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Facade of Indian Democracy and the Reality Under its Veneer [Postscript: The Economist brands India as a flawed democracy (November 23, 2006).] |
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How about the 63 million tonnes of iron ore exported away by decrees of rulers and their crony-miners annually to our competitor nations? My sources indicate that the public exchequers receive a pittance of $0.075 per tonne which is valued $85 per tonne in spot markets at sites of plants like POSCO and Nippon Steel that make huge profits? The bilaterally negotiated price of iron ore is about $45-55 per tonne. Excluding the cost of mining and transportation, the miners and their patrons pocket at least $20 per tonne of public wealth. Such private usurpation of public wealth by bankrupting government treasuries is unconstitutional. The preamble of the constitution of India guarantees economic justice to public. This constitutional guarantee is being subverted by India's rulers to transfer public wealth to private coffers. CFD has requested the PMO under the Right To Information Act for information on very specific questions relating to the exact figures of receipts by public exchequers, market prices, quantities of minerals extracted year-by-year along with the names of the miners and their political affiliation. It has taken 6 months and we have received no answers. The RTI Act is a farce. The so-called educated Prime Minister is a mere façade for colossal loot of public wealth. The issue of reservations and quotas is not what Rural India is revolting for. They are revolting due to the loot of their mineral and forest wealth by displacing them, polluting their environment and scorching their lands. What is happening to the looted wealth? They are “stored” in skyrocketing real-estate values in places where the ground water table is falling, drainage and sewerage system is clogging, water source is polluting and electricity is unavailable. So, our wealth sinks into oblivion, to ground zero. We seem to have forgotten our civilization that perished when the water source vanished around the current deserts. The citizens, not members of Parliament, are supreme in a democracy. Citizens have dramatically shuffled the individuals who have entered Parliament from time to time. The group that enters Parliament after an election is approximately a random lot drawn from a motley pool, many with criminal backgrounds. These individuals cannot be supreme. Citizens generally detest such individuals who enter Parliament, indicating that these individuals are not supreme by the judgment of those (citizens) who are truly supreme in a democracy. Unfortunately, such individuals entering the Parliament are irrationally exuding power to blackmail the disorganized citizens. This hurts the long-term interests of a great nation, making it suffer from unimaginable poverty and sickness. Rulers are deceiving us, purely for entrenchment and aggrandizement of self, kith, kin and cronies. Reservations and quotas are the largesse being granted by government decree as birth rights. Such birth rights have eroded national competitiveness, currency value, and balance of trade, leading to eventual loss of economic as well as political independence. This has also made masses of The plight of salaried staff is not better either, inducing them to collect bribes to survive. Just think about the adverse impact of rising costs of petrol, kerosene and cooking gas even on the so-called middle class! It is due to an uncontrollably falling rupee stemming from deterioration of national competitiveness, precisely due to policies like birth rights for jobs and education. People are agitating for such reasons, not quotas. The current policy of establishing birth rights is a serious issue because it erodes national competitiveness, security, integrity and stability. In the postscript there is an email about the "Citizens for Development" forum comprising more than 3000 highly accomplished and well placed individuals globally. With best regards, Sankarshan Acharya ----------------------------------------------------------- [ 23 Nov, 2006 0951hrs IST
_______________________________________________________________________ Dear friends,
Our new site on the Internet is very striking. It is like a compendium of our
This is our first periodic digest. Digests will contain only the titles of relevant posts on a theme and links at our new location. We have transported all hot current topics with responses. It is a manual export and so is imperfect. But manual process has facilitated a careful reorganization of issues on optimal governance, almost like a published book. The difference is that our book is dynamically evolving. The following list is not the current list in our evolving compendium. It is only a small subset of titles and links of interest now. 1. Cordial Welcome to Members and Guests! 2. Goals and Premises of Operation of CFD. 4. Does the policy inducing merit to emigrate enhance national prosperity? 5. Articulating the truth about latent injustice in the system of governance. 6. Sacrifice of dearest things is the only credible measure of true love. I hope you will enjoy the new forum and involve yourself actively for framing policies on national renaissance. Please do not hesitate to write to cfd@pro-prosperity.com for any concern. With best regards, Sankarshan Acharya Citizens for Development and Pro-Prosperity.Com |
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