Political Diary
New Delhi, 11 July 2023
Political
Morality
WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?
By Poonam I Kaushish
“Idealism is good in politics, but if you are kicked out,
who cares!” asserted Maharashtra Dy Chief Minister Fadnavis, adding, “I can’t
promise that I do ethical politics 100%.” Finally, it’s
official. Politics in India has nothing to do with morality, accountability and
healthy conventions. Taint is the flavour of the new political season. Wherein
power and taint go saath-saath. A sense of de ja vu
overwhelms.
The defection by Sharad Pawar’s NCP
MLA’s led by nephew Ajit Pawar to Shinde’s Shiv Sena-BJP Sarkar lasr week in Maharashtra exposes that available and willing leaders
sell themselves to the highest bidder depending on the price. All, with
clinical precision devoid of pretensions: of ‘meeting of minds’, ideology,
principles or personal fondness. And BJP extolled for smart political
management: money for allurement and use of State machinery for intimidation.
Jog your memory, hadn’t Prime Minister Modi called NCP
“National Corrupt Party,” with Enforcement Directorate breathing down Pawar Jr’s
and his Ministerial colleagues neck recently? Thundered he, “Na mein khata hoon na khane doonga! I
will bell the big fat cat of corruption.” Really?
What changed overnight that corrupt NCP leaders have
emerged as surf’s safedi ki chamkan
compared to their chor brethren who
are unfit to rule, leave alone provide good and honest governance? Greed for
Power. Whereby they are portrayed, as winners who can commit no sin, will go to any extent
to prove (sic) their honesty and stands cleansed of all guilt and criminality.
It’s not Pawar alone any leader or rival group who till yesterday
was a chor and ghooskora but switched to BJP is washed in its “clean” laundromat
and comes out smelling of fresh roses, feigning ignorance and
playing dumb, blind
and deaf about their corrupt
misdemeanors. Taint, what are you talking about? What’s the big deal about it? Remember, an
honest man is one who hasn’t been caught!
Worse, with various types of
chameleons leaders one doesn’t know who is sleeping with whom and who is
jumping from one bed to another, as friends and enemies are all rolled into
one. Patronage, opportunism and a share of the
power pie is the glue that keeps all together. Indeed, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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 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.
Succinctly, these paper tigers who
sell their political soul to the highest bidder in this political nautanki are dubbed smart. Whereby,
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 netagan
holds democracy and voters.
Thereby, exposing politics of the
worst kind, cultivating low morality and high greed --- and 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.
Whereby politics has everything to
do with acceptability, little with credibility and public life is all
compromises, not principles dripping morality sermons but not practicing it. Wring
your hands all you want, but that does not take away from the fact that
morality, honesty and integrity are words non-existent in the political
vocabulary.
A fine distinction is drawn between
a “politically-motivated” charge and an actual a conviction. Such is the
intoxicating nasha of power that all
conveniently choose to shrug it off. Dismissed at best as an aberration and at
worst a squeaky knee with which one can live with. In this
you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours culture, our polity in their collective
conscience willingly abets.
In a milieu where graft and sleaze
is India’s creepy-crawly Osama bin Laden which permeates the very core of daily
Government functioning ensnaring the country in its vicious tentacles, the
temptation to make money is always great, indeed irresistible. In the political
brothel of corruption, one may not begrudge our netagan from making money, ostensibly for Party funds or feathering
his own nest. That is the prevailing culture.
As long as a leader is part of the
Establishment, all wink at his misdemeanors. 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.
Questionably, does the electorate
want honest politicians and a clean Government? Are there no honest and capable
netas?Doesn’t seem so as a
"clean politician" sounds like an oxymoron, a breed that no longer
exists. Most distressing is that it doesn’t strike any chord anywhere.
Alas, in a chor-chor-mauser-bhai political milieu
of you-scratch-my-back- I-yours, our leaders have left it to the “call of
conscience” of individual leaders. Happily, all follow the principle of
“politics of direct sale”. Appalling, none have time for the gasping and
groaning aam aadmi who reels under
the onslaught of spiralling prices of vegetables, pulses and food-grain and
sky-rocketing inflation.
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.
In this market model of democracy it
is a misnomer to believe that netas are
governed by ideology. Instead, there is a tendency to capture the imagination
of the people by creating a spectacle alongside money which makes the clogged,
polluted and corrupt political mare go around.
Importantly, India is today at the moral crossroads. Gone
are the days of Gandhi, Nehru and Patel. The moot point is: Will immorality and
taint be allowed to become the bedrock of our Parliamentary democracy?
Basically, is it good for democracy to have such people as ministers? When
those who are supposed to lead become saboteurs, it is time to call a spade a
spade.
Thus, in this game of lies, deceit and deception, BJP,
Congress and regional outfits reflect the emerging truth of today’s India.
Power is all. Arguably, one can say this is what democracy is about. In this immoral political desert and
barren discourse, no longer can we merely shrug our shoulders and dismiss it as
political kalyug.
The challenge lies in overhauling our system of governance
whereby voters have to make tough calls. The ‘Conduct of Politics’ necessitates
reliability, integrity, credibility, conviction and courage. There should be no scope for
any lingering doubt or suspicion that politics is the last refuge of a
scoundrel. As nothing costs a nation more than cheap politicians! ---- INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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