As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Anna Hazare brought down to its knees, one of the most arrogant and corrupt governments in our history. He succeeded because of his determination and help from the otherwise complacent middle class. I don’t think that the world and we are going to see something of this kind in our lifetimes. In the world today where violence is often seen as a legitimate means to ends like human rights, Anna is a reminder of all things good. Even though I do not agree with his demands (we have written on that topic in details on this blog), I am in awe of the man. When a hungry and weak Anna got up and said Vande Maataram, I got tingles down my spine. He once again got the country especially the middle class out of their mall and McDonald induced slumber and stand up for Mother India. Proud moment indeed!
But as we have said on this blog, yet another law without teeth is not going to solve anything. Giving teeth to mortal men and expecting to behave in a fashion conducive to “Satyug” is unrealistic at best. People who will be on the lokpal will have extraordinary powers. We will be expecting them to be impartial. But absolute power corrupts absolutely. My fears are that the new Lokpal bill may give rise to an unsustainable and a corrupt bureaucracy, very much under the influence of the politicos we are trying to make accountable. We already have the first example.
Now even the worst detractors of Narendra Modi grudgingly acknowledge the progress made by Gujarat under him. His enemies (entire left wing, liberals, pseudo-seculars and their ilk) have done all they could, including lying and cheating to bring the man down. Case in point is Teesta Setalvad. Despite of their worst, the man has not been hurt. If he were corrupt (imagine a UPA led government in Gujarat with all the money pouring in!) he could have made a lot of money. If Mayawati can become mega-crorepati in a poor state like UP then for Modi the sky could have been the limit. But entire media and government machinery has not been able to stick anything to the guy. So what does the Congress do? They use their pet trick of using the party loyal governor to appoint a Modi baiter as the state Lokayukta. The governor Kamla Beniwal who looks as inspiring a leader as a wet sock, is doing her best to make happy her masters in the Family.
Normally, a pro-Congress lokayukta would not be a problem for Narendra Modi. He can defend himself without any help. But we are too close to the next election. What Congress is hoping that they will accuse him of everything short of the Kennedy assassination and hope that mere appearance of impropriety would score points with the undecided voters. Being so close to the election puts the onus of proving innocence on the defendant rather than proving guilty on the prosecution. But we should not be expecting anything less that this from a party like Congress, which is completely devoid of any morals and achievements.
It is clear that the Congress is trying to take Modi out of the 2014 equation so that the BJP cannot project him as a PM candidate. If Modi could do for India, what he has done for Gujarat, then we would really be on our way to achieving our full potential. But the Congress and the liberals cannot have that. They are the kind of people who love to cut their nose to spite their face. Such is our luck. Yes. Anna’s victory is going to be a moral victory only.
No comments:
Post a Comment