Can a corrupt revenue system be trusted to keep confidences when oodles of money are involved, asks Mahesh Vijapurkar
Sriramulu has proved that a politician is true to his own self, his own needs, his own mentors of the moment, and that the public does not matter after the vote is cast. The voter is to be remembered only at the next round of elections, whenever it is, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
I for one would not use a car on Novermber 27, which is car-free day for Sounth Mumbai. For from tokenism and symbolism good ideas can come to grow and make a difference, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
The case of Mahesh Patil, who was arrested for negligence after his mother fell off his bike and died after it hit a pothole, should serve as an eye-opener for the authorities and the legal fraternity, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
The common man thinks that the stringent Lokpal law promised would take care of all corruption and rid the country of the malaise. It will not, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
The campaign should have started as a demand for total revolution to usher in good governance of which probity in public life as a quintessential element, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
In this mindless game of the back-and-forth, the government and its several eloquent but stubborn actors seemed to have lost the plot. Too much of spewing to spin a fact deluded them into thinking that the game was already won; that Hazare would quietly leave Delhi, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
In this mindless game of the back-and-forth, the government and its several eloquent but stubborn actors seemed to have lost the plot. Too much of spewing to spin a fact deluded them into thinking that the game was already won; that Hazare would quietly leave Delhi, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
It needed the high court to ensure proper roads in 2006 and the civic body has assumed that having met the court's demands was time-barred and confined to only that year. Accepted specifications had to be adhered to, work standards had to be followed and roads had to last monsoons, the court order implied. If these were successfully met for one year, why is it so difficult to do so in the subsequent years? asks Mahesh Vijapurkar.
Twenty-three years after the state's own legislation and thereafter, a legislation on the lines of the Centre's own formulation which came a few years thence is long enough to have got a proper and workable drill in place to prevent it, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
Unless the citizens demand and secure in each sector a citizens' charter setting out the minimum standards of provisioning and performance, things will not improve, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
We can still clean up India's rivers only if have the resolve. That is, the resolve both of the people and the authorities, the former for good behaviour the latter to ensure that once cleaned up, they stay that way, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
For everyone who is exercised enough to give vent by joining the demonstrations at Jantar Mantar and Ramlila Ground, there are a few thousands who remain quiet. This is where the strength of the corrupt is. This is what pre-empts a Jasmine Revolution and why India will not have a Tahrir Square, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
India has seen any number of cases where people were detained as if the judicial custody prior to trial was in itself adequate -- motions are gone through, cases allowed to fail in courts and then keep saying 'law will take its course', says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
We must keep our counsel and let the drafting committee do its best; keep faith in the civil society nominees till they prove otherwise, Mahesh Vijapurkar.
Since the time it was thought up, and the idea spread like an epidemic, there has been no significant changes in the way MPLADs and its imitations that have devolved to the states and local bodies. There is a vested interest not to change this wasteful scandal, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
Those talking about euthanasia using Aruna Shanbaug as leverage had better cry out for an actively functioning, effective and affordable healthcare regime. That would be a better service rendered to those who need it, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
Instead of the instinctive outcry that sentiments are hurt, the political leadership ought to avoid emotions and opt for reason for what has been suggested is good for us. They ought to cease stoking the fire and accept the reality, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
India needs to be concerned about the implication of restive people wanting to change regime after regime, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
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