Monday, August 31, 2009

"Our Constitution has not failed us; we have failed the Constitution."-we mean who?

Excerpts from a speech by West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, at the inauguration of a national seminar on 'Indian Parliamentary Democracy' at Gorky Sadan in Kolkata on July 25.

  • “In an election, it is the candidate's message of the manifesto that is supposed to win the vote. And so it does. But, smiling in its sleeve, so does money. This, of course, is a universal fact and not an Indian phenomenon.
  • One cannot fight an election on good wishes. Expenses have to be incurred; they always have. But the flow of currency in elections has grown from a small stream into a river in spate.
  • Most candidates in India's elections — all honour to them — have kept their heads above the din. But some have authored dictionaries of slang, the etymologies of which are best left unexplored.
  • To lodge a protest against a decision or a move is the right of every citizen or a group of people. It only shows that our society is 'alive' and not 'mechanical'. But the immobilising of an entire area or a state or citizen services by bandhs or blockades is unwisdom — of the lowest and most dangerous kind.

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