The future of Politics in India ; Time traveller's tale
With due apologies to H.G.Wells, I used his
time machine to go 10 years in the future and being the ultimate armchair
analyst, went to the virtual world first. I came across and interesting investigative
report on a worrying situation in politics. The report is reproduced here.
Since I am publishing it in their past, there are no troubling copyright issues.
Incidentally, the author name is same as mine.
Politics faces
Brain-drain
New Delhi, 28th
Feb 2024
A surprising trend has been noticed in the political
circles; the political parties are not finding enough candidates for the
upcoming parliamentary elections.
Confirming this trend, our source in a national
party said, “It is quite surprising, in fact shocking. Till last elections we
used to have thousands of hopefuls standing in a queue for the party ticket to
parliamentary elections. They would use all means possible, ethical or
unethical, legal or illegal, democratic or fascist to impress, bribe, threaten
the leadership into giving them tickets. But last week when we invited applications
/ nominations for upcoming parliamentary election, there was hardly any response! Even
the sitting MPs did not bother to apply!
Few weird people came. When we asked for their credentials, they began narrating their family tree and history. They probably had not understood the kind we were looking for. ”
Other parties too confirmed the trend. One party
leader, speaking off the record, explained the situation, ”Shortly we would be
carrying tickets on handcarts, going to the lanes and by-lanes and shouting ‘M.P.
ka ticket lelo’ like erstwhile Aam Aadmi Party did ten years back.”
To understand the reasons of such sudden disinterest
of the politicians in politics, we tried to talk to a sitting MP. He did not come
on line but his wife picked up the phone and in response to our question, took
out her frustrations on us.
“अरॆ, काहॆ कॆ M.P.? मॆरॆ भाई कॊ नौकरी नही दिलवा सकतॆ, मॆरॆ मायकॆ वालॊ का घर नही बनवा सकतॆ, अपनॆ उस मुअे फण्ड सॆ मॆरॆ रिश्तॆदारॊ कॊ ठॆकॆ नही दिलवा सकतॆ.
हमॆशा उस संसद में बैठॊ, फिर एक गॉव कॊ गॊद लॊ, गॉव गॉव जाकर काम करॊ. अपनॆ बच्चॆ पलतॆ नही, गॉव कॊ कौन पालॆगा? कॊई दिहाड़ी मजदूर है
क्या?
फिर कमाई कुछ नही. लॆदॆ कर सिर्फ तनख्वाह ही आती है घर में. फिर Politics का क्या फायदा.
To get another perspective, we met another
sitting M.P., a businessman turned politician, who had not bothered to respond
to his party’s pleadings for accepting the ticket.
“You see, the ROI (return on investment) in
this LOB (line of business) has been pared drastically over last few years. Input
costs have gone up, the business needs very intensive monitoring, bottom line
has thinned, opportunities of forward integration have become unattractive and other
income line in the P&L account has almost vanished. The sentiment is pretty
low & I am playing short.”
By now, we were about as clear as someone who
has just heard an election speech of Rahul Gandhi (a dynastic leader who was
famous for his funny speeches) but we had a job to do and plodded on.
Our next stop was a journalist turned politician
(it is so difficult to find pure politicians these days). Given his
professional propensity to use 1000 words where 10 are needed, he was more
forthcoming.
“I was planning to fight again on the party
ticket but decided to go to my constituency first.
So, last week, I was in a remote village of my
constituency which in inhabited by minority community. To my utter surprise,
they asked me not to give a speech. They had arranged a projector and as I sat
down, they began playing my speeches from the last election. How embarrassing!
Then they played another speech from last to
last election, a ten year old one!
I had to sit through my own speeches, listening
to all the promises I had made in last two elections, though I did not remember
any of them. And I realized I had made too many! Though the villagers were well
behaved and magnanimous; they asked me to choose only five of the promises I
will keep in the next term out of the ones made five and ten years back.
I tried to change the discussion to my comfort
zone and told them that the religion is in danger. Within seconds they projected
my own, two week old tweet where I had berated those who helped create sense of
victimhood among the minorities by using this specific phrase!
I had to, actually, beat a hasty retreat. But
let me tell you, this ever expanding reach of communicators and worldnet has
made winning an election difficult. Everyone knows everything!”
It was a social scientist who helped us put the
issue in perspective. He pontificated, “There comes a time for every profession
faces an existential threat. It has happened to many professions over last few
decades. Smuggling which was quite glamorous respective profession in 1970s
became face to face with liberalization and almost died. What remained was only
drug smuggling, highly illegal, highly dangerous and without any glamour what
so ever.
Similarly, journalism was originally supposed
to be an opinion shaper. It lost its moral compass & reached its peak when its exponents were
deciding cabinet postings and influencing economic & foreign policies but then
suddenly one fine day, a decade or so back, a new regime, cut them off from the
undue favors, handouts and any influence they had in governmental decisions
& policies. Unable to take the shock, they became desperate, noise levels
went up and public fatigue began setting in. Other mediums of communication
soon challenged the old establishment and the high decibel, moralizing,
sermonizing, name throwing version of journalism went into a coma. The unglamorous,
honest version of journalism without the glamour remained and thrived.
Now, it seems to be happening to politics. There
was a time when every profession looked upto politics as the ultimate level of
attainment, a kind of moksha. As the crooks and fraudsters knew more ways to
pull others down and were not constrained by morality and such utopian considerations,
they almost dominated the political environment. And to get elected as a M.L.A.
or M.P., what you needed was some seed money, an airtime deal, a constituency
and an emotive issue which could be used there. But, things changed thereafter.
The first blow to this perversion was the end
of dynasties in politics which began ten years ago and concluded around 5 years
back.
Then, public was getting more & more educated,
aware and empowered. As the introduction of worldnet*opened the virtual space
to all, asymmetry of information reduced rapidly. What was known to an educated
youngster in a Bandra apartment also became known to a farmer in Khagaria; though
they might have interpreted it differently. As public awareness grew, governance
had to turn transparent and the elected representative was forced to become
accessible, accountable and responsible thus reducing the scope for pilferage,
theft and scams.
Simultaneously, the elected representatives
were made to work. Mandatory attendance in legislature, adoption of villages,
towns & programs, a close watch on wealth and accountability of development
funds made the life miserable for them.
The profession now requires intensive hard work
without much financial benefits. No wonder the poor political parties are
finding it difficult to attract candidates. Hence the brain-drain.” The social
scientist concluded.
Though the jury is still out on what would
transpire in the politics of India or how the parties would deal with this
brain-drain, the fact that the public is finally getting representatives
as servants and not lords & masters is the good news.
