THE FILTHY GAME OF DIRTY POLITICS

"The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe out every tear from every eye. This may be beyond us but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over".

(From a speech to the Constituent Assembly, August 14/15, 1947)

Our country had been under the British rule for about two hundred years suppressing India and its people ruthlessly and it seemed that she (India) would never ever rise. But, at the dawn of independence and with speech of famous front runner Pandit Nehru in 1947, the leaders took the oath to dedicate themselves to the service of people and prosperity of the country, the leaders and the politicians have done their best to improve the condition of the masses and there was a discernible change in the quality of life that the people led. The improvements were not merely in the realm of economic indicators but also in the political sense as the welfare of the state seemed to work. Those were times when the men who presided over the political establishment inspired those in the bureaucracy into building a respectable democratic edifice. The legacy of the freedom struggle always inspired the nation even today towards progress. Many achievements have already been made and still there are many more to achieve for the development of India.

Since Independence, our country has made a great progress in various fields of agriculture, education, defence, economy, science and technology etc. Though our country has achieved much heights, but still it is still lagging behind in many aspects. No doubt, it has solved many problems but at the same time many other hurdles have developed. The biggest of them is ‘THE FILTHY GAME OF DIRTY POLITICS’ that has spread like a plague in our country. This particular problem has rocked the country all over and is sturdily responsible for our continuous downfall. These sheer selfish leaders, who call themselves as the saviour of our country, are worsening its condition progressively.

The scenario began to go erroneous, within the political establishment from late 1960 onwards, when the participation in political activities turned into means of living from common workers to riches in case of most of the leaders. The money meant for poverty alleviation and other development schemes started being siphoned out for their own personal interests and the welfare state model was being distorted. But then, it was a period when there were instances of mobilisation against this distortion, thus ensuring that the system kept working however the fragmentation in the political realm and the emergence of the regional political formations also witnessed a widening of the scope of the welfare model and this went on until the 80s.

The couple of decades since then, instead of experiencing growth, our country is continuously declining to be considered as retreat of the welfare state. This has made individual efforts and initiatives most necessary for the ordinary people and the political establishment which has turned insensitive to the task of making the welfare state to work. Due to this, the civil administration too is no longer concerned for ensuring, that the concepts which worked in the past should be made in order to work even today maintaining its status quo at least.

We are witnessing a history moving towards a decline in the standards of political behaviour thus proving that were much better standards in the olden days. The most important flaw of the incoming governments is that it doesn’t delve into the affairs of their old predecessor. At times the files and the missing documents of the old government are not even made available to the new regime to thoroughly investigate, rectify and punish for the serious mistakes committed during their governance.

"The apathy of truth for most politicians consist the moral compass of a simple question within us asking: What is everyone else doing?" because they all are same and sailing in the game of dirty politics.

The real pity is that a long standing convention seeking to limit political vindictiveness has been cast aside. One thing we have to be sure of is that, if we still do not awaken and act accordingly, then the future of each and every citizen is in the dark due to those leaders who set new lows in negativity and obstructionism heading us towards further decline in the present  government scenario hampering the progression of our country. There is no barrier to their temptation as they can sink to any level of misbehaviour set by them thus giving substance to its repeated false claims of moral superiority, but intense competition between the parties always seems unlikely.

Presently our politics is extremely infected by low human values because as we’ve all heard the old saying “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely!”  We have witnessed plenty of examples during the recent years with their lies and deceptions in their own words.  The real push for power is ego and ambition driven, although it is an over-representation of “Small man’s Syndrome” reflecting their true personality. Of course this should be seen in the context of their hunger for power makes them stoop down so low that the negativities like lying, cheating, personal attacks, disrespecting, back stabbing along with various others has invaded their mind and soul enwrapping them towards cheap dirty politics. This, sadly, is the nature of politics, but this game is not only played by politicians but even by those who use their power through gratification and influence to buy politicians for their own personal gains.

According to research published, almost one fifth of the candidates in upcoming elections are facing heinous criminal charges including rape, murder, dacoity, arms act and extortion etc. The analysis of the records even shows a deep concern in the “criminalisation" of politics in the world’s biggest democracy as this study covers more than half of India's 35 states and union territories. Some of them are even accused of serious crimes that carry a conviction of more than seven years. Almost one third of members of parliament have criminal cases pending against them and dozens of male candidates are facing serious criminal investigations for assault and rape “outraging the modesty of a woman".

Surprisingly, bureaucracy that ready to part with information to the citizens is condoned and thoroughly harassed by the political establishment. The fact within the right perspective is yet to sink in and this is a tough task before the civil society, while the civil administration will have to wake up to the need to protect the whistle blower within. We have seen some of them being killed with impunity and the contractor-politician-criminal nexus has ensured that poverty, bad roads and dilapidated primary health centres survive even the best of schemes to set things right by way of bumping off the whistle blower by any means.

According to Milan Vaishnav, a specialist in Indian politics at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, voters often support politicians with criminal records, rather than shunning them.

The real shift from conventional politics to modern politics will be to put scepticism aside and the fact that a public debate regarding constructive view of political parties for the education, unemployment, foreign policies, poverty, public health, sanitation, infrastructure and development etc. should be organised making a huge step in modernizing Indian politics. Such public debates are more common in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, and are in fact a very important medium for reaching out to the masses.

Recent example of such a cheap and dirty politics is the washing the statue of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya on the BHU campus with 'Gangajal' (water of the sacred holy river “The Ganges”), claiming that it had been “desecrated” as it was touched by another politician was indeed a very shameful act. No excuse can justify this act because Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, himself, was strongly against untouchability and even after so many years of Independence we are moving backwards only due to mere intention for the personal gains of such politicians to divide the vote bank on caste basis  highlighting the untouchability factor.

India, being the largest democratic country is known all over for its hospitality, heritage and culture is being maligned by such bad politicians.  The way these leaders address each other is extremely shameful and unacceptable as it clearly shows that they have no respect for each other or politics.

All these politicians have now pulled their socks up, and started campaigning in full swing, social media, public interactions, rallies, radio broadcasts and recorded phone calls etc. alleging each other as highly corrupt and dishonest. Though social media comes across as an important medium for electoral campaigns, it cannot influence upcoming elections or its results as today every common man is well aware to whom to cast his valuable vote. However, we all should be hopeful that a day will certainly come when India will be a developed and powerful country in the world. This does not lie in the hands of the legislative class but in the hands of the people who have been given the supreme status by the Indian Constitution. We have to keep a check on them as they all are public servants and we are the public. The fund used by them and the various schemes prepared are no one’s but ours which gives us right to make them transparent an accountable to us. “BECAUSE IF NOT TODAY THEN NEVER.”

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