Alongside

Another New Year has come by filled with hope and aspirations of a bright future and prosperity, but it has underlying tremors of fear and uncertainty with global economic trends in the downward swing, violence and rage on the rise and the global environment going topsy-turvy. People are apprehensive of making any outright positive predictions, but can only hope for the best to happen. The world has witnessed tremendous changes in the last one year, with many dictators and autocrats bidding adieu to the world stage either being thrown out of power or even out of their very own lives by the very people who they were claiming to protect. People want power and a say in the decision making process, they no longer want to be mute spectators to the things that directly affects their life. Leaders who promised change are not able to deliver on it be it president Obama or our own Mamata didi, making a u turn on the very things that they promised to change and ending up eating their own word...

The last week of December 2011 saw the nadir of India's democracy, where a bunch of so called peoples representatives outshouted & outsmarted each other in making sure that the Lokpal bill will not see the light of the day. The end result was a nation fooled, an institution made into utter mockery and worst still was the unpalatable sight of these shameless parliamentarians still strutting around with their cocky heads held high and slinging mud on each other for the fiasco. The nation was waiting with bated breath to see a semblance of an anti-corruption bill passed, which the government and the opposition were equally claiming to be eager to bring it to the light, but the unfolding events in the parliament revealed to the nation the hypocrisy and double standards of our netas, tearing away their mask and revealing their ugly faces of fear and apprehension on making a strong lokpal which will almost be like hitting their own stomach. The public is no more the naive and fool...