The majority of voters are facing the brunt of corrupt and pathetic governance even though these are the empowered people who make or mar the future of these wily politicians. The naked truth of the current political scenario of our country is that money power plays a dominant role in elections, followed by caste and religious affiliations, writes former IAS officer V.S.Pandey
Nearly five months have elapsed since a new government at the center took over. Radical transformation was promised. But it is business as usual. Governments are still absorbed, as they were in the past, in propagating the so-called success of their policies and decisions -at an exorbitant cost to the public exchequer and squandering of the taxpayers money. Unfortunately, our governments keep announcing new policies with great fanfare regularly but nothing much changes on the ground. A case in point is the new education policy- which was approved and announced with much flourish – but concrete results are yet not visible. The older education policy of 1986 also could barely achieve the desired goals even after thirty odd years of its implementation. Other policy announcements also remain mediocre in their achievements.
Similar has been the fate of our economic policies even though they critically affect the lives of our people on a daily basis. Currently. neo liberal economic policies are predominant across the globe and India has been on this course for nearly four decades. Consequently, a quarter of our population has succeeded in acquiring some wealth. A minuscule number are now owners of the majority of the nation’s wealth! Recently published reports on prevalent inequality across countries paint a very dismal and alarming picture about our country. The top 10% have the best -education, housing, lifestyles and amenities but with the teeming majority hungry, deprived and unemployed -the situation is calamitous.
The most fortunate aspect of our nation’s life is that we are still a functioning democracy and every political party and their leader have to go begging for votes from the majority of those who possess almost nothing except their precious “vote”. Despite being deprived of all the necessary ingredients of a civilized life, barely eking out a wretched existence – these vulnerable have nots have the selfsame unscrupulous mighty politicians queueing up in front of them- this is the miracle of our franchise. In the bargain the poor people are lured with elementary freebies which they should have been provided, as a basic right, by governance long ago. Still the impoverished are fortunate to get occasional gas cylinders, farmers receive some money, five kg free ration, free pilgrimage, temples, corridors, caste census, health cards, to name a few. None have the temerity to question the powers that be -why hasn’t basic rot , kapda, makaan, drinking water, education and health amenity still not been provided to the teeming billions?
Our many successes are salient -we landed on the moon, have nuclear powered potential, a modern army and have become the fourth largest economy. Can we become a superpower with our pathetic health and education system, villages and most towns devoid of basic civic facilities like sewage system, sanitation, clean drinking water, decent housing and with dire paucity of employment opportunities and our crumbling justice system. Tragically, the majority of voters are facing the brunt of corrupt and pathetic governance even though these are the empowered people who make or mar the future of these wily politicians.
The naked truth of the current political scenario of our country is that money power plays a dominant role in elections, followed by caste and religious affiliations. Money bags want unbridled opportunities to make more money and do not like to be checked in their blind pursuit of money. This is the consequence of the neo liberal economic policies being followed -whose propounders clamour for unhindered market forces, which despite being highly imperfect, determine the economic life of nations. It is propagated that the unbridled market forces are in the best position to usher in economic growth and their decision is always in the best interests of the population. How erroneous is their logic, is amply clear from the skewed and iniquitous wealth distribution prevalent in our country. It is natural that the uber rich do not want governments or any other mechanism to check or control them-, so the slogan of no government, less government etc.
Democracies are governed by the constitution, rule of law and are committed to equality before law and equal protection of law. Voters are free to decide their own fate and hence duty bound to elect only those who are committed to welfare of all rather than protectors of few- as is the case in most of the democracies following the neo liberal economic policies which are basically pro rich. This flawed economic thinking provides the moneyed classes the opportunity to control the nation’s resources and determine the fate of millions of hapless havenots . The wealthy do not brook any questions in their blind pursuit of accumulating wealth. Hence the cry to weaken the government by taking away substantial authority from it and handing power over to regulators , consultants and experts -who are accountable to none . In reality – how so ever corrupt an elected government may be , still it is an accountable institution as compared to any private sector entity. Governments face electorates at regular interval, face parliamentary scrutiny, are subject to statutory audits , remain under constant watch of the media and judiciary.
Unfortunately, the vocal sections of our population and opinion makers are themselves beneficiaries of these flawed neo liberal economic policies- so instead of deliberating thread bare the pros and cons , deliberate attempt have been made for decades to sell such economic policies which helped only a fraction of the population’s selfish interests -at the humungous cost of allowing the majority of our population to remain wallowing in abject poverty.
We must have a serious re look at our economic policies with their skewed results but being still relentlessly pursued in the past seventy seven years. Henry David Thoreau sound advice resonates for the governments and citizenry, he wrote “Can there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?–in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.”
(Vijay Shankar Pandey is former Secretary Government of India)
