Dear friends,
Mr. Desikan, Mr. Kris Dev and Mr. Jagannathan have explained the problem in great detail. They have first hand experience of the problem of corruption which is a manifestation of moral turpitude and they are fighting it at multiple levels. Some look at ways of fixing it through mechanisms of disbursal of funds, elections, accountability and transparency and some through educating the masses. I want to paraphrase what Dr. M.S. Valiathan, one of the pioneers of heart surgery in India has written in his book on Susruta. Dr. Valiathan says that the mind and the hand had been divorced some where down the line. This he writes in the context of Ayurveda, how such an advanced system of medicine became marginalized because the intelligentsia (episteme) and the technicians (techne) became separated. This is what has happened to our country. Hundreds of IITs, IIMs, Infosys, Tatas and Wipros can only provide us money and jobs. Technology cannot solve ethical issues. Technology can assist us only if we have the right reasons, right processes and right intentions.
Regards,
Sudarsan
Coordinator, Tamil Nadu Election Watch
____________
“There is nothing which is not the subject of debate, and in which men of learning are not of contrary opinions. The most trivial question escapes not our controversy, and in the most momentous we are not able to give any certain decision. Disputes are multiplied, as if everything was uncertain, and they are settled with the utmost warmth, as if everything was certain.” David Hume
____________
Dr. Sudarsan Padmanabhan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
HSB 353B
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Chennai - 600 036
Tamil Nadu, India
Phone: 91-44-2257-4526 & 4500
Email: sudarsanp@iitm.
____________
-----Original Message-----
From: India_Vision_
Sent: Sun 4/26/2009 7:18 AM
To: India_Vision_
Cc: A.K. VenkatSubramanian; B. S. Raghavan; Priya Desikan; nirdesi; Desikan, Radhika
Subject: Re: [India_Vision_
We at THE CATALYST TRUST began this campaign in 1998 and aggressively
followed it up 2004. 1.3 million new voters voted. The percentage of
vcotersalso increased.
In my opinion, which many of you may not share, our people have
accepted corruption as a part of life. While a few of us talk of
"eradicating", it and condemned it a few years ago, I am seeing many
to accept it in mute acceptance when it comes to each person's need.
Paying a few rupees to the inspector at the poilce office or RTO or
for that matter anywhere else seems to be a fact of life. If we look
at this and connect it to voting, a very large majority seem to have
accpeted it. IT IS SAD, BUT TRUE. Let me not give anyone the
impression that I condone it. No, I do not. But pragmatically looking
at the scenario, we have to accept it. What satish has pointed out is
very serious. When we connect to the corrupting the voters, it seems
possible that all our shouting has not affected the people. WHY? The
answer is the fact that those who are motivated by the loudest
campaign we have ever had on elections as in 2009, have not felt
compelled to go and vote. My reasoning is that we Indians have a
genetically coded fatalistic attitude towards life and we tend to
accept corruption as an inevitable evil. Perhaps I would not be wrong
when I say that many may believe that the evil has to be put down only
by divine intervention, if one believes in God.If such a premise is
accepted, even with reluctance, we have to find a solution. My answer
is simple. Convert the politics of business opportunity to nothing. We
all accept the fact that today people and parties are willing to
"invest", in political campaigning to ensure substantial return on
investment, while at the same time, one is able to elevate onself to
heights of power, ability to influence the governance so that under
the guise of welfare of the people make a commercial success of one's
participation in politics. Then the question arises, What should we do
to change all this and make democracy truly, for the people, by the
people?
Money is the cause and is the reason for converting public service
into public commercial enterprise. Remove it from the elections. There
shall be no expense whatsoever by the candidate or party. Even if one
poster, one meeting, one paise of expense is incurred by the candidate
or his party, let the Peoples' Representation Act disqualify that
person and party from continuing in the elections for ten yearx or
more. This is possible; it is NOT IMPOSSIBLE.
We NGOs and others should spend our time, money in changing the
fundamentals of elections and electioneering. Only then would we get
true democracy.
A little application of mind will show that once the money power is
removed totally, even poor persons can stand for elections. Good
people will participate. Good people don't participate only because,
they know that they will have to spend or get someone else to spend to
stand for elections and win. Once they win with money power, they feel
obligated to the financiar or the funder and " help" him to get back
his return on investment with profit.Whether I am right or wrong will
be proved in the next few weeks. I only wish and pray that I am wrong.
We are likely to have some trime available to generate public opinion
to change the electoral system without money.Even if the coalation
works only for a short time, if we can build a campaign showing even
to the businessmen that funding elections only boosts the cost of
operartion of their business which in turn increases the cost of
production or sefvcices. This in turn affects the Billion consmers of
this country because it is we who pay the price ultimately of the
products and services we buy or even given by the State or as
familiarly known as the Government.
I can only warn that if we do not remove the cause of poor voting,
corruption in voting and letting the politics of this country run by
"professional", businessmen struting in the guise of 'AAM ADMIS'
friend, philosopher and guide, the rot will continue till it becomes
intolerable, raising forth a Rama, or Jesus or Allah to put down all
the devilry.
If we beleive in PRALAYAM, or DELUGE, or anything similar in ther
relgions, then perhaps we will have wait.
R.Desikan
Chairman
THE CATALYST TRUST
CHENNAI 41
PS Please note the above expresses my own opinion and does not
necessarily reflect the opinion of my fellow trustees.
On 24/04/2009, Vernkatraman Rajendran <venkrajen@yahoo.
> The analysis by Sathish (that the poll per centage this time has reduced) is
> really causing conern. Does it mean that the youth are getting more
> disillusioned with the electoral process and the democratic system. I only
> wish I were wrong. In fact I pray I should be wrong. But what else that
> this indicate? Psephologists to throw more light please. We say that more
> and more youth are concerned about nation building, literacy per centage has
> increased, awareness has risen, political interest is now enhanced and there
> is a wide-spread youth awakening. But what does this analysis indicate?
>
> V Rajendran
> Secy Cyber Society of India, Chennai
>
> --- On Fri, 4/24/09, Sathish <sathishsp@gmail.
>
>
> From: Sathish <sathishsp@gmail.
> Subject: [India_Vision_
> To: India_Vision_
> Date: Friday, April 24, 2009, 7:13 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dear all,
>
> I was just looking at the poll percentage of the 2009 elections. Since two
> phases of elections are over..I was really worried on seeing the poll
> percentage. The number of peoples turnout for voting was considerably less
> when compared to 2004 elections. Recently in the second phase of elections
> only 55% were recorded.
>
> Phase 2 Elections poll turnuot
>
> State 2004 2009
> Andhra 72 68
> Assam 69 62
> Bihar 57 44
> Goa 59 55
> J&K 45 46
> Jarkhand 57 47
> Karnataka 62 55
> MP 49 45
> Maharastra 55 56
> Manipur 56 65
> Orissa 68 55
> Tripura 67 80
> UP 46 44
>
> Total 59 55
>
> Only Tripura has did a good job. I don't think those peoples are influenced
> by Internet and online campaigns.
>
> What happened to the online vote campaign, online awareness on the
> importance of voting. Seemed to be a election with more number of young
> votes...but less number of votes registered when compared to 2004 elections.
> Does this proves that the approach was totally failed ? what is the result
> of the "n" number of NGO's working on this for past years ?
>
> Wish to have some good numbers in the third and final phase of elections.
> And that too for sure In tamil nadu we need a change....lets see...!
>
> One thing I am sure that.....we have to change the approach for making the
> peoples vote. Let's think differently.
>
> Jai Hind...!
>
> With love...Sathish.
> Blossom Foundation.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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