Obituary of Indian D:

The drama unfolded midnight on 29th Dec 2011 in Rajya Sabha on Lokpal bill debate,
is a culmination of jingoistic and narrow minded politicians barbing at each other
at best while digging grave for democratic India at worst. For the first time some
sort of national momentum had built up after series of scandals were unearthed
and are being pursued by supreme court’s guidance. Power lures to be corrupt
and the present government conveniently hid the corrupted till whole nation
tells it to deal with and there you go, they brought in such a weakest bill,
yet could not muster support of it’s own coalition partners.
National momentum against corruption was certainly brought afore by Anna Hazare and civil societies.
It brings great disappointment when parliamentarians boast their authority and role in making a law,
yet disgracefully reject dissent in various forms to bring to their notice.
Are we being ruled by parliamentary dictatorship? These MP s are not voted into subvert the national
interests in front of party politics.
The upper class are not bothered and are too busy building their fortunes,
the lower class are easily manipulated by attractive schemes and are vulnerable.
Here comes 21st century middle class equipped with social networking skills along with
social awareness trying to put unprecedented pressure on the usually monolithic
parliament to listen to people. These parliamentarians are miffed by the mood of the nation,
and their ego was hurt in accepting people demand, so does the bashing went on
based on some antics uttered by some civil society activists. Government is functioning
as a collective bunch with no coherent agenda and plan of action. The prime minster still functions
as one of the minister, where as he should be a beacon of hope and a symbol of assurance.
The resurgent Indian economy brought social changes along with living standards.
The middle class is no longer a vulnerable and manageable voting block,
they demand transparent governance. It is a cultural shock to the political establishment
about this display of defiance and are under the false notion of people making fuss
about these issues are not the real voters. It is the sad reality of our democracy
infected with such sort of ideologies and to blame public may be true in some cases.
So when would politicians learn their lessons and correct their functioning?
Entire Arab world swept with “people springs” and have successfully ousted dictatorship,
do we need that kind of Indian Spring to change this idea of dysfunctional and delusional system,
which we have been told is the biggest in the world. Lack of agility, rigid norms and gullible public
who are muted spectators, busy with their own daily life have contributed to this disease of political class mindset.
Politicians displayed their true colors in defeating people’s opinion and divide the people based on fault lines such as caste,
religion and region etc. It amazes how a communist Chinese government dealing issue versus a power hungry and
greedy governance and political system we have in India. Who needs to carry this elephant which is worth
both in function and not, value same. Time for retrospect for our political class to catch up with
21st century and social changes took place in India and modernize their thought process of politics.
Lessons to be learned by the people, who make fuss about couple of issues and when in time of need
they would not participate in the democratic system, especially in elections. If politicians are not
changing why not we give thrust to people who are willing to change the system,
who may not be seasoned stereo type politicians.
Surely we are seeing the degradation of our functioning in all walks of life
and think we are at crucial juncture of tipping point of either snap and descend
into chaos or steer ourselves out of this state of quagmire.
- By Ranga Raju, Arkansas , USA