| Friends,
Here we present the second myth being propagated in a way which might again have extremely adverse intact on the entire democratic setup of ours.
Amitabh # 94155-34526 Nutan # 94155-34525
Second Myth- Politicians and Bureaucrats are corrupt and Social activists honest
Another misconception that is being propagated these days in a very big way is that since the politicians and bureaucrats are generally corrupt, hence occupants for the proposed Lokpal shall come from outside. The way these Civil society members are presenting the Lokpal Bill, even the members of the Judiciary shall be limited here. Our view is that such an opinion is not only erroneous, it is even bad in theory. Let us first talk about the politicians. We all know that a politician has a meaning only when he ids backed by the public. Any politician without people behind him are meaningless. Thus the first thing that is apparent is that a person becomes a leader only when he has followers. And a follower means a living human being. The same human being that is considered the finest creature on this Earth. Every human being possesses among other things a brain of his own, the same brain through which he thinks and observes, the same human brain through which he takes decisions based on so many complex set of facts and circumstances. While it is true that many a times a person might get affected by extraneous things which have their own interplay in arriving at a decision but the influence of all these extraneous factors taken together never so much as to make a person take a decision completely against his wishes, or against his own self-interest. We must not only understand but we shall also appreciate the fact that each human being finally takes a decision that suits him the most. This holds true for the illiterate as much as the most literate person in the world Thus to have an opinion that people are not able to understand facts around them and are capable of being duped by the politicians is a completely fabricated and opinioned thought. At the same time, it is also an insult to the thinking prowess of mankind. Every person takes a decision in the same way as everyone of those who shall be going through these piece of writing finally decides about the merit or demerit of its contents. We belong to villages and we very well know that even the poor and so-called illiterate persons have great capabilities as far as deciding things for their own benefit is concerned. Hence to presume that the politicians are fooling the public all through and the people are getting fooled without their will is akin to thinking that the courtship between a boy and a girl can go for years in a unilateral manner. Politician is there before the public day and night, on a 24x7 basis. The public looks at each and every act and conduct of its representatives and other politicians. Thus a politician is not there in the sky, speaking niceties without actually knowing them but is a person firmly rooted on ground. He is responsible for his actions and his behaviour to the multitude of people he wishes to represent. The moment the people think that he is found wanting in these aspects, the politician is thrown out of favour then and there. We are witness to not one or two elections. There is one election or other every now and then. Sometimes it is elections for the Village Panchayat, sometimes for Nagar Palika or for the State assembly or Parliament. There are also many Bye-elections. Shall we believe that the public casts its vote in a blind fashion in all these elections? Would there be any bigger fallacy and misconception? Would there be any other form of insult and disrespect for human wisdom? Let us now talk of Government officials. Every government servant is part of a definite structure and system. They carry some authority, but coupled with them are a large number of responsibilities as well. These people are constantly in some proper control. Every government servant works in the subordination of someone else. In the same manner each official has a set of duties assigned and thus even if they won't want, they need to perform some of their duties. If they don't do so, they can be taken to task and can be suitably penalized- right from informal rebuke to suspension and termination from service. Thus these people have many things at stake which they need to think of twice before they try to play with the system. These government servants are evaluated not only by their superior officers but even the common masses have some kind of control over them. There would be umpteen number of examples when government servants are not only transferred on public complaint but they also have to suffer other problems like being placed under suspension, criminal cases getting registered against them and so on. If people are not satisfied with a government servant, there is a modality to present this grievance. They can complain to the senior officers and if the grievance is not redressed, the complaint can be made to higher authorities and then to various Courts of Justice. Thus there is a proper mechanism for grievance redressal. Similarly, the Annual Performance Report of every government servant is written down. Thus to think that a government servant is completely free to behave in an irresponsible manner is a completely incorrect view. It is no different from thinking that our Earth is completely free of the system of Gravitational forces and can move on wherever it feels like. Now coming to the Judiciary, the situation is not much different. The members of the Subordinate Judiciary right up to the District and Sessions Court are as much a public servant as the rest of the government servants and every other kind of penal and departmental action is possible against them as other government servants. High Courts and the Supreme Court always try to keep a very sharp eye towards the deeds and misdeeds of the members of the lower judiciary to keep its reputation overboard. The rules and regulations related with High Court and Supreme Court Judges are different but they also are governed by the method of Impeachment through which they can be removed from their positions. At the same time they are also in the focus of the preening public eyes. Each of their decisions are scrutinized and evaluated not only by the concerned persons but also by millions of other people who get to know about them through Media reports. Though the Contempt of Courts Act does inhibit many a people from expressing some of the views they might have wished to state but this does not stop people from forming opinions about these members of Judiciary. Don't we have the example of some of the Supreme Court decisions on Bhopal gas tragedy getting severely criticized? The facts as mentioned above make it very apparent that today each politician, each government servant and each Judicial authority is bound by certain rules and regulations and has to work in a given set of structure and system. We remember the statement of one of our IAS friends who said in an informal gathering-" We all are in the same situation as a Hindu widow. We need to keep ourselves as pure and unblemished as her. Any spot on the character of a Widow and any charge on us become visible and publicly know immediately." We are not saying that today all the politicians, the government servants and the Judicial authorities are equally concerned about keeping their names equally unblemished and clear as that IAS friend was saying. There would be hundreds of examples which would be in juxtaposition to the abovementioned situation. There are many among this lot which are leaving no stone unturned to get their names and reputations besmirched in all possible manners. But still the fact remains that there are definite rules and regulations that govern them, regulate their activities and there are a set of people to whom they are directly and indirectly responsible. At least theoretically, they can be taken to task whenever such aberrations and irregularities come to the fore. We are not putting in any definite comment about what are generally called the "social activists" but we would certainly say that unlike the politicians and bureaucrats the social activists are not regularly controlled and regulated nor are they responsible to any group of people in the same manner as the above groups. In such situations, to create a feeling of universal distrust towards these people or to proclaim them as being dirty en masse seems nothing short of sedation. This is a condition of becoming distrustful not only to our entire governing system but also to start disbelieving our own self. We believe that all such efforts by every individual or group of persons to create feeling of mistrust towards our system of governance is not only completely erroneous and incorrect but is also against the general interest of our Nation. http://irdsindia.com/Lokpal%20vs%20Corruption%20%28Hindi%29.htm
http://nationalrtiforum.org/Lokpal%20vs%20Corruption.htm
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