We have read a lot about the Baba Ramdev and the related stories. There is no doubt that the move by congress to use force on peaceful protestors was atrocious. I hope you would be glad that if I mention that this post is not exactly about that incident.
Instead of evicting Ramdev, I feel, congress could have genuinely considered some of the demands of Baba. Though many points raised by him are valid, it’s not practical to implement it.
However two major demands raised by him appeal to me
1) Bringing back the black money stashed abroad in tax heavens and
2) Electing the PM directly.
It is easier said than done to bring back all the black money stashed abroad. Congress has been in power for the past 60 years. I am sure that most of the money would belong to the congress ministers / party members. No wonder 4 of the senior ministers went to the airport (or at least they were planning to) to convince Baba either to drop the demand or to convince him. The issue of graft has been haunting congress for quite some time now. DMK which has been a part of the congress ministry has also criticized Baba. I believe, if you note the parties which criticize Baba and trace the amount of black money stashed by the members such political parties, 80% of such black money can be brought back to India. It would be foolish to expect the government (any ruling party for that matter including BJP and congress in particular) to act on this as they would be directly affected by this. Who would bell the cat?
If people elect the Prime minister directly, he would have more power and authority. The PM would then be directly answerable to the public when it comes to important issues. However in the current scenario you can have a dummy person as a PM. However good he may be, he would not be in a position to act independently. Again it’s not easy to implement this. There would be several issues. For ex. What would happen if a person from one party gets elected as a PM and another party gets majority? Would he be heading the government, while the ministers would be from other parties? That would be chaotic.
I believe if we address the second point (somehow) we can easily address the first one quite easily.
5 comments:
Hmm everything is so sweet to write n hear but reality is totally different. Even if ppl elect the PM directly, he will just act according to the party tunes. As i said we probably need Indian Thatha not Anna Hazare.
Good thought. I've held this view for a long time. The difficulty can be addressed by recasting the powers of PM and parliament a little bit.
But to start with, I've an even simpler idea. It should be mandated for political parties contesting elections to name their PM/CM candidate before elections itself. That will give an opportunity for people to elect a party keeping the PM/CM in mind as well as remove the difficulty..
@Chitra - Even if Indian thatha is there, you may not achieve the objective. There should be something similar to Jasmine revolution for this to happen. Looks like congress is getting a feeling that something like that might happen if the fast is allowed. Hence they have used 144.
@Mohan - Ya the idea is better. But still it is possible that someone like Sonia would have a rubber stamp in the PM post so that she can hide behind him when it comes to issues and take credit for positives.
I was thinking to write on the same topic but was not able to overcome my inertia... gud that u wrote it and now i can just add my opinion as my comment ;)
No doubt some of his demands are good and is nearly next to impossible to achieve in our current political setup.
there is not a single political party who when given a chance would like to have these laws in place. Even BJP who is supporting these demands would not make it a law if they were in power. And I am sure even if we have a directly elected PM, he would be just a puppet of the party with the majority. If the parliamentary laws are changed and the elected PM is given superior powers and authority, we would just be moving from 'monarchy' to 'dictatorship'.
I feel Baba Ramdev should have planned a bit more before starting such a movement. If he is venturing out of his domain he should know the other domain well. The key to success of this movement is now to start it again and on a much larger scale spanning the entire country. It would lead to some disruption of law & order and would be kindf revolution...but then isn't it meant to be one..!
@Pallavi - I agree with your view on the preparation which Ramdev shd hav done before making such demands.
Yes. We need a revolution similar to what is happening in the Middle east to bring in some constitutional changes. And this is the main reason for congress to use 143 policy first with Ramdev and using 144 when he does not heed to their suggestions.
But i would like to differ with you on a person with more powers becoming a dictator. US has a presidential system and US president has more powers. But he has to go to congress for approval. If a single individual (PM / President)initiates a good reform, it would not be possible for political parties to reject it, as that PM / President is directly elected by people. It is not impossible to have a system which has checks and balances.
But the tough exercise would to to bring in this constitutional change. As the current system suits all the politicians. Any elected representative can become a PM now. If the option goes to public it would be difficult for them to manage.
Incidentally it was Advani who mentioned that (some years back)that a presidential system would benefit us. Whether BJP would endorse his stand is a big questions mark. Let us hope that Anna and Baba would help us unite to create a better political system in which politicians are made accountable.
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