Sunday, November 13, 2011

Ansari in Kerala

Ansari, the vice president of India is in Cochin in Ernakulam district and traffic has been regulated to keep the people as far away from him as possible. What is more most of the police force of Ernakulam District and the adjoining districts have  been pressed into service to guard the roads hours in advance of his arrival. The city would have come to a stand still if the president or PM or Sonia were visiting. 

Yesterday on my morning walk I saw a train of five or six cars accompanied by police jeeps flying at breakneck speeds in the direction of Trivandrum. It was obviously a state minister
Last year Pratibha Patil our president visited Kavaratti the island headquarters of Lakshadweep and lo tourist packages even  to adjoining islands were cancelled at short notice forcing many tourists to cancel the trips they had planned months in advance.
In contrast to our rulers who boast of democratic lineage some monarchs still flourish on the love and trust of their people. The best examples are perhaps Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The recent massacre in Oslo suburbs has shocked the country and they have installed heavy security in the city in the wake of the massacre. But things are so calm in the Denmark and Sweden.
When we visited the Royal place in Copenhagen it had just four  guards - two males and two females. The royalty went in and out without any commotion nor were they accompanied by any guards or obstruction of traffic. Seeing this I thought how easy it would have been for any terrorist outfit to target the Danish royalty in retaliation for the Mohammad cartoons. Somehow they manage to keep the terrorist outfits at bay without any visible security checks and the likes.
Machiavelli said that it is the love and trust of the people alone that can sustain a king for long. Machiavelli knew next to nothing about democracy and what he wrote was about monarchy. In contrast to monarchies a democracy should be founded on the love and trust of its people. However our rulers have lost or rather forfeited that trust.
Xavier William |

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