Sign of a maturing democracy

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

On 12th July 2009, DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Committee) suffered a tragedy which killed 6 people. On any given day this kind of an incident in India would have led to a knee jerk reaction in which some people would be forced to quit, some would be transferred and some who are really responsible for the act (who should have resigned in the first place), would be allowed to carry on. But this time something strange happened.

The person who is responsible for the whole project takes moral responsibility of the whole incident and resigns, the Delhi government and Chief Minister who are under fire assess the situation and do not accept the resignation and a team of experts is formed to investigate the matter and submit a report in 10 days. The decision was swift and it needed to be as the people who have faltered should be held accountable for their act.

Although the incident is deeply regrettable, what really stands out is the fact that all the parties involved acted in a responsible way and didn’t budge under any sort of a pressure from any side. In fact there was pressure from government asking E Sreedharan, MD of DMRC, to withdraw his resignation. This I feel is a sign of a democracy which is maturing and the one which allows good wisdom to prevail over some harsh and not-fully-thought-out decisions which do no good.

I don’t know what is the reason for the mishap – cutting corners to meet the deadline of the commonwealth games in the city, foul play, faulty design or material, human negligence, sheer bad luck only time will tell. But one thing is certain that at this moment of panic, calmness and sanity have prevailed.

8 comments:

PS said...

ya man.. It's a good thing that E.Sreedharan didnt resign..

Prabhu

allaboutme said...

ya man... we need E sreedharan.

Gaurav Sharma said...

Great Post Srini...welcome to blogosphere!
Look forward to reading more .

best

Unknown said...

That is definitely a sign of a more deep rooted democracy. However, it is important that ideals and values which these people have shown, must be put into practise and proper investigation and trial must ensue...that I guess, will cement the belief that Indian democracy is indeed more enriched and complete!

Manasa said...

This reminds me of an incident in which our former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri had resigned to his post of railway minister taking up the responsibility for a train accident. It is really very good to see such a leader again in this 21st century. Hope to see many such leaders in the near future from all of us

Manthan Babar said...

Its very nice article Sri...this is really a sign of matured democracy...but along with that the promising sign is that each Indain citizen is understanding his/her resposibilities...and as u frequently says India is the place of opportunities...this changing attitude of Indians will definately help this country to grow in enormuous manner...looking forward to read such more articles from you...ALL THE BEST!

Unknown said...

If one has social responsibilty , epidemics of such wil not be of furore.
epidemics do occur...

ArUn ShArMa said...

Hi Srinivasan, it's indeed a nice observation made by you. We have really seen a major shift in the governance style since last 5 years when Manmohan Singh was appointed the Prime Minister by COngress. But one imposing reason for this "Maturity" might be the immense pressure due to COmmonwealth Games. Delhi is not at all ready for the games to be held next year and Delhi govt. is not in a position to let Sreedharan go. Not to diminish the role of Mr. Sreedharan in the DMRC project, but he has maintained himself as the only person at the top who knows about everything. He doesn't have a succession plan ready and neither has the government cared about it, which it should ASAP.

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