There is Justice; let us cash in

It is a given that the judiciary in India is in competition with the snail for speed. But in this one case in regard to ex CVC, PJ Thomas, it has surpassed itself and delivered. In the process it has also thrown a lifeline to the diminishing governance quotient in India.

The Judiciary, recently stripped PJ Thomas of the appointment of CVC, given to him by the Executive, on grounds of illegality. An Executive, on the back foot well into its crease nearly trampling the stumps, hails it as ‘democracy at its best’. Such sound bytes would please an Egyptian who dreams of democracy.  With this one they can’t fool me, a veteran citizen in this democratic system for over half a century. We applaud the judiciary for exposing the Executive and the degenerated governance in our country. Is this judicial activism as the Executive would call it? The answer is an emphatic “No”. Once elected our federal democracy affords our electoral college to work in a cartel. It is a quid pro quo system – a recent statement by our PM accusing the BJP of stalling the implementation of GST while demanding to free an accused from their party in Gujarat can not be taken lightly. I consider it as an indication towards what may have been happening all these years – The Mulayams, Maywatis, Lalus et al. Like never before the credibility and competency of our rulers is suspect.

In the wake of the Satyam fraud, the Government was very vocal in criticising the role of independent directors on the Company board. The competence and eligibility of independent directors on boards of all companies was questioned – what with public money and Indian citizens being directly involved with these listed Companies. How could the Government shirk its responsibilities? A very pertinent question. And so plans were being drawn to empanel competent independent directors a la the ICC empanelling cricket umpires!!! Pray, why not apply the same criteria for politicians and bureaucrats heading ministries?

There are a lot of G’s going around these days – all or almost all causing setbacks to the big G – Government. Whether the three G’s (Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka) will do the Congress party and hence the country any Good is a moot point…3G on the other hand has surely  helped Pranab to rein in the fiscal deficit despite increase in expenditure in the revised budget estimates for 2010-2011. While distribution of 2G was handled by Raja, the distribution of 3G was handled in effect by the Praja (in full public view).  Was Raja competent to handle the telecom Ministry?

In the wake of the Supreme Court judgment in the PJ Thomas case which exhorts the Government “appointments should not be restricted to civil servants alone but people of impeccable integrity from other fields should also be considered”, I expect a public debate on who is competent to govern us to include the competency of bureaucrats also, to do whatever they are doing.

I propose a National debate on “Should we draft in experts in technology and management directly into governance?” – and of course save them thereafter from going the Manmohan way!

Can the Indian media live up to such a debate? They do owe this one to the Nation.