Tranquility in the midst of disturbances

All around us, if you examine, countries are facing a very turbulent today.

Pakistan is in flames due to the untimely sacking of its Chief Justice. The Musharraf regime is faced with violence all over the country with political pundits predicting his fall in the very near future. People seem to have had enough of the dictatorship. I think one of the reasons that Pakistanis tolerate the dictators is that they bring along with them American Funding (due to Washington's strategic interest in the region) that basically keeps the country alive and kicking. Having achieved freedom at the same time as India, Pakistan's industrial progress makes for sad reading. The establishment is now resorting to gaging its people even placing a ban on blogs published by the locals. This points to a systemic failure of the state.

Look east at Bangladesh and you have a caretaker government in place. It seems that violence between the two dominating political parties is the natural thing to do. Up north, you have the troubled state of Nepal which has witnessed a complete breakdown in its law and order and down south, Sri Lanka is in the grip of strife caused by the LTTE.

Amongst all this we seem to be in a sea of calm. It seems that the democratic process has taken deep roots in the collective psyche of the nation. With the transfer of power happening in a smooth manner in one of the largest states of the country, UP, it seems that all is well with the democratic process.

Now all we need is for the thinking people to participate in the democracy in an active manner such that the rotten scum of existing politicians are replaced with right people.

Right people who take the country forward.