The Brave Pedestrian

  This video is going viral on WhatsApp. It features the farewell speech of outgoing US President Barack Obama to the US armed forces, of which he was commander-in-chief. The speech is inspiring and motivational because it talks about the individual freedoms that a true democratic ruler must uphold and safeguard. In these dark times, when citizens of India are repeatedly required to prove their loyalty to the country through slogans and proclamations, Barack Obama's speech is like a torch lighting up the way forward. #Motivational #Democracy #Values

Discussion of judicial reforms cannot be the sole preserve of eminent jurists. The unavailability of judiciary to the common man and his family members deeply concerns their Life & Liberty. This alone gives common people every right to discuss the deficiencies of the judiciary... and not necessarily in respectful tones! Like  ·  Comment  ·  Share

Judiciary is like a bus full of monkeys speeding on the highway of India's democracy. Various monkeys are in charge of the accelerator, brakes and steering wheel, and those chief monkeys retire very soon after they assume office. So who is responsible for the overall conduct of this "independent judiciary", and the many casualties that it causes on the highway of democracy? Nobody! No one can be held responsible.

In the face of colonial behaviour by the judiciary, why are we quiet? Is it because we think of these judges as "our people"? Because they are brown-skinned people with names like PD Dinakaran and KG Balakrishnan, instead of white-skinned people with names like Reginald Dyer? Sometimes I lie awake all night, wondering: Are we quiet because we fear that we may destabilize the nation if we rise up in revolt? Are we docile and obedient because in our own hearts, we consider cont empt of court to be such a grave offence, that the continuous injustices meted out by 19,000 judges to lakhs of people seem to be OK in comparison? Are we failing to unite because the fear of going to jail overwhelms us? Is this an enemy that we cannot fight because it disguises itself as part of our democratic governance structure? Because fighting this enemy seems like fighting against Law & Order itself? Or are we unable to define this enemy because it has no face, unlike, say, politica...

[I wrote this in June 2011, when Arvind Kejriwal, Anna Hazare, Kiran Bedi, Prashant Bhushan and Baba Ramdev were together in India-Against-Corruption or the Lokpal Movement. I think it still holds today.]  Dear All, I have asked this question before, a couple of years ago, to the activist  junta . And I am asking this question afresh in the context of Anna Hazare’s campaign Jan Lokpal Bill, as well as Baba Ramdev’s campaign for bringing back money stashed abroad, because I smell the stench of self-righteous pride in our midst. Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare may be well meaning citizens, but their speech and actions — and the actions of their followers — are increasingly marred by an arrogance that is self-defeating and ridiculous. They are deluding themselves and the people of India into taking an untenable stand. In recent years, I have visited several municipal offices, government offices, police stations, State Information Commissions etc. to collect replies to RTI...