Will we have to travel to Rome to see The Da Vinci Code? The Pope has refrained from taking an absurd position but the Indian minister of information and broadcasting has assumed the avatar of a diehard Christian. Of course the film will be cleared, it is too stupid not to allow its screening. However, the minister, having interfered in something that is not in his purview, has overstepped his limits. It is as ridiculous as the RSS and the VHP attacking M.F. Husain for his paintings.
Why are these self-appointed guardians of the faith allowed to run amuck? Do individual ministers operate on their personal whims or is there a consensus achieved and policy enunciated? Has anarchy entered the portals of the cabinet as well? The handling of both the reservations issue and the Da Vinci Code saga has been unmitigated disaster.
The government of India is beginning to look as though it is not in control. The prime minister looks as though he is being bullied by some of his colleagues, archaic and infirm, who are members of his cabinet. They seem to be pulling in different directions. Manmohan Singh?s silence on all such issues is deafening. Where is the conductor of this Great Opera of India, the GOI? Is he on leave? Or are such happenings of no real import? The omens do not look good at this point. The immediate future looks scary for those professionals who are neither politicians nor administrators. That pampered lot are the only beneficiaries of this corroded and uncivil system. Eighty percent of the Indian populace, young and raring to go, is watching this theatre of the absurd, waiting and hopefully strategizing for their future, a future that will energize their ideas and aspirations. This present lot, in government and in the opposition, two generations removed, has lost the plot and is dragging us into a dark abyss.
Another horror
Old and tired looking Arjun Singh heads a ministry that has to deal with inputs for young, agile minds and nearly three-generations-removed attitudes, beliefs, values and positions are forcing the young into a time-warp till they reach an age where they can break loose from a failed system.
Another scandal is the crores of rupees that are being ?donated? to Sanskriti, a private educational establishment for the children of bureaucrats. Why should the taxpayer, you and I, have to support the offspring of administrators? Make politicians and bureaucrats put a percentage of their salaries into an education fund for their children. Why should honest citizens, who generate wealth for this country through hard endeavour, who constantly battle the corruption within the administrative system that is operated by these very bureaucrats, fund their kids? education package? It is completely unacceptable. It is just another form of exploitation, something the babu has learned to do with competence.
The NDA continues its boring old drama of ?walk-outs?, making it clear to all that it does not believe in democracy, discussion, correctives, or in civil society. It is further damaging an already diseased system, instead of compelling the elected representatives to work for change, for renewal, in a serious attempt to restore social dignity. This ongoing betrayal is untenable.
The scorching heat, the lack of electricity and water, unintelligent debates, stories on the front pages of the newspapers about authority, the police and administration colluding with criminals, rapists and murderers, corruption in all spheres of social and economic activity, make India look like a bungling banana republic. When a systemic breakdown happens, the first to see it are those in charge ? the politician and the bureaucrat. In their blubbering nervousness they begin to fiddle in areas that are of no concern to them. We are witnessing that horror.
