We are perhaps transforming from the 4-pillar democracy to the 5-pillar democracy where the citizens themselves have become the 5th pillar. Just some spelling change – substitute Citizens with Netizens and we have a fastest growing population of informed citizens driven by an intense feeling for the nation, making their presence felt in such a way, that the highly influential Abhishek Manu Singhvi could not stop them from speaking and the global trotting Pratibha Patil had to back out of her post retirement palace. Highlighting these instances, Professor R.Vaidyanathan had written a timely article with a prediction that we may hear the breaking out of the next scam from the social media and not from the mainstream media.
His article can be read here:-
Reading this article in the midst of my current work on Mayan astrology and the doomsday prediction, I was surprised to see a fine connection to the Mayan prediction for the period ending on 21st December 2012. The Mayan had made Long Count and Short Count of Time of which the Long Count and the penultimate round of the current Short Count are going to come to an end on 21st December this year. The Short count cycle has 20 year duration called as Katun and predictions have been given for each of these Katuns. As per the present Katun ending in 2012, the prediction includes a strange observation that "it is the Katun of remembering and recording knowledge". Some Mayan researchers have deduced that this can be linked to the power of the Web that helps in recording and disseminating knowledge.
This Katun period of 20 years between 1993 and 2012 saw the phenomenal growth of recording and spreading of knowledge and information in the internet. Adding strength to this, Pluto's current transit in Sagittarius in opposition to Gemini, the sign for communication gadgets, is creating a revolution of sorts in which social media is gaining the centre stage. Social media is not only spreading the information but also creating public opinion which can sustain only if there is substance in that. This is a good development for any democracy and cannot be considered as a nuisance.
Thinking on these lines, I am wondering why no public opinion is yet created on the candidature of the next President of India. While most people do seem to concede that Dr Kalam must be given a second term, the political elite does not seem to think so because they simply do not want a non-political, neutral and a no non-sense person like Kalam for the post of the President. If only a strong public opinion is created by the social media and succeeds in that attempt, that would be the beginning of true democracy where the politicians just cannot have their way as they wish, but have to be continuously tuned to public opinion and bow to it.
