DailyPost 2166
NEW AGE POLITICAL TOOLS – CORRUPTION, FREEBIES & DEVELOPMENT
Democracy is the best tool for both politics and governance known to mankind to date. It brings down considerably the ills of all earlier forms of politics, expansionism and governance. It brings governance on a sustainable mode emanating out of the will of the people. After forming the constitutionally mandated government, an all-knowing bureaucracy and professionals of all hues and colour are made available for governance, execution of the democratic dreams and beyond it the welfare of each and every one. It sounds like a fairy tale story.
The story after this starts differently. Execution’s devil is in the details and the devil of failure is also hidden in the same detail. Does the existing infrastructure match the futuristic democratic superstructure? Is liberal education a must for democracy? Not schooled is democracy can one be a part of the temple of democracy, be its reigning deity or its main priest. Elon Musk once said that he should have given precedence to attitude over talent. Here we lack both. Elections can be fought and won, but how does such a complex system surge ahead is the question. Running governments on election mode has become the default mode.
How difficult would it be to get into a progress mode? It means a long drawn economic blueprint to be brought to execution. The social indices improvement put for a monumental challenge. Are there any takers? Or all the stakeholders have heart of heart believed that given their *competence, capabilities and commitment, it cannot be their agenda. And hence what emerges, are the fake battles, being fought for optics for over decades. Corruption has thus been a political too, the fratricidal war to prove oneself onset, individual or party. New anti-corruption institutions and the paraphernalia adding the cost on the common man. But he remains embroiled in his battle against corruption on day-to-day basis.
Government of the nation / provinces are tools to transform receipts / resources to expenditure / execution and delivery, which can transform lives in every single way. The common timeline of successful nations has been around 25 years. If this cannot be achieved, or worse still, if it cannot be imagined either, in that case the Indian politicians have created the make-believe world of election manifestoes, promises and finally freebies. Vote for daily sustenance is the name of the game. How can this tool transform lives, living and future on a long-term basis remains unknown. Does all this mean progress or should we limit ourselves to infrastructure? Does development connect to better living, per-capita, education, health and sustenance on a perpetual basis.
IN THE GAME OF DEMOCRACY VOTER HAS BECOME A POLITICAL TOOL.
Sanjay Sahay