A lot of debate is steaming up in media and concerned sections of society about the declaration of assets by the Judges of this land. All the hue and cry that they are not above the society is all fine. The question is not about them making public their assets but the amount of importance attributed to it. With the selection process of the Supreme Court judges itself not aligned with the constitution, one cannot be 100% sure about the worthiness and integrity of judges. Declaration of assets in these circumstances will result in better earnings for those "intelligent" accountants. How will this be different from declarations of personal assets and election expenditure by our politicians?
A reservation of 50% for women at all levels in panchayatraj is laudable step. But cant we ensure women's presence in political scenario in a much better and fruitful manner. On what grounds is it logical that one particular village should be represented only by a woman and not by any body else who could be more capable? Instead of reserving the seat, it would be wise to have political parties field minimum percentage of women candidates in any of the constituencies. Such a step would not be taken for the obvious reason that winning seats is more important than empowering women for any of the political parties. Also it is a widely acknowledged fact that many women representatives ( especially in rural areas ) are puppets in the hands of their husbands. Empowering weaker sections of the society is a must, but something else has got higher priority. That is electing capable individuals with integrity no matter what their gender or caste or religion is. Because without ensuring the latter, former will always remain a dream.
Another hot topic these days is the test results of Pokhran-II. Whatever might be the yield 15kt or 50kt, it will cause immeasurable damage which would be much higher than what was seen in Hiroshima. So China or for that matter any other country is so dumb to discard the nuclear potential of India. In the age of de-nuclearization, debate about the new tests or assessing the yield again is obsolete.
A recent government decision to issue ads in newspapers which portray the naxal menace and causalities they inflict, proves our skewed approach once again. Today the educated populace of this country is more than convinced that naxalism is anti-social and should be treated with an iron fist. Gone are the days when naxal recruits comprised of intelligentsia. It is the discarded, under privileged, destitute sections of society who in their disgust are fighting for the movement. So what is the point in wasting taxpayer's money on ads?
