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.
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.
