India-The wounded land & People (Political freedom)

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.