DailyPost 1685
IS POLITICS THE REAL KILLER?
Indian has been a laboratory of politics and Indians its Guinea pigs. Just think for a moment if there was no politics in this country or might be at a minimalist level, have we faced the same trials and tribulations in our independent history. The pre-independence politics made us two countries on birth. Who gained out of it? We are all still paying for it. Politics in its secondary manifestation is power play, the primary is the ambition of those who manage the levers of political parties and consequently governments. The leaders and their disproportionate influence on our lives has been totally responsible for the skewed development of this country; economically, socially and politically.
Partition not being in the living memory of the Indian population, this is the biggest tragedy which has befallen us. The clarity or the lack of it has been the political prism, through which human life is seen, evaluated and measured. Very rarely we have been able to meet the lofty requirements of Indian politics and the political class. It has a long history. Emergency happened for the ambition to be an undisputed leader and continuation of power. Did authoritarianism end with that? The Indian bureaucracy can stand testimony to the fact that even the weakest governments have run roughshod over neutral officers and sane advice. The politics of government formation is the beginning of all ills. Governance thus cannot happen.
The assassination of Indira Gandhi and its fall out was very euphemistically described as when big tree falls, the earth shakes. What shook then was death and mayhem, which could not be meted out justice till today. Indian politics has the uncanny knack of leaving all burning issues unattended. The earth has shaken every single time for the common man. The Bhopal gas tragedy happened a month later, which remained mired in politics, weird political will and procrastination. Indian politics is at its best is rabble rousing from the rooftops. Coalition govts became the order of the day from the 90s of the last century. The trial and tribulations of politics and governments made smithereens of our life.
CAN DEMOCRACY NOT RESPOND TO LEAST OUR DIRE NEEDS?
Sanjay Sahay