"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly,
while bad people will find a way around the laws."
—Plato (Greek, 427-347BC)
Word
for the day
Bruit (v)
To voice abroad; rumor. Used chiefly in the passive and often followed
by about, e.g., The report was bruited through the village.
Malice
towards none
In religious terms - when a
person is taken as dead?
First random
thought this morning
After UK and US, the popular sentiment in Italy has also rejected the
new normal. People there have also voted for returning back to the conventional
means. It is to be seen whether German and French voters will also reject the
new normal and vote for the return to conventional means of socio-economic
subsistence.
I am not sure whether the return to roots could be selective. The
pre-globalized world was after all imperialist, polarized and always at war.
The positives could be that most modern day scientific inventions
were made in those days. The new world order has perhaps seen slowest growth in
the field of pure sciences and literature. The best art, literature and
philosophical works were also produced in pre-globalization era.
In search of solutions - 3
To a person sitting in Mumbai, Bangaluru,
Chennai or Hyderabad, the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) may not mean much more
than – Taj Mahal, Varanasi, Lucknow, Kebab, taxi drivers and construction
labor. Very few residents of the western and southern states appreciate that UP
is as diverse as India itself. Various regions of the state, i.e., Awadh, Brij,
Rohillkhand, Bundelkhand, Purvanchal, and Doab, have distinctly identifiable
history, food, dialect, customs, deities, and problems.
People from Bundelkhand and Doab
regions in particular have been agitating for a different political identity
for themselves since long. The regions also differ in terms of caste,
community, and religions dynamics. Differences in terms of weather, water and
electricity availability, crop patterns, flood-draught cycle, political
influence, urbanization, physical infrastructure, income disparities and other
social indicators are also rather stark. Same holds true for many other states
also.
Unjustifiable socio-economic
disparities amongst various states and regions within states, materially
different socio-economic status of various castes and communities in different
states, has frequently led to demands and agitations for new administrative
units (states and districts).
The legislatures have been mostly
unsuccessful in developing and adopting a consensus framework for federal
structure of the country (Though some attempts like Sarkaria Commission have
been made). Certainly there has been a marked improvement in state-center
relationship in past 25years, but this could be more due to political
compulsions rather than any structural change. This has been the period when
regional parties have played critical role in government formation at the
center. The strains in center-state relations have reemerged as soon as a single
party government got installed at center in 2014.
It would therefore not be
unreasonable to say that the post independence political organization of the
country designed primarily on lingual basis may no longer be relevant in the
current context.
Moreover, the tradition to appoint
by nomination rather than purely on the basis of election has killed
meritocracy in politics and promoted inequality.
The political problem therefore is
to develop a political organization that fully assimilates the aspirations of
the people, addresses specific local problems, promotes mutual trust &
harmony, bars incompetence and knavery from public office, and insures that the
best is selected and prepared to rule for the common good.
For my seemingly Utopian solution
to this problem of political organization - see this space on tomorrow.
