Can this happen, Election Commission of India ??

Can we make some promises this election year ??

We all lament that after the elections the newly elected members simply vanish from the constituency for the next five years and are not responsible to theirs and their party's commitments. So, a few suggestions:-

1) Every successful Candidate should be asked by the Electoral Officer in charge of declaring him victorious to sign up on an affidavit that he or she shall visit the constituency in a given week slot within the year of his election to explain to the electorate what he has done and achieved for the constituency as per the promises made in his party's manifesto as well as his own promises made during the election.

2) This signed affidavit should be made mandatory to be presented to the Pro-temp Speaker of the Parliament before the new Member of Parliament is given his Oath in the House. No Candidate member should be allowed to become a 'proper member of Parliament' and take the oath unless he has submitted this document to the Speaker/Pro Temp Speaker. In absence of this document his/ her membership of the house should be declared null and void.

3) The new Member of Parliament must give his performance report in his Constituency every year and also every year thereafter for the next three years. Those of the constituents of the constituency who had voted in the elections should give their response in a referendum which can be carried out over the internet ( over the mobile phone/internet responses with the voter id card references which should show the respondent as having exercised his vote ). The response over the next three years from the date of the elections will give a fair idea to the nation at large about the performance of the Member as well as the democratic functioning of our Govt. The last two years are enough both for the electorate and the M.P. /M.L.A. to come to their own conclusions and take a call and act responsibly.

I agree that that the last suggested para will need lots of improvement and additions, but let us make a beginning. I think all the political parties should agree broadly on the above. The way to push this reform has to be with the Electoral officer starting off with the affidavit - straightaway. Let the Election Commission, the last bastion of a free and independent institutions left in the country take immediate steps before the 16th of May'14 is upon us. Am I asking for too much ??  

A pause before we vote !

The festival of democracy is here ! The party flags and festoons and the noise and the 'sloganfest' and the shout of the the largest democracy in the world is here for the whole world to watch, see, hear and envy is here !!

The Election Commission of our country, perhaps the only and the most unbiased organisation left untouched by the political executive over the past 15 Lok Sabha elections has done all that it could to give a further boost to our credentials as a vibrant thinking democracy. On 7th of this month, the first votes will be cast. We have more than 42 days before we know the first results. As I look forward to the end result, enjoying for a day our another great religion cricket unfold it shortest version championship on 6th April in the evening, I wonder if our elected representatives will be any different than the ones who we already have? Will they have any self regulation ? I wonder.

And I think that the Election Commission has another task cut out and they must act fast. A task perhaps very much in some form or the other in our hearts but never perhaps properly, and legally perfected. A system under which all the elected representatives are forced to go back to their school days. A time when they were supposed to show their homework to the class teacher and feel concerned about on pain of punishment.

So here goes; it should be made mandatory for every elected member of Parliament to go back to their constituents every one year from the date of their election and explain to them what they have done or achieved for the constituency they have been elected to represent. Secondly, what is it that they intend to do in the following year. And, what do they intend to do for the last three years. This should be a compulsory act and any M.P. not following this constitutional obligation should be debarred from participating in the Parliamentary proceedings and certainly not allowed to vote in the proceedings. The Election Commission should frame all the rules and regulations in this regard and each M.P. elected should sign this declaration and commitment before he is handed over his election certificate. Without this declaration he should not be allowed to take the oath in the new Parliament.

A system of recall is a long standing requirement and perhaps this could be the a starting basis for that law too in the times to come.

But am I thinking like an idealist ? Perhaps.

The BJP the party which is expected to win the election and give us a new Govt. is yet to finalise its Manifesto ! The Congress Party , the Party that swears by the Constitution and the national movement ethos, give its Manifesto a mere 48 hours before the first votes are cast. And the earliest to the finishing line in this regard, and the party that is so upset with the current system also feels it important enough to finalise it just a week ago ! And these parties expect us to vote on the basis of the promises made in the Manifesto which is supposed to be discussed by the voters before they decide their vote ? OR is it that we are just going thru the motions of our great 'Dance of Democracy '?  

Is it because of this non seriousness attitude towards the issues which will create a political thought process that is forcing us to believe that BJP is MODI and MODI is BJP ? That Arvind Kejriwal is AAP and AAP is Arvind Kejriwal ? and of course that SONIA - RAHUL is Congress and Congress is SONIA- RAHUL ?? Are we not going back to the helpless days of pre-emergency days when INDIA was INDIRA and INDIRA was INDIA ?? I shudder to think.

I hope the above will force some of my friends to think afresh - whatever be the result of this election.

God , be indulgent towards us, please !!

Is your Papa in a picture only ...Nana ??

“Is your Papa in a picture only ..Nana?”  The innocent question just halted me in my tracks. I had just shown my fathers’ picture portrait on the wall to my grandson Shaurya and told him that he was my father. Shaurya  my grandson, had unwittingly, unknowingly asked me a question, which if I had answered honestly would have left him unsatisfied. For if I had said yes, he would have disbelieved me, for no one, and particularly Papas should live only in pictures ! Then I would have had to tell him that “well..you see Shaurya ..he is no more with us ..he is with the Angels “ and he would have known that still I have not given him a truthful answer. How would I ever want this wonderful child of God  to worry about life and death at this tender age ?? To my great relief he had already challenged me to a “Galaxy Explorer” game on the net !  I had quickly grabbed the opportunity.

And yet, it was as if all that had happened only yesterday. I could still see the pyre burning at first slowly, then a little harder and finally with such ferocity and brightness that at one moment I could see the bones of the feet  and the fingers  of my father in the pyre clearly silhouetted against the yellow and orange flames that had overtaken the pyre and the frail body wrapped inside it, that was my father, our beloved ‘Chacha ji’ to most who knew him. Soon the bones  just broke off and fell...The whole process had taken not more than 2 -3 hrs and now the blazing pyre had petered out all its fury spent as if signalling that all that was humanly visible was about to end. Very soon only ashes and smouldering embers were left. I could see a couple of other bodies lying in their yellow and white shrouds, tied to the flimsy bamboo beds with their near and dear ones huddled over them, waiting for the space ....

And very soon, suddenly, a group of workers came from nowhere and with the help of a coconut tree large leaf broom and just pushed the entire burnt out remains of the pyre, my fathers’ earthly form reduced to ashes, out over the ‘Chabootara’ into the holy river Ganges that flowed beneath. I was left open mouthed, is this all that there is ? Is this how my father should end ?Is this how all of us will end ? Isn’t there something missing... I mean should we not have done something before we all came to such a pass? It was too late however, and my fathers ashes were already flowing along with the genteel waves of the holy river. Even if I wanted to gather him all once again, it would not be possible. He had already embarked on his grand journey to mingle with the holy spirits and we were not allowed to go anywhere near the holy path way , at least not beyond the burning ghats ...for the moment.

The professor sahib who had been relating his experiences with m y father while the pyre burned had also tired and wiping his moist eyes and face, overcome by emotions, he put his hands around my shoulders and said, ‘all of us are blessed to have known your father and you must not despair , now that he is no more. His life itself is a huge reference book for you and all of us to carry on our good lives.’ With some Sanskrit couplet, he bade us goodbye. We, my brother, my couple of nephews and some neighbours and well wisher friends who had stayed on with us slowly made our way back to our home at Ishwargangi, Varanasi. Very soon we were mingling with the crowds on the streets of Varanasi, all of us sad, in anonymity, lost in our own thoughts. We  reached  the darkened streets or ‘gullies’ , as they are known in Varanasi, of our old family house where the rest of the members of the family were inconsolably in distress. The night somehow, slowly, sadly, passed over us, while we all lay awake.

More than 32 years have gone by and  still remember my father as will every person who has loved and lost his father, and will be challenged by the thought that ‘if’ only ...’ ‘if only...he or she had done this or that’ or  if only a few more years were there to go still....

I am comforted by the thought that there are perhaps many thousands in this world who are going thru this pain and I am not alone in this predicament.

I hope that the younger generation, our hope of the future, not only successfully negotiate their current challenges, but somewhere in their warm hearts they remember their parents with love and reverence. So that when they are questioned by their grandchildren, they will at least be better prepared to respond with greater wisdom than I could .... so that they would be able to tell a story to their grandchildren that they would readily believe in, believe in love.