Lost and Found

A moment of pride and selfless happiness always comes with a lot of grief and regret. What have I done to myself? I used to challenge the guy who got through B.Stat. in ISI and then for Ph.D in Standford and am just another common achiever!! Well he was more, much much more intelligent than me but I'd it in me to achieve a lot more than I have. In retrospection, have I achieved anything? Is IGIDR an achievement? NO! NEVER! The entrance was beyond stupid, am stuck with people who are just average (may be count out a couple of them or 4). But I could have done better in life.. I'll do better in life!

P.S. Why have you always challenged my intellect knowingly or unknowingly, right from the moment I've known you?

Randomized

• Sorry, nothing irritates me more than stupidity. So if you're intelligent and want to irritate me, you're unlucky!
• All philosophy is great on paper but never in practice.
• "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is."
• I can't be sweet and am shamelessly not sorry for that!

Why am Taking the Jan Lokpal Bill Skeptically

Well for starters, let me say, in India we are so governed by emotions and sentiments that me saying a word against the Jan Lokpal Bill will make me either corrupt or a cynic. Am neither and I don't need to prove that. But here's why am not partying hard with Anna Hazare:

1. JLB will deal with corruption alright, but what kind of corruption? Is only monetary exchange corruption? How about winning elections, rigging?
2. They say that the accused will have to make good whatever losses the government suffered for a certain government official's corruption. Again my question is, how about rigging? How can you measure the loss that society/government suffered?
3. People have been saying that such a powerful body is a threat to democracy: I don't think so (the purview of the Lokpal just being corruption). Well I don't support the fact that Nobel laureates, Bharat Ratna and their likes should be allowed to elect members for the Lokpal because of the simple reason that i) any country wanting to mess with India's sovereignty can do so very easily by awarding a Nobel or a Magasay award to someone ii) the government can trade Bharat Ratna and awards of likes for a candidate in the Lokpal. People's participation, and with some emphasis educated people's participation is absolutely mandatory for the members to remain apolitical candidates.
4. Even if the members are apolitical, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." I emphasize on this because the members once elected most probably won't be elected again. So they've every incentive to collude and plunge into rent seeking activities. In such a case, the "if a member found guilty..." wouldn't apply and the Lokpal itself will be a hub for corruption.
5. The Lokayukts will take in complaints from across the society: there are 2 problems with this. i) Most people have petty complaints like the police towing their vehicle from parking or their passport not being made in the stipulated time. If we can't afford to wait 1-2 years for solutions of such things. So there would be no incentive to register a complaint with the Lokpal in such cases. The Lokpal then loses some of its objectives that it set out to do. ii) Even if say we complain for such things. There would be a minimum of 5,000 complaints in each Lokayukt daily. In such an event, I doubt if the Lokpal can stick to its ambitious time frames.
6. If we think that passing a bill will stop corruption, we perhaps need to think again. Corruption is in the minds of people- cheating in exams is corruption. The popular thing we say about curbing cheating in exam is "Don't set a paper where cheating can help!" We need to find a similar solution at a bigger level. JLB is effective in treating the symptoms but we need a vaccination against the disease! The only way perhaps to achieve that is to ensure morality and decrease the competition for getting richer in the society. But then again, we have so much of poverty, it's tough!
7. Last but far from being the least, personally I feel, "fast unto death" is an emotional blackmail which should not be encouraged in any form. Anna Hazare made the UPA accept what he demanded and now what he demanded has been found to have loopholes. At least we should fixate on what we want before creating such a drama! Sadly most of our country has not even read the JLB but has united against corruption. It's good that we've united against corruption but you should at least know what you are supporting!

Finally, stopping my skeptic pen, I hope this change, the passing of the JLB brings about a change in our minds and not just on papers. It's a step forward and anything greater than a zero would make us happy. But whether it will work or not is upto us- the onus lies on us to make or break what the bill shall be passed for. Together you and I can shape a modern India high on morals and ethics and that's the way. It'll take time but all good things are worth the wait. So shall we today take an oath to at least see the India we dream to live in when we die?