PRESSURE GROUPS

Any social group that seeks to influence the behaviour of the authority without capturing formal control of governance, is known as pressure group.It is a medium available for the common people to dictate the course of affairs in the government.The political right of citizens is limited to exercising the power of casting vote after a certain time gap.Such democratic deficit is compensated by the existence of pressure groups.Thus pressure groups act as medium of communication between government and the citizens.

Lobbying is a common method to create pressure on government.Sending representation to the legislature or any department to influence policy making is called lobbying.Use of media,publication of books,demonstrations, pamphlets are the other techniques.Such groups are broadly classified four types- institutional,associational,non associational,anomic.

In India such groups often use techniques like candle light protests,hartal, gherao etc.The politics of coalition has made such groups even more prominent in india.

To sum it up, such groups accelerate social development,prevents stagnation and increases social cohesion by providing outlet of popular grievances.

E GOVERNANCE IN INDIA

Use of Information technology to facilitate government functions is known as e governance.In the present decade much effort has been put to maximize the benefits of information technology to ensure good governance in central, state, district and even block level.Experience from successes as well as failures of the government projects is helping to shape up the e governance strategy of the government.

The benefits of Information Technology in governance are plenty.It not only speeds up the service delivery procedure but also enhances the efficiency of administration.Moreover in increases transparency in the government wings and reduces communication cost and time.E governance is here to stay and with digitization of most of the government records and documents, the future of e governance in India looks to be bright.

The e governance projects of the government are being implemented through National E governance Plan.To make the services more effective and citizen centric the Department of Information Technology has set up Center for E Governance(CEG).SWAN or State Wide Area Network is an ambitious programme og the government to connect as many as 742 Points of Presence(PoP) with connection speed upto 2 mbps.Almost all the states in the country have their e governance portals.Portals like Bhoomi,E-seva,Lok Mitra have already earned much accolades for their effective role in ensuring good governance.

Information kiosks are being developed in the block level so as to provide make the necessary informations available at the fingertips of the rural people and to reduce the digital divide.A thoroughly checked Treasury Management System has been developed to make government transactions more transparent and less time taking.The election procedure has been made simple by using Information Technology.Communiction cells are being run with to act as interface between government and the citizens.

It is too early to prepare a score card of the government on the progress of e governance.It must be remembered that e governance is not about hardware,software or internet as popular perception goes.Rather it is a strategy, it is about people and processes, government and services.The success of such ambitious strategy can be ensured only with peoples participation,better initiative and thorough training which might take a long time to materialize.

WOMEN RESERVATION BILL

PLEASE READ IT AS MY OWN POINT OF VIEW, NOT AS A MODEL ANSWER TO THIS VERY IMPORTANT TOPIC.YOU MAY NOT AGREE WITH MY VIEWS BUT I WOULD SINCERELY ASK YOU TO USE THIS FORUM TO SHARE YOUR VIEWS AS WELL,SO THAT WE CAN COME TO A CONCLUSION ON THIS DEBATE.

The uproar over the passage of Women Reservation Bill in India presents a gloomy scenario of the condition of women in India.While the vehement opposition from the politicians to pass the bill for years depicts the true picture of male chauvinism prevailing in the country, the bigger question remains, why is such a bill important?Does not that itself tell how miserably we have failed to secure equal rights for the women?

Ever since the Bill was introduced in the Parliament in 1996, it has aroused wide protests from a group of politicians and every time after much hype and public attention it goes where it was thirteen years back.Reservation although a very favorite topic of our revered politicians, has boomeranged in this issue to themselves as this time their personal interest is at stake.Who would want to lose their own seats if 33% of the seats in Lok Sabha or State Assemblies are reserved for the women?That's why they can even accept "death" to stop the bill from being passed by the Parliament.It is high time that these politicians present themselves in a responsible manner and not create any mockery of such a serious issue.The indomitable, indefatigable,invincible( You know why I am stressing so much) spirit that was visible when reservation of castes was concerned, must be brought back.

Reservation itself is an indication of the failure of the state in any particular issue.We reserve seats only for those for whom we have so far done nothing good or who have the potentials of becoming our trump card in the vote bank.True, by reservation we acknowledge our failure but has this acknowledgment so far done any justice for those for whom we are reserving.Our record answers the negative.

So, before we think about reservation for women in the constitutional forums, we must empower women at the very grass root level.We have to provide them proper education, at least what their male counterparts are "entitled to" by virtue of their being men in the male chauvinist society.We must protest dowry which is still widely prevalent in many parts of this country.We must ensure social protection and safety of women.Unless these are done, the Women Reservation Bill if passed will be another mere hollow act, lacking any substance or relevance.

In the fight against injustice and discrimination, there need not be any discrimination between caste and creed. Women power needs to be viewed as a single entity and bifurcating women on the basis of caste and class is not going to serve the purpose.It is high time that we throw away such"Kinder, Kuche,Kirche" mentality and make women an integral part of our nation building process.

NOW I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW YOUR VIEW ON THIS ISSUE.

REGIONALISM IN INDIAN POLITICS

Regionalism has been an abiding factor in Indian polity, sometimes positive but mostly a negative one.In fact the growth of coalition politics which has become a predominant feature of our political system, owes its origin to regionalism.The increasing separatist politics in India including the demand for separate states also has much to do with such regionalization of the political system.

The plurality of language,religion,culture,social customs is the main factor behind the growth of regionalism in India.Diversity of India is proverbial.With over one billion population,twenty eight states, numerous tribes, languages and religions, the probability of socio cultural oneness in India is very thin.The general differences prevailing between the Norther, Eastern, Western or Southern states depicts such regionalism.Long term deprivation in terms of development ,too has attributed to its growth.The case of North Eastern part of India presents a perfect example of such kind of regionalism.Petty politics of some selfish political leaders to capture popular sentiments to entrench themselves is another factor behind the growth of regionalism.Moreover the flexibility of the Indian Constitution in creation of states and in provisions like the Sixth Schedule also helped in the growth of regionalism in India.

The consequences of regionalism in India has not always been positive.True it has resulted in the grievances of the underdeveloped regions or sections of the society being heard in much better way, but that the growth of secessionist trends is rooted in it can hardly be ignored.This has led to insurgency all over the nation with secessionists resorting to violence to secure their demand or making their grievances heard.

Moreover, it has made the political system more complex with the growth of regional politics.This has in turn made the political system unstable.External forces too have capitalized the regional sentiments in India to spread terrorism on our soil.Over the years occurrences of ethnic or communal clashes have increased.Not only that,the inter state clashes are taking place more frequently these days and the role of regionalism in such clashes can not be ruled out.The unfair treatment upon the outsiders in Maharashtra can be viewed as a classic example.

It is high time that we, the people understand the importance of national integrity.For a nation which is surrounded by as many as seven countries,unity and integrity are the most important factors for national security.But at the same time homogeneity of development must be ensured so that the genuine grievances of the people do not go unaddressed.