Massacre at Virginia Tech

The shooting rampage on Virginia Tech campus at Blacksburg VA will surely be the darkest day in the University’s history. My deepest condolences to the families of the victims of this horrendous tragedy.

I am an alumnus of VA Tech. I have never been to the main campus in Blacksburg because I studied at one of the extension campuses. However, that does not lessen the shock or sadness of this tragedy. I think everyone – whether related to the University or not, will definitely be shocked and saddened at this cowardly and heinous act.

This attach again brings to the forefront the need for gun control in the US. Having lived here for over a decade now, I am yet to understand the fascination in this country for firearms possession by individuals. These have no place in a civilized society and the quicker people understand this, the better off this country be in the long run. US is probably the only country in the civilized world that has minimal, if any, restrictions on carrying firearms and somehow, people and politicians do not seem to learn from tragedies like Columbine at Littleton CO, Jonesboro AR, Padukah KY and now VA Tech in Blacksburg VA. It is about time that the Federal and State governments pay attention to this menace before it becomes a bigger problem than it already it.

If I had to take a guess, the CNN s and MSNBC s of the world will incessantly cover this story until something new comes along and after they get a new fodder, nothing more will happen. There will be no serious debate on the issue nor there any legislative change in favor of gun control. The life will go on as usual. Oh well….

May the departed souls rest in peace.

Fight against Corruption

Corruption has been the worst bane of India’s maturity into a developed country. From the very beginning of an independent India, the socialist mentality and model of government meant the politicians and bureaucracy held disproportionate power and hold on the life of an ordinary citizen.

Till some years ago, the Government was directly or indirectly involved in every single aspect of an ordinary person – ration cards, gas connections, telephone, and banking. The procedures were set up so that an ordinary person had to jump through a thousand hoopes to get a single request approved. This was a favorable breeding ground for corrupt bureaucrats who began asking for bribes for the most routine issue to be sorted out. And when everyone realized there was at the most a remote chance that they would be prosecuted and an even remote chance that they would ever be convicted for these offences, over the years it became a norm. Secrecy about how government offices worked and made decisions was of utmost importance. Most people had not seen anything better in the Government and only a daring few could do something about it. People have become so used to it now that they cannot believe any civil servant will actually be clean and do their job without asking for favors.

However, ever since the Right to Information Act of 2005 came into effect, there are positive signs that things may finally be beginning to change, albeit slowly. While the media has been slow to use this to the advantage and dig up information about waste of public funds, corruption and other acts of malfeasance, various individuals and Non Government Organizations (NGOs) have taken up the cause to fight corruption and are doing commendable job at it.

Arvind Kejriwal of Parivartan was awarded the 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award for activating India's Right to Information movement at grassroots and social activities to empower the poorest citizens to fight corruption by holding the government answerable to the people. More recently, another NGO has been launched in Chennai. It is known as the 5^th Pillar. 5^th Pillar was in the news recently when it launched its initiative to fight corruption using a “Zero Rupee Note”.

It is up to each and every one of us to get involved in such efforts to root out the culture of bribery and corruption plaguing our public sector. Let’s all hope that such efforts can on and gather critical mass in the society that a difference becomes visible to the common man in next 5 years.

Judicial Activism in India

A war of words has recently broken out between two branches of the Indian Government – the executive and the judiciary and looks like that the issues may not be resolved for a long time to come. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan defended their own turfs at a seminar in New Delhi recently.

My personal opinion is that the executive / legislature should decide the laws of the land and that the judiciary must interpret those in case of a conflict. If the judiciary finds the legislation as unconstitutional, it should simply strike it down and direct the executive to remedy the unconstitutionality. The judiciary however must not make policy decisions. All this is fair in academic terms, but in reality, in India, the executive branch has gotten used to taking decisions irrationally and purely for political gains without much regard for fairness.

The legislation allocating an arbitrary quota for the OBCs has been stayed by the Supreme Court and rightly so because a 76 year old census cannot be used as a basis for deciding any policy today. A previous judgment indicating that even the IX th schedule of the Constitution is not immune from judicial review is another example where in my view the so-called judicial activism is justified. It is also justified in cases that review purely political actions like dismissal of state governments under article 356 without regard for ground realities in state legislatures.

Unfortunately, such examples are not uncommon because successive administrations in the Centre over the years have shown little respects to laws of the land which they themselves enacted. In India, if you are privileged enough, you can almost break every statute in the book with impunity. The court system is so backlogged that everyone knows that it will take over a generation for any case to come to trial and if they have good influential lawyers, they would be able to get out with a minor slap on the wrist.

While in theory, judiciary overstepping its mandate may not be a good thing; but in India, unfortunately, that is the only branch of Government and even that mostly at High Court and Supreme Court level that citizens can somewhat trust to enforce their rights and receive justice. And until our political leaders mature enough to separate governance and politics, judicial activism is about the only hope for Indian people.