Freedom we got …….independence we have to earn……

I would not want to repeat the cynical rhetoric about how bad things are, how corrupt the government machinery is and how miserably have our leaders failed us, because I don’t believe  all this  to be the complete Truth.  We have stumbled because citizens have sought freedom from responsibility and leaders have confused self governance with independence. Here, I just want to verbalize a few anomalies and misconceptions in our thoughts and goals that in my opinion, have deviated our rudders from our destination.

1. We are a republic and have chosen democracy to be our mode of governance. The spine of every democracy are representatives that we elect to represent us in governing the nation. Our chief problem is we have not been able to find 600 odd suitable men from the nation of 1200 million people who are committed to make this nation a better place; we have always been short of true leaders who have burning desire to guide the nation on the path of progress. Who should be blamed?  naturally,  we the people who, at the time of elections do not see the merit  and character of candidate but focus on either how useful he can be in getting our jobs done or the cast and religion that he or she belongs to. This approach has reduced the value of citizen to just a ballot paper, who can be used and thrown like a tissue paper. Besides, this approach has created pseudo leaders who truly are mob bosses who are just experts in forming nexus and cartels.

2. Our governmental decisions have been made with an attempt to create equality where as equality is never attainable without compromising individual freedom. Every human is free to aspire, dream and achieve his purpose of life. The attempt should be to create uniformity and to build a level playing field that ensures dispersion of benefits of prosperity to a wider cross section of the society without creating barriers for individual freedom and entrepreneurship.

3. We have somehow developed this habit of looking externally for everything that is wrong. Our education system and upbringing is tailored to pamper us into this misbelief, that it is always someone’s fault. Take corruption, it is burning issue, these days. Does corruption rain from sky? No it grows in and around us; this weed is able to survive because we intentionally or unintentionally feed it.  Authorities become corrupt because we are willing to grease their palms to get our jobs done in quick and Hassel free way. No one is asking you bribe at the gun point. They take because you are willing to pay under the leitmotif that without it your job will not be done. I can with pride tell you from my personal experience that in my whole life I have not  bribed even one  rupee to anyone and even  with my Non VIP  status  no one has ever stopped any of my job.

4. Somehow, looking at the world around us, it seems, the word freedom for an individual has come to mean a permit to do whatever one wants.  People have misused their freedom by sitting on the railway tracks and blocking high ways  for  getting  what they  think , they should have got. We have forgotten that besides being the executor of our aspirations, we are also responsible for common good of a collective unit that we call nation.

 Ironically, famous assertion of Rousseau that “man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains” seems more appropriate, as another Independence Day dawns.  In a civic democratic society an individual is never free because he always carries the crusade of responsibility.

So, on the whole, you and I, my dear, are problem and you and I are solution…..

Uncertain : They are as ever

As the axiom goes “After event even a fool is wise” and at Jodhpur’s Umaid hospital  they are proving it right . For those who have missed the haunting  news in National dailies  , 16 women have died so far in Jodhpur  Government Hospital due to administration of allegedly contaminated IV fluid; The issue has lately raised questions about  state of hygiene and sanitation  in hospitals .

The all time favorite blame game is in full swing.  Inspection committee is calling names to doctors at Hospitals, Doctors are blaming the administrative authorities, administration is blaming lack of resources Following lines from a famous Bob Dylan song always ring in my head after such incidents.

How many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry ?
Yes, how many deaths, will it take till he knows
that too many people have died?
The answer is blowing in the wind......

It would not be out of place  to share an appeal mailed to me by a senior doctor of the subject hospital .

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DEATHS OF DELIVERED WOMEN IN UMAID HOSPITAL, JODHPUR

                              The treating Doctors’ perspective

THE MISHAP- What has happened in the deptt of Obstetrics ,Umaid Hospital,Jodhpur in the month of February has been a terrible accident- a very unfortunate heart rending series of incidences over which no single person or a group of people had control. It was not an act of commission or omission but seemingly the interplay of an out of the world hitherto unknown FACTOR that mercilessly snatched away so many lives.

THE DEPARTMENT- If the work culture as prevails in our department for so many years were to be responsible then this kind of deaths should have occurred in the past too. But our statistics vouch for us that similar mortalities have never been an integral part of the history of this department.Most of us have been associated with this department for more than 10-15 years and we have not seen or heard of such deaths because of PPH.

FINDINGS OF COMMITTEES- Our teaching has been faulted, our training has been criticised, our devotion to work and duty has been challenged, our integrity questioned and our department has been cursed. Eyebrows have been raised on each and every act of ours. They came with a purpose and they have been able to achieve it. Our students are ignorant fools, training is faulty and non- existent, work culture is pathetic, sanitation is abysmal and we do not give any TIME to the department. We were held directly responsible for a chocked gutter or a faulty window. It appears that the mountain like figures of upwards of 70 deliveries per day are being handled by inept students and untrained nurses.

The falling standards of medical teaching and learning in medical colleges is not an ailment confined to our department, the reasons for this are many, the debate is a long one and surely has nothing to do with the present  RUN OF MORTALITY in our operation theatres that is being investigated.

ACTUALITY- Our statistics do not speak this way. Mortality figures from our institution compare well with others. Our OPD attendance is rapidly going up and we are facing an unprecedented rush in our ANC clinic, Labour rooms and our OT’S are panting for breath.

Private practice- Doing private practices outside hospital hours in our residential chambers is not a nefarious activity, a shoddy doing or a crime. We only render our services to the citizens of this city strictly in accordance with the rules and regulations that govern the state medical college teachers and in a way we work almost double than our Delhi counterparts.

THE EXPECTATIONS- Instead of experts coming to our rescue trying to help us find the culprit in the environment, that evasive superbug, that puzzling factor we only have a host of higher ups descending upon us making us parade in front of them like hard core criminals only to hear that you are shoddy, faulty in your basics and that everything is wrong with you and your work and you deserve the gallows.

WE AS WE ARE- This is not helping anybody. Our morale is shaken, our confidence battered, our self esteem lost and our hand tremble when we operate or conduct a procedure.

OUR PRAYER- We collectively mourn these deaths, we are as shaken as the kiths and kins of the deceased. Why the Almighty chose our hands for these unfortunate deaths we fail to understand. But our image has been tarnished and we deserve a little more than mere brickbats for our years of service to the Suncity.

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The question here is not that  who is solely responsible for the incident ? The questions are : Doesn't someone get the salary for ensuring the quality of drugs administered, ? Is someone  paid from exchequer's money for  ensuring proper sanitation and hygiene  ? If not then, how everything comes in order and becomes spic and span on day of some minister's visit ?If everything about the hospital, staff and doctors is shoddy and out of place then what were these inspecting authorities doing, besides waiting for things to go wrong ?

I am no one to blame anyone with my limited intellect ,but I as a concerned citizen surely want to ask or tell few things to every doctor who is reading this .

Someday go to the emergency of your hospital and silently watch how nonchalant and easy going residents and doctors at duty are. Please tell them that the causality brought there is someone's father , someone' husband and world of few might be revolving around that person .For you he is just another patient . Please try to understand the condition of people and at least pretend concern and appear sympathetic.

If you know things are lousy and below acceptable standards why don't you refuse to carry on? Time is ripe for us to  decide whether hands of few semi educated politicians  or your brains runs these hospitals.

Well, these committees and reports are just time buying tactics and part of the procedure to bury the hatchet .Rest assured we the common people will forget about such episodes and get busy with  more important world cup of cricket sooner than you realize.

Only if I could , I will give a copy of Murphy's law to every government official and frame and put these lines of Hellen keller on every officer's desk

I am only one,

but still I am one.

I cannot do everything, 

but still I can do something; 

and because I cannot do everything,

I will not refuse to do something 

that .....I can do

Corrupted by prosperity

It is everywhere, it is so promiscuously omnipresent, that it does not surprise anyone, anymore.

A government official, an engineer or a doctor getting caught red handed while accepting a bribe can hardly be considered news these days. Almost every page of newspaper has one such incident reported that we read only to check if the name mentioned is that of our acquaintance or relative. What happens subsequent to that never gets reported because nothing really happens after that .A process of departmental enquiry, temporary suspensions, a court case and reinstatement. Standing on the apex of the human greed , we are building a castle of corruption.

The recognition by the Chief Justice of India, K G Balakrishnan, that the process of investigating agencies to seek permission from higher authorities for prosecuting accused public servants is creating a "climate of impunity" is no news either; however his suggestion to enable confiscation of properties belonging to persons who are convicted of offences is very welcome. It is very appropriate and reasonable that if a public official amasses wealth at the cost of the public, then the state is justified in seizing such assets. Once president of Taiwan and his wife can be punished so severely for financial irregularities why can’t we punish pawns of bureaucracy in this country ? Why is Delhi so reluctant to do what Taipe can so vehemently execute?

The very root of corruption lies in a clear opportunity with little chance of getting caught. The lack of accountability comes primarily from lack of transparency, what causes corruption are attitudes and circumstances that make average people disregard the law. However, corruption is not just about ethics it is also about how the government is set up and managed. Corruption has its own motivations, and one has to thoroughly study that phenomenon and eliminate the foundations that allow corruption to exist.

We are so vocal about greatness of our cultural heritage and past but our code of conduct puts even the uncivilized barbarians to shame. The process of corruption starts with elections and never really ends. How true are the words of Wynton Marsalis who said “I have absolutely no idea what my generation did to enrich our democracy. We dropped the ball. We entered a period of complacency and closed our eyes to the public corruption of our democracy.”

Hope someone pays heed to chief justice and makes the corruptors suffer the hardest imprisonment and ensure that even their generations don’t get to enjoy their unearned wealth. Hang them, if you should, they have no right to make money through the chair that was assigned to them to ensure smooth functioning of democratic government…..

They call it business ?

Educational institutes seem to be competing with each other in lying and misleading parents in their race to woo more students through their deceiving advertisements that brazenly display rosy tailored results.

Basically in our country public inaction is taken for granted. Everybody knows that nobody will act so the offenders have the temerity of doing these gross malpractices.

Let me tell you their tricks.

Catch students from coaching institutes of Kota when they come home after finishing their IIT preparation course. Offer them free coaching for CBSE , no one will object, as these students are very average on CBSE topics. Now, take their photo in the institute form and use their IIT results….

Take photo of any tom dick harry and write some name underneath, who has got time to check.

Contact people who are selected and offer them I- pod, mobile phone and if required a laptop people generally don't mind.

If a candidate has got 1000 rank in SC or OBC conveniently forget category and make it general rank. Such errors can happen, you know.

If a candidate is in EML he or she is NOT selected, but claim it a selection. After all how will an ordinary citizen know the difference? Even if he does EML list is given with JEE result so it suits the convenience.

Conduct a free open test and keep some goodies as prize for top ten students , good students won't mind writing the test to check their level of preparation .Now use their photograph and take the credit of two year of hard work of somebody in one day.Who is going to check who has spent long hours preparing these students. All that counts is financial muscle.

In the end buy results of selected students and call it scholarship. Someone ought to tell these people scholarship is given to support studies and not to enjoy results.

Media talks so much about corruption but they are indeed party to this corruption. These people can never look beyond their advertisement revenues. The most common one liner you get from them is “what can we do it is an advertisement and it is not our responsibility to check the truth”. Fellows, if it was future of your child will you not explore the truth?

These so called cheaters (teachers) are raping the education and media is providing them the place for the act.

I won’t keep quite if media won’t help, hopefully, law will….

Emotive slogans and promises have robbed elections of enthusiasm

No, I did not vote………….

Call me a skeptic preacher or a hypocrite who writes and talks about the public participation in affairs of national interest but does not cast his vote when time comes.

What stopped me was not the heat or crowd, what made me change my mind was the fact that I read in papers a series of lofty, unrealistic and utopian promises made in flowery and cosmetic language which can hardly be kept. Populist slogans and promises are made just to gain votes unmindful of its ramifications on the country its people and economy. They want to make everything free without giving a slightest idea as to how they plan to raise the revenues. Sensitive, emotive and divisive issues and non-issues are raised to gain electoral dividends. Unrealistic, unattainable and illusory promises are made which could hardly be put into practice. I fail to comprehend which common man they are talking about.

Will somebody explain to me why the salary of defense personnel should be exempt from income tax? What crime has a teacher, doctor, industrialist or a clerk done? Defense of the nation is just another profession and I don’t consider them heroes in anyway. I was part of the defense for a major portion of my youth and I don’t think that defense personnel in any way is more patriotic than a farmer who ploughs his field early mornings to produce crop that you and I eat.

Lincoln defined ‘‘Democracy as the Government of the people by the people and for the people’’ but our politicians have degenerated it into ‘‘Government off the people buy the people and far the people’’.

In a true electoral democracy elections are the means to form the governments but not the ends therein. The end being developmental issues, welfare, health and education, infrastructure and quality of life of an average citizen. Though elections are integral part of democracy yet we definitely cannot say that democracy is elections and electioneering only.

If we want to make electoral democracy successful and meaningful, then the government must make election manifestos enforceable.It is only then we can make voting compulsary for every citizen and not voting a punishable offence. Let these people do what they say and run the country. As long as election manifestos continue to be just a bundle of lies, electorate like me will continue to loose interest in elections.

Hungry wolves in dinner jackets

Reading about the diet of Raju Ramalinga the former CEO of Satyam and the facilities he commands in jail, makes me ashamed of our spine less law system. A person who committed the economic crime of Raju’s magnitude not only manipulating the balance sheet of the SATYAM but also of robbing the faith of millions of investors who held SATYAM as one of the best three IT companies of this country.

When people like Raju and his accomplice rape the company law what can a common man do? What does an investor see? Who can a common man trust? What do you believe when Balance sheet, profit statement, cash flows are tailored with the help of auditors of international repute? What is our regulatory mechanism doing? Should these offenders be given the treatment which is offered to them in Jail now? They should be made to rot, and law should be enacted that even their coming generations does not get to enjoy the fruit of their ill produced wealth.

Having laws is one thing, their unbiased implementation is another. Our politicians and Privileged people of society with easy access to powers, have utter disdain for the law of the land and law enforcement machinery.They trust our ephemeral memory; they know that we the people will forget Raju like we have forgotten Ramesh Gailey and Ketan Parekh and many swindlers like them.

My mind is filled with anger and my heart with an awful sense of power- less ness. Famous lines of Abraham Lincoln echo in my ears “Power does not corrupt, but, when fools get in possession of power, corrupt power…….