i wonder if only rajiv sreenivasan were a pakistani whether he would have felt the way he he is feeling about democracy, autocracy and above all about Musharraf. cynicism for politicians and the polity will be there always because nothing is perfect in this world. the greatest power on earth is not the economic, fiscal or military power one enjoys but the power of an individual to control lives of other people . but howsoever imperfect a democracy be , autocracy is necessarily is a primitive statecraft sure to stunt the realisation of the true spirit of the individuals of any community. more and more the imperfectness creeps in a democracy more the chances of it degenerating into an autocracy which we have been witnessing in Pakistan. if the politicians and the systems in India also degenerate to such levels then even this country can lapse into such an anarchy . but instead of cynicism probity in public life by each one of us form the foundation for sound democracy. perhaps some of our earliest leaders laid such a foundation to whom we should be indented to. your appreciation of Musharraf is misplaced because he is primarily a phoney character who has used his military position and religious environment there to usurp power and cannot be trusted by anybody and has no place in a democratic society.
