The Democratic Manifesto

I just went through two articles in The Statesman, talking of the flagging moral of the politicians of India today. While one discussed the rot emanating from what was once the largest party in the Parliament and its subsequent disintegration, the other discussed the effects of the false moves of the political leadership on the moral of the supposedly most honest men in the country – the army.

The BJP, which had once led the country with people like Vajpayee and Shourie in the cabinet, now is in abysmal condition. With the NDA having lost its identity, there is little point in its partners staying with the BJP. And this was largely manifested when it came to the presidential elections – the Shiv Sena supported the Maharashtrian UPA candidate. Elsewhere the Trinamool Congress in Bengal lies in an utter state of confusion as always. The Patels in Gujarat are vying for Modi’s pound of flesh while the tribals of Chhattisgarh strongly believe that BJP can do little to make any significant impact there.

One point does boil down in the ongoing fiasco. All are looking after their own needs. Here the need of the political parties is power – the power which allows the corrupt to grow seamlessly and personal image makeovers. To this end, they play all the cards for they absolutely must with every deal in this game of poker. Of course, the win does guarantee that the issues of caste and religion are but the trump cards, played over and over again with sinister perfection. The more the people remain divided, the more peace at the legislative and executive buildings.

This very point is what is resulting in the growing incidents of ‘fragging’ in the Indian Army. The jawan is a frustrated man today, for he knows that the leaders of the country he swears to die to for have taken him for granted. So while the various Prime Ministers are calling for a ‘just and honourable solution for J&K’ the battle rages on for twenty years with an invisible enemy – the militants. And while those very same leaders have utterly neglected the needs and demands of the Indians of the NE, it is the Indian foot soldier who has to bear the brunt of a population which does not want to associate itself with India anymore. While the security in New Delhi has been beefed up and is now seemingly impenetrable, it is the Indian Army’s Jawan who is being hauled up for his supposed violation of human rights. Such an irony!

I am forced to think ill of the political leadership who make such a mimicry of the Indian Constitution and the Indian people at every possible opportunity, who talk of the ‘long arm of law’, manipulating and violating those very same laws they are sworn to uphold. So we are told!

I am forced to think of the poor farmers of Andhra, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Bengal who take their own lives or those others (in Bolshevik and Maoist style) while their Chief Tormentors, excuse me, Chief Ministers dream of fathering the IT revolution (Andhra, Naidu) or are merely out in appeasing the bourgeois populace (Bengal, early 1970s).

I am forced to search for the likes of the Indian people who fought with determination and rock-solid resilience in every state, city, street – nay, every door. Where have the Indian people gone. We are only two generations away from them and already around 6 crores of Indian money has been squandered which was ment for flood victims, the dead’s relatives, the homeless, the diseased and the handicapped victims of Mumbai. We are only two generations away and are making a mockery of the Constitution time and again with the latest episode being in Goa. We are only two generations away and the youth pride on their identity as Americans than Indians. With Pepsi in the hands and Levi’s on their hips, democracy has attained new meaning in India and achieved a new zenith. Ethics can go down the drain! Your refrain: I don’t give a fuck!

Roughly eighty–five percent of all around me are very content just filling their coffers (with marks or money, as the case may be) for the minimum amount of work they put in. And thus ‘enthu’ is absent – be it for Stigltiz’s seminar or a visiting company’s PPT and the like. And I am not surprised, rather I have gotten used to it.

And with such strong convictions flying all around me I am not surprised to find the political leadership – as is. Given the kind of manipulation power available, it is not surprising either, that those with vision, passion, righteousness and the will for supreme sacrifice are the ones who are left hanging in the middle of nowhere. It’s common I guess. It was there in Nehru, in Vietnam, in Afghanistan and Hungary and is there in youthful India of today.

Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan?

Jai Hind?

Afterthought: The Great Indian Freedom Fighters are all gone and they seem to have taken their legacy with them...