Climate Change and Cars: A letter to PM

Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh, In my considered opinion Cars are the biggest consumer of energy sources and cause of CIimate Change. If you pause and think over the issue you will find, as I have found, that Cars are the most unwanted item on the planet and is used recklessly without any consideration of Energy uses, Ecology, Environment, Climate Change and Global rise in Temperature. They take much more and return the least. Imagine the benefits accrued by utilising the saved resources better somewhere else in some other economic activity in raising the living standard of the people to a decent level with no harm to rich. Though economists and money makers find this, for various reasons, a great product it is really working fully against the interest of ‘Life’ on the planet. Just ask yourself whether everybody really needs a car and are they not being run most of the time for non-essential purposes. If the country adopts better discipline by keeping the residence and work places, education and day to day marketing areas in the same vicinity so many cars will not be needed and huge consumption of energy sources and jams on the roads will be reduced. With the present rate of car production it will become impossible to drive cars on the roads. In fact a simple calculation shows that 15-20 years later the roads in the Indian cities will be used only for parking. Cities after cities are already facing reduced efficiency due to such congestion. Then what benefit the car is meant for if it cannot make movement of humans smooth and relatively fast in reaching their destination. For the same reasons the car making industries also should not be encouraged in the name of tackling recession which is a phenomenon born out of high profit motive, corruption and consumerism. Cars in so many numbers serve little purpose. So they can be easily replaced by Mass Transport system. No congestion on the roads, no meaningless burning of fuels. I hope you will agree with me on this. In view of the facts stated above I request you to please propose to the World leaders in Copenhagen to reduce the number of Cars and production of Cars in next 20 years to 10 percent of the present level of Cars on the road and car under production. With regards,

--
Dr.V.N.Sharma
http://tinyurl.com/drvnsharma

Indian Democracy and Section 49-O
Democracy is not simply voting or making Head or hand counts. It is much more than that. It is spirit, it is culture, it is a way of life, it includes tolerance, balanced thinking and approach to every issue that a society faces during its existence. A good number of people especially the educated ones assume that the elections are throwing up very nice, efficient, competent leadership for governance of the State. And further that Rule 49-O will hamper that process and throw up incompetent ones. It is not so. Rule 49-O was not there originally in the Election laws of १९५० (http://sharmavn.blogspot.com/2008/12/summary-of-i-vote-nobody-rule-49-o.html). Though leadership of then India was born out of struggle and dedication and devotion towards the Motherland yet with some experience of 1st & 2nd general elections they introduced Section 49-O in 1961 Amendment. By this, people who neither wanted a नागनाथ nor a सांपनाथ had an opportunity to say so in stead of sitting at home. This required much more of a democratic strength than needed to go to the booth, vote or cancel your ballot by innumerable no. of methods described in the Rules. This is neither anti - democracy nor non-constitutional. Just make a difference between those who profess that Elections are farce and those who go to say that none of the candidates is genuine or not worth my vote as in Section 49-O.

Presently what is happening? A nice, knowledgeable, well meaning person cannot be a candidate as he knows his fate if he is not heading a goons brigade, he is not backed up by Moneywallahs. I know of a few candidates who tried their hands at the elections and left a message for us. One example was late Shiv Verma, a comrade of Sardar Bhagat Singh and overtly a much respected person living in Kanpur and was working with the Trade Unions for protecting the workers from exploitation and for defending their rights. He took part in 1971 Elections from Kanpur constituency He had only 3000+ votes in the count. Elections today need money and muscle power and both are interrelated. Section 49-O is a safety valve for those who are frustrated with the present election system. It would be more meaningful if larger votes under Section 49-O leads to cancellation and a Re-election in that constituency. That will keep the candidates under some control.

As said earlier much better would be the inclusion of Voters' Right to Recall their incompetent representatives from Parliament and State Assemblies and all other public offices.

Rule 49-O: Clarification by Election Commission

Recently we had a lot of discussion on Rule 49-O of Conduct of Election Rules, 1961. I obtained the information from Election Commission of India under RTI Act
2005.  The reply and clarification are as follows.

1. This Rule has not been amended . It is as it was in 1961.

2. ECI issued a press Note on 5th Dec 2008 stating that Elections will not be cancelled even if " I vote Nobody" is more than the winner's votes. Read the Press Note in the following link
http://eci.nic.in/press/current/pn051208.pdf

3. ECI has proposed to the Govt to provide for "None of the Above " provision in the ballot paper. A petition is pending in the Supreme Court but no details have been given.

I hope and believe that this clarifies the issue and discussion may
continue as to what to do now.

Dr.V.N.Sharma