Most of us in Bangalore have been under house arrest in view
of the Bangalore Bandh. This bandh has been different from previous ones in
that it seems to have a wide support. As always, I doubt anyone knows what the
issues are regarding the dispute except that Karnataka should not release water
to Tamil Nadu. The cable operators have
joined the strike and the only channels working are the news channels. This
means one can chose between the Bandh and
L’affair Robert Vadhra. Both are equally depressing.
I don’t know anything about the water dispute and will try
to educate myself before talking about it. One of the professor types on
television seemed to think strongly that Karnataka had a case but I unfortunately
watched it towards the end and missed the gist.
The Vadhra episode has been going on repeatedly and makes
one more and more depressed. It is difficult to judge which is more ridiculous,
the childish rants of Team Arvind or the defence from the Congress. My view is that team Arvind is the more ridiculous and
the Congress frontguard of Salman
Khurshid makes a stronger case. The self-righteousness of team Arvind and substituting analytical thought with innuendos makes me feel there is not much
of a case. The whole affair does look a bit suspicious and might need some
investigation but there is just not enough data to prove anything. Assuming that there is a case, Robert Vadhra should certainly face the
majesty of the law and assuming there is none, so should Arvind and Prashant.
However in India, “the law will take its own course” which means irrespective
of either scenario it will take 25-30 years to reach a conclusion.
The media actions and inactions show a gradual collapse of
one of the pillars of a democracy – the fourth estate. Indian media seem to have got away from the
traditional reporting and commentating to showmanship and pandering to ratings.
(This same malaise has hit the health care but that is a different story).
The depressing part which I mentioned earlier is the
complete lack of any substance in the debates on television. Most
of the political participants seem to substitute quality with volume and try to
shout each other down. We are not seeing anything resembling an idealogy or
position and these are substituted by mud-slinging
I keep coming back to thinking around ideology. How many of
the partys have a clear ideology which they can declare and stick to if voted
to power ? Arvind Kejriwal has announced that he would pass the Lokpal
bill within 10 days of coming to power. This does indicate that law and civics
is not his strong point and he possibly does not know (like most of us) how
laws are passed in this country. Prashant Bhushan cannot claim the same
ignorance and it is surprising that he is not correcting his political
colleague. He goes on to assure us that they will ensure that Petrol (or diesel?)
prices will be pegged at Rs. 50 and no one will be allowed to make profits on
essential commodities. That shows the same level of ignorance in economics as
in civics.
On the subject of debates, www.csun.edu/~dgw61315/fallacies.html may look heavy but is very
interesting read and useful. Unfortunately those who need to read it – don’t.
Update: 9-Oct Corrected link to logical fallicies
Update: 9-Oct Corrected link to logical fallicies
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