People in every state, in every part of our country, irrespective of the party in power are still suffering at the hands of the corrupt bureaucracy and police. No political party worth its salt can claim to have addressed this grave problem with any sincerity. The reason is clear- when politicians and their parties are themselves neck deep in corruption, expecting them to provide honest governance is futile, writes former IAS officer V.S.Pandey
Indian Parliamentary elections are a robust process exemplifying our thriving democracy. Every electoral exercise throws up winners and losers, but this time, it seems, the situation is quite muddied. If media reports are to be believed, those who will be out of power for the next five years are in celebration mode while the alliance that is going to rule the country is being projected as a loser!
Undoubtedly, the ruling BJP saw its numbers dropped significantly, 60 seats to be precise, but they are ahead of the combined strength of the INDIA coalition. Reasons for the fall in BJP seat numbers are many-fold, as in every election- but the celebrations in the opposition camp, even after failing to capture power, is amusing. The only reason is that we now have a weakened Modi at the helm. For them this is a great achievement per se. The critical need of ethical governance -transforming the lives of the have-nots does not acquire salience and they continue to wallow in abject misery while most of their elected representatives take the fast track to enriching themselves expeditiously.
Consequently, India with a population of more than 140 crores is still a developing country where governments even today provide free ration to nearly 80 crore people to ensure their sustenance. Is it not a collective failure of all the political parties who ruled the states and centre, past and present? People in every state, in every part of our country, irrespective of the party in power are still suffering at the hands of the corrupt bureaucracy and police. No political party worth its salt can claim to have addressed this grave problem with any sincerity. The reason is clear- when politicians and their parties are themselves neck deep in corruption, expecting them to provide honest governance is futile. Their corruption is not limited to only illicit collection of enormous funds running into thousands of crores, but also involves sprouting lies incessantly and dividing people on caste and communal lines, to name a few of their shenanigans.
The most unfortunate part of our political landscape is that barring a few exceptions, that can be counted on one’s finger tips, the rest of the lot is a bunch of selfish creatures who are bereft of integrity and moral values ,busy lying and befooling people- to fulfill their greed and lust of power. Public interest is rarely the motive to guide their actions, it is mainly driven by their narrow political interests and selfishness.
One the fatal flaws in our system is that everyone has “self acquired” the unbridled freedom to lie and not face any consequences for their lies and deceit. Most corrupt politicians can get away by declaring themselves to be the “most honest” and people jailed in serious corruption cases cry political vendetta and are let off scot free. Their versions become the main stream narratives, thanks to pliant media and partisan news people. Throughout the year, the political class is at liberty- making obnoxious comments, tweets to denigrate any institution or individual -with hardly any consequence. Their humungous lies have no limits -when they lose elections they cry from roof top that EVM’s are hacked, VVPAT are faulty , so on and so forth . But when they win, elections are free and fair.
Not very long ago, fresh leader arose -the self proclaimed Cleanest one-the most honest politician who branded almost every other politician as corrupt and demanded that all be put behind bars for looting the country. That selfsame politician himself is in jail at present on serious corruption charges and is shamelessly refusing to relinquish his post and is part of the grouping of the same “corrupt bunch of politicians”. No questions are asked, all his lies have gone unchallenged and unexposed.
The current government at the center earlier lied to the people that billions of rupees of black rupees stashed in tax havens by corrupt politicians, businessmen, bureaucrats etc. will be recovered from them and fifteen lacs of rupees will be deposited in every Indian’s account. Nothing of that sort happened- this promise was called “jumla” and forgotten. Indians are still waiting for that promised money to be deposited in their accounts. Promise of crores of jobs for unemployed remained unfulfilled. In the seventies, the then government at the center promised to remove poverty from our country and came up with the slogan of “gareebi hatao”. This promise remains unfulfilled even today, though the party in question ruled the country for more than half a century.
In states across the nation, the ruling dispensations keep lying and befooling the people with impunity. Their lies go unpunished as in our country, perjury seems be no offence and every one, particularly people in power -have the birth right to lie. When lies go unpunished and votes can be garnered by appealing to caste affiliations, playing the communal card and copious using of black money, why should anyone indulge in public service?
Albert Einstein had said “Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters can not be trusted in large ones either”. When our politicians have become habitual liars, can we trust them to deliver justice to the people and serve public interest in the true sense of the term? Elections will be held regularly, but unfortunately only names will change not the characters of those who govern. Divorced from ethics, leadership has been reduced to management and politics to mastering sinister techniques to ensure electoral wins. The real challenge before the people is to become aware of this sad reality of our political culture -devoid of morality and act collectively to clean up the horizon for true democracy to take roots and finally empower the hapless people to change their destiny.
(Vijay Shankar Pandey is former Secretary Government of India)
