DailyPost 2795
OF AGENDAS AND MANIFESTOS
Whose agenda are we living with? Who or who all visualized the India of 2024 the way it has unfolded before us? Who dictates the agenda of the nation? Is there anything democratic about it? And worse still, is the real agenda ever out in the open? The status the country faces is that of rocking from bank to the other of a meandering river, or being thrown from one pillar to another post, whichever you look at it. We are a political handle to fulfil someone else’s dream. One news article recently stated that half of Lok Sabha candidates of BJP and Congress had assets of over Rs. 5 Crores. More than 80 crores manage with much flaunted free grains. We celebrate democracy, exercising our franchise, for someone else to celebrate life.
The agenda has been to sustain caste and religion to a level and to an extent that it remains your only identity. This is from where the whole concept of electoral arithmetic came into being. It is totally antithetical to caste, creed, race, religion, color et al, and hence to the word and spirit of the consitution. The whole country is doused in this cocktail, celebrating democracy, every political party being a party to it. Is there any party above this or any media entity which does not discuss this? It is the meat of Indian politics. A rudderless nation is another agenda, as no politician has the time to understand something worthwhile, make a plan out of it and execute. Whatever he or she thinks and however much he can, the country has to manage with it. Which political party can give an agenda in form a workable blueprint to transform India the next ten / twenty years.
Worse still, it is nobody’s agenda to make our governmental infrastructure inclusive of paid government human resources to deliver. Who will let us know as to whose agenda is it to bring in quality in everything the government does? We can start with education? Do people figure in the democratic agenda anywhere, or is their role neatly tailor made for them to follow; attend processions, road shows, enjoy WhatsApp university multimedia content, wait for free ration, other freebies and vote. As the Americans say that there is no free lunch, even if paid by their fellow Indians. The democratic pujari is the king. We have to work for him. For the taxpayers it is feeling of getting robbed, it is very difficult to make out, what we are getting in return; not even good behaviour.
The story of the Election Manifestoes the less said the better. It has been the earnest effort of all governments to prove it right once they come to power. A manifesto committee does it all, when the document in simple terms means the fate of the nation. No one is interested in giving manifesto a legal mandate. Even basic arithmetic is not worked out leave aside anything based on sound finance knowledge or budgeting. From manifesto not we have transitioned to guarantees. Freebies have a got a new name, guarantee. It has been exalted to a personal level now. From here, where do we go now?
HAVE WE CREATED A DEMOCRATIC MESS; OF THE POLITICAL PARTY, FOR THE POLITICAL PARTY AND BY THE POLITICAL PARTY.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.