Monday, December 08, 2008

Rhetoric Over, Brass Tacks Now

After the recent terrorist strike in Mumbai we have seen enough happening in the country in past few days. The incident has also exposed many a weakness that our system has, most of all the tone, tenor and style of functioning of our political class. While so many symbolic gestures have been made at various levels which included resignation by or removal of some ministers, rallies at public places by common citizens and a series of group discussions by celebrities on the electronic media, little has been done to prevent such tragic events happening again. Slowly we are slipping back to normalcy and hence, complacency. It is high time that we put our act together and get down to Brass-Tacks NOW. In view of the above, may I appeal to our countrymen, belonging to different strata of society, to take certain urgent measures to prevent recurrence of such events.

Appeal to the powers that be:-

1. I will appeal to all our real as well as pseudo VIPs to remove those beacon lights from top of their cars. The vehicles with beacon lights enjoy certain immunities as far as security checks are concerned. Since beacon lights are available dime a dozen in the market, these can be fixed by terrorists on their cars which can be then driven unchecked into any high security area. This was done by the terrorists who attacked the Indian Parliament. Let only the ambulances and fire tenders display the same. They have to be given the right of the way as they rush to save someone’s life. VIPs do not. At the most they are going to attend some meeting where it would be decided that when will the next meeting be held.

2. Send back those gun totting commandos, walking behind the VIPs, to their barracks. They need to get training and remain battle worthy to save precious lives of the common citizens and not of the so called VIPs who have made enemies by shooting off their mouths at some public meeting or the other. Let the politicians make their own security arrangements and pay for the same from their party funds.

3. Create a central agency to gather intelligence as well as to investigate terrorist related incidents and put them under the unified command of the three defense services.

4. Place crack commando units at all big cities. Give them dedicated jet air crafts and not propeller driven ones to maintain lightening mobility for inter city movement at the time of need. They may also be provided with dedicated assault helicopters.

5. Withdraw all .303 rifles and other obsolete weapons and equipment from the armed police, Railway protection and other such forces that are responsible for guarding the public life and property. Equip them with automatic weapons and the latest equipment.

6. Bring a constitutional amendment to make a legislation that during an election rally or a public meeting, the speeches of the politicians should contain the achievements of own candidates or of their party and not negative remarks on the opponents which often creates bad blood without educating the voters about anything.

7. Put behind bars anyone creating hate in the minds of one community or class against the other. Such a person should be treated as a traitor and dealt with accordingly.

8. Give the right to the citizens to recall an elected candidate if he/she does not perform.
Appeal to the citizens:-
9. It seems (as circulated on the net) that there is a system in our constitution, as per the 1969 act, in section "49-O" of chapter on "Conduct of Elections," that a person can go to the polling booth, confirm his/her identity, get teh black mark on his/her finger and convey to the presiding officer that he/she doesn't want to vote anyone. In a ward, if a candidate wins, say by 1000 votes, and that particular ward has received more than 1000 " I VOTE NOBODY" votes, then that polling will be declared null and void and re-polling will be held. The candidature of the earlier contestants will be removed who will not be able to contest the re-poll, since voters have already expressed their decision on them. This would force the political parties to look for genuine candidates for contesting elections. ( I got it in my mail and needs to be verified for correctness, and if true, it can change the face of our political class)

10. And finally, I will appeal to all the citizens to kindly co-operate with the security officials wherever they are posted and go through the security checks of the respective place or installation religiously. In December 2002, at Frankfurt airport, I had to go through the Door Frame Metal Detector several times, only because while i had parted with all the metallic things like ring, coins and keys etc. on my person, i was still ignorantly carrying a small pocket diary, the cover of which had tiny brass corners. That is the very reason that there has been no second 9/11 or 7/7. But yes, don’t forget to tick off the corrupt or slack security or police official and report to his higher ups immediately.

8 comments:

Mampi said...

Wonderful and gutsy... Like a true fauji.
I have already started to cooperate more willingly with the security checks at various places and have been more sympathetic to the security people's attempts to make us more comfortable.
Loved the suggestion that if the VIP needs security, let him pay for it. If this were implemented, they would automatically decide and judge that they dont need it, hehe.
Wonderfully lucid suggestions.

Balvinder Balli said...

Thank you Manpreet, yes we will have to do our bit in whatever capacity we are. So for the time being i am just venting out my feelings on the blog. After seeing the tamasha of politicians and beurocrats, day in and day out, it is really frustrating to know that the sweat and blood of our brave men in uniform is going waste.

Anonymous said...

I loved th suggestion about recalling the elected candidates.. but i dunno if it will happen...

A very well thought out post sir !! Salutes !

Indian Home Maker said...

Brilliant list! Each one makes sense. The beacon lights are also a status symbol, just like Security and both should be strictly monitored.
And it seems they take away the best of the Security commandos for themselves and have respect for them, as seen from Achutanandan's remarks.
I will make sure I always vote, follow rules and get more people to do the same.

Pinku said...

lovely post...the best part about it is the can do, can achieve approach.

Usha Pisharody said...

The Clarity of thought, and the level headed, very very reasonable and much-needed items on the list should be taken up.

As citizens yes, I think the awareness and the inspiration to now act in accordance with the conscience is slowly taking root.

The powers that be, well that will be the story to track. But I only hope they will show that they have the guts to do this too. Then we shall really be proud to have such a governance. Will they? A million dollar question!

Pessimistic as that may sound, there is always hope, in a democracy. And that will sustain and energize one to move on, and persist, desist... till we get them to change.

As a citizen, yes, I do vote, and shall... and next time round will try to find out more about the candidates in my constituency. Have also been telling the kids in school the same.. that politics is not bad, just that some people malign it. And also about the safety factor, suspicious persons, baggage etc.. :)

Thank you. This is a wonderful post.

Rumi said...

Uncle ,
I really love to go through your blog whenever i get time.It's true that our commandoes have been made to do their duties in front of the VIP gates.Are they trained for door keeping?it's truely a waste of their training and indirectly a waste of our country's resources.
Another thing I would like to point out over here,that it is our politicians who are directly or indirectly responsible for all the losses of our country.History has told us that whenever we had trouble inside our country, the outsiders have come ,attacked and ransacked our country.
Let us take up the present day scenario.remember what Raj Thakre did when the north indians went to mumbai to seat for an exam.His navnirmaan sena came and started beating up saying their "bhoomi putra"must get the preferences.When our men got so much involved with this internal issue,the terror attack took place.I personally feel not only Pakistan but we have terrorists inside our country too.
few days back I received a mail from one of my friends that ,
"we should not bother somuch about those who invaded by boats. We must be more concerned about those who are comming to the power by our votes".It's a blatent truth.

Anonymous said...

+1. Let those folks protect common folks and become battle worrthy.
Govind
http://govindkanshi.wordpress.com