Mahesh Vijapurkar Nov 26, 2011
This is an editor post from moneycontrol website:
A visibly upset Pranab Mukherjee, the senior most Congress politician had this to say soon after a citizen slapped Sharad Pawar in New Delhi on Thursday: “I don’t know where the country is going”. He had a scowl becoming his ire as he walked to his official car from his office.
I wish it were as simple as that.
It is hard to believe that it was merely rhetorical. It is equally hard to believe that being in the perch he is on, next only to Manmohan Singh but swinging more clout than anyone else, a notch below on the establishment ladder, he does not know where this country is going.
Take your head out of the sand, Pranab-da. PTI
It seems Mukherjee and his peers, down to the gram panchayat politics are hiding their head, ostrich-like, in the sand.
The common man, as represented by 27-year-old Harvinder Singh, seems to know where the country is heading. That slap was apparently, not personal, because Harvinder Singh and Sharad Pawar did not even know each other. It was symbolic of the outrage of the helpless man on the street. At that time, to Singh, Pawar was emblematic of the political class.
The country, the common knows, has gone to scamsters, to politicians who use democracy as a veil to perpetuate their misdeeds which ranges from building family empires, buying up constituencies, strengthening their own money-making apparatus often passed off as legitimate businesses, to a subversion of democracy where the common man is allowed no role except to periodically cast a vote.
But Mukherjee and his tribe have refused to heed the signals which have been emanating from the streets for about past six months.
There is a marked tendency, Mukherjee ought to know, that people have begun to doubt the value of a vote if it only leads to the kind of grasping political class to which ideology is a ruse, to which the laws are only a pretence, to which the next goal is another re-election to ensure its perpetuity. Sadly, democracy as practiced is driving people away from their earlier faith in it.
That slap repeatedly played out mercilessly on the 24×7 news networks is perhaps a big notice to the establishment that things have come to a pass where people have had enough. To use part of Kiran Bedi’s tweeted response, it was all to do with the ‘pent up anger’ which has to find a vent somewhere.
Note the pattern. Suresh Kalmadi was the object of an attack on his way to the courts; he has been accused of embezzlement of public funds for personal gain. Sukh Ram was attacked because, this is my guess, it took years before justice caught up with him; it could have been impatience at the delay in punishing the man. Who knows, there are a lot many slaps unadministered yet and people may get temped to neutralise that backlog. It is best they are not offered that opportunity.
Of course, a democracy does not have room for such assaults, for taking law into one’s own hands, to be violent when there are means of redress – a parliamentary system, a judiciary, an executive, a fourth estate. But what of them? The Parliament is hostage to the tendency of scoring political points, not making judicious laws; the judiciary is a slothful entity where justice is not easily found, the executive is compromised – you can’t expect a policeman not to ask a bribe – and, the media, severely compromised with its penchant for trivia and paid news.
What recourse does the common man then have? With elections far away in 2014, with the country brimming with big-ticket corruption cases, with inflation on fire because the common man believes it is all to do with poor or no governance, the streets are an inviting theatre for all action. The Arab Spring has not been a mean contributor to the Indian Citizen beginning to think that there is a way out, after all.
Pranab Mukherjee, in his de rigueur winter wear bandh gala, a signature of Delhi politicians was wrong on one point. Harvinder Singh’s slap on Pawar’s left cheek did not deserve any publicity, he said, in utter contempt of the action. But publicity is what it would get because the media wittingly or unwittingly hyperventilates on behalf of the people because the latter like it. Because they like it, the TRP’s go up.
Yes, Anna Hazare is not exactly a reticent man and is not given to discretion and has a past of having used strong methods to get people to reform and characteristically, despite the Gandhian halo woven around him – part self-proclaimed, part ascribed – could not resist that ‘One slap?’ reaction. He has an animus against Sharad Pawar but walk the Facebook Diaspora and you’d find utter justification for the slap.
One went to the extent of wanting to covert November 24, the Thanksgiving Day in the US into India’s Slapping Day and one does not need much imagination to guess who he had in mind as objects: the politicians who brought the country to this pass.
The least Mr Mukherjee can do is retain his scowl and help redeem his community of politicians of this stigma of the most unwanted call in this country at this point of time. It would, of course, be harder to reform his tribe than ask the people to change.
Which means, while politicians and others rush to rightly commiserate with Pawar and condemn the slap, few, if any, have said they understood why it happened.
My Comments:
How many liked the slap given by Harvindersingh to Sharah Pawar?I can say majority liked it......and when I say majority it is not 51% liked and 49% didn't like it......it is I can say 95% liked it and 5% didn't like it.....I left those 5% for human rights and chivalrous minded people who wants to show that they believe in democracy and it should not happen.These are pseduo secular people who lives in a big house and have all types of luxury in life.They are good for nothing .
As editor rightly wrote, Harvinder and Pawar do not know each other personally and hence it is a slap on politicians of India.
Commom man has nothing left to do then what Harvinder has done.I bet if given chance these politcians can get more slap from every Indian Citizen.
If inflation is going up why Sharad Pawar is still there as the Agricultural Minister?Why can't he talk with experts how India can grow more grains and thus contain the inflation.Why government is doing nothing on that front?
I know here also many would like to come out and comments why talk of only Sharad Pawar and not others......these are all good in arguing and makes no sense.....poor is getting life living hard.......
Politicians has lost all morality.As editor wrote in one para , since last 6 months polticians has behaved like no one needs to speak anything and let corruption go on and on.I know we have arguemnets that overseas is also like that.....otherwise there cannot be 2008 or PIIGS default but why look at them?If we are good then them ,our economy should be wheathering the global calamity and have growed at over 8% even in this time.......Justification is no answer for what is happening in India......If our politicians were good we still would have wheathered the global turmoils and have come out winner.Change our way of looking things.The perspective to look the situation needs to get changed.Try to break the jinx of thinking.That's all I would say here ....talking of west bad debts etc takes us nowhere.We need to know what we need to do.....
Blood is boiling in common man and Congress keeps on talking of parliamentary procedure and so on and so forth.
Beware Congress next election you are going to lose very badly.I don't say other parties are good like BJP, NDA the left front but let there be another government.It is time for a change at Parliament......
This is an editor post from moneycontrol website:
A visibly upset Pranab Mukherjee, the senior most Congress politician had this to say soon after a citizen slapped Sharad Pawar in New Delhi on Thursday: “I don’t know where the country is going”. He had a scowl becoming his ire as he walked to his official car from his office.
I wish it were as simple as that.
It is hard to believe that it was merely rhetorical. It is equally hard to believe that being in the perch he is on, next only to Manmohan Singh but swinging more clout than anyone else, a notch below on the establishment ladder, he does not know where this country is going.
Take your head out of the sand, Pranab-da. PTI
It seems Mukherjee and his peers, down to the gram panchayat politics are hiding their head, ostrich-like, in the sand.
The common man, as represented by 27-year-old Harvinder Singh, seems to know where the country is heading. That slap was apparently, not personal, because Harvinder Singh and Sharad Pawar did not even know each other. It was symbolic of the outrage of the helpless man on the street. At that time, to Singh, Pawar was emblematic of the political class.
The country, the common knows, has gone to scamsters, to politicians who use democracy as a veil to perpetuate their misdeeds which ranges from building family empires, buying up constituencies, strengthening their own money-making apparatus often passed off as legitimate businesses, to a subversion of democracy where the common man is allowed no role except to periodically cast a vote.
But Mukherjee and his tribe have refused to heed the signals which have been emanating from the streets for about past six months.
There is a marked tendency, Mukherjee ought to know, that people have begun to doubt the value of a vote if it only leads to the kind of grasping political class to which ideology is a ruse, to which the laws are only a pretence, to which the next goal is another re-election to ensure its perpetuity. Sadly, democracy as practiced is driving people away from their earlier faith in it.
That slap repeatedly played out mercilessly on the 24×7 news networks is perhaps a big notice to the establishment that things have come to a pass where people have had enough. To use part of Kiran Bedi’s tweeted response, it was all to do with the ‘pent up anger’ which has to find a vent somewhere.
Note the pattern. Suresh Kalmadi was the object of an attack on his way to the courts; he has been accused of embezzlement of public funds for personal gain. Sukh Ram was attacked because, this is my guess, it took years before justice caught up with him; it could have been impatience at the delay in punishing the man. Who knows, there are a lot many slaps unadministered yet and people may get temped to neutralise that backlog. It is best they are not offered that opportunity.
Of course, a democracy does not have room for such assaults, for taking law into one’s own hands, to be violent when there are means of redress – a parliamentary system, a judiciary, an executive, a fourth estate. But what of them? The Parliament is hostage to the tendency of scoring political points, not making judicious laws; the judiciary is a slothful entity where justice is not easily found, the executive is compromised – you can’t expect a policeman not to ask a bribe – and, the media, severely compromised with its penchant for trivia and paid news.
What recourse does the common man then have? With elections far away in 2014, with the country brimming with big-ticket corruption cases, with inflation on fire because the common man believes it is all to do with poor or no governance, the streets are an inviting theatre for all action. The Arab Spring has not been a mean contributor to the Indian Citizen beginning to think that there is a way out, after all.
Pranab Mukherjee, in his de rigueur winter wear bandh gala, a signature of Delhi politicians was wrong on one point. Harvinder Singh’s slap on Pawar’s left cheek did not deserve any publicity, he said, in utter contempt of the action. But publicity is what it would get because the media wittingly or unwittingly hyperventilates on behalf of the people because the latter like it. Because they like it, the TRP’s go up.
Yes, Anna Hazare is not exactly a reticent man and is not given to discretion and has a past of having used strong methods to get people to reform and characteristically, despite the Gandhian halo woven around him – part self-proclaimed, part ascribed – could not resist that ‘One slap?’ reaction. He has an animus against Sharad Pawar but walk the Facebook Diaspora and you’d find utter justification for the slap.
One went to the extent of wanting to covert November 24, the Thanksgiving Day in the US into India’s Slapping Day and one does not need much imagination to guess who he had in mind as objects: the politicians who brought the country to this pass.
The least Mr Mukherjee can do is retain his scowl and help redeem his community of politicians of this stigma of the most unwanted call in this country at this point of time. It would, of course, be harder to reform his tribe than ask the people to change.
Which means, while politicians and others rush to rightly commiserate with Pawar and condemn the slap, few, if any, have said they understood why it happened.
My Comments:
How many liked the slap given by Harvindersingh to Sharah Pawar?I can say majority liked it......and when I say majority it is not 51% liked and 49% didn't like it......it is I can say 95% liked it and 5% didn't like it.....I left those 5% for human rights and chivalrous minded people who wants to show that they believe in democracy and it should not happen.These are pseduo secular people who lives in a big house and have all types of luxury in life.They are good for nothing .
As editor rightly wrote, Harvinder and Pawar do not know each other personally and hence it is a slap on politicians of India.
Commom man has nothing left to do then what Harvinder has done.I bet if given chance these politcians can get more slap from every Indian Citizen.
If inflation is going up why Sharad Pawar is still there as the Agricultural Minister?Why can't he talk with experts how India can grow more grains and thus contain the inflation.Why government is doing nothing on that front?
I know here also many would like to come out and comments why talk of only Sharad Pawar and not others......these are all good in arguing and makes no sense.....poor is getting life living hard.......
Politicians has lost all morality.As editor wrote in one para , since last 6 months polticians has behaved like no one needs to speak anything and let corruption go on and on.I know we have arguemnets that overseas is also like that.....otherwise there cannot be 2008 or PIIGS default but why look at them?If we are good then them ,our economy should be wheathering the global calamity and have growed at over 8% even in this time.......Justification is no answer for what is happening in India......If our politicians were good we still would have wheathered the global turmoils and have come out winner.Change our way of looking things.The perspective to look the situation needs to get changed.Try to break the jinx of thinking.That's all I would say here ....talking of west bad debts etc takes us nowhere.We need to know what we need to do.....
Blood is boiling in common man and Congress keeps on talking of parliamentary procedure and so on and so forth.
Beware Congress next election you are going to lose very badly.I don't say other parties are good like BJP, NDA the left front but let there be another government.It is time for a change at Parliament......
that's true .... Each politician should come in public with out security and should know many will be slapped by a common man. then these politicians will come to know where they are... From the Media also I am expecting that they should conduct polling on this harvinder act whether it is Right or Wrong.... I think no media has that much guts.....
ReplyDeletethanks
sravani