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**** Not possible?
The question should be IS
or IS NOT.
It is not a question
of POSSIBLE or NOT POSSIBLE.
Do you think it
IS?.
Do you see this 'enlightment' in
the Tarun Gogoi-Arabinda Rajkhowa-Mukul-Chandan Mahanta-MamoniRoysom-
Group?
Or you are talking of some some
future DREAM.
Please Wake up and
smell.
May be your trip was too
short.
Don't try to torture and
humiliate Dukhuni Ai any more.
She has enough.
RB
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, December 23, 2005 9:42
AM
Subject: Re: [Assam] DEMOCRACY HARMING
INDIA: LYNGDOH
At 9:30 AM -0600 12/23/05, Barua25 wrote:
>And once again I hold out the hope for
an enlightened Assam to lead the way in the sub-continent with a
reformed, true >democracy.
enlightened Assam
????
RB
**** Not possible?
----- Original Message -----
From: Chan
Mahanta
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [email protected]
Sent: Friday, December 23, 2005 7:49 AM
Subject: Re: [Assam] DEMOCRACY HARMING INDIA:
LYNGDOH
Dear BK:
What do YOU think of Lyngdoh's comments?
I see them this way:
* He
mistakes 'desi-deomkrasy' with Democracy.
*
'Western-style democracy' is an animal of the same genre'
as 'Indian Secularism'(as distinct from the real
'secularism'),
an aberration, a semantic creation to explain the
disorientation
that desi-demokrasy has degenerated into.
* It
is quite obvious that Lyngdoh is just as discombobulated as
so
many other desi-intellectuals, politicians and assam-netters
by
what goes on in the name of democracy in India and is clueless
as
to
why it is so.
But he does make some good points about the US push to open up
markets for mega-corporations to go peddle useless goods to developing
societies in the guise of promoting 'democracy'. However, the two are not
inseparable. If anything, true grass-roots democracy ( as opposed to
desi-demokrasy) would be an effective means to combat this particular
evil.
Lyngdoh's comments underscores, once again, the very
disturbing reality that Indian pretensions of democracy is profoundly
broken and that even India's best cannot seem to realize why or how and
how to turn things around.
And once again I hold out the hope for an enlightened Assam to
lead the way in the sub-continent with a reformed, true democracy. But we
know it cannot happen
under the current, degenerated Indian system.
Best,
c
At 1:51 AM -0500 12/23/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="UTF-8"
Content-Language: en
Dear
Netters
I
reproduce the synopsis of the following talk as reported in the Assam
Tribune today. It is an eye-opener to all the right-thinking people of
India, I think. Hope there will be comment on it.
Bhuban
![www.assamtribune./115299A4.gif]()
Guwahati, Friday, December 23,
2005
![]() Democracy harming
India: Lyngdoh
By
Ajit Patowary
GUWAHATI, Dec 22 - The present rot in our polity
is the result of the electoral politics we are practising in our
country. Elections have done great harm to the country. The electoral
interests of the politicians are dividing the people more and more.
Politicians are specialising in all ethnic and caste problems. They
don't want to solve the problems. This may push one to surmise that
perhaps democracy has done more harm than good to the
country.
This was the observation of former Chief Election
Commissioner of India James Michael Lyngdoh, the recipient of the 2003
Ramon Magsaysay Award. He was talking to The Assam Tribune here
on December 18. He was on a three-day visit to the State since December
18 to deliver the Dr Amitabh Chowdhury Annual Memorial Lecture on ethics
and good governance.
He said that it was also important to note
that more democracy, as has been suggested by some leading intellectuals
of the country, is not the cure to the ills afflicting the country and
its polity. Democracy has now been reduced into a disguise to promote
capitalism. Capitalism is what matters more in today's
world.
When the authorities in the countries like America
advocate democracy, they in fact advocate capitalism- the interests of
the big companies of their countries. Love for the people always takes a
back seat in their schemes of things.
India is also treading the
same path. The western form of democracy has destroyed the Indian
tradition of democracy. The western system of democracy does not suit
our society. The western way of judicature is also not suitable to our
people. Some of the institutions that we have today are also not best
suited to our life or people, he said.
Modern technology
does not create jobs. It rather cuts jobs. In the United States of
America also, the growth rate of the country has nothing to do with the
common people. The growth rate of eighth per cent that has been often
boasted of by the rulers of our country as their achievement, is rather
a product of the information technology. It has nothing to do with
agriculture with which majority of the Indians are involved. The
American type of development that has been sought to be pushed through
is not suitable for our country, he said.
But, for all the
ills afflicting the country's polity today politicians are to be blamed
first of all. For, they are put in the helm of affairs by our
Constitution. If they become corrupt, everyone becomes corrupt.
Politicians are the yardsticks in this matter. No doubt, bureaucracy in
our country is worst than the politicians in matters of corruption, said
Lyngdoh.
Politicians have also led to distortion of human nature
in regions like the NE region. One example may suffice to explain this.
In Ladakh, both the Muslims and the Buddhists do not practise family
planning. The desire to emerge as the decisive group in electing the
lone MP from the region is so dominating the psyche of these two
communities that each of them now wants to beat the other in the number
game.
The situation is such in the country today that on
one-third of the country's area, the sovereignty of the country is not
in effect. This part has gone either to the militants or to the
anti-social elements. We are very close to the time of Robert Clive,
when everyone in India wanted to be separate.
Commenting on the
genesis of the present rot that has affected the Indian society, he said
that the present insanity for placing the individual interests ahead of
the collective's started quite some time after the death of Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru.
Indira Gandhi spoilt all the institutions,
including the Supreme Court. Communalism also raised its ugly head
during her rule. There is no comparison between the father and the
daughter.
After the death of Nehru, we have a different type of
politicians. Many of them were not even properly educated. They made
politics their profession. They were out to make money and nothing else.
There of course was and still there is, a number of young educated and
professional people in politics. Many of them had or have their own
businesses. But their interest lies in the corporate sector. Some of
them see the USA as the land of opportunities because of their education
in that country. Though they have come back from the USA, their hearts
are still there in that country.
With such people in the helm of
affairs and capitalism going mad and running wild, money is everything
today. At the expense of the group and community, it is now the
glorification of the individual, which is putting everything on the back
burner, said the former CEC.
And hence, there is no public
investment practically in agriculture, education and health. There is no
emphasis also on these sectors by the Government, he said.
Then
what is the way out from this morass? He said that with the corporate
sector advancing and the state retreating in recent times, days are not
far when the corporate sector will discipline the politicians of the
country. But, that is in no way going to help the common people of the
country, he said assertively.
_______________________________________________
assam
mailing
list
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_______________________________________________
assam
mailing
list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
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