A piece that shows up Hazare

for what he is! A sanctimonious man who thinks he know what everybody else needs. And, please he is no Gandhi! Sali Tripathi in his piece clearly demonstrates how the people who have followed him made a mistake. 

Some excerpts.

The litany of complaints against voting is familiar. The presence of criminals on ballot paper, the powerlessness of a single vote, the persistence of vote banks, the power of money. But if all parties seem alike, nothing stops the citizen from canvassing for individuals, joining or forming parties, and even standing for elections, as an independent, if necessary. Gandhi was clear: be the change you wish to be. 

 That is hard work; requiring more effort than participating in candle vigils or wearing Gandhi caps. Politicians thumping desks and civil society thumping chests don’t make a revolution. Waiting for a hero is not the way. When Andrea lamented to Galileo in Bertolt Brecht’s eponymous play that there were no heroes, Galileo said: pity the nation in need of a hero.

And pity, too, the nation that can’t tell apart a real hero from a false one.

 

Lok Pal bill and my opinion of it

My opinion on Lok Pal bill summarized succintly (full link here). 

To preclude against this, the social capital that has been realized over the last fortnight should be channelized into nudging the government to push for greater disintermediation through economic reforms. Less intermediaries means that much less scope for corruption and similarly for discretionary powers at various levels of the food chain. More importantly, it will tackle corruption ex ante. This in contrast to the present approach, which mistakenly believes in tackling it after it has occurred. The trick is to prevent corruption, not police it.

 

 

another bullshit making decision on the part of the Congress

I mean these morns continue to ruin everything!

Read this

 

Underlying this approach to public policy is a combination of good intentions and an arrogant belief that citizens cannot be trusted to make the right choices -- on how to educate their children or what food to buy for their families.

What gives Sonia gandhi the right to tell individuals what to do! When will these idiots realize people are more knowledgeable in doing what is right for them than the self-righteous morons who think they know what is right for everybody else! I would love to see these people live based on what other people think is right!

Full piece here

 

Lokpal bill

All those people who want astrong lokpal bill would do well to read Hegde's remarks. the well respected Lokayukta of Karnataka clearly mentions how "checking corruption requires greater deregulation and better enforcement of existing laws and provisions" Not another strong governemnet run body like Lokpal with huge powers. The argument on corrpution cannot be morality based. It will never.. i mean never work. Only thing that will as the mint piece puts it elegantly is "It’s more a matter of reordering incentives and much less about morality"

Cricket

Well, I see a lot of articles on how stupid the Indian Cricket has been. I agree. Now I start seeing articles that claim that Dhoni is a poor captain. Now, I do not know if Dhoni is as great a captain as Mark Taylor (the  greatest captain I have seen.. People claim Mike Brearely is right up there, but I did not see him). But he does do somethings right. Well, to blame Dhoni for the lack of performance in a couple of series (yes Iwill give the WI series too) is ridiculous. Common guys give the poor guy some time. I agree the team was unfit (zaheer, yuvraj and tendulka (not match fit) when they landed in England and that's the responsibility of coach and training staff. We have bucket loads of those people and what are they doing? Dhoni was so successful all this time he was bound to fail. Stop complaining. Ok worst case we will lose this English series so what? Blame BCCI for not giving time for preparation. If at all you should blame anybody its only them. Please wait and reserve your opinions for at least one or two more series and give the guy a chance to redeem himself. Of course I will give it to you that his batting and keeping were very shoddy. That exposes the tail even more! anyway thats for another day.

I just hope Viru turns up fit and smashes the shit out of the English bowlers (well I can dream can't I :P)