DailyPost 1669
THE ELECTORS AND THE ELECTED
They are known as the people’s representatives. They come at huge cost to the exchequer and completely and comprehensively control the levers of power form the Gram Panchayat to the Union Cabinet. Having been elected, they become adept in using their electorally enabled clout to every area of human existence. Over a period of time we have been made to believe that each of these elected representatives have executive powers, though that is legally not the case. They head executive committees on nearly every conceivable thing. They protocol for providing pre-eminence and mandatory VIP invite for functions and events have been hard coded in our administration. They have a quota for nearly everything and commensurate influence too.
The elector’s job is to stand in supplication much before the indelible ink has dried on his finger. The most successful transition of Indian constitutional framework to a completely skewed state in affairs, in favour of the elected representatives, has brought us to the pathetic state we are in today. The permanent bureaucracy stands in attendance, they love to do that, having practically been trained in that manner. The decimation of the independence and worth of the regular executive can only deliver results, which will invariably go against the electors. One glance at the elector and the elected will leave you in doubt as to who is the ruler and who are the bonded ones.
The detailed data, political management process, money and muscle power, strategists and now technology, the elected have mastered it all over the years. This is their first and the last skill. Once in power they can produce a symphony of influence which can ride roughshod over anybody. What is their number? If we include the panchayati raj institutions, it runs into lakhs. They are people’s servants and taking care of their constituents is their duty. There is a crazy trait which these guys pick up like magic is to keep away from the real action and real delivery. The best of the elected representatives can have the worst of the constituencies. Your dignity in life and death is not ensured, even if you have elected the tallest elected representative in the country.
Escaping accountability is a given. Now in the throes of the biggest human tragedy in the recorded history of India, when no one knows, how far he or she is from the end. It’s time they repay the debt they have taken from electors. If lakhs of the people’s representatives take care of a fixed number of COVID-19 patients (their electors) each, depending on their influence, their families and their problems from stress/tension, medical facilities and coordinating all that they need in midst of the existential crisis, it would bring credibility to this pious democratic relationship. They are nowhere to be seen. Not one elector would be looking forward to them with faith & hope. Approachability would itself be a challenge. As usual, they would be in the act of making themselves more and more comfortable. Had democracy turned out to be a curse?
ARE PEOPLE’S REPRESENTATIVES A FAIT ACCOMPLI?
Sanjay Sahay