POLTICAL DIARY

New Delhi, 6 December 2008   

To Hell And Back…

YET NETAS PLAY BLAME GAME

By Poonam I Kaushish

Four days is a long time in a nation’s life. Sixty-two hours to hell and back. Which has changed our thinking and our lives for ever. Of a people who are no longer willing to be trampled upon, ridden rough-shod on and lulled into make-believe of don’t worry everything will be all right. Words we have been hearing ad nauseum day in and day out for decades to a point where it sounds like a broken record. Enough is enough!

The tragedy of India is that while its people have changed, our polity continues to revel in the days gone by and wrap themselves in the glory of yesterday. Already, they have fast-forwarded the Mumbai nightmare and relegated it to the dustbins of history. The embers at the crematoriums had not even died out and the coffins of those killed barely balmed that our netagan was back to doing what they know best: taking pot shots at each other, playing the blame game and politricking.

First came the atone-chop-and-replace exercise to assuage the popular anger. Starting with the Prime Minister (collective responsibility), his colleagues in Home (total ineptitude) Defence (Navy lapses) and Foreign Ministries (calling the ISI Chief) all offered to step down. Only Shivraj Patil did. Trust the Railway Minister and RJD Chief Lalu to hit the nail on the head. Said he, “what’s the use of this rain now that the harvest is over.”

This was followed by an SMS from the MNS Marathi manoos’s biwi who went to great pains to assert that it was the brave locals who had lost their lives while saving Mumbai and the MNS workers were donating blood, lifting bodies…. Bad luck the aam aadmi shredded it to bits. Then it was the turn of the Kerala Chief Minister to vent his ire for being thrown out of NSG commando Major Sandeep’s house when he went to condone his death. Said he: “If it had not been for Sandeep’s house not even a dog would have gone there.” Ouch, didn’t anyone teach this callous bully any manners?  

If this was bad, the best or should one say worse followed. The BJP, suffering from an acute attack of the foot-in-mouth syndrome, took the outpourings of public anger as a ‘danger to democracy’. Read threat to the polity. Asserted Mukhtar Naqvi, “Some women wearing lipstick and powder have taken to the streets and are abusing politicians, thus spreading dissatisfaction against democracy.”

Bluntly, asking for fixing accountability, action, answers and security of life is putting democracy in danger. How warped and convoluted can our so-called leaders get? If I stop putting lipstick and vent my anger for our polity’s failure at Mumbai’s Gateway, Delhi’s India Gate or Bihar’s Jhumritalaya would that be acceptable and less of a danger to democracy?

Then it was the turn of State Deputy Chief Minister RR Patil to remark, “Itne bade shahar mein ek adha hadsa ho jaata hai.” Really, what are you doing, sleeping on the job? In this laughable comedy of errors what should one say of Maratha NCP supremo Sharad Pawar glibly dismissing the carnage as a “system’s failure.” Read our polity.

And, Congress President Sonia Gandhi asking for tough measures. Which translated reads:  Crying on new-found big brother US’ shoulder and pleading with it to rein in infante terrible Pakistan, while the polity sits pretty. How about us being tough for starters? When will Parliament attacker Afzal Guru be hanged? Are we awaiting the US or Pakistan’s nod?

Now the icing on the political fiasco cake. It took over four days for the Congress High Command to ask its Maharashtra Chief Minister to resign and another 5 for his successor to be named. Why? The loyalty quotient to the ‘High Command’ was paramount. The caste had to be right, Dalit or Maratha. He should be acceptable to both the NCP and Congress.

Union Power Minister and Dalit Shinde, fit the bill but he was too close to the NCP chief for Congress comfort. The Grand Dame plummed for Union Minister of State Martha Prithviraj Chauhan. But Pawar didn’t like him so out he went. Then it came to a toss between Congressman-come-lately Narayanan Rane and unknown Ashok Chavan, but Pawar again outwitted Sonia. He named former Shiv Sanik Chaggan Bhujbal as Dy Chief Minister, leaving Rane stranded. No matter that Bhujbal was ousted on corruption charges 5 years ago and Rane has rebelled. So much for presenting a ‘caring and tough’ Administration.

Scandalously, the political pantomime continues. Not a few leaders took potshots at the elite upper crust, which had come out in droves against the Government woeful apathy, by stating that they had done so because their symbols of wealth, the hotels they frequented had been hit. Did they bother to visit the CST station and condole there, our netagan thundered. Never mind, that our polity revels in Brand India, showcasing it globally while trampling on asli Bharat. Which is an expendable commodity to be wrung in the electoral dryer. Forgetting that it is Brand India and asli Bharat who together pay to keep our leaders secure.

Why blame the polity alone. Our ‘rarified’ editors too have joined the melee in taking potshots at the elite? Where was the elite when the bombs went off in 1993, 2005-07-08? When floods and cyclones ravaged States? Overlooking that it is this very elite whom they and their newspapers extol for donations and happily invite for charity does. The very five-star hotels too turn out to be their favourite watering holes. Arguably, is it a crime to be rich and yet raise cudgels for a cause? Does one need to sham a jhola, wear spectacles and mouth Marx while drinking Scotch paid for by the elite on whom you pour scorn.

More. All merrily pooh-pah the elite by asserting that the large voter turn-out in the six State Assembly polls negates the thought that asli Bharat has lost faith in our netagan. Wrong. The heavy polling is because this is the only symbol for our illiterate masses to hope against hope for a better deal --- roti, kapaada aur makaan. By voting out one Government and replacing it with another. Making the best of a bad bargain. Heads or tails, in the end the voter only loses out.

Questionably, why haven’t the much-promised reforms in our electoral system been enforced? Recall, in 1992 Parliament’s Dinesh Goswami Committee report had mooted three important proposals. One, the right to recall. Two, the concept of negative vote. Plainly, that no candidate was fit to be elected.  Three, State funding. As records show this and other electoral reform reports have been consigned to raddi. Worse, till date nearly all Parties have failed to file their tax returns for years. While taxmen harass the aam aadmi, he dare not raise any query on his political mai-baaps.

True, our polity sucks big time. But India is for real and if its people decide we can bring about a change. Mumbai has shown the way. For the first time, India’s collective conscience has risen in one voice. It has lit a candle for our brave soldiers and commandos. It has sounded the bugle against the netagan. This time around, let’s take it to its logical conclusion. Change the system, change the polity. ---- INFA

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)