Political Diary
New Delhi, 16 November 2013
Rajnetik Virodhi Ya Jaani Dushman?
MORALITY BECOMES
POLL VICTIM
By Poonam I Kaushish
Rajnetik virodhi ya
jaani dushman? As India goes to
polls in five States, the lines between a political opponent and sworn enemy
have got blurred. Epitomized by the oodles of vicious tu-tu-mein-mein, cheap thrills and seetees which has trashed basic courtesies, decencies and respect
among healthy rivals. Everyone and everything is game. In the hope this would
bring them political tripti!
Welcome Election 2012 wherein immorality is the flavour of
the season. From desh bhakts to desh drohis. The ball was set rolling by
the Congress who called Modi a dictator like Hitler. Citing a Nazi propaganda
film wherein Hitler's henchman Rudolf Hess had proclaimed that ‘Germany was Hitler and Hitler was Germany’, shot back Modi, “This is an eerie echo
to what Congress President Barooah said in 1975 ‘India
is Indira, Indira is India.’
So which Party has dictatorial, Nazi tendencies?" he asked.
The war of words between the two national Parties hit a new
low when a Congress Minister dubbed the Saffron’s Prime Ministerial candidate
“a khooni insaan.” Retaliated Modi, “Humain Chhattisgarh ko khooni panje se bachana hai”, referring to the
Congress’s hand symbol. Again as a Congressman mocked that a tea seller cannot
become India's
Prime Minister.” The BJP hit back, “A tea vendor is better than those who sell
the country”. Sic.
Taking the bull by the horns, Modi taunted “Madam Sonia
Gandhi has called me bicchoo
(scorpion), maut ka saudagar, Madam,
you are ill. Let the shehzada take
over”, poking fun at Rahul’s habit of rolling up his sleeves. A livid Congress
struck back, “Modi has no limits of decency.” Added another senior leader for
good measure, “Modi is a terrorist.”
Alas, in this see-saw battle between the BJP and the
Congress is a sad reflection on the depth of political depravation we have come
to. What is most worrying is that the campaign of slander in the
Sonia-Rahul-Modi battle transgresses all limits of political and public decency
and etiquette.
The issue is not whether the BJP is able to beat the
Congress at the numbers game. Nor that both have sacrificed morality at the
altar of power. The issue is also not that the Election Commission has taken
both Modi and Rahul to task for their intemperate outbursts. The former for khooni panja, the latter for accused the
BJP of spearheading the recent Muzaffarnagar communal riots resulting in Muslim
youth being approached by Pakistan’s
ISI.
Sadly, in a milieu where politics has degenerated to a
euphemism for abuse and maliciousness, none seems to care a damn for morality nor
has the patience to bother about the poll Bible – the model code of conduct
which comprises Dos and Don’ts about general conduct, meetings, processions, polling
day, polling booth observers and the party in power.
After all, how would their art of double-speak succeed if
the preachers of morality were to start practicing it? Forget the Commission
reading the riot act under the model code of conduct, except for scoring
brownie points against each other. Ends matter not the means.
For instance the Code underscores, “criticism of other
Parties, when made, shall be confined to their policies and programme, past
record and work…Criticism of other Parties or their workers based on unverified
allegations or distortion shall be avoided.” So what?
As Sonia highlights NREGA, Food for Security et al loudly
proclaiming that her Party does not talk but work, Modi extols the Ma-beta asserting, “Madam, you are
right, you do everything without speaking. When coal was spent, did you speak?
Did you speak about 2G scam?
Moreover, while the Congress has once more fallen back on it’s
tried and tested formula --- putting its secularism against the communal
forces. Modi ridicules, “the secularism syndicate is suffering from the dengue
of depression.” So much for the Code crying hoarse that “no Party or candidate
shall indulge in any activity which aggravate existing differences or create
mutual hatred or cause tension between different caste and communities,
religious or linguistic”.
Questionably, in this all pervasive decadence, interspersed
with growing public distaste is there nothing to cry a halt to this
depravation? Not really. Given that the EC is powerless. Asserted an official:
“The Model Code of Conduct lacks legal sanction. It is intended to work as a
moral policeman to ensure free and fair elections. We can only freeze a party’s
election symbol or derecognize it as a national party. Nothing more, nothing
less.” Bluntly, netas can merrily
violate the code brazenly and yet get elected to the Lok Sabha and State
Assemblies.
Yet, within their limited mandate, successive Commissions
have done a lot to detoxify the electoral system whereby the moral Code is
central to the EC's efforts to prevent misuse of official machinery by Parties
and to check electoral offences, malpractices and corruption during elections.
Importantly, India
is today at the moral crossroads. It is time to take a good fresh look at the
Model Code of Conduct and, wherever necessary, recast it and strengthen its
enforceability. Given that it is essential to ensure elections don’t stoop down
to the gutter level, (not that they don’t) but at least are leaders must be made
to think twice. The EC must be given more teeth. Even the power to countermand an election in
case a candidate violates the Code.
Our leaders and Parties too must get rid of their excess
baggage of communalism and casteism made a lot more malignant by our unstable
and fragmented politics. With everyone propounding his or her own recipe of
communal harmony, the nation is getting sucked into the vertex of centrifugal
bickering. Wherein none cares that if this continues, the colour of India’s river
could turn blood red, a repeat of the horrendous pre-partition nightmare.
The people must not allow themselves to be fooled or taken
for granted by our rhinoceros-skinned netagan.
Specially, as we know that our politicians have perfected the art of cultivating
low morality and high greed, donning different Party robes, according to their
whims and fancies --- and the need of the hour. Leaving India
dangerously communal, but the Parties and their leaders hypocritically
secular.
Our leaders should remember one age-old truth: “If you point
one slanderous finger at another, four other slanderous fingers will point back
at you!” The time is ripe for our polity to pause and ask: Are they putting a
premium on slander? On immorality. Will licentiousness be the bedrock of India’s
democracy?
How long should the aam
aadmi suffer their stampede for sensation and slander? Can a nation be bare
and bereft of all sense of shame and morality? And, for how long? The answer lies in two simple words: probity
and morality. Can this be assured? Or, is that asking for too much? ---- INFA
(Copyright India New and Feature Alliance)
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