RAMBLINGS – OF A CITIZEN……ENTRUSTED WITH A FRANCHISE

With the General Elections round the corner, the registration of the Professionals party of India (PPI) as a national party, with the Election Commission of India is NEWS.

Educated individuals with a (supposedly) clear, comprehensive and rational understanding of the nation and the issues that confront her; good intentions and the willingness to help bring about a positive change have come together to contest for the 15th Lok Sabha from the Delhi, North Mumbai and South Mumbai constituencies. Seeking to ‘change the way we are being governed’ the PPI finds it necessary to:
‘Improve the quality of people coming into the parliament, and change the issues debated and policies churned out’

AND

‘Alter the way systems are made to work for the man on the street’.

Indeed, a departure from the usual norm of just criticizing the existing system.
Every concerned Indian would agree that the manner in which crime, corruption, poverty and illiteracy are addressed should be improved – a change is needed and it is needed in multiple spheres.

Forming an election manifesto on an eight-point agenda which covers the ‘social, cultural, educational, industrial, political, medical, agricultural, and economical’ areas; identifying the problems in each and suggesting simple solutions – is definitely a composed and balanced step, if not entirely novel.

All very good to know and hope.

Despite that, the questions that struck me on first coming across this piece of news were:
If they have something good in mind, then why at all did they choose politics?

If they chose politics, why then, are they directing their effort and energy to convince that they have ‘good’ intentions?

à I don’t bear any ill-will against any of the individuals who constitute the PPI. To be honest, I don’t even know their names, except that of Girish Deshpande - media coordinator of the PPI and a member of the core group.

à I lack the faculty to enjoy a very keen analysis and interpretation of politics. My chemistry with the subject has not been very good, though I do stay aware of its course.

à The 15th LS Elections would be only the second time that I would be considered qualified to use the franchise that is (supposedly) the backbone of the effective functioning of a democracy.
I don’t have any foundation to boast of having seen it all or knowing the tricks of the trade. That I should wait and watch before being governed by such apprehensions is certainly a strong argument.
Yet, I could not help doubting the sincerity of the professors of a ‘positive change’ – I am skeptical about a few educated Indians’ joining politics.

Am I to be blamed for being pessimistic?
I have reasons to believe that the answer is – NO.

The section of the Indian electorate that I belong to, understands the term ‘politics’ as a dirty game – one whose participants are remarkable for possessing every conceivable vice in their characters. When I use the word ‘politician’ I refer to a being devoid of any kind of ideology or principle; governed entirely by selfish opportunism and a sense of self-preservation. There exists an enormous quantity of records, references and examples spanning a period more than six decades, to prove that in the Indian context a ‘politician’ is unscrupulous – murderers, kidnappers, extortionists, frauds – the alternate works of an Indian politician can make a fairly exhaustive list of activities accepted as crimes in a civilized twenty-first century human society. Here, I must say that appreciable differences have existed and still do, but the differently qualified ones are dangerously and disgracefully few in number. India, as a nation has learnt it the hard way, that politics is a fraudulent craft – crude for want of pure technical competency, (more often than not) bereft of ethics and thus utterly dishonorable.

Then there is the Dynasty theory or factor.
May I ask, how many ‘young leaders’, who are supposed to help the nation sustain and build on her ‘hopes’ for the ‘future’ have attained their current status, through meritocracy? How many of them have dared – rather cared – to prove their leadership skills to the ones whom they are supposed to lead? At the instant of writing this, I can find a huge majority of them to be the son, daughter, nephew or niece – in short, an offspring of some other politician. A good amount of resources seem to be directed towards helping dynasties survive.

I don’t say that bearing kin with a mature politician can be counted as a disqualification against being capable of leading a nation – in fact, it can very well translate to be a qualification. That is to say as children these individuals must have been more familiar with the subject, both theoretically and practically; and they are expected to understand it better than those who lack the ‘background’. But, most of them have grown up amidst the best of facilities and resources, which, at times might have been an unthinkable luxury for the ‘common man’ – whom they are out to lead. It’s unlikely, therefore, that these individuals would be familiar with the practical problems of the populace. Thus the apprehension.

Also, it’s equally unlikely that this generation of young politicians could discover their competencies in only this and no other field.

Period!!
I am talking of a land united by shared history, sustained by pluralist democracy, divided by………nobody knows what not!!!
Leading a nation as vast and as heterogeneous as India, towards effective progress and long-term prosperity is not easy. It calls for keen acumen, farsightedness, broadmindedness, sharp wit, vast knowledge and immense will power. If being a politician’s offspring is not a disqualification, it’s not a qualification also, for equally good reasons. ‘To form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep.’ How many of the Indian politicians have respected this statement? How many of them have cared to be a part and parcel of the lives of those whom they represent? The number could be counted on fingers.

The exercise called ‘election’ – at all levels, therefore, appears to be one of choosing one worthless over another.

After realizing and unanimously agreeing on the fact that a change is necessary, what can an electorate do? It can vote for change – is the standard answer. I agree that it can – if and only if it is provided with some decently acceptable alternatives.

Over the years, we – Indians, have known what poverty means – it means the denial of basic human necessities of food, clothing and shelter; it means denial of sanitation and healthcare facilities; it means lack of education; it means vulnerability to diseases; it means inaccessibility to what one could call life – it means untold pain!
We have seen massive parts of the population sinking in the depths of illiteracy and many-a-times dangerous ill-education.
We have seen ethno-linguistic differences being misused.
We have seen narrow territorial and provincial notions being encouraged.
We have seen communalism in its worst forms.
We have seen how maliciously differences like castes rather births can be exploited – we have known that casting a vote very often translates to voting for caste.
We have seen disgusting lack of enterprise and massive de-industrialization.
We have seen excellence being denied the respect it deserves.
We have seen voices being silenced.
We have seen gender discrimination taking disgracefully irrational and dangerous forms.
We have seen how fragile our civic infrastructure is – whenever nature has struck.
We have seen how insecure we are – time and again terrorists have struck and succeeded.
We have seen administrative machineries being institutionalized and monopolized.
The differences that we nurture make us all minorities in this land – but several yearn and fight for minority status.
Here, political leaders and ministers are known for corruption more than anything else. They have gifted the country many of the worst scams that have rocked her economy.
Imagine every possible contradiction and inconsistency and one can find them in the government, the law-courts and every other institution and the life of this absurd nation – in fact, these are turgidly commonplace in the phenomenon called ‘Indian politics’.

Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s billionaires features 27 Indians – what’s more surprising – only 4 of them live abroad!! Good Hope……not to mention that a rather large portion of the world’s poorest people live in the same India. The picture presented by India today is a blot on our individual and collective consciences. Like it or not, India is still a land of overwhelming rural and urban poverty, fetid slums, throat-searing pollution, inadequate healthcare, crippling corruption, tragic shortages of basic amenities and cities choking on themselves – to name a few. Bizarre differences – representing the best of oddities that help make India, India.

We can perceive this as a startling affirmation of the Indian pluralism; or as dark patches on our civilized being – Life is all about perspectives!!!
We have got enough room and resources to realize the difference between ‘the people’ and ‘the vote bank’.

I cannot help questioning the (in)significance of this huge, expensive, extravagant exercise called the General Election.

Now, what good should I expect out of casting my vote?
The portfolios that must be filled in, are critical – finance, education, healthcare, defence, human resources, home, industry, external affairs – to name a few. Each requires expertise – both knowledge and the ability to effectively, optimally and honestly use it. While casting my vote, I am one of those, who dream of a land where every citizen is given the means to live a decent life – to feed his/her family, provide them with the other basic necessities and to acquire the education that will enable him/her to fulfill their creative potential. I hope for self-reliance and unexploited progress. I seek a wholesome realization of the conglomeration that India is – in its unity as well as diversity.

I have before me an assortment of individuals who might have the caliber, but, time and again, their honesty has been rendered questionable. I am inclined to believe that we are being ruled by a class which is fitted neither by its aptitudes nor by its system of values to strive for and bring to fruition a complete social, economic and cultural overhaul.

PPI, in this situation, appears to be a ray of hope – albeit a very, very feeble one. It is comprised of individuals with proven competencies in various spheres. As the official name of the party suggests, its members are from the professional class – that is to say they are ones who are familiar with the significance of the word – ‘earn’. Going by the available reports, unlike most other players in the game, none of the members have any criminal case registered against their names. They have entered the fray without any ‘family background support’ and have demonstrated their readiness to face the acid tests – designed by a system called ‘democracy’, customized by a country called India. It’s pleasant to believe that PPI can turn out to be the change that is being sought.

What’s disheartening is the party’s failure to win the credibility of people from places other than Delhi or Mumbai!! It is a clear indication of the heights of hopelessness that have been scaled. It says that the Indians, as a people, no more believe on pledges of their destinies being envisaged by anything that has the stamp of a political party – to the Indian populace, politicians are a class which survives and thrives by damning every form of virtue. Thanks to the deep penetration of electronic media – the scars of the Gujarat riots, the Godhra carnage, the Babri Masjid dispute and the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 are still fresh in the visual memories of ‘the electorate’.

Episodes which would be inconceivable elsewhere have successfully affected India time and again. Sixty years is a fairly long time – till date the Indian political debate has remained confined to the same issues and there’s very little hope for a change on that front. At the Parliament, it’s the same questions that have gone bland over years, which rock the floor – and not anymore to anybody’s surprise, no answers are found.

Using my franchise will certainly demonstrate my willingness or rather my desire for a change. But, will it, by any means, make the change easier or more certain (let it be difficult)?