If anyone happens across this, and wishes to use it as a starting point for a call to action in their own networks, please feel free to do so. It's time each one of us stood up and took action.
"Guys
On this list are some people, I've contacted before, and some that I am getting in touch for the first time.
So, to start with, Hi everyone. This is Ramprasad Hariharan, a Mumbaiite.
This email is going out to everyone as a request for help from a city, that all of us are connected to, or have been connected to at some point of time in our lives. I've decided to step in and do my bit, as a responsible citizen, to make as much noise about the apathy, and sheer docile nature and pure blatant disregard of the security of our people that was demonstrated by our state, and federal governments, as well as the intelligence mechanism and police forces, during the audacious assault on our freedom and democracy on 11/26/08.
I'd like to think we are getting to a point where the people of India, or at least a section of it will wake up and start questioning the functioning of our democracy, and demand a shift, however slow it might be to a welfare oriented society. We need to realize that the government has failed the country as a whole and has done more than put the country at grave risk, they've endangered the future of one-fifth of all humanity, and all of our kids/ nephews/ nieces, and pretty much everything we hold dear today. It's high time the administration gets accountable to the promises it makes, and takes real steps toward improving the security of the country, so at least some of these attacks are pre-empted. In my personal opinion, there can be no development, economic, humanitarian or personal without a sense of security in the society we live in.
What I am proposing here, is starting a grassroots movement to get our broken community together, and break down the walls that exist between the different sections of society, the administration, the law enforcement and the justice system. Before security needs to come trust, and I propose building up that trust by networking between people who like on this list are from different facets of society, and can help a lot with the right inputs.
Please take a couple of minutes to read this email, and try and respond back to me with what you think should be a further course of action that we as citizens can recommend. This does not necessarily need to involve the government, but might range from educating ourselves politically, to educating a section of the illiterate population in india, as an attempt to bring them to the mainstream, to organize local events in your city, that brings all sections of population togther, and gets them invested in each other, to something as simple as voting in the next election, which pretty much is the most potent weapon in a democracy's arsenal.
Please also feel free to forward this along to whoever you think can contribute to this discussion. I am trying to make it a little more official, and have requested guidance from the concerned people about how we can setup a citizens watch group that can be co-ordinated online, via a blog to start off with, and depending on the results it shows, I'd like to grow it into a portal for us concerned citizens.
I am also trying to recruit for this effort, and would welcome any assistance offered.
11/26 shall never be forgotten in my heart and mind, as I am sure it wont be, with everyone on this list. The question is, can we act now, so we can pre-empt something like this the next time? The government clearly needs a clap of thunder to wake from their slumber. Maybe it needs to come from us.
If you read till here, thanks for reading :-),and any help offered is truly appreciated. Once i receive feedback, I will format and post it up at http://thesosclub.blogspot.com
Ram Hariharan"
2 comments:
Good Initiative, I would be part of it.
I look at things as follows:
We work because we have fear of being jobless and without money and not getting a wife and all social obligations. Do this politicians have fear? I guess no? They have taken us for granted. So the real fight would be to act on the root cause and having 1 billion demands. Have only 1 2 or 3 demands which shakes the system.
When I read '49-O' rule, I could see an opportunity. If all the Indians get together and demand for implementation of a rule on hte lines of '49-O' where if some percent of total votes are of the type 'I do not vote' then all the candidates are disqualified for next 5 yrs or 10 yrs. [can discuss more if needed]
Second root cause I sense is corruption at all level. Nothing can be done much about it if we think so.
When we have CBI , ACB and other agencies why corurption still exist. Because there is no fear. The Law is not strong and no one pursues it.
What if fear is induced in them by having a completely independent agency made only to track this corrupted babus and set targets for them as we have in corporate world. The rule is simple 'Perform or Perish'. If they say no one is taking bribe then this team is the one who has taken bribe or are corrupted. Anyways sounds simple to write but I dont think its impossible if more brains pour their Ideas.
thanks for your feedback jaideep. This is really good. I will keep updating this blog with articles. Keep an eye out here. I am also part of an organization called the parallel indian youth organization, which is on its way to formulating a process to get involved in interacting with our administration, and demanding action. Let me know if you'd like details about it. Also, we should have a protal setup pretty soon as well, so you should be able to check us out soon.
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