To Be A Freedom Writer

A free media is the true essence of a democracy. It is the tool that empowers the people to speak up against tyranny, to protest against the wrong and bring the undeserving down from power. When our union minister of Communication and Information Technology Mr. Kapil Sibal announced that he would introduce a new scheme for pre-screening of material on social networking sites he reminded me remarkably of Lord Lytton.

In the year 1878 Lord Lytton the then Viceroy of India had passed an act that became a word in the history of the nation. Since the Independence of the India generations of children have read of what was then titled as The Vernacular Press Act. The law was intended at restricting any content in all print media which could do harm to The British Raj. The act brought down restriction upon right to expression so that the Raj could spread ignorance and thus exploit the people.

It seems that the congress government is irked enough by indecent photographs of their leaders over the internet of propose a law to stop them. The event comes to reveal that UPA government is more concerned by their worsening image that the reasons that cause them. They would rather kill the protest, than kill the inadequacy of their measures in steering the country and all the while they say it is a fight against people who spread religious hatred through such sites.

Kapil Sibbal - the man behind the proposal

People who spread religious hatred in the country must be stopped and punished. The act itself is of the most heinous kind. But do we surrender our rights in order to do that. Are there no other preventive measures to accomplish that? How about prosecuting the people who bring such hatred and bringing them to justice. Why don’t we use the established medium of networking sites to allow the users themselves to report perpetrators to the government?

 Well I don’t think that would happen since the congress government clearly isn’t interested stopping such attempts they simply want to have a hold on the web so that they can stop the political propaganda against the UPA and thus was revealed by the sites themselves. According to facebook most of the request to bring down content concern political leaders and only a handful concern other issues.

This sudden act by the government made me wonder. Does this provocative attempt of invading people’s privacy show the government’s ambition of incorporating the worst of China in India or is it simply a measure to divert focus from their other failure in governance? Whatever be the case we should keep in mind how our freedom fighters fought against such oppression. They protested till the Vernacular Press Act was dropped by a subsequent Viceroy. If the need be we should do the same and become freedom writers.

Further reading :

Economic times article on the issue 

A BBC article on the issue  

A Hole In The System

Anna Hazare

When Anna Hazare started his agitation against corruption for the formation of the Jan Lokpal Bill I became a supporter of his movement. In a country that has lost more to corruption than to war it seemed like a very sound initiative. But it was not until the government’s proposal of the bill and the debate over it that I truly realized what was at stake and it is way more than getting some stray politicians into jail, it is a battle for India’s soul.

Let me begin my post with what I believe about systems. Firstly any system must be strong and efficient in order to perform its intended job. Secondly, any system that involves humans has a potential for corruption. And thirdly, any system that has been corrupted must be brought down. Hence all administrative system as per my belief has a fraction of corrupt in them, thus no system must have supreme authority so that the corrupt in them can be brought down.

When our people and media reflect on the idea of Lokpal they seem to hold an image of Nehru capped Gandhians who would never do wrong. They seem to forget that when Lokpal becomes a constitutional body it is bound to outlive Anna Ji, Kiran Ji and the even the youngest of Indian children born today. They seem to forget that other than being a setup for bringing down corruption Lokpal itself is an administrative system constituted by humans.

Complete power can thus never be given to Lokpal no matter how much Anna Ji and his humble hearted followers call for it. Just think about it, Anna’s idea of Lokpal seems to be that of a body which has the power to investigate by undertaking CBI and the power to prosecute in a court of law that itself is answerable to Lokpal. In such a situation can any decision ever go against that of Lokpal when the Judiciary itself is its under pressure?

As if to make the image even more horrific the team intends to put the most important of India’s offices under the ambit of Lokpal, the Office of the Prime Minister of India! As if the judicial encroachment into Legislative turf was not enough, you now intend to put the PMO under the whims of an all powerful potential monster. This never fails to remind me of how the Titans were brought down by their sons.

I felt sad when I saw our political parties reel under the pressure of the misinformed populace. Anna is a patriot but does he hold enough wisdom to choose what is right for the future of the country. And even if that were true last time I checked India was a democracy not mobocracy or monocracy. It is true that we need a Lokpal and that it needs to be strong but it must be answerable to somebody.

There can never be a single answer to this call for a corruption free society and existence of bodies like Lokpal is essential. But creating a single body that has all the power and responsibility to tackle corruption would be like creating a Kraken. Every system must have a hole. And our government must make one by creating different powerful bodies to tackle corruption at different levels. We must remember that a fight against corruption is a never ending one and no harsh steps must be taken which may jeopardize the state of the nation.

Further reading: 

Anti corruption movement