Realities of Koodankulam: more tales of apathy | Greenpeace India

Realities of Koodankulam: more tales of apathy | Greenpeace India

Beeeeeer! Cheeeers!

Beer does not have much of a foot print. around 800g of CO2! http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2010/jun/04/carbon-footprint-beer).

Bear with me!

It’s not jus about carbon foot print but also about drunken driving, the act which has contributed significantly for India to seize No 1 rank in the world on account of road accidents (http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5519345,00.html)

In recent times, “drinking” seems to have become the one & only “weekend plan option” and the very meaning of “having fun”. Economic liberalization, more money…more spending power have set a trend that justifies the “drunkenness” of gen-next as “to burn out the too much” they earn…

To state it on a lighter vein….they continues to bestow Mr Vijayamalya to go on with his race for world’s richest men list.

Though we live in an era which relates anything and everything to climate change & carbon foot print, there are things to which we learn to “call a spade a spade”! without linking it to higher value systems like….leaving lesser ecological foot prints.

Quo Vadis Democracy?

“Victory against corruption” is the perception painted by many including the media on AIADMK’s triumph in the recent TN assembly election. Does that denote, “the newly elect are honest and clean?” Aren’t we aware of the intensity of corruption the AIADMK government indulged in while in power? Don’t we not know “we are wedged with NO OPTION but to change option amongst the two, the AIA(DMK)s?”.

Sequentially, are we not trapped “between the devil and the deep sea” scenario? And thus an occurrence of non-corrupt politicians winning elections has become a myth. Who has limited our choices? and who diminished our hope of devising honest governance; besides made it a distant dream? Ignoring this truth as trivial might spell doom on democracy as this been the status-quo of Tamil Nadu for 30 long years, is the wakeup call.

Few non-corrupt independent candidates wanting to break the stereotype have seldom secured even their deposit. Vijayakanth has won the election and become the opposition leader. Of course his victory has brought an end to the “two party politics” but many like me are more than sure that, “he is not the replace we’ve been waiting for so long”. He has achieved ‘coz we have failed in finding “better choices” is the open secret and a pointer to the kind of ‘lesser choices” we are now left to deal with. The nexus between “film fraternity” and “TN political leadership” have become inseparable and apparent now as the Gen-Next actor Vijay joining the convoy. Albeit, the presence & influence of primitive patriotism, influence of money the film-fame idols are continue to decide.

We have voted out DMK probably to wipe off the embarrassment brought on us at the national level with their act of corruption and hence we can call this act as a cleanser to purify our states soiled reputation as well to edify DMK that we haven’t elected them to power to “institutionalize corruption”.

Does it mean that we have played our role? I am not convinced; I feel this is jus a beginning. A sum of Rs 70 crore is been seized by the election commission from the five electoral states of which Rs 60 crore was from Tamil Nadu alone. 52% of our elect MLAs are Crorepathis and this figure is double compared to the last election in 2006. An analysis shows that in the recent polls, 43% of candidates who declared assets worth Rs 1 Crore and above won while only 5% of candidates with assets worth less than Rs 5 lakh won, is a cursor to the two strongholds, the money and power that cripples our democratic setup.

Even if we choose to condone the corruption of AIADMK, people of TN will never forget those atrocious acts and the autocratic behavior of J while in power earlier. Even now there is not much change in the attitude and the new regime too has started off again in the same old fashion. J taking custody of ministries as Home, Police, General Administration and prevention of corruption, reshuffling the entire bureaucratic setup, shifting secretariat back to fort St Georges and so on…. have already irked many. Isn’t it ridiculous undoing what is been done already jus to satisfy personal ego at the cost of “public money, time, energy and infrastructure”?

Is the government not responsible as well accountable to the public? If yes, who is to hold them responsible and ensure accountability? Now is the time to demand better performance instead of letting those in power to waste public resources in absurd reverts. As we are aware, the Pandora’s Box of freebies is been already unlocked with the announcement for 20kg rice/family/month and free “Mangalyam” for poor families. Isn’t it not the AIADMK now heading into the process of “institutionalizing Freebies” like DMK has done with corruption? Is this the “quality of democracy” we have been pushing for all these years?

24,859 people choosing not to choose any from the “available choices” using clause 49-O of our Election rules rang a positive tune in my ears. Another interesting fact is that it’s been exercised in all districts of Tamil Nadu and Chennai, the topper. Does that not convey that we’ve already changed direction towards change and so there is hope! People of TN have shown the country that they will act against corruption by engaging with electoral reforms, improving democracy and governance and therefore the desired change.

This change may not even come any close to end the “corrupt power play” in the state.

Standing at the cross-roads it’s time to decide the direction as to ascertain our privileges of being citizens in a democratic setup. If we choose to remain dead to this situation, “no one can wake us up ‘coz we are dead indeed”, if we pretend to be asleep, we ourselves won’t awaken “coz we are pretending”. Therefore, “it’s time to introspect, awake us to reality and to advocate for change for a quality democratic system functioning.

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