Political freedom:
This is hailed as a great success story of Modern Indian
republic and we are never tired of calling ourselves the ‘Biggest democracy in
the world’. We as citizens are free to choose our representatives and send them
to parliament to discuss things that are important for us as a society. Now the
questions I asked were…
1.
Do we actually have a choice?
2.
Is it easy for a common man to enter the
political arena
3.
Is there any scope of presenting an alternative
landscape
Post the analysis or my conclusions on all these three
parameters, I was confounded with a bigger issue, Are we actually free? There
is a difference between what you call ‘Independence’ and Freedom .
1.
Do we really have a choice?
No, We don’t have a choice. The whole system have become the
proverbial ‘VIKI’ from Will Smith Movie ‘iROBOT’. It is self-sustaining. The
Politics of this country is the most lucrative business that one can indulge
into. The returns are virtually infinite as the investment is nothing except
the soul & willingness to lie, which there are dime a dozen. In such a
lucrative business, its natural that entry barriers are very strong. We simply
have no choice as the constitution has become some kind of Holy grail that is
out of reach of common men but he is expected to do certain things without
knowing, Why? Because the constitution says so.
2.
Is it easy for the common men to enter politics?
Nope, In the lucrative business of politics, its impossible
for a common men to enter. The entire cost associated with fighting an election
is so high that only the rich candidates can participate or put up a meaningful
fight. The hordes of followers are to be paid to come and campaign, run
vehicles & prop up dummy candidates to cut rival votes.
An average cost of fighting elections in India :
a. Member of parliament (Lok sabha) – Rs15 Cr or
$3.00 Mln approx.
b.
Member of Legislative assembly (State) – Rs8-10
Cr 0r $1.8-2.00 Mln
c.
Corporation/Block – Rs 2-3Cr
This is an addition to the money one has to pay to senior party leaders or in the party fund
which can be close to Rs5.00 Cr for member of parliament.
3.
Is there any scope of presenting an alternative
landscape?
None at all! The current Politico-Business Mafia nexus is so
entrenched that they would not stop at anything to preserve the system of
privileges & loot. That would include
raining police of sleeping protestors of Baba Ramdev to silently look at
other way or nudge their entrenched vote banks to create riots in order to
divert attention from their brazen way to protect system.
The Role of Media Houses is all to in the open. They too
shamelessly have joined in the this preservation of system. Industrial houses
aligned to the permanent establishment own almost all major publication or MSM.
Any attempt by the common men to seek change in his life and
condition by questioning the failure of the system is dubbed as anti-national
or against the institutions. Such people who question the system largely have
no alternate delivery model to present and that too is a reality. However, this
brazen loot and suppression of dissent is driving lot of right minded
individual to the jungle and picking gun. As a result they commit the most
heinous of the crimes and kill citizens. After the state was the first to teach
them the benefits of violence.
Let me be very clear , there is no alternative to democracy
in India. Culturally Hindus have be extremely open & tolerant society.
Naxalites are nothing but thugs & goons terrorizing people in order to
create a new system wherein they will sit at the top and enjoy, Common people
be damned.
The way Media houses are used to firther vested interests by
business houses entrenched in the system is worth noting. For instance..
“Parliament is supreme and any criticism of parliament is
tantamount to questioning the will of people”
Morons, Will of the people is supreme not some building or
the occupants called parliament and parliamentarians. Parliamentary democracy
is just a service delivery system elected to serve not rule. It can be and must
be brought down if the system has failed.
“Constitution is sacrosanct … “
Yes and you have changed it more than 100 times in past 60
years. Most of the amendments have had no debate and just pushed through on the
strength of numbers and goons elected to sit in parliament for intimidating.
There have been no public debates on most of the amendments and various
political parties do them to protect turfs.
Political freedom is just a chimera as there are no real
alternatives. The fight to corner resources or high entry barriers has made it
impossible for choices to emerge. We are in moral degeneration phase. The civilisation that gave birth to people like Chanakya who told 'Chandragupta' , "This nation is given to you O Emperor in order to serve & Protect & preserve 'The Dharma'. You will be a paid employee of the state, seek nothing more and nothing less. You are not the owner but a public servant." This was when Emperor Chandragupta complained that he had got no comfort even while he is the Emperor.
This Great Disciple (Emperor Chandragupta) of great Teacher (Kautilya/Chanakya) learnt this lesson so well during his last days he went without food for 40 days.
Do you know the reason? That year his empire suffered a crop failure and population did not have much to eat.
"Dhareyte Iti Dharma" meaning : The one that sustains is Dharma.
