When legislators unite

I saw a few articles in the online edition of the Times of India and NDTV which prompted this post. There are rare occasions when our legislators display unity cutting across party lines. This is especially true on two occasions - when they face some common threat to their facilities or authority, and when the issue is vote bank politics, namely reservation.

We have a range of reservation quotas in our country, SC/ST, OBC and god knows what all. The Supreme Court had said some time back said that quotas for promotion should be backed up by solid figures to show actual backwardness of the categories. Does this make sense? Well, to our legislators it appeared to be a golden opportunity to amend the Constitution and introduce reservation quotas for the SC/STs. Another occasion when our legislators were united was during the recent agitation against corruption when cutting across party lines they remembered to mention that parliamentary processes enshrined in the Constitution have to be respected.

Another thought-provoking incident is the recent rallying around of ministers in the Andhra Pradesh government. There are a few accused of colluding with the late YSR Reddy and his son Jagan in quid pro quo cases with corporates. Dharmana Prasada Rao has recently been chargesheeted by the CBI. He is the second minister after Mopidevi Venkataramana to be investigated by the CBI in a case related to a company called Vanpic. A number of ministers have unitedly asked the Chief Minister not to give permission for his prosecution. There is a saying in Telugu which says that the guilty person is the one who makes the maximum protestations of innocence. These ministers bring to mind this saying. I do not recall the exact time but another time ministers are united is when they give raises to themselves in terms of salaries and facilities.

In these times of government austerity a large panel will be going abroad, flying business class and also going sight seeing. If the government was serious about austerity it should have curtailed at least the sight seeing trips, for it is the tax payer that is financing these jaunts. However in this age of lip service can we expect anything more? Politicians rally around Baba Ramdev when he talks about the need to bring back black money from abroad. How many of them are willing to publicly list all properties owned by them, their ministers and civil servants? On the other hand we have an opposition which is hell bent on disrupting proceedings of Parliament.

The BJP must be smoking something if they seriously believe that either the PM or his government will resign because of their protests over the coalgate (I am sick of this "gate" syndrome) issue. Why do they insist on disrupting the house? The UPA might have the moral authority to rule or govern. If in the next elections the NDA comes to power it will be more because of a lack of alternatives than anything solid or constructive that they have done while in opposition. These are the times when one years for the no-choice option on a ballot paper or an EVM.

Will our politicians ever unite like this for a Lokpal or something which is actually useful for the nation?

Glorification and de-humanisation

The civil services and the armed forces are legacies of the British rule in India, however modified they may be from their original versions. This article is based on some assumptions I am making. If I am wrong please feel free to correct me.

For many years Indians were not allowed into the civil services. In the armed forces also Indians were taken into the jawan ranks and the officers were primarily Britishers. So when we consider the erstwhile officers in the civil service or the armed forces there had to be distinctions between the sahibs and the natives. This probably explains the (extravagant?) facilities enjoyed by the officers whether it be in terms of accommodation and transport or attendant servants.

Now 65 years after independence we are still following the same practices. I met a jawan on a train once. He was complaining how tough life was for the average jawan. Refer to this article also. A little while back I believe there were reports of police constables being used by their seniors for household chores. Giving good facilities for the officers is one matter, dehumanising others is a separate matter. Take the instance of accommodation. In lots of places defence officers stay in apartments in their enclaves. Why can't the same model be replicated for the civil services also? Take Lutyens's Delhi for instance. Each MP has a huge bungalow. Why can't these people be shifted into 3 or even 4 bed-roomed apartments? Give them serviced apartments if the situation demands so. Imagine the amount of real estate that will be freed up either for commercial development or for any other purposes! Even if corrupt public servants eat up a part of this there will still be a lot of land which can be used profitably.