At the strike of the mid night clock on 15th Jan 1947 , the first Prime Minister of Independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru gave his now famous speech in the Indian Parliament about a tryst with destiny , India has gone through to attain freedom from the British rulers. On the same appointed hour last night , the Rajya Sabha [ the Upper House] of the same parliament brought the whole country to shame when the Vice President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha brought the inconclusive proceedings debating the Lokpal Bill sent to the house by the Lok Sabha [ the lower house] to a stop and adjourning the house sine dine .
This was a culmination of the last few days of debate , off line political lobbying and postures by all the political parties and the street show by Anna Hazare and his team ostensibly to eradicate corruption in this country !!
What was initially mooted as an Ombudsman , an independent authority as a watch dog to monitor and correct any corrupt practices among public servants of high posts , has now become a complex entity which no one is owning up for fear of retribution . This genie out of the bottle thanks to the recent increase in incidents of large scale corruption in the country is looming large and staring at the body politic of this country . No one wants to bell this CAT .
A new tryst with destiny – the destiny of the common man at the mercy of the coalition politics as vulgarly displayed in the Indian Parliament during the last three days is painful to say the least. I sincerely hope better wisdom prevail upon our elected representatives when they assemble again during February 2012 for the budget sessions.