by Manish Anand
President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam finally assented to the Office of Profit BIll, basically an amendment to Prevention of Disqualification Amendment Bill, 2006. It aims to legitimise the profiteering business of being a parliamentarian or a legislature.
Politicians make their livings the hard ways. Also, most of them get lady luck smiling for few years when they enter parliament or a legislature. Otherwise, they get lost in the labyrinth of many khadi-clad sloganeering band. That puts them into hyperactivity to milk the mamarries of the welfare state, but even their hard sucking fail to dry them.
More than 40 odd MPs must kneel down to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, because it was she who made the Union government to pass the Bill in all haste with showering booty on all; caste, creed, sex, religion no bar. Now, Sonia herself can return to Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and many other such organisations with abundant staff drawn from Steel Frame of India.
Cynical minds should not lose their sleeps over the president assenting to the Bill. It just institutionalises what has been the norms across the length and breadth of the nation. It’s just the greed of we Indians, which remains insatiable no matter what one accumulates.
Typical mind set to milk to the hilt comes to mind by an anecdote. A senior IAS officer along with his family had come calling to a district town. While leaving the place, the stern bureaucrat asked a cop in attention to fetch water for him. Being a constable and used to tantrums of superior officials, he had no guts to ask for the cost. He brought one Bisleri water, which sent the wife of the babu into a frenzy. “One bottle for the whole journey. You idiot, don’t you have any sense! Bring a dozen bottles, fast. Constable was left poorer by the visit.
Culturally, we oblige our acquaintances. They have to be kept happy. Some have to be awarded with the highest honour of the land. Some grey minds have to be rehabilitated with paychecks. Many commissions and committees have to be appointed. No wonder, the economists in India are having party with one among them at the helms of affair.
Also, we are a bull-fighting nation with all at war with each other. As all can not be peaceful under the one roof, some have top be packed to other places for peace of mind of those in power. So, there are boards, council, etcetera, etcetera.
The parliament has done no blasphemy by passing this Bill. It was long overdue, something so obvious to put into black and white. Another step to institutionalise bribery. Why not pay incentive for work done by officials, clerks, staff, and millions of babus to cover bribery. May be efficiency would leapfrog. Time to be innovative, and get going.
President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam finally assented to the Office of Profit BIll, basically an amendment to Prevention of Disqualification Amendment Bill, 2006. It aims to legitimise the profiteering business of being a parliamentarian or a legislature.
Politicians make their livings the hard ways. Also, most of them get lady luck smiling for few years when they enter parliament or a legislature. Otherwise, they get lost in the labyrinth of many khadi-clad sloganeering band. That puts them into hyperactivity to milk the mamarries of the welfare state, but even their hard sucking fail to dry them.
More than 40 odd MPs must kneel down to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, because it was she who made the Union government to pass the Bill in all haste with showering booty on all; caste, creed, sex, religion no bar. Now, Sonia herself can return to Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and many other such organisations with abundant staff drawn from Steel Frame of India.
Cynical minds should not lose their sleeps over the president assenting to the Bill. It just institutionalises what has been the norms across the length and breadth of the nation. It’s just the greed of we Indians, which remains insatiable no matter what one accumulates.
Typical mind set to milk to the hilt comes to mind by an anecdote. A senior IAS officer along with his family had come calling to a district town. While leaving the place, the stern bureaucrat asked a cop in attention to fetch water for him. Being a constable and used to tantrums of superior officials, he had no guts to ask for the cost. He brought one Bisleri water, which sent the wife of the babu into a frenzy. “One bottle for the whole journey. You idiot, don’t you have any sense! Bring a dozen bottles, fast. Constable was left poorer by the visit.
Culturally, we oblige our acquaintances. They have to be kept happy. Some have to be awarded with the highest honour of the land. Some grey minds have to be rehabilitated with paychecks. Many commissions and committees have to be appointed. No wonder, the economists in India are having party with one among them at the helms of affair.
Also, we are a bull-fighting nation with all at war with each other. As all can not be peaceful under the one roof, some have top be packed to other places for peace of mind of those in power. So, there are boards, council, etcetera, etcetera.
The parliament has done no blasphemy by passing this Bill. It was long overdue, something so obvious to put into black and white. Another step to institutionalise bribery. Why not pay incentive for work done by officials, clerks, staff, and millions of babus to cover bribery. May be efficiency would leapfrog. Time to be innovative, and get going.
(Read Upmanau Chatterjee's "Mammeries of welfare state" for insight into working of Indian State)
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