DailyPost 1720
INDIA ON THE ALTAR OF POLITICS
While the death count of the Second Surge has still to reach finality, with newer numbers emerging, radically different from the old ones, the case in point is Bihar, while others in the pipeline. The electronic media and presumably others too, have already got into full blast election mode. The last five elections landed us wherever it did, the political pundits and electoral mathematicians are agog with the ensuing five to happen early next year. The death, mayhem and the biggest humanitarian crisis is still not over, partial unlocking is just be a few days old, but it has already been declared just as an interregnum in election / politics of the country. The UP / Punjab and other election stories are already making headlines.
While the fear of a third wave seems to have been relegated into the background, which might happen much before the elections. Political machinery is being geared for it. The political parleys, spokespersons and anchors double up as experts in no time. That is their core competency, for the simple reason, that they have been doing that most of the time. All the big HD screens / number crunching wizardry in TV studios will finally give the same figures of the number of seats won by each party and who is the winner of it all. The politicians and political parties notwithstanding there are lots of other stakeholders in the Indian democratic power ecosystem, who live off the elections. However much we may not like to believe the reality, the fact is the India is put on the altar of politics.
Our hatred for data and love for subjectivity is sustained by the nature of politics, that rules the roost in this country. More of politics, means less of governance. Will governance ever develop the robustness and the expertise to get out of the cudgels of politics? Do they even want to come out of it? The air of unaccountability and having the ultimate power and discretion to decide what one wants to do and what one wants to skip, can throw any system out of gear. Nobody knows the job description of the political executive, we just presume what it should be. The country has never seen any action against any political executive for not performing his official duty. The bureaucracy has tried to emulate this great model and more often than not has been successful in doing so.
Will the health infrastructure even change in this country? Have we created any blueprint? If so, has it been made known to the country? Politics has given us a great clarion call, what has happened has happened, let’s move forward with hope and resolve. This lip service has been going on for decades, to be repeated over and over again, with breath taking success. The culture of a political party is to keep everybody happy, this can happen in civilian life only after putting governance on the altar of politics. Governance delivers only with hard work, hard decisions and no vested interests whatsoever. Will it ever happen? Can we improve the quality of mass education? Is anybody interested? Election as a democratic process lost its relevance on 2nd of May, given the pandemic gloom everywhere. Barely 40 days down the line, it has resurrected itself.
CAN INDIA RESURRECT ITSELF FROM ENDEMIC POLITICS?
Sanjay Sahay