[Reader-list] Is Indian democracy turning into a farce now?

[anupam chakravartty]

Dear all,

I am surprised that the soothsayers among the readers who rush to rescue
their gods from being ridiculed are staying away from this discussion. Or is
it too trivial to discuss such things? or is it because these are high
ideals that we are talking which actually doesnt work against the primordial
instinct to human beings -- you scratch my back, i will do the same. some
take refuge in this primordial instinct and propagate their ideas.

thanks anupam


On 6/20/09, Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Venu jee
>
> I feel the demarcating element here is the intentions of the actors
> concerned. If these intentions help the people, the poorest human being as
> Gandhi jee said, then obviously it would be beneficial. If not, then
> obviously there may be some problem with it. For example, RSS popularizing
> Hindutva is not going to help the poorest human being obviously, whereas
> when Ambedkar fights for the rights of Dalits who are poor indeed, so that
> they can live with dignity in the society, obviously it can help the poor,
> the downtrodden and give them political, social and economic empowerment,
> bring about their development and in my sense, make them happy, which is
> what development must ultimately aim at.
>
> Identity politics should aim at, as Anupam jee said, transforming oneself
> or
> improving the lot of one's own community but not at the expense of the
> others. And obviously, I agree that identity politics focuses on
> discontentment, but that discontentment should be at the bad condition one
> is in, not converting that into an enemity factor against others, which can
> tomorrow lead to violence.
>
> Regards
>
> Rakesh
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>