India has been a democracy for over 60 years now. But from top to bottom, secret bottoms are the norm for making the choices in all kinds of elections.
According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_voting, secret voting is a method to ensure that voter's choices are confidential and the key aim is to ensure that voter records a sincere choice by forestalling attempts to influence the voter by intimidation or bribery.
I consider this a serious failure of democratic system not to be able to provide enough security to their people so that they can express their views in a democratic manner openly.
The situation has degenerated so much that even in our esteemed Lok Sabha, on a number of issues secret ballots are conducted time to time. If even our members of parliament not comfortable in speaking out their opinions in an open ballot then what is the point of having democracy?
Although it is said that secret ballots are a method of ensuring that a voter can make a sincere choice without any kind of intimidation or bribery, the reverse is usually what happens. The secret ballots provide an opportunity for people to make choices without any explanation. It is easy to take bribes and change your votes in a secret ballot mechanism since you are not accountable to explain your choice (nobody actually knows what choice you made).
I would like to ask why the people of an electorate don't have the right to know about the choices made by their representatives to Parliament and other assemblies?
To increase the level of accountability and transparency in our system, it is necessary to phase out secret ballots from various levels of legislature and administration. This includes the Parliament and State assemblies, Intra-Party elections to name a few.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Why Devatas don't do any Tapasya?
In all of your studies of Hindu Mythologies, have you ever seen a dev (Indra, Surya, Varun, Som, Chandra, and the lot) ever doing any form of Tapasya? Off-course the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh is excluded from the list. These three are the super gods and every body else is supposed to look forward to them for help. Its always the human beings and the danavas, who are usually found involved in doing Tapasyas. And as a result of their hard work they are often able to beat up even the devatas.
Whenever something wrong goes with the Devatas, they all seem to run to Brahma, Vishnu, or Mahesh and take shelter in them. You never find Indra doing anything except worrying about his Indrasana.
I did some research and hit the following:
http://www.samarthbharat.com/devdanav.htm
The article tends to clarify a lot of ideas related to being a Dev or a Danav. A Dev tends to give all the time while a Danav is always interested in acquiring more and more. If we look at the Mythology, we will find that the Danavs are generally interested in acquiring more and more through Tapasya. Somehow the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh are fine with giving in to their efforts and endowing them with great powers. Though they always make sure that there are some caveats in their boons so that at a later point of time they can be beaten by righteous people.
Since devtas are focused on conducting their duties (Sun ensuring that sun light is available to everybody, Indra making sure that rain happens regularly, Varun taking care of water etc.), they don't really have any desire or need to acquire more powers. Hence they don't need to go for Tapasya. And whenever they are in trouble (when Danavs attack them), they seem to get immediate help from the trinity without any problems. They are the favored ones always in the end.
More on this later...
Whenever something wrong goes with the Devatas, they all seem to run to Brahma, Vishnu, or Mahesh and take shelter in them. You never find Indra doing anything except worrying about his Indrasana.
I did some research and hit the following:
http://www.samarthbharat.com/devdanav.htm
The article tends to clarify a lot of ideas related to being a Dev or a Danav. A Dev tends to give all the time while a Danav is always interested in acquiring more and more. If we look at the Mythology, we will find that the Danavs are generally interested in acquiring more and more through Tapasya. Somehow the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh are fine with giving in to their efforts and endowing them with great powers. Though they always make sure that there are some caveats in their boons so that at a later point of time they can be beaten by righteous people.
Since devtas are focused on conducting their duties (Sun ensuring that sun light is available to everybody, Indra making sure that rain happens regularly, Varun taking care of water etc.), they don't really have any desire or need to acquire more powers. Hence they don't need to go for Tapasya. And whenever they are in trouble (when Danavs attack them), they seem to get immediate help from the trinity without any problems. They are the favored ones always in the end.
More on this later...
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