an article complimenting my prev. post

DEVOID OF IDEAS AND HOPE

Malvika Singh

India has taken on the avatar of a dictatorial regime that sanctifies state power and gives it supremacy within the framework of a ‘democracy’. On critical national issues, particularly those that concern the future of our polity, all politicians, regardless of hue, caste or creed, make exploitative populism their mantra as they ruthlessly dismantle all discussion, all warnings about the repercussions of their short-term acts and endless re-enactments of national acts. They have reduced all intellectual debate to rubble as they override dissenting points of view, arbitrarily decide on what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, ranging from which film we should be allowed to see to quotas and the handing over of national forests to individuals who happen to have been born ‘tribals’, all to garner their personal vote banks. Selfish beyond imagination. The utter misuse of democratic freedom by professional politicians has made a mockery of the tenets on which liberal and civilized societies rest. Stalin, Mao and their ilk must be in the seventh heaven. None of the measures this government is propagating has shown merit thus far. Most of India continues to wallow in poverty, remains patient and dignified despite rampant political exploitation and the leadership continues to flog failed ideas and supposed solutions. That is the scary vacuum that has invaded the political space. It can be described as being a void, a black hole where nothing grows except destructive weeds. When Pratap Bhanu Mehta resigns from the knowledge commission, one realizes that hope for an enlightened and dynamic future is bleak. He is so right when he divides the two-positions-on-most-issues business into two categories, one that has faith in the people and the other that has faith in the state. Alas, in India the track record of the state leaves virtually nothing to be desired, having reduced this great land into a cesspool of corruption, corruption of all caste, colour and type. Lessening respect The state has usurped much in this country, has corroded and corrupted institutions, has broken laws without remorse, has defied and punished ‘right’, has endorsed and protected ‘wrong’, has crossed the line over and over again, denying dignity to rich and poor alike. The rhetoric of both, the political masters and their loyal ‘servants’, has entangled this diverse country in a sticky, unpleasant and complicated web of contradictions and lies. People have begun to revolt against this flowering indignity, this horrible reality. They are starting to show that they too have a voice, an attitude, a concern for the less privileged amongst them, a belief in egalitarianism. A parasitic state eventually crumbles, and nothing can save it except a revolution. That ‘revolution’ has begun. The political class is not respected as it was in the early Fifties. People have learned well to give the impression of being subservient as they bribe their way through mad regulations. Indians have mastered the art of quietly finding ways of dealing with insane policies, as their ‘leaders’ work only for their own financial betterment. It is sad that leaders do not see the disrespect. That is how insular the class has become. That is their supreme failure. The tribal rights bill is being pushed through parliament in an unacceptable form, but who cares? Let it all go down the tubes. Let the tribal owner make some good money from the land mafias that are waiting to buy the allocated pattas. Let the water run out or be poisoned. Let the animals be killed, sold or eaten. Allow the growth, much like fungus, of new areas of corruption as more quotas are offered. Encourage, silently, young Brahmins and Kshatriyas to bribe the authority as they change their names to OBC ones in an attempt to get into college. Let’s go for it and destruct.