There are three kinds of speakers we know. The first is a sound monitor popularly called a loudspeaker made of paper cones, metals and multiple electronic components. The second kind is an eminent human being who uses oratory to inspire audiences with his digested knowledge and skills.
The third one is a bit less understood, a politician popularly elected (most times by guile in India) who is selected the master of the legislature by the ruling gang. Odisha has the BJD as an incredibly majority party. The BJD across four consecutive terms is a filthy rich party due to mining boom and its resultant economic opportunities of stealing money. The party boss keeps installing politicians as Speakers, as if the august House is the fiefdom of the BJD and not of all the elected legislators.
Earlier in 2009, there was one Amat, who, instead of ruling the House as the captain, danced as puppet in the hands of the party honchos.
He did not accept the resignation of MlA Ramesh Rout, who was keen to make way for his mentor-master Raja Swain who was trickily deprived of his right to fight. Eventually, Swain moved courts and snatched justice in good time when Pyari and Naveen were just beginning to suspect and hate each other. The current Speaker of the Assembly Niranjan seems an exceptionally loyal servant of Naveen’s whom the CM had discarded as Excise Minister in the previous term.
As told earlier, the monitor-speaker is only a man-made inanimate machine and can never react; it remains friend to humanity until it falls into pieces irreparably. The second one, though a reaction-capable living being, remains neutral for having no private links or interest with the audience members.
His pleasure remains undiminished because he is treated temporarily as a know-all creature. But the third kind can prove extremely dangerous as he, if unethical, can become a blind slave to the ruling party bosses. Niranjan Pujari claiming to be a lawyer has overstepped jurisdiction in ruling as if he were a BJD guy and not a neutral person expected to be equally just to all.
He is unforgivably unaware of the critical fact that the Advocate General has no locus standi to make comments on the proceedings of the lawmaking House or advise the Speaker what to and not to do.
The Speaker has absolutely no right to say the AG has advised him to avoid a discussion on ponzi company scams as the matter is sub-judice. The AG too seems to be hazy on intricacies of law. As the principal lawyer of the Government, he can only advise the Executive controlled by the Council of Ministers with guidance from civil servants. The legislature is much above the Government, which has to keep reporting to the former that no illegal or anti-people act is being committed.
The Speaker is supremely authorised to lead, determine, control and modify proceedings of the House as he thinks appropriate on the basis of the wish and desire of every single elected lawmaker. Pujari has offended the Constitution of India by making the AG his boss. More shockingly, the AG has never come up with any reaction to Pujari’s ruling.
He is expected to know law too well because a senior lawyer eligible to become a High Court judge is made AG. Either the AG is not sharp in application of law or he too has turned a slave to the BJD bosses. The superior courts could take cognisance of the grave fact and accept the matter as a PIl as the ruling of the Speaker and the silence of the AG to the Government have caused damage and obstruction to the lawmaking process at the legislature.
The Speaker and the AG are accountable to the public. There is still time the AG said once courageously, “I never advised the Speaker that stupidly because I am not the lawyer for the legislative body. The Speaker has bluffed.”
More strangely, the legal community of Odisha is dead silent on the grave issue. Not a single soul among lawyers and former judges is making any response. The State, it seems, has no true lawyers left. Or maybe, the existing tribe prefers to remain silent to avoid being exposed on ignorance. Or perhaps, the good ones don’t bother to know what’s happening around as long as the personal going is good. The situation hurts.
Modi’s Swachh Bharat movement is more farcical than realistic. A grand orator, Modi has certainly given a kick-start to very relevant movement but without the sensitive techniques. Until lee Kuan Yew appeared on the scene, Singapore used to be a messed-up City Sstate like any unruly, disorganised Indian metropolis of today.
lee began with eliminating the roots of problems. He said no plastic wrapper, no betel-chewing-n-spitting, no urinating, and no domestic garbage dumping in public.
He went a bold step further and banned satellite antennas to keep the skyline looking clean and beautiful even from airplanes. The best deal was that every offender, no matter what age, would be punished out of proportions, mostly with instant big monetary penalty that hurt the most. No wonder, the kids too are sensitively oriented to clean surroundings. Contraband including narcotics and illegal psychotropic drugs could cost lives. Critics of the cynical kind argue that such big objectives are easily attainable in tiny States only without knowing populated cities like New York, San Francisco and Tokyo have achieved superb cleanliness by clamping stringent laws at the local self-government level.
So, Modi’s ‘broom-wielding’ pictures splashed across will only push people to do halfhearted jobs only for news and then forget the whole promise. Corresponding penalty and punishment alone can make Bharat clean, nothing else will. To begin with, Modi must first ban the use of polythene and such other plastic use that have created the most dangerous garbage across the country.
Successive Governments have been bought over by the wealthy plastic lobby and the menace continues to deteriorate life of people in India even further. The ‘micron myth’ too is a ploy given by unscrupulous scientific experts permitting several types of synthetic materials without ever revealing the fact that no synthetic plastic is biodegradable.
Modi must scream into the TV cameras, “PlASTIC IS PAST AND PUNISHABlE.” He must make garbage dumping heavily punishable by persuading the legislature to make permanent laws after trying reforms through executive orders as a beginning. Reliance family might weep for a while, but life will be so beautiful forever.
The next big thing is to prevent open defecation. ‘No home toilets, No BPl cards’ can be a rule slapped on all. All such public projects, executed through heavily paid civil servants, have to be publicised nonstop for quite a while. If such simple steps are not taken soon enough, the Swachh Bharat movement would be a historic failure. The broom-wielding picture may end up in being a good election symbol for some emerging political party. lastly, on this score, ‘Swachh’ does not mean cleanliness but ‘transparent’ which is ‘see-through’ only.
The expression should have been “Saaf Bharat”. Modi makes good speech, but if desired results do not show up early he will be in trouble. Repatriating black money and abrogating Article 370 may end up in whimpers, but the Clean India movement can be a reality show without much effort. Fitting punishment alone brings in civic sense.
Back home in Odisha, people are in a state of shock. Prakash Mishra lost to a junior Bihari IPS officer. One tainted Sinha has made way for a hopefully clean Sinha as the CBI Director. Prakash will retire as a key figure in the Ministry of Home.
But that his own State authorities did work hard to ensure that the Odia boy was prevented from becoming the top Federal investigator will remain a painfully dark fact in history. Naveen never did one bit to back Prakash because the opposition camp worked hard to succeed in insulting an otherwise proven hero.
The only redeeming feature for Odisha is that a nondescript poor boy from Nimapada beat scores of super talents to be crowned a champion singer in India with very respectful rewards and recognition. But that shall not wipe out the Prakash episode from public memory so soon.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)