Quote:I myself have shared your glee in congratulating Anna, not as his fan but giving my reasons./quote]



My post congratulating 'Team Anna' was an expression of joy not glee as you have mentioned as I do not, in anyway, stand to directly benefit out of victory of anti-corruption crusaders in India. I am neither a fan nor a great follower of Anna either however do believe in the good old poetic justice system of victory of the good over the evil. And Anna's Team without any shadow of doubt represents the good. Crores of Anna's supporters cannot be all wrong in their judgement.



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Quote:So I posted the fact that someone has obtained the information under the RTI and obtained the fact that it had received funding from various sources, including the controversial Michigan (United States)-based Ford Foundation.

How can you be so sure it is not another indirect smear campaign lead by the UPA Government?



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Quote:Sir, did it occur to you to question as to why would Ford Foundation finance someone in India and what is its motive and benefit in such funding? You clearly did not.

That comes much later. How can you be sure about the veracity of the information in the first place. I can give you at least a dozen links to write-ups and videos highlighting the extent of corruption and deceit in the Congress.



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Quote:So was the reason for my posting that referred to Sandhya Jain's article: "Lokpal: A neo-con leech". I was hoping it would enlighten you on what you missed.

I do much appreciate your concerns, however, would like to draw your attention to the following. We Indians have basically become a dis-trusting lot, because of an over exposure to corruption and lies published almost daily in the media and experienced in the Society. So much so, if Lord Krishna walked on the streets we will treat him with distrust and doubt!



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Quote:Now you are advising the readers that it is a smear campaign and they should treat this with caution. This is quite unfortunate. However, you indeed have the right to caution others standing by your point of view however faulty it is. So much so I too would like to inform people to NOT get carried away by appearance but know the actors and their motives.

You are as much entitled to your opinion as much as I am. However, I can only ask you to have some faith and trust on the 74-year old Gandhian who is spearheading the campaign for a better India.



So here is another article that I would like people including you to read:



[url="http://janamejayan.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/anna-hazare%e2%80%99s-jan-lokpal-a-puppet-on-a-string/"][size="5"]Anna Hazare’s Jan LokPal: A Puppet on a string?[/size][/url]

Quote:A real anti-corruption movement should seek to provide autonomy to the enforcement agencies to go after the corrupt, so that lack of political will does not hamper investigations and convictions. Team Anna has been silent on this and this is worrying.

Quote:However well-meaning the intentions of Jan Lokpal draft bill may be, undermining Parliament’s legislative powers is unacceptable.

Quote:Never before has India seen so many powerful netas, babus and corporate leaders crowded in the damp cells of Tihar Jail for corruption.

Quote:[quote]Anna’s fixation in passing his pet Jan Lokpal bill reminds me of a puppet on a string.[b]

Quote:[b]तात्पर्य यह है कि जब तक मनुष्य की “नीयत” नहीं बदलती, तब तक जनलोकपाल का “बाप” भी कुछ नहीं कर सकता।

Quote:The tripod constructed by Jawaharlal Nehru consisted of socialism, secularism and parliamentary supremacy.



The socialism part went with Narasimha Rao, even though the word is still in our constitution, which declares us to be a socialist republic. Every elected representative is forced to swear by it, exposing us to total hypocrisy in running our polity.



The day the law was amended to deny alimony to Shah Bano, the edifice of secularism, too, developed a crack. In a society which considers everything, including trees and animals, sacred, the notion of “secularism” was anyway a bit stretched. It came down fully with the Ayodhya agitation. However, our constitution includes secularism in its preface. The word was inserted into the constitution during the emergency, and was not a part of the original statute.



The third leg of the Nehruvian tripod, the primacy of Parliament in making laws, was treated with an enormous amount of respect, even reverence. Members of state assemblies and Parliament were called law-makers even though a good number among them do not know what kind of laws they make. The disconnect between our burgeoning middle classes and the so-called law-makers has been widening in leaps and bounds in recent decades.

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It is not that the masses are dumb, but the law-makers are deaf. They talk about the supremacy of Parliament when the third leg of the Nehruvian tripod is about to collapse. Are we in a position to deal with this? Are we going to mouth age-old slogans of the public sector middle classes of the 1960s or the new software middle classes? Is it possible to bring Parliament and other elected bodies in sync with the aspirations of the new middle classes?