Political Diary
New Delhi, 16 May 2023
Political Untouchable
WHAT’S MORALITY GOT TO DO WITH IT?
By Poonam I Kaushish
Politics is the last refuge of
scoundrels and when gold speaks all tongues are silent. Both Karnataka polls wherein
Election Commission seized Rs 147.46 crores cash, Rs 375 crores liquor, drugs
and freebies and Supreme Court judgment on Maharashtra Governor’s “illegal” action
resulting in the dramatic collapse of Thackeray-led MVA Government stand
testimony to this. Exposing, politicians have scrapped the bottom barrel of
morality!
Confided a Minister, “Hum sab ek hi thaali ke chate-bate hain aur
is maryada ke hamam mein nagain hai! Bihar’s Nitish Kumar till August last was
singing paeans of BJP and Modi till he switched sides and formed the Government
with friend-turned-foe-turned friend Laloo’s RJD. A repeat of July 2017 when he
quit Laloo’s Mahagathbandhan to play
footsie with BJP.
2020 stands testimony
to brazen horse-trading with Congress’s Jyotiraditya Scindia along-with 22
loyalist MLAs joining BJP resulting in Kamal Nath’s Government downfall and
coronation of Shivraj Chauhan’s as Chief
Minister. Ditto in Karnataka 2019 when 15 Congress-JD(S) MLAs switched to BJP,
kicked out Kumaraswamy’s Government and installed Yedurappa’s Sarkar. Notwithstanding, fundamentally
violating the democratic principle: Voters’ rights to choose their Governments via the ballot box.
Undeniably, patronage,
opportunism and a share of the power pie is the glue that keeps swarm of
hoppers together with its new benefactors and makes incongruent Parties come
together whereby poaching of legislators is extolled as smart political
management: money for allurement, use of State machinery for intimidation etc
are commended as resourcefulness.
More. Politicians girgit-like transfer loyalties from one
Party to another based on winnability. The modus operandi: Paisa and satta bargains are struck, depending on legislators value
who switch sides. All, with clinical precision devoid of pretensions: of
‘meeting of minds’, ideology, principles or personal fondness.
Succinctly, these
paper tigers who sell their political soul to the highest bidder in this
political nautanki are dubbed
survivors not defectors. Paraded as prized bulls and portrayed as safedi ki chamkan compared to their chor brethren who are unfit to rule,
leave alone provide good and honest governance. The winner can commit no sin; a
defector crossing to the ruling camp stands cleansed of all guilt and
criminality.
Bringing things to
such a pass where every Party and its leaders have perfected the art of
beguiling its hum zulfs and dushmans
with aplomb, saddling us with opportunists and liars. Exposing the disdain with
which our leaders holds democracy and citizens.
Thereby, exposing
politics of the worst kind, cultivating low morality and high greed, donning
different Party robes, according to their whims and fancies --- and the need of
the hour. A power-play when personality-oriented malicious vilification seems
to have became the hallmark of democracy. Sans shared ideology and mutual
objectives. This pithily is aaj ki
rajneeti.
Alas, so caught up in
the verbose of one-upmanship are all that none stops to think and ponder the
implications of their actions. The tragedy of it all is that in this winner
take-all-fight governance and people go for a toss. Satta batoan aur tamasha dekho! What matters is only the end game: Gaddi.
Undeniably, it’s too
politically delicious to ignore that 1,765 (36%) MPs and MLAs of 4,896
lawmakers in Parliament and Assemblies are facing criminal trial in 3,045 cases
and among remaining many are perceived to be self-serving and unscrupulous
lawmakers. Primarily, as bahubalis are
more likely to win than those clean. Underscoring there is no morals in
politics only expedience. A scoundrel is useful just because he is a scoundrel.
Today new definitions of political
morality have become staple diet post Nehru era when Ministers resigned owning
moral responsibility. Proclaimed a Minister: “I cannot be held guilty for any
subordinate’s mistake. Otherwise, we will have a spate of ministerial
resignations landing on the Prime Minister’s table every day”.
What to speak of Lalu
Yadav? Charge-sheeted over the chara
ghotala, the ex-Bihar Chief Minister and Union Railway Minister asserted,
“Where does the Constitution say a Chief Minister duly elected by his people
should resign merely on being charge-sheeted by policemen? Who is CBI or Central
Government to tell me to do so? I will rule from the jail if imprisoned --- and
split the JD. Kaunsi naitikta aur
bhrastaachar ki baat kar rahe hain. What has morality to do with politics?”
Clearly, in our netagans ‘moral’ vocabulary prima facie evidence of culpability is
not good enough reason for them to resign. He will only do so when convicted by
court. Even then they will buy time and continue in office given our never
ending legal procedures of law taking its own course. Sic.
Consequently, India’s
seven-decade-old post-independence history is marked by declining public trust
in electoral governance and institutions, symptomatic of falling political
discourse and electoral decorum. Whereby netas
will lie through their teeth as quality communication has ceased to exist
and polls reduced to art of persuasion and exercising power of rhetoric.
Any wonder people have a hard time distinguishing
reality from propaganda. More so in a society trapped in illiteracy, poverty
and ignorance. Thus, in this political quagmire people get swayed by charm
without substance and rhetoric without righteousness.
Moreover, we demand moral
responsibility only when we are short-changed in material goods but choose not
to question leaders moral legitimacy when they normalise violence against
citizens. Think. No politician has ever stepped down over killings of its
citizens in targeted mass violence. Advani resigned in Jain Hawala case and not
when Liberhan Commission Report indicted him for complicity in the Babri mosque
demolition that triggered Hindu-Muslim violence. Sonia Gandhi resigned over Office
of Profit controversy 2006, not for Congress’s collusion in 1984 Sikh massacre.
Saner politics require better
politicians. Of course, Parties will continue to field substandard/ undesirable
candidates resulting in deepening the gulf between politician and people
promoting intermingling of politics, wealth and crime as a sullen, distrustful
electorate is managed and manipulated.
The good thing is that people may
have been let down by politicians, but they have not lost faith in politics
still. Citizens are hungry for leaders to step in and step up political
processes and governance to build a corruption-free and responsive political
system where they can exercise their democratic rights conscientiously.
At stake today is not only the
functioning of the largest democracy but its moral agenda which is more
substantive than partisan politics. Consequently, where we go from here would
depend on how citizens use democratic levers available to them.
In this immoral political desert and
barren discourse, voters have to make tough calls. No longer can we merely
shrug our shoulders and dismiss it as political kalyug. Our polity must desist from employing individual meanness
in the name of public good. They need to re-think their priorities and desist
from destructive mindlessness. The ‘Conduct of Politics’ necessitates
reliability, integrity, credibility, conviction and courage. As nothing costs a nation more
than cheap politicians!
One can only recall Prof. Galbraith:
“There is nothing wrong with Indian laws or with its political and judicial
institutions. What ails India is the moral poverty”. Can a nation continue to
be bereft of all sense of shame and morality --- and for how long? ---- INFA
(Copyright,
India News & Feature Alliance)
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