Month: August 2011

Why should we VOTE?

Blog was written in April 2009

Once again a hullabaloo that makes me go at end of my wits, here comes the election again; crooks are on sale, criminal’s are in race to become representatives of state and country. The great election drama, where apart from development and well being of society everything is discussed, right from giving hugs and kisses to fellow female contestant, to abusing particular community to propagate against English language, to call upon bollywood celebrity, who even lacks common general knowledge and all sort of antiques to get votes are in trend. Why can’t these so called highly intelligent politicians don’t understand we are not interested in this, what we want is development, security and sustained freedom for country. And, this is the reason many of my fellow voters are moving away from polling booth to Bollywood movie theatre or mini vacations. The essence of voting and importance of voting is just missing the bus by these politicians. In their illusion that politics is won by playing vote bank politics, development is thrown into the throes of anonymity, which, in fact is of prime importance for country’s youth. And hence “NO VOTING” is new mantra of young generation.

“NO VOTING”, is this new mantra, a solution to hard and serious question “Why should we vote?” along with “To whom to vote and for what?” these are real serious question asked by young voters to political fraternity across the board. Why should I vote for some who possessed ammunitions in disguise of protecting family, and that to sourcing guns from India’s top most wanted hardcore criminal. Should we vote for him only because of his two hit Hindi masala movies OR should we vote for some one who is against computers and English as a language OR those candidates who spread lies and distributes money to poor voters OR to a government who in disguise of secularism is winning elections and alliance on vote bank politics and dividing society OR some one who is so myopic in his vision to separate the community in process of branding oneself as protector of a particular community.

We have politicians disclosing their assets which run in crore, but their constituency or state is lagging behind development. We also have our railway minister, in role of a new Management guru who is said to have changed Indian railway system in matter of five years, but shouldn’t we go back and ask him that why in spite of his rule in his state for over one and half decade, the state is one of the worst progressed state, why state has not progressed despite having such a charismatic leader, that is if he is, or is it like he is not interested in development of his own state. Nearly 20% of candidates willing to represent us have criminal records and again all parties are equal in hiring criminals for elections.

What is seen today in politics is only mud slinging on each other, trying to prove that one party is less corrupt and inefficient than other, in a nutshell what is coming straight on face is, that every one is corrupt just that ratings are varying. So why should we vote for these politicians, when they are not concerned with my state / country’s development, they are not fit to represent me and also it is easier said than done to participate in political system and importantly what difference will 1 vote make when the system in itself is corrupt. Its like Hindi quote “mein is paapi ko saath nahi dena chahta, kyuki mein is paap ka bhagidaar nahi banna chahta”.

But even than my question still remains that despite all the above accusations and explanations, is the solution devised of “NO VOTING” a suitable and progressive one. Well to me “Avoiding is never a solution to any problem” and again by deciding not to vote we are actually voting for the same corrupt politician to get re-elected, whom we hate for his crimes and selfish and narrow attitude. Well I would just like to say, “VOTE”, and vote not just for the change but also to initiate the process of change. When the voting percentage will increase, it will also increase the vigil and so the accountability of the politician. To make the matter simple, lets take a scenario of one hypothetical constituency, where voting percentage is very low, the candidates conducts a political arithmetic, and he finds that educated people are not going to vote, so why to flatter this class with development or any positives, as nothing matters to them and on the other hand he can buy out few percentage of vote by distributing money, liquor and sarees. Hence the politician is only interested in making money by hook or crook to distribute among poor to collect votes and will not look after development at all, as development may drive away his vote bank and also create hurdle in his money making business.

When every one gives vote the vigil increases and politician is accountable to more people and also he cannot purchase all the votes hence he has to give back to society by way of development work to get re-elected.It is completely agreed that by voting this time it is difficult to change the system or get the development in process, but to initiate the development, just vote even if it means to select a lesser criminal of the options but choose one and vote. Yes, we should vote the best and honest person but if there are no honest candidates as an option, then we should go for politician with lesser criminal record as only by increased voting we can fit the fear of incumbency in politician for future election and he will have to start working or else another politician will get chance.

It’s only in our hand to clean our present mess for beautiful future. As said “Always fight for yourself, as no one will fight for you” and that includes even your so called political representative. We have to stop being afraid and also refrain from passing the responsibility of choosing future for ourselves and our future generations. It looks so very easy to comment on a stupid politician’s speech or act, it becomes a talk over tea and debate session in office, but then what are WE doing apart from debate, are we putting these debates in practice by stopping that particular candidate to get re-elected? We plan out time to buy beers and sports lounge tickets in advance as voting day is dry day and holiday so that we can enjoy this holiday, however important day it is. We plan out vacations and watch cricket matches instead of selecting some one to govern us. Also because it is difficult for every one of us to get into system of politics, So VOTE TO INITIATE THE CHANGE, IF CHANGE is not seen right away.

What we are voting is not just for a candidate of constituency but we are voting for “HOPE”, a hope that if not today our tomorrow will be better and with more satisfying feeling that I had a part / role to play in deciding what is right for my country. GUESS WHAT, THIS SATISFACTORY FEELING OF AN ATTEMPT TO SAVE OUR COUNTRY CAN BE AVAILED EVEN BY YOU AT A SMALL PRICE OF JUST ONE VOTE IN EVERY ELECTION WITH NO ADDITIONAL OR HIDDEN COST.

I can recollect a simple nursery story, which tells that a mouse ran over the body of sleeping lion. Well to me the moral of the story is “EVEN a mouse can harass and run over an unaware and sleeping lion”. So even if voters are the most important in democracy but if they are sleeping, these crooks can take us for a big ride.

Lastly want to mention the importance of one vote

  • In 1645, One Vote gave Oliver Cromwell control of England
  • In 1648, One Vote decided the execution of Charles I
  • In 1776, One Vote gave America English instead of German as a language
  • In 1868, One Vote saved Andrew Jackson form Impeachment
  • In 1923, One Vote made Hitler the leader of Nazi Party
  • In 1998, Vajpayee Govt. was defeated by One Vote

Moral…every vote counts. Go out and Vote

 

Root Cause Analysis and Sound Judicial System ~ Answer to counter the failure against terror

Definition: Root cause analysis (RCA) is a successful problem solving method aimed at identifying the root causes of problems or events. THE PRACTICE OF RCA IS PREDICATED ON THE BELIEF THAT PROBLEMS ARE BEST SOLVED BY ATTEMPTING TO CORRECT OR ELIMINATE ROOT CAUSES, AS OPPOSED TO MERELY ADDRESSING THE IMMEDIATELY OBVIOUS SYMPTOMS. By directing corrective measures at root causes, it is hoped that the likelihood of problem recurrence will be minimized.
In Layman term, it means to get to the core of the problem and fix that particular nut which is noisy rather than blaming or changing the entire machine.
After 26 / 11, we had Mr. P Chidambaram, new Home minister, coming out and acknowledging the lapses in security. He at least did it unlike Mr. Shivraj who is competent only in his fashion sense. But this leads to a new question. Where this self acknowledgment is leading us to?? And should the matter be considered over at only acknowledging things??
Well to accept the failure is the first and most important step to ensure winning in the future; but provided acceptance is taken just to be a step to move forward and not the means to cover up the present lapses from punitive action. Acknowledging failure should actually initiate the introspection and way to find out the present loop holes resulting in our loss.
Post 26 / 11, what we are seeing on political ground is buck passing (in disguise) and acknowledgment of failure despite of having information in bits and pieces scattered in different departments. IT IS SAID, IT WAS A SYSTEM FAILURE, BUT WHAT IS SYSTEM MADE OF, PEOPLE HOLDING THE POSITION, SYSTEM BY IN ITSELF CANNOT THINK AND ACT, BUT PEOPLE IN IT CAN. SO MORE THAN SYSTEM FAILURE, IT IS A FAILURE OF THE PEOPLE WHO WERE IN CHARGE.
Should we not micro manage things now?? As it is rightly said, if micro things are managed properly, macro stuff will be taken care of by its own.
In my view, system is a problem but more big and grave problem is less of proactive officials who are just part of system rather than doing their main job of securing people.
To start with, there were news floating around and even leaders have accepted that there was information about the ‘water route’ as medium of transport and chances of attacks on hotels in Mumbai. And what did we do?? Well …. Well …. Well …. Let’s not just answer “system failure” and end the topic.
If information was available to police or for that matter to ministry or intelligence who ever the recipient is, what did they do with the information? Again we should not blame police or ministry as a whole, but that particular officer who had that information, he should be interrogated. If he had passed on this information to his senior / deciding authority than what did the senior do? We should conduct this check until and unless we find that particular officer, who has not processed this information in yielding manner, AS THAT IS THE FOCAL POINT OF OUR FAILURE. Also, lame excuse of no proper system or infrastructure should not be listened, because we cannot have reactive forces safeguarding us. For if a Intelligence person had this information of terror attack and just because he don’t have authority to act gives him no right to sit quietly on the terror information, he has to be proactive and knock the doors in every possible way, and even after that if he is not successful than the higher authority who was instrumental in not hearing him or taking action should be charged for negligence. We also have news hungry media so official can take help and get the news to the right authority by whatever means, Bottom line is WE NEED PROACTIVE OFFICIALS WHO HAVE THE CAPACITY TO CHALLENGE THE IMPROPER SYSTEM AND SUBSEQUENTLY CHANGE AND MAKE IT A ROBUST SYSTEM, RATHER THAN JUST BEING A SMALL PART OF THE SYSTEM AND MOVING THE WAY AGE OLD SYSTEM INFRASTRUCTURE IS MOVING.
Finding root cause of ineffective or inactive nuts in our system infrastructure can help us tightening them. Also once there is a punitive supervision taking place on individual with surety of being charged for his lapses in his work will definitely help in reducing carelessness. Similarly this method can be used effectively in administrating and governing country.
Second important requirement is sound and robust judicial system; for we know even after Supreme Court passing the judgment it is not followed…. Hence action on judgment taken should be taken care of, As again mentioned in my previous blog, ” Are we moving in right direction? Now At Last”…for all such cases there should be special court and should have dedicated judges under supervision of Chief Justice of India; Also there should be no place of political party involvement by way of Prime minister or even President. One of the basic requirements is that there should be no mercy petition.
I know and understand that this model attracts too much of doubt and chance bias judgment. Hence I advocate no political pressure; this court is autonomous and free from so called leaders.
Again, the above process is not RCA in totality but a step to solving the problem so as to avert the future loss. But this step is very much required as against the bold statement in fixing the blame or points the problem, what we should now do is to find solution, because we know the problem from past 61 years. Let’s move together as citizen with help of RTI and media to know where the core problem lies and who is the actually responsible for the lapses.