besides our own doing these things, we are also the scum of the civil society for the moment, according to this dirty political class in our nation.