We went through the worst week in our lives just now with armed terrorists trained in Pakistan killing us and destroying our hometown.
We all unanimously simultaneously asserted 'Enough is enough'.
No more saluting our spirit.
No more asking us to be resilient.
We all expressed our anger at the way our politicians failed in security intelligence.
How they shoddily managed the situation.
How they put their feet in their mouths.
We slammed them for what they said.
we slammed some for not saying anything and being silent.
We saluted our heroes who died in this tragedy in the line of duty.
We expressed our faith, out unity, our solidarity at such a time to the victims and our own bruised souls.
We all resolved to not let this event also pass and fade away and to take a stand.
We all asked questions and demanded answers.
We had debates, discussions, arguments, analysis, interviews, on TV, newspapers, Internet about the incident and about what went wrong and who was responsible and what we need to do in the future so this is not repeated.
We formed groups and action committees to get together in this hour, expressing our unity by paying homage to the dead, lighting candles.
We gathered or proposed to gather at the tragic sites to highlight the messages we want to give to our government that we will not take anymore bullshit like this lying down.
We denounced our media of being hysterical and over excited and screwing up things in their enthusiasm to get maximum eyeballs to their channels.
We decided, enthused, resolved and took a stand that we will not be passive spectators to this anymore and take more active part, take responsibility in choosing who we elect at the next elections.
We sent around thousands of SMSs, emails condemning the attacks, blasting the politicians and praising the brave hearts who showed courage at times of crisis.
We decried and shouted the need of more security for places like Bombay and the money wasted on VIP security.
We screamed for the blood of our local politicians and demanded their resignations, and got it.
We decided that we will make a difference.
We will decide our own future and bring about a change.
we will be THE change.
.................................................................
Now what ??
..................................................................
When Deshmukh resigns, he will be replaced by someone like Sushil kumar shinde...........
When R R Patil resigns, he will be replaced by someone like Chhagan Bhujbal.................
There will be demands for an early poll by every tom, dick and harry political outfit because they want to get in the newspapers.............
In pre-poll campaigning starting immediately the BJP, shivsena, mns and other opportunistic parties will scream, shout and cry hoarse the 'total intelligence failure' of the current government to protect India................
Not willing to mention explicitly at the same time what THEY propose to do to achieve the same................
There will be appointments of special investigation committees (sickening) to investigate this incident which will drain away a few thousand crores of tax payers money and after a few years will come out with conclusions that we already know today................
The single terrorist who killed 55 people and was arrested will be put in jail, his trial will go on for years and even if he is given the death sentence, which by all means he should, he will go on living in jail on our money like his colleague Afzal Guru on some flimsy human right petition that the president cannot decide on for some political reason we will never know..........
The government will deploy a few hundred NSG commandos in Bombay and other metros as a face saving exercise, not as a pro-active response, knowing well that the terrorists can simply strike in some other city the next time..........
At the public outcry of un-necessary VIP security provided to undeserving politicians, the government will symbolically withdraw the security of some of them, while at the same time some more supposed VIPs will apply for and receive the same expensive VIP security at public expense........the equation will remain the same............
There will be a temporary beefing up of security at all public places, airports, stations, theatres, malls etc which will never be impenetrable for any terrorist but will be designed to be pure harassment for the common public so that it looks like the authorities are doing a good job responding to the situation..........
Clearly we are not getting anywhere with this revolution in our hearts, this resolve to bring about a change and this assertion to finally take things in our hands.
Our problem is that we have a fierce desire to make a change in our country, but we have no options at present that will help us do that.
It will do us no good to keep on chanting "lets bring about a change" and "enough is enough".
Even if well-meaning, commendable and first-of-its-kind efforts like "JaagoRe.com" initiated by the tata group manage to bring more of us to the polling stations than ever before . . . then what.
What we are likely to see on that polling booth as our options is going to depress us and bring about a crashing anti-climax.
Just think about what choices do we have there -
The current UPA alliance government - which will be the unfortunate victim of being in power when this happened.
The BJP - Shivsena alliance - L k advani, rath yatras, demolition of mosques, marathi manoos, hindu fundamentalism, vote harvesting through religious politics.
The BSP - mayawati for PM ?
The CPI - Communism ?
The MNS - ????
Without going into any details about each of these, I would say its a pretty depressing scenario. Most of us are more likely to get disappointed and just return back from that booth without having the heart to vote for any of these.
Most often we have to vote for a party if he has a local candidate who we know is a good guy even if his political bosses at the center are not what we want to rule our country, eg. the BJP.
Or we have to vote for some local idiot / goon / criminal just because he happens to belong to the party who is going to give us the best PM, FM etc at the center, eg. the UPA/NCP.
Now we know that the questions of national security and our economic progress cannot be addresses at the local levels and need someone as qualified and as intelligent as Dr. Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram at the center. Its been proven beyond doubt that this golden team currently at the helm of affairs in the center has been the best for making India what it is today, an economic powerhouse and a globally respected nation. They are the best thing that has happened to India since independence.
So what do we do ?
We as a nation have always been a knee-jerk reaction people who have always chosen to go to the other extreme in times of crisis influenced and propelled by the media noises and politicians themselves accusing each other.
Very predictably, the immediate reaction of all the other political parties apart form the ruling alliance was to criticize the government for this and point out its failures tooth and nail. Its a god send opportunity for those waiting to grab power.
And most of us, in this state of anger, will play along, going and voting this government out of power and choosing to have people like advani, mayawati and maybe even (god forbid) prakash karat in important places in our country's administration.
Obviously in a few months or years this will come to ground, there might be another terror attack in our country because lets face it, no one can guarantee us a totally terror free nation, something not even the United States of America could do with all its military might and intelligence, and we will do the whole nine yards mentioned above yet again . . . and again and again.
The question here is - Now What ?
One good idea that comes to my mind is to create a situation where we are able to select someone like Ratan Tata, Narayan Murthy, Azim Premji, or other successful scions of the indian economy like them as our CM, or at least as our Home minister or as is being suggested by a lot of intelligent citizens, as a CEO of Bombay city.
In more ways than you can imagine, running a country is not very different from running a business empire. If you have got your economics right, pretty much everything falls into place. If you have your income vs expenditure sorted out, have your public money being spent in correct ways, have transparency of accounts, can control corruption, can run things without giving any thought or relevance to cast, religion, language etc and only giving importance to efficiency and capability in both public and private enterprise and administration . . . you can pretty much run a country like these business leaders have been running their organizations, efficiently and successfully.
They are educated, qualified, experienced, have a global perspective, and have excellent track records of managing vast administrations, thousands of people and improving millions of lives either directly or indirectly.
Nothing could be better than that for India at a time like this when India is almost on the brink of becoming a superpower. The quality of life of the average Indian citizen would improve. Imagine there would be no politicians with shady records, criminal backgrounds, stupid remarks who want power at any cost.
No corruption because these leaders are already in a place where the desire to amass wealth through dubious means will not be very lucrative for them. They know how to create wealth. They are less likely to care about money and power and exploiting the nation for it because they have seen enough of it already. Tax payers money will be spent where it can be justified and not where some politician will personally benefit.
Defense, health care, security, education, public infrastructure, transport, industry, trade, everything will be just much much better managed.
There will little cause of frustration and exploitation because with economic progress comes a better educated, better thinking and more aware and intelligent population.
The politicians who today remain in power by making sure the masses stay poor, uneducated and fed on religious bullshit will suddenly find themselves out of jobs and out of followers.
The implications are endless if you start thinking about it................I cannot by myself, do justice to the tree of possibilities that this idea can sprout.
Like John Lennon said, "Imagine . . . its easy if you try."
There's only one problem with this idea. I have a feeling none of the really deserving and qualified people will agree to take up this job. After all politics is dirty buisness and given their level of intelligence and disposition, they are most likely to see this as a downgrade from their current positions. They probably wouldnt have the time and inclination.
You might call this a fool's fantasy but if we could even get one industry leader, or an intellectual to be the CM of maharashtra, or the CEO of Bombay, we will definitely see at least the beginning of the changes I can imagine right now.
Till then, we will have to do with having to choose between the slimeballs that we call our politicians, the like of what we find now on the country's political scenario and in our newspapers and TV today.
Its not a fair choice.
In fact there is no choice.
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