DailyPost 3017
POLITICAL TOXICITY
Delhi has fallen into the morass of air pollution and there seems to be no solution in sight. This year it has reached a mark unheard of anytime in India. The political class remains as indifferent as ever, rather than thinking of any long term solution, they keep trying to find an evasive way out, through their utterances on the electronic and the social media. That there is a link between bad air quality and political toxicity is pulling the argument a bit too much, but for sure, coincidentally or otherwise, political toxicity has been on the rise and that too quite steadily, in the last few years. The Delhi political toxicity syndrome has impacted the whole country.
The Constitution seems to have ordained the same level of political toxicity all across the country or so it seems, as the politicians understand the spirit of the constitution best. What is political toxicity? It is a vitiated political atmosphere where all public domain utterances of the political class is a manifestation of the adversarial political venom simmering or practised by them. Worse still, their deliberations, acts and worst is that their decisions are getting completely impacted by it. While one political party gains and other loses and the power see-saw battle keeps going on, the electorate is at its wits end, as to how and why the world’s largest democracy has put us in this predicament.
While the public domain (electronic & social media, electioneering) has turned out to be the natural habitat of the political class, have you ever heard any deliberations on our behalf, in the interest of people or in the interest of the nation? You are provided with a false feeling of it. Why should we bother about political bickering, and waste time on it. It is important for us to know what the political leaders / parties / governments can do for us, are doing for us or deliberating upon. The Indian electorate is not interested in the blatant and shameful vested interests game. A “Political Toxicity Meter” can give us the right reading of its level on a daily basis, and with that in mind, we need to watch the political drama in the public domain and accordingly understand the political goings on for ourselves.
It reached a crescendo in the backdrop of the death of Dr. Manmohan Singh, whose life can be celebrated for many reasons, by different real life performers in different escorts / areas / disciplines and the common man. A person whose life epitomised India in ways we still need to fathom out, albeit, all productive and proactive, found his death mired in political toxicity. The ones who praised his simplicity, humility, knowledge, clarity of thought and practice, being a persistent professional, a doer and go-getter, were doing exactly the opposite, while performing lip service to him. For them no occasion is solemn and good enough to rise above political toxicity.
THE POWER OF A GREAT MAN’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS CANNOT BE DILUTED BY POLITICAL TOXICITY, IS INDIA’S FIRM CONVICTION.
Sanjay Sahay