E-Paper
Turn over a new leaf this year
REMEMBER THE end of 2004. There was countrywide mourning following the tsunami tragedy. A debate was raging in all quarters to celebrate or not to celebrate the arrival of 2005 when an encouraging quote had helped us drown our sorrows under a new ray of hope. The quote read, ?A new year is a chance to start a new and better life Make the most of it?.
REMEMBER THE end of 2004. There was countrywide mourning following the tsunami tragedy. A debate was raging in all quarters to celebrate or not to celebrate the arrival of 2005 when an encouraging quote had helped us drown our sorrows under a new ray of hope. The quote read, “A new year is a chance to start a new and better life Make the most of it”.
Once again it’s the first day of the New Year. There is a whiff of freshness in the air prompting us to make some customary resolutions, introspect and zealously pursue some new aspirations.
Lets talk about aspirations first as resolutions are meant either for personal satisfaction or public consumption. They are really pursued by us (even those who vow to quit smoking are seen fagging much before the first month of the New Year ends) and introspections, without resolutions, are meaningless.
As a commoner what do we aspire for in 2006?
a) A sincere and stable government. Though elections are due in early 2007 many hopefuls foresee them in 2006. Ask them why? They have no answer.
Whatever, elections in the state are not far off. Thus there is no harm in dreaming for a government that is more committed to people than politics and politicians and has an agenda for practice and not preaching.
b) Code of ethics for politicians, journalists and judiciary. Though there are codes of ethics for politicians and judiciary, evolved by respective parties as well as the chief justice, their implementation is the need of hour. Painful allegations and counter-allegations are flying thick and fast even in courts. (about media later)
c) Continuation of drive against corruption. The campaign got a fillip after the ouster of two former UP chief secretaries on corruption charges. One hopes the campaign would continue and more skeletons would tumble out of the cupboard.
d) Criminals in jails: Criminals turned politicians like Mukhtar Ansari, Amarmani Tripathi and Raghuraj Pratap Singh have been in and out of jail. One really hopes that the parties would soon dump all criminals before they turn into a liability.
Why is the CM not inviting Raghuraj Pratap Singh to join the ministry? Raja, the Rajput leader, is waiting in the wings for an invitation.
e) Complete overhauling of the police department. Let them target their ‘Operation Majnu’ against eve teasers, exploiters of women than lovebirds. Let them target criminals rather than innocents. In fact what they need is a fitness routine along with some discipline.
f) Optimum utilisation of funds by the state government and scrapping of MLAs’ and MPs’ funds or a system to monitor and crosscheck their spendings.
g) Kalyan Singh, Rajnath Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav all wanted to re-designate themselves as CEOs, in other words, step into the shoes of Chandrababu Naidu. Let them turn Lucknow into Cyberabad. What happened to the development of state capital into a smart city.
h) Better power and water facilities along with better education and employment facilities: It’s an irony that even after decades of the country’s Independence we are still struggling for these basic necessities.
i) A more alert and conscious citizen who fights for consumer’s rights, who uses the right to information law to his advantage, who exercises his franchise in the interest of the state and country and not any caste or community. A better civic sense so that he does not add to confusion or chaos on the streets or encroaches public property. Not very difficult to achieve only if the politicians would have some heart, bureaucrats some spine and public some voice. Let’s hope 2006 at least proves to be a turning point. Now some self-introspection! Questions we need to ponder over:
Should we force our entry into every glamorous function only to be humiliated? Agreed people want to see Aamir-Kiran Rao’s wedding but should we barge in uninvited only to be bashed up by security personnel. Agreed people want an update on Amitabh’s health, but should we run minute-to-minute capsules -- How he got up? How he took the first step, had the first morsel of food?. Agreed there is a need to highlight the fate of Gudia, Imrana and many such other victims of our society, but should we make their life hell to get an exclusive shot or report? Do we ever try to find out what happens to them once the cameras are turned off?
Remember the three-month old child who was raped only because someone wanted to settle scores with her parents? Have we found out how she is being taken care of in Lakhimpur Kheri? As long as she lived here under the care of doctors at KGMU, the parents too showed concern. Today the reports from the backward district indicate that the infant has become a liability for the family too. Yes our quest for human-interest reports is making us inhuman. Till the time the heads decide to sit and hammer out a solution of the above tales, there is little that can be done. So can we make some resolutions? Yes, one to restore our credibility that we lost in Saurabh’s case (remember the boy who fooled the country by his claims of doing better than President Kalam in a NASA test), second to continue our tirade against corruption (perhaps the only two pillars of our democracy fighting corruption in the country are – judiciary and media), continue exposing the criminals and their say and sway in the political world, continue our war against social evils -- without encroaching upon someone’s privacy.
