Deceit, drama, and the degeneration of democracy

By Prof. H.C. Pande

Vice Chancellor Emeritus BIT Mesra

It has been said that politics keeps comedians in business. India has done one better, or maybe two better, as in the matter of politics, liars and crooks are in this business as well. Comedians can be tolerated as they at least give you a chance to laugh, and may be forget your miseries for a while, but liars and crooks only rub salt in your wounds, making you more frustrated and angry.

Examples abound and it would be enough to recall the shenanigans of just two political parties, the oldest and the newest, in our political firmament.

The vanguard of the independence movement INC, the Indian National Congress, has degenerated to an impossible extent. Top leader of the party, Rahul Gandhi was made to go from temple to temple and proclaim his Hindu faith by wearing a yagyopavit over his clothing and insisting that he belongs to Dattatreya gotra.This drama was as unnecessary as it was stupid. No one wears yagyopaveet over the clothing, and gotra is undefined in mixed marriages, in the sense, that Rahul Gandhi’s grandfather was Parsi and the mother is Roman Catholic. In this day and age custom and lineage do not have much meaning.

Rishi Gautama has held that a truthful person belongs to the highest gotra. We as people even today appreciate the truth and look down on lies.

Congress Managers do not understand that in a political battle, copying the adversary (that too a third-rate copy) does not help and one has to come up with a better ideology, and that in this IT age, lies can be easily found out. The degeneration of the oldest political party, the Congress, is a looming tragedy for the country.

AAP, the newest political party of any consequence, appeared as a bright star only to become a ‘black hole’, with insatiable appetite for gobbling, whatever remains of honesty, morality and ethics in the country’s political life.This only proves that politics is ,after all, the last refuge of a scoundrel. The ideology of the party is to tell lies brazenly, without blinking an eye, make promises and blame others for not being able to deliver them. Freely distribute the freebies for a free fall of the economy and use the Central Government as a punching bag, delivering punches below the belt type. The tragedy is that among all the political parties, AAP has most members who are well educated and well informed, yet in the short span of its existence it has beaten, the veterans of the political arena, by the proverbial mile, in the matter of white lies, deceit and demagoguery. On top of it, how the party managed to collect vast funds for its launch, is more than hazy and its current funding sources are a big question mark.

As of today, the show business of Indian politics begins with the election manifesto which is a mix of promising promises, deceitful promises and pure deceit. This is followed by drama and demagoguery. In the matter of drama, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) takes the cake. The sterling performance of Mamta Bannerjee with the unbroken, ’broken’ leg, deserves an Oscar.

Compared to the ‘Broken Leg’ TMC show, the INC presentation ‘Yagyopavit and Gotra’ drama is a non-starter. Mahatma Gandhi’s party, the Indian National Congress, has a lot to learn. The transition from MG to MGM is ill-advised and is so dangerous as to be suicidal.

With the grand old party going in for questionable tactics, and the brand new party of questionable birth and suspicious sustenance, putting up fraudulent shows on the nation’s political stage, the chances of the country’s democratic play ending in a tragedy are close to one hundred percent. The process of degeneration of democracy is not yet complete but, unfortunately, well on its way. In this seemingly hopeless situation we should not give up but recall Churchill’s words at the height of the second World War: “The situation is hopeless but not serious.” The degeneration of democracy has to be reversed.