Sanjay Negi's thoughts on Current Affairs and Information Technology Directions.

Google

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Response to Anna's blog on Slapping the corrupt

Annaji,


I am not surprised that people are trying to take advantage of your “slap” related statement on that film. It is the strategy of the Congress Party and all other derivative parties to look for such opportunities to confuse the people.


In India most politicians earn their livelihood through corruption. They are the middlemen brokers between the people and the executive arm of the government consisting of IAS, IPS and lower bureaucracy. Since these brokers are also law makers, it is in their interest to make complex laws which require more brokerage services.


Today the Indian constitution is the longest constitution in the world. The law makers keep adding clauses to the rules because it helps their brokerage business.


Many people think that the parliament wastes its time by getting adjourned again and again. Actually it is a good thing that the parliament works very little….because the more it works, the more laws they will make and most of these laws will be designed to get the politicians more income from their brokerage business.


Since the Lokpal movement was aiming to directly control this brokerage business of the politicians, they naturally saw you as their enemy as you were a threat to their livelihood. The ruling Congress Party is the chief architect of this business model and most other party politicians are derivatives of that party. Some of these other party politicians like the BSP may look more corrupt than the Congress but they are not the architects of the system. They are merely efficient advantage takers of the system grouted in place by the Congress party for the past 65 years.


In this context it is easy to appreciate why the Congress sees you as their mortal enemy. If you succeed Congress will have to die. That is why they are spending great amount of money in slandering you…the press is being pressurized to cast doubts about your sanity and sophistication….whenever you give an unguarded comment like in the case of slap to Pawar, the Congress party directs all its propaganda artillery at you…


Even more dangerous for the politicians is your idea of decentralization and Gram Sabhas….that will completely kill the brokerage business…..so you can expect more vicious calumny from the politicians shortly.


On the non-violence of your agitation, it is a good practical tactic to deny government the full use of the force of guns and tanks at its command…but these brokers will not have a change of heart because you are non violent….Gandhi was dealing with the British who while being racists were mostly good honest Christians and had a strong sense of right and wrong…they were more amenable to change when confronted with Satyagraha….


The present day politicians epitomized by the Congress Party are hard wired into the system of extortion and loot….in the 17th and 18th century we had the thugs who used to kill and loot travelers… they used to seek godess Kali’s blessings for the success of their enterprise… no amount of non-violence could have changed their hearts…during the same period we had the Pindaris….these were large gangs of marauders who used to go on expeditions of loot and plunder during the fallow season when there was less work on the farms which they used to till….these people would also have been impervious to the persuasion of Gandhian non-violence…


For the modern day brokers who extort because that is the only profession they know for earning a livelihood, non-violence is something they will not understand….look at what they did to Ramdev….


You had initially recommended death penalty for the chronically corrupt….I thought there was no need to change that prescription….of course we can say that we will have a referendum on that and if the public agrees that death penalty for the corrupt is the need of the day then so be it…..

Saturday, January 14, 2012

How do Facebook and other social media sites respond to autocratic regimes' attempts to stifle them?

The Indian system has slapped some criminal cases against prominent social media sites for hosting controversial content. It is well known that the content is created by the public and the website takes action when someone complains. So effectively there are billions of posted comments and there are billions of responses. Websites have well published guidelines for what constitutes acceptable behavior and readers can check against these guidelines and complain about instances of violations.


However the Indian system wants the websites to proactively screen the content before posting without waiting for complaints to come up.


The websites say that is not technically feasible. What they mean is that it is not commercially possible for them to do this as screening billions of postings will require armies of proof readers and the websites would go bankrupt in the attempt.


Autocratic societies like China simply ban access to the websites. The Chinese government spends a fortune on deep packet inspection and deletes all such requests to these websites.


India seems to be well on this path too. It should not surprise many because social media sites represent an articulation of values of individual liberty and freedom. These are western values and have been artificially transplanted into India by the British. India is much more at home with the Persian, Chinese and Indian value systems where the Individual is merely a recipient of state favors and must follow state policy unquestioningly.