India Tax Payer - Forum

Posted: 08-04-2011

I received this from the author whose name is given below:

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IT IS OUR DEMOCRACY THAT IS TO BLAME

FOR THE SORRY STATE OF INDIA

I have been witnessing the revolution at Jantar Mantar since yesterday and have listened to responses on TV debates.  The Executive and the legislature are worried about losing what they consider their rights and their exclusive space. One basic premise of their responses runs as follows;

We are a democracy with a constitution and nothing can be done or even attempted out side the constitutional frame work. Legislative, Judiciary and Executive alone can make laws, change the constitution, adjudicate constitutional disputes until it is amended  and execute laws through procedures and rules laid down by the executive. Civil Society and the citizen at large have no locus standi in decision making once they have sent their pseudo representatives to the legislature.

The following beg serious consideration.

Whose constitution is it ? Is it of WE THE PEOPLE  or is it of we the legislature?

Who is the sovereign ? The Citizen or the MP / MLA or the PM / Cabinet?

Following subsidiary questions then arise:-

Does the legislature indeed represent the majority as should be the case in a democracy? Most Win with 15 to 20 % of total votes cast.

Do the voting citizen have any say in selecting candidates? Does he have a real choice of selecting ? Parties allot tickets through an opaque mechanism.

Is the elected legislator free to work in the best interest of those who he pretends to represent? Or is he subservient to Party whip or his own political interest?

What recourse does the voting community have to correct an errant legislator who manages to get elected on promises he is neither sincere about nor capable of working for? Does he have the right to recall?

Does our democracy enable citizens to get laws they wish passed? Is referendum not their right especially when his interests are obviously at variance from those of the elected legislators? Are we not stake holders in our own governance in a democracy ‘of the people for the people and by the people’? People as in the public and as in the Civil Society.

Our legislature has a vested interest in Corruption and power of patronage. Are they our patrons or are they our servants? The question reverts to who is sovereign he or we?

Anna’s agitation as it is being termed is only the starting point for getting answers to these very basic questions in the public mind. It can not stop here because the root causes of the maladies of mis- governance and corruption lie, not in the lok Pal Bill not being in position. It lies with our Electoral System, with our Party System indeed with our democracy.  The politician has to find his rightful place as a servant of society who must work for the common good of the majority and for the maximum good of the nation. His own survival ( Not his best political interest ) must be co terminus with the best interest of the people of India.

To that end this movement must aim at rectification of our democratic system.

The constitution is sacrosanct only so far as it serves the interest of the people who have adopted it for themselves. A stage of despair and frustration has reached the stage where People don’t give a damn for being called a Democracy. They would rather exchange it with good governance with or without the falce glory of being called the largest democracy in the world.

Long Live Veteran Anna Hazare

Long Live Veteran Solidarity with Anna.

Veterans Will go all the way in supporting the Second War of Independence from Corrupt Rule.

 Warm Regards

A S Sundaram

JT.Dir.IB;MHA.Retd

Retd Inspired Indian MV

Mob.09655318059;0422 2311505

08903671146

Small things make perfection but,

Perfection is not a small thing.

Posted: 08-04-2011

Dear Mr Sundaram

Thanks for your post.

I am also part of a social movement called India Tax Payer. This is a group of tax payers in the country. We are at present 20000 in strength and are hoping to cross one lakh members before end of  2011.

Yes, you are right. We also appreciate your point of view that public servants are behaving like public masters. That is the cause of the malady in this country. Whether it is a country or a house or an office, you will always find that the interest of the owner is very different from the interest of the servant. In the case of the country, we need to understand who is the owner. It is the citizen or the tax payer. For your information, every one of us is a tax payer, either direct or indirect.

It is his money which runs this country. Since the tax payer who is the owner 'acts' as if he is subservient to the executive, to the polity to the judiciary, the system has crumbled. We, the owners of the country, should stand up and take what is rightfully ours. That is, to command the public servant and make him work  for us. Instead, they work the way they want and in order to cajole him and to keep him 'happy', we pay 'buckshees'! Imagine, an owner paying his servant to do what is his job!

Naturally, everything is topsy-turvy here. What needs to be done is we the people should walk in at any government office and command them to work for us and not 'beg' them. They are not doing us a favour. We are doing them a favour by giving them a job! (Re-read Gandhi's statement on Customer. It is not written for them but for us).

I for one, strongly believe that Anna need not starve. Need not harm himself to ask for what is rightfully his ( and ours). It is NOT ours because we have not staked our claim to it. We are not fighting against someone else. This is our government. We make it  or we break it.

Let us command the public servant from today. Let us behave like a owner that we are.

Regards

Shan

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