Vote for governance

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Tavleen Singh Tags : Vote, governance Posted: Sunday , Apr 19, 2009 at 0032 hrs

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In other countries, when school teachers do not turn up to teach they are sacked. When public services like hospitals and health centres do not do their job they are closed down, and long before major towns like Ankleshwar and Baruch end up looking like slums, something is done to stop this happening. When I drove through them last week on Narendra Modi’s new six-lane highway, I was gripped by a sense of despair. If we can build six-lane highways why is it so hard for us to come up with systems of waste disposal? Will we wait till all our highways are lined with rotting garbage before we realise that something needs to be done?

Probably. It has always been that way. In my view this is because we have tried to build the edifice of a modern, democratic nation without laying the foundations. The foundations can only be created by investment in human capital. You cannot build a modern democracy if 45 per cent of your children are malnourished, you cannot build a modern democracy if your schools do not have teachers and if your public healthcare is mostly a means for corrupt officials to make money by handing out construction contracts to their friends and family. You cannot build a modern democracy if you have not been able to provide that most fundamental of human needs: clean water. Yet, this is what our political leaders have tried to do. And, we have let them.

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We in the media are almost as much to blame as the political class because we spend far too much time talking about stupid things and ignoring what is crucial. Throughout the election campaign we have spent so much time discussing the foibles and failings of the Gandhi progeny that we have found little time to talk of real issues. I got so tired of hearing important journalists discuss the badness of Varun Gandhi and the goodness of Rahul and Priyanka that I stopped watching the news channels. How many times did we hear serious discussion of why our public services are such a mess or why after 60 years of Independence our political leaders are unable to provide clean drinking water? Or why unplanned urbanisation has put Bharat Mata well on the road to becoming a continent of slums by 2050?

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Given the choice the politicians would not have wanted TV/PhoneBy: Dr.G.Srinivasan | 26-Apr-2009 Reply | Forward It is because of these two technological marvels that the 21st century is beginning to limp slowly into even our remotest villages. Thanks to technology, the poorest, most underprivileged Indians have realised that they do not have to live this way. True.The bringing of the color TV to almost every home the credit goes to somebody else -- the industry.All politicians did for rural masses is that take way their produce and pay a pittance -- perennially keeping the farmer-- i mean the poor ones -- poorer. But again democracy had an illegitimate birth in India.It was imposed like the constitution the recent one is the imposition of Manmohan Singh without an election!!!!

Vote for GovernanceBy: M.Manghat | 25-Apr-2009 Reply | Forward Governance is an alien word to our political class who are always inclined to lord over the people who elect them. And this happens because the bureaucracy is hand in gloves with the political netas in enriching their personal wealth at the cost of the State Exchequer. This situation will never improve unless every citizen in the country with voting rights exercise their right to vote and thus make sure that the parliment does not boast about the increased number of criminals as members in elections after elections. Even in the current election scenario how many of the educated citizen has exercised their right to vote? Even in the so called most literate state Kerala, the indifference of the educated class to the electoral process has resulted in the formation of a cabinet whose members have no clue about governance and takes pride in protecting all antisocial elements owing allegience to them!!!. Welfare of the people who elect them get least attention and priority in their work agenda!!

Vote for GovernanceBy: Nancy | 20-Apr-2009 Reply | Forward These days in this country called 'Bharat, we find increasing stories about the so-called teachers dealing with cruelty to the little innocent students who is helpless and scared.In my experience,these so-called teachers are not even a graduate or with little higher education but are 10th pass with old montessori course as educational qualification.In my experience,I have seen that if the innocent student comes from a financially poor family background,they are the easy target of the so-called teacher's ire.On other hand,the rich kids are better off with these so-called teachers who gets gifts or any kinds from the rich kids parents just to adjust with their mischief,lack of attention or learning disorder.The rich kids are spared of rod beatings, while the poor are not.I myself a deaf educated in a normal school have to face such indifference just because i am a invisible handicap.When I passed out of the high school,I have no fondness of the so-called teachers who are not willing to adjust my silent handicap.I have only the respect for the College professors who are kind and down to earth with full of Gandhian values,while the so-called teachers are not.So, I am not surprised with the cruelty dealed to the little innocent students whose little souls are rested in peace in heaven while the teachers will only face a public wrath.I hope that a greater and a new law will come up soon by the Government that will deal them of facing the death sentence or life imprisonment,which is befitting for them and this in turn will prevent other teachers from dealing monster-like harshness and cruelty.

Vote for GovernanceBy: Hari Om Chawla | 20-Apr-2009 Reply | Forward Can governance become an issue in Indian elections hijacked by vote bank politics? Except for one particular elections when Uma Bharti in Madhya Pradesh made an issue of 'Bijali, Sadak, Pani' and ousted Digvijay Singh, I do not remember governance becoming an issue. In spite of efforts by many NGOs, including Jogo Re, there is no dearth of criminals in the lists of candidates of various political parties; some of them fighting from their prison cells. And they hope to win because the caste combination and muscle power is on their side. Unless each one of votes as an individual and not en-block as a part of some caste or religion based group, there is no hope. Broken roads, filthy water, absence of electricity, largest number of poor and hungry people in the world would continue to exist in spite of the miraculous growth rate, more and more Indians among the world's richest, costly cars, mobiles and televisions everywhere.

"True" citizen of "developed" IndiaBy: Jay | 20-Apr-2009 Reply | Forward It became our culture to tolerate each and everything in the name of reality. We lose all the civic senses and sense of justice from very childhood. Our so-called education (even in the elite schools and universities like IITs and IIMs) and upbringing even by our parents with lot of money and degrees can only make us a true clerk, without a backbone. We may keep our houses clean but contribute to its maximum to make the place just beside our house a hell. The more we became a “true Indian”, more we try to hide facts about real India and start boasting about “development”, about glittering shopping mall, 6-lane highways, American style farm houses with green lawns, golf courses and few more billionaires (3 among top 10 richest people in the world now live in India). More reasons we find to feel ashamed, harder we try to project a distorted picture of India, both in India and abroad.

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