JC: <<<COMMENT: There is a public order issue: What does a Govt do, IF a particular act creates a public order issue? The Govt is compelled to go to the Law i.e. the court. BTW: If the Constitution is to be followed, it t be followed by everybody.....not only yhe Govt. ps: Looking at how corrupt Goa/India have become ...over the past 50 years, I can safely assume that this Hunger Strike will be attract a lot of attention, create public disorder, perhaps cause the fall of Govt ....and then the Corruption will continue unabated. All this IMHO is a show ....like the Advani Yatra ....which eventually ed to the "accidental" (Sure!) destruction of the Babri Masjid. JC>>>
Dotor Bab, One man's freedom fighter is another man's anarchist. Thus spake yours truly. The problem with corruption in India is that there is need for an attitudinal change and more than that a change in the psyche of the Indian. We are completely at home with giving and taking bribes and don't think twice about it. Leave alone taking/ giving bribes. Do we think twice about breaking the law in our daily lives? Do we hesitate to go down a no entry road or do we hesitate to park illegally or make illegal u turns? On the contrary, if we are caught by the sleepy arm of the law, we would rather bail ourselves out with what is euphemistically called a handout to the Police Fund. When I talk about the change in the psyche of the Indian, it is about fundamental honesty and fundamental perception of the right and wrong. I know this will be unpleasant to the palette of many of us, but facts While I am in total agreement that corruption of the magnitude that is in India, I also feel that there are certain mechanisms built in the constitution of India which deal with various situations that may arise vis a vis law and order. Can Parliament be bypassed to compel a piece of legislation? Let us take a hypothetical case wherein a liquor baron wants to benefit from liquor sales. So he hands over say a couple of crores of Rupees to a few known public figures and asks them to campaign for no excise duty on alcohol sales. Now this is a cause which potentially has a large following. Who doesn't want his evening tipple at a fraction of what it is costing now? So as the campaign hots up and peoples imaginations are fired up with the thought of low cost booze, those prominent public figures go on a public fast unto death for the cause of cheap alky. Should the Government bow down? Of course this is a far fetched example. But illustrates and gives colour to the present day situation. Corruption has to be stopped from the grass root level. From the police man at the praca who turns a blind eye to the overloaded bus or conveniently looks away from the neighbourhood matka den, the Talathi who 'transfers' your Form I & XIV and hence your property to another for special considerations, from the peon at the government office who moves your papers from one desk to another to the Minister who allows an MLA to gouge huge chunks of our Mother land to export ore to the Chinese our enemies, the Guardian of the Law who peddles the counterfeit notes that he himself has confiscated, to the Minister who forgot to pay his taxes in lakhs of rupees and the Minister who was caught at the airport ferrying illegal sums of money in Indian and Foreign currency because he did not know that it was against the law; and oh..... I could add a myriad of examples but my arms ache after pounding the keyboard for a few minutes. Let us stop corruption where it hurts most. Long live the Republic. -- "Tony de Sa" < tonydesa at gmail dot com>