The New Indian Express, July 30, had a picture of little children in new uniforms sitting down "wearily under the shade of their mothers after standing for too long" with a flower plate in their hands to welcome for Forest Minister Binoy Viswam who was more than two hours late!
If this is not child abuse, what is?
And what do these ministers think they are. They are there to serve the people, and should not behave like rajas condescending to give audience to the prajas, who are to be kept waiting till it suits the monarch to make his appearance!
And pray, why are the ministers always late for any function? Are they constitutionally privileged to keep the people waiting for any number of hours for their convenience? Are they exempt from the law of punctuality?
It's a shame!
This total disregard for punctuality is an insult to the citizens who have put them in their seats.
And how dare they? The tax payers time is as valuable as the ministers'.
And the people should make it a practice to go ahead with the function at the scheduled time if the minister is late.Every law abiding citizen is as much a celebrity as the minister, and is as worthy of inaugrating or gracing an occasion as a minister. What the heck! This is a democracy!
I think it is high time the ministers sat in the chambers and engaged themselves seriously in the business of governance rather than run around cutting ribbons and lighting lamps,and in the process hold up traffic and waste precious working hours of the state.
Well written!
ReplyDeleteThese people must learn something from EMS as far as punctuality is concerned.
Mr. Binoy Vishwam, in my opinion, is worthy of holding a seat no more than a school leader, not at all a state minister!
oh..you have put exactly i feel about such people...off topic i was just googling about Binoy Viswam after reading this post..
ReplyDeletehttp://keralacm.gov.in/binoy.htm
Travels abroad : Visited 76 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America
I cannot believe that a state minister really needs to travel 76 countries (which i assume has been in official capacity)....even the UN chief or the Indian PM must havent done as many travels!:-(
Ministers and their long winded speeches should be banned from inaugural functions.But it is a moot point whether they do more damage inside their official chambers or outside.
ReplyDeletemmmm..facts, yes but in our set up its not easy for the people's representative to keep the time. I'm not trying to defend these ministers but the nature of their jobs prevent them from punctuality.
ReplyDeleteBut the kids, yes, why must they carry the brunt for this? IT IS ABUSE
i guess the school, the teachers and the parents should also take right decisions at such situations and keep the children away from such obvious burdens. such things often happen, whether there is a minister or not. many school assemblies are perfect examples. i guess there was some recent regulations regarding this. not sure if it is taken seriously.
ReplyDeleteTaking about abuse..
ReplyDeleteDid you read this --> http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jul/30/motorbike-school-stunt-banned-in-tamil-nadu
Apparently, the show was to commemorate the birth centenary of late chief minister K Kamaraj (another politician).
So who is brutus here?
Politicians? Or parents/citizens?
oh teacher, I am so boiling. But let me keep the punctuality aside.
ReplyDeleteeven if these so called VIPs come on time, why would they need to be received with thalapoli, mostly by children or women. seriously why? Rajas are gone and there are no prajas. children and women are abused like this.
@ candy
ReplyDeleteyour comments came in a corrupt form - can u send it again>
@ annonymoys
didnt know this about ems!
@ mathew
make hay while the sun shines:-)
@lao
you can say that again - ban this species from inaugurations!
@ scorpiogenius
the nature of their job? well they should leasrn time management
@ rocksea
more than rules it is sensitising that is important
@ deepak
there is brutus in all of us - brutus was an gullible idealist
@ shy
when will we the people realise this? and act accordingly?
I agree with scorpiogenius. A minister may find it difficult to turn a deaf ear to ppl who come asking for help or to turn down an invitation to visit a house where a recent tragedy occurred. At the same time a political leader should set an example in punctuality and be able to say no sometimes and try to keep the schedule and try not commit too many programmes on a single day. My feeling is most of Viswam's foreign travel must have occurred when he was working as a Left youth wing leader at expense of his Party.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot complain that politicians are not trying to be on time.
ReplyDeleteI read recently that as queues of vehicles at the toll gates on highways hold up the motorcades and cars of VIPs, they have demanded that they should be exempted from paying the toll and allowed an early pass-through. To remove any speck of doubt from suspicious minds, they have added that it is not about the money, but about the time they waste at the toll gate.
So, if te proposal is carried, we will very soon witness a scene where the tax-paying public sweats it out in the queues to pay the toll, while politicians he elected (the only ones who enjoy the privilege of determining what salaries and perks they should be given for the 'services' they render) are allowed to exit fast - and free - through a chord route.
Please join me in my prayers thanking God for allowing us to be born in the largest democracy of the world.
quite agree. fashionably late should be left to the fashionable. and i resent you calling the ministers "celebrities"
ReplyDeleteThe Minister named is supposed to be among the 'gentleman politicians' of our LDF. It is a vicious circle that works-unless a Minister is invited to an inaugural, the event does not receive media attention, and therefore the event will not figure in the next day's print or audio-visual media.
ReplyDeleteFurther when the individual, his party and the Front he belongs to go to such gatherings it is to help them to list their achievements when they go the hustings the next time.
These trappings of power at the cost of troubling the hoi polloi are all indicators of their sense of power. Apparently their presence at such events is supposed to indicate their 'popularity'. Only when a major section of those are put on eternal wait for the Minister walk out of the gathering will the message hit hard. For that we need the GUTS!
There was an instance of one of the Ministers in the present govt having been taken to a meeting through a route where the roads were in abysmally poor condition. And...that caused a delay in his arrival- to which he referred during is speech. Thinking aloud a newspaper commented that this stretch was used by the residents without a murmur for months on end, and possibly the driver had been asked to take the route by a scheming local party man so that the Minister would personally experience the problem the common faces day-in-day out!
As the anonymous reader, I must again correct your perception. I daresay that it will be the ultimate disaster if the ministers really get into their supposed jobs. Let me think .. who is the health minister? Smt. P K Sreemathi Teacher, I gather from the website. If she interferes in which drugs to produce, which not to etc., it will be really bad. It will be the case when the health minister is someone who is not a Dr., and I do not mean here someone who has written a thesis at Kerala university on the nuances of Shakespearean poetry. Even if the health minister is actually a doctor, there are still problems. If his/her qualification is in treating the right eye, he/she will be absolutely ignorant about the treatment of the left eye and will make horrendeous decisions regarding the same.
ReplyDeleteV. S. Achuthanandan is the minister for Science, Technology and Environment, Scientific Institutes, etc.. I suppose I do not need to say much about his qualification in deciding whether it is better to start an institute on nuclear physics or on biophysics.
I do not know who is the minister for Dewaswom; but since it is the marxist party that is in power, the consequences of ministerial interference in policy decisions will be obvious.
I also do not know who is the minister for education. But I trust that you being a college teacher would know more about teaching than him.
Imagine the disaster if A K Antony takes decisions on military actions. If he does it in the same way as he dealt with issues created by Karunakaran, then there will be no point in having a military.
I can go on in this fashion. The fact is that the real job of ministers is to sign where their subordinates tell them, go late to some meetings and criticize the opposing political party, and be nice to the people who approach with bribes. Anything more will be rather disastrous. Trust me.
I think its got to start with you not inviting these 'celebrities' to any of your college events. Does one event in Assumption College Changanassery happen without ten of these politicians gracing the stage? If you give them undue respect, they'll take it..
ReplyDelete@chakaran
ReplyDeleteif the ministers can stop worrying about the next elections, am sure they will spend more time trying to understand their portfolios. they shud learn to adopt henry 5th's policy which made him tell his riotous friend falstaff "i know thee not, old man", meaning, u were my friend when i was an ordinary citizen. now that i am the king, i have my prioririties.
@ wannabe
great post/comment.some tholikkatti, these politicians have!
@ rukmani ram
what elese to call them?
@ bhawani
yes. i agree. the people get what they deserve.
@ anonymoys
if we start looking for rocket science experts , we'll not have ministers at all. one can lways learn. only, the ministers shud have people's welfare at heart and an effifient team of beaurocrats.
@ mathew
et tu brute?
still waiting for u to update your blog
Very well said
ReplyDeleteIts very true its just all the politics and you make focus on that big social problem which we ignored i really appreciate your written.absolutely right.carry on.