DailyPost 2176
POLITICO-DEMOCRATIC MINDSET
The functioning this robust and vibrant democracy is dependent on the politico-democratic mindset of our political class out of the which the rulers keep evolving, with some amount of churning. At times the prevalent mindset impacts the younger generation of leaders who are in the process of getting groomed and most of the times, the leaders keep deciding and pushing it on to the rank and file of the party. Even a year or two of such leadership can make a monumental change. Behind all this mindset game plan is the lust for power, that too with least amount of effort, clinging on to the social media is one the dimensions of this thought process.
Whatever term we ascribe, the mindset change in the way we view and practice democracy has been changing over the years. The long and winding freedom struggle had its own mindset, the leaders who gave their life and blood, power was on no one’s mind. Their understanding of struggle and an ongoing fight to the finish was very different needs a different compared to the election masters. Might be education made an impact, the selfless tone added to the value of the leaders. They were seeped in democracy much before we were able to win democracy for ourselves. It is this mindset that created the constitution of India, after a gruelling three years of work by the constituent assembly, by the best democratic-politico brains of the country.
Democracy is the genesis of politics and it cannot be made to piggy back on politics. If you have a task at hand, the mindset, value, effort and the satisfaction all come into play. There is a purpose for which democracy was born, but if that purpose is lost for whatever reasons, what is left of that supposedly evolved system. Democracy and constitution dictated the nature of nation building which happened post-independence. Might be transitional generation could pull it off. Politics was just a tool to make it happen. Might be that nature of political power for decades together, can throw out of gear any political leader and any political party of today.
Over the years the struggle, effort-based result-oriented approach of leaders gave way to a politico-democratic mindset. This mindset depicts the hollowness of commitment to any cause and the ability to deliver. Politics decides the nature and practice of democracy, not the vice-versa. Only elections as an event remains as it is, rest have transformed in a manner in last few decades, beyond recognition. The experts might be able to tell us how today’s elections compare to the famed Seshan days. Election machine is what democracy is brought down to. It has been convincingly proved by party after party that education and expertise are non-democratic traits.* Today we have moved much ahead of the lowest ebb of IT cells / social media machine / handles, to getting lock, stock and barrel into taken the national democratic narrative into T-shirts, suits, handbags, shoes, sunglasses, roads, names and what not. Twenty first century arrived more than two decades back, will the politico-democratic mindset negate delivery of even the basics of what we deserve.
IT’S TIME FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT FROM THE POLITICO-DEMOCRATIC MINDSET AFFLICTING THE NATION, TO ARREST OUR DESCENT INTO DISASTER.
Sanjay Sahay