That’s the new pastime.
Civil Society trying to interfere with Parliamentary Democracy must be shown its place. One Mr.Muckerjee says they can not be allowed to hijack the Parliament’s role.
What is Civil Society? And what is Parliamentary Democracy?
As being used in India, Civil Society means the loosely organized group of people, small or large, which hopes to exercise moral power as different from the Government which is Constitutionally invested with legislative and executive power. In this sense, Civil Society, very strictly, has no locus standii vis-a vis the Government. At the best, it can expect to be heard, not even consulted.
Again ,in India, Parliamentary Democracy once put in place through periodic authorization via the electoral process, has virtually all power to wield without commensurate answerability to the people who put it together in the first place.
The term Democracy is of Greek origin-- Demos (Greek), people, and kratos (Greek) strength, are mediated through the parliament ( French – parlement from parler; to speak) ) in Parliamentary Democracy. In India it’s a travesty of the philosophic ideas underpinning the form of self-governance. Ironically, a monument where elected representatives may speak about, discuss, deliberate on ,issues relating to the people they represent-- and execute the will of the people for the greatest good of the greatest numbers-- has turned into a cocoon that shelters and protects a bunch of empowered representatives from the very people who have empowered them… to a point at which the symbolic monument and the discussants set themselves against the loosely organized group of people.
In so distancing themselves , the elected representatives have seen themselves as superior to the ‘civil society’ of people, virtually setting themselves above the legislation they enact for the people. They are beyond the pale of those laws and ‘civil society’ may not question the law nor the ‘immunity’ of the representatives from all forms of answerability. True, the Judiciary is , technically, a balancing power-structure, but in India , given the lengthy procedures and the general lack of time-frames, judicial review of parliamentary action is as prone to inordinate delays as all civilian litigation. Besides, “Judicial Activism” has been frowned upon for long, and the last has not yet been heard on questions of power-delimitation and supremacy. It is quite another matter that there is a necessary complementarity that has yet to be understood and practiced.
As such, it is not a wonder that the Parliamentary Democracy that Pranab da in his inimitabhle bhay, Chidambaram in his suave sermons, wish to protect is in fact no democracy at all, but an oligocracy with the representatives as the sole stake-holders. It excludes the people of the ‘civil society’ without any attempt at even polite deception.It is bare-faced aggression with which these parliamentary ‘leaders’ show the ‘civil society’ and its vanguard their place. The devolution of power, they say, places people at the bottom; and that’s the way to stay, anna .
Baba bleats and decides not to have fodder. Laalu , an expert in such matters, says ‘we will force-feed him’. That is sevice, like it or not.There are millions who don’t have a meal per day in this country. How dare you , with ample resource, don’t eat? Want to give Indian Parliamentary Democracy a bad name, aligning with a National Self-Serving Scheme group and their political masque, Indian Peoples’ Party? Go, go… BreakFast is ready.
Indeed there is more grain than our warehouses can store.Ditributing it through the PDS system , as directed by the Supreme Court, is not feasible said the country’s executive head. The grain may soon begin to rot. Under such circumstances, you refuse to eat! Go… BreakFast is ready. You, the civil society, the Supreme Court are all trying to hijack power.People have no roles to play in a Parliamentary Democracy except casting a vote when called upon . Mind your business.
Take the Service of the Parliamentary Democracy as is given to you. Like a Cow from a Bull.
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