I have been following the back-and-forth on Justice Santosh Hegde's resignation from the Lokaykta offices with growing pessimism. Here was a man who was willing to bell the cat (so to speak) and instead of empowering his team, we are now faced with the possibility of his office turning to be an insipid "reporting" tool !
How do we break this impasse ?
Reminds me of a time when we (as a Nation) went about asking for electoral reforms and lauded the changes brought in by the election commission. Until then, we (or atleast I) thought that Election commission was just a bureaucratic organization with no "teeth". Today, I'd give them their due credit for cleaning up (with substantial success) things like electoral rolls, ensuring adherence to the code-of-conduct etc.
During one of the meetings that I attended with Justice Hegde, he was categorical that he did not want a political office. My thinking today is - maybe he should stand for one !
Maybe, an electoral mandate will FORCE the elected individuals to wake up and act on a specific mandate.
Alternatively, if he is still not willing to get into the political arena and fight an election, maybe, as individuals and citizens can elect him as an extra constitutional watchdog ?
As a democracy, the voice of the citizens should formulate our policies - should it not ?
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