lord Jesus Christ was born this day in 04 BC (for reference only, as the expression was not born then). Christianity was espoused as a faith after Jesus was crucified on either April 7, AD 30 or April 03 of AD 33, both Fridays, as the historians keep guessing until today. A born Jew, Jesus reformed and purified all the bad elements of Judaism and other faiths by preaching best practices to keep humanity happy and peaceful.
Peculiarly when Prophet Muhammad of Arabia became famous as a preacher of Islam in 630 AD, he had incorporated most of the Jewish practices like eating ‘herbivores with cleft hooves’ and banning ‘rodents and pigs’ from food menu, apart from male circumcision.
Much later, in the last century, the Nazi-tortured Jews set up home in Israel by claiming a ‘mythological’ right because Palestine meaning ‘the promised land’ is the same region as mentioned in the Old Testament. Jesus was born in a village called Bethlehem near Jerusalem which has remained a Moslem-controlled territory for centuries. That is history punched with a little mythology for the youngsters to know.
Centuries later in 1642, on the Christmas day, Isaac Newton was born in England; Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, who founded the Banaras Hindu University, was born in 1861; Mohammed Ali Jinnah in 1876 who broke away to form Pakistan in 1947; and Atal Behari Vajpayee in 1924. Needless to say Vajpayee is one of the best Prime Ministers of the world on record for his great sense of democracy and peaceful coexistence. Though old and ailing and unable to make out what’s happening around today, he is hailed as a political god in India.
lately, Modi, the Prime Minister wishes to observe December 25 as ‘Good Governance Day’, which is a welcome idea. Pakistan celebrates Jinnah’s birthday on a bigger scale than the minority Christians do on the Christmas day. Incidentally, Guru Nanak’s birthday on April 15 is a holiday in Pakistan. So, Christmas should also be respected as a big religious day in a secular country like India. Vajpayee’s birthday celebration should not overshadow or dampen the Christian revelry. Good is more about than practised by politicians in most developing countries because they don’t study well before talking or doing.
Their approach to good governance is based on vague, fleeting populist principles as seen in India over the decades. Good governance does not mean to them ‘minimising Government control and regulation, respecting people’s choice, ensuring truly popular elections and establishing absolute rule of law’. Vajpayee did his best to achieve all this. He had smashed the licence regime by opening all gates of productive human activity. Modi’s bureaucrats and supportive statesmen have to put their foot down when he gets too ambitious on a bland ‘economic growth’ model.
It often seems Modi is not sensitive to the ‘quality of life’ component. Hopefully, he has understood the nuances of good governance by now. Banning insane production of plastic goods would be marked as a good start. Boosting female population in dreadful States like Punjab and Haryana would make India a happier place to live in. Similarly, instant dismissal of corrupt officials would indicate great governance. The last BJP-led NDA regime took a beating because some of the leaders flaunted wealth, gloss and glitter and indulged in unforgivable self-praise through a terrible campaign called ‘India Shining’. Modi hopefully will be appreciably cautious on this front because people are ten times more watchful now with modern information technology in hand.
Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik is more popular as the ‘Cleanest Minister’. He is enigmatic, difficult to evaluate on most contentious issues. He does not react to detractors’ ranting or critics’ caustic remarks; uses only two-liners for bites, no matter how grave an issue.
The mindboggling fact is that he does not punish tainted politicians who are hated by the public. Former law Minister Bikram Arukh with land-grabbing charges has gone scot-free. Mere admittance of crime does not absolve one of the offence. Same is the case with Kalpataru Das and his errant MlA son. Naveen, insiders say, has scant respect for critics these days. No wonder, Mahtab and Rout ate up the comments they made recently on valid logic. That’s bad governance. Naveen sweeps all elections despite numerous controversies kicked up by his erring colleagues.
Gossip mongers say it’s a Man Friday and a set of smart young public officials who tell him what to do which is bad governance again. Some others do spread a rumour that Naveen is fond of slaves, not colleagues. Officials are compelled to remain on their toes and fellow politicians quiet to keep skin and chair intact. Not a single soul from within the BJD fold has had the courage to say Naveen was wrong on this or that score, which is plain dictatorship.
The idea of setting up of a corpus fund to compensate the greedy people’s loss is a most horrible proposition and against law. The State can spend more money to hasten the process to nab the frauds to recover as much loot as possible, but it cannot use public money to please greedy fools.
The latest scam after the ponzi disaster is ‘land grab’ by mighty politicians, bureaucrats and traders. The granter and the grantee are equally criminal in conduct and have to land in jail. Top bureaucrat Taradatt probed the discretionary quota land scam. He has exposed all by proving that the whole process was grossly criminal by quoting alongside numerous Supreme Court decisions and rulings. But unfortunately, the land allotted by the GA Department, which is huge in size, has not come under the ‘Taradatt scrutiny’, particularly between 1980 and 1995. The probe remained limited only to the BDA, the CDA and the Housing Board, which is only the tip of the iceberg.
More shockingly, the Cabinet has decided to put the whole matter for an inquiry by the Vigilance department, which has lost credibility, meanwhile. It is rumoured that some Vigilance boss has abused authority to renovate the office facility like a swanky corporate outfit with a post-lunch ‘siesta room’ with relaxing furniture and the works – all this at a whopping cost of over ten million rupees. If it’s true, the officer’s administrative conduct has to come under scrutiny, no matter if he is retired or still in service. The Vigilance DG must swoop on the culprits first before pointing a finger at others. For all this, the people are keen that the Vigilance department be kept off such high profile cases like the land-grab scam which is likely to be messed up by the local police guys running the Vigilance outfit. Some of these are highly purchasable, a survey says.
Interestingly, Amar Satpathy, a BJD MlA, says in a TV talk show that Arukh cannot be faulted on the criminal act of land grab by false affidavit. Arukh, Satpathy says, is absolutely fine on his conduct. This helpless Satpathy chap was once removed by Naveen as a Minister. The poor guy joined the NCP to betray the shelter party without compunction to appear begging yet again at Naveen’s door by pleasing Pyari and promising to remain a lifelong loyal to the BJD bosses. Satpathy must apologige to the public for the irresponsible statement.
Naveen loved by the masses looks worried and confused of in the wake of big controversies. He also looks pale and weak as if in need of immediate medical attention. His loyal voters would be too happy to see him back in complete fitness. A rumour is spreading: ‘Naveen has no stakes in the State and he would disappear from the scene the moment danger starts to loom large over the head’. This should be proved a baseless fear among the simple, gullible voters madly in awe of him. After all, the son of Biju Patnaik, a born lion in man’s skin cannot be so fragile in heart. The most sincere prayer by the masses to God at the close of the calendar year is to grant them a healthy, non-jittery, Odia-speaking, neighbourhood guy called Naveen Patnaik as Chief Minister scaring the erring bureaucrats away to make room for the next-door oldie to a cup of morning tea and a happy, meaningful, reassuring gossip.
The last part of the story should end happily: Raju Srivastav, the Indian star of laughter shows, too was born on the Xmas day in 1963. Modi may as well observe a national ‘laughter Day’ by way of a bonus celebration along with the ‘Good Governance’ bash. Best wishes for the Merriest Christmas and grandest calendar New Year!
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)