Lets build a consensus on consensus...

Of many imitated concepts of Indian democracy, consensus based decision making is a rather humble one.After centuries of decisions being imposed by the autocratic rulers, when Indians got their independence and with it power to write their own destiny, they understandably wanted to take everybody on board while taking all major decisions.

On the face of it, consensus is a rather noble phenomenon in model liberal democracies where people have a major say in the process of decision making, more so in some Scandinavian countries where even small decisions are put to referendum. Since India borrowed the concept of democracy intoto, consensus came along. India, however, is a unique case with multiple religions, zillions of castes, languages, cultures and what not. So it is practically impossible for Indians to build a consensus on major issues, especially because the diverse forces in play against each other result in a zero sum energy.But we are still obsessed with consensus building..

History of independent India tells us that whenever an issue is postponed till ' a broad consensus is evolved', it keeps orbiting in the endless universe of Indian politics for eternity. Even if finally a decision is taken by accommodating all opinions, it gets so diluted that the original purpose is defeated..

In our heterogeneous society, if everyone is to be kept happy, we will never move forward.This is precisely why our politico-administrative system has become status-quoist. Hard decisions are bound to ruffle a few feathers, but the political leadership does not have the guts to be visionary, look beyond what common people can see.

The need of the hour is, therefore, to re-asses our obsession with consensus. Lets build a consensus on consensus building!

No we can't.. MR. O

Yes, we can.. Obama said a zillion times during the run up to last year's Presidential elections. Now, the new savior of the world is saying the same at different fora, the context.. Global Nuclear Disarmament(GND)... If only Pigs could fly Mr. O.

Coz you are the ones who started this rat race... the crazy Mutually Agreed Destruction (MAD) agreement between US and Russia started it all... Now in this world of ultra modern communication, you cannot expect the technology to stay away from 'rogue' hands.. can you?.. and as soon as you find this out, suddenly you want to free the world of this menace called nuclear weapons.... O,thanks but no thanks we are not going to buy this sudden 'enlightenment' on your part Mr. O...Paranoids, as you are now you see a real threat of nuclear terrorist attacks.. don't you?

As far as nuclear disarmament goes, the only time bound and fair action plan has been spelled out in the world by India, that too way back in 1988, oh yes clean the dust off the 'Rajeev Gandhi Action Plan'. The NPT can never lead to GND. And you want all states to sign it. Pakistan would never sign it, coz India hasn't, you can't and you won't say anything to Israel, the only state left is INDIA and you are doing all that you can to push us into it..

But India can not sign this audaciously discriminatory treaty dividing the world into nuclear haves and have nots in the name of GND. Sorry to say Mr. O "No We can't, and we wouldn't, come what may!"