India needs more Teeth like these

Karachi Road block

Teeth Maestro - a favourite blogsite I check regularly, has been reporting in almost real time, the storm in a cup unleashed by one guy’s stand against the roadblocks around the house of a government minister.  A roadblock, needless to say that’s hugely inconvenient to the general public. So the guy,  Samar Ali Khan gets fed up and knocks on the minister’s (Zulfikar Mizra) door - and no surprise - is hustled to the police station and to the courts.

But maybe government ministers in Pakistan still haven’t twigged about the growing impact of social media in the country over the last few  years.  And it seems that Samar and Teeth are buddies, so Teeth mentions the case on his blog and there’s a meeting called to protest and Samar is eventually released with no charges pressed.

So a victory for all the millions of us who have been been pushed off the roads or forced into hours of traffic jams because some puffed up government official needs to show how big his military escort is (a compensation for something else that may not be quite so big perhaps??)

I think we need some more Teeth to stop this kind of thing that’s happening on a daily basis not just in Pakistan, but also in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka.

On my every visit to Delhi, aunties have forbidden me from wearing any jewellry when I go out because of the chain snatchers.  Yet there are more cops escorting the VIP’s and VVIP’s than there on the streets looking out for public safety.  And then there was that very trying trip across Bihar where a jeep ride that should have taken three hours took sixteen torturous hours largely because all traffic on the tiny potholed road was regularly halted to make way for various government and police officers zipping by with sirens blaring - no doubt there was a very important cricket match they had to get to.

It’s time to stop this blatant abuse of power, and I for one, am all for the growing ability of social sites and bloggers who can start a storm in a teacup that name and shame the officials who for too long have been using their badges, their vote banks and their official status to prop up their own standing - hey guys, wake up.  You didn’t get these jobs to behave like spoilt school bullies.  And the internet is going to show you that there are a lot of people out there who are just not going to put up with that anymore.