Culture milieu shapes the
political atmosphere; the prevailing political atmosphere reworks the cultural milieu
– how and when of it? – history is replete with examples. Flux of the change is
immediate but its consequences play out over a period of time.
They always play out, all the
time, in every society, we know as countries or nation states today.
Ideally that should be the case
in point, and so, when we talk about the India redemption story, we should ideally
hinge to it, but we come to realize that the elements of vagueness have
crept-in in this age-old and established thought-frame.
India is at the crossroads.
The atmosphere is asinine where
the perpetrators (politicians + industrialists + bureaucrats nexus) are not
only indulging in the mammoth wrongdoings with scams of unprecedented scales,
they are even insensitively mocking the Indians by becoming more daring in
their acts by their acts of denial. They have stopped caring altogether if
their acts put them in negative light in the public perception.
Given the way things are playing
out; have been playing out since the independence, every major mass movement
except few have been led by the political class and activists donning the
political mantle.
That has created a block of
dependence on the political class. There is nothing wrong in it. In fact, it is
the only way in a democracy to move further because this political class is
supposed to come from among us; is supposed to serve the common interests of
‘we the nation’.
But in India of the day, it sounds more
like a myth than a reality. The basic element of democracy looks more like a
sham today. Politics of peoples’ representation has become politics of
inheritance.
Politicians do come from among
us, riding on our votes, but they are just mere the means to meet the end-means
of the ruling class. They are deepening the rot or our dependence over them.
Our dependence is their exploitative decadence. The family inheritance and the
criminal lineage are calling the shots in the legislatures.
These words are not based on some
speculative analysis. There are cold and solid statistical figures behind them.
There are plenty of ministers and
politicians with over two-three decades of clinging to the political chair.
They leave it only when they die. Even losing the seat doesn’t harm the
interests of the die-hard politicos who find alternate ways (indirect vote,
i.e., Rajya Sabha or legislative councils) to reach the legislatures (federal
or provincial).
They keep on winning on the
mindset of the people of a half-baked democracy who cannot even think about
high and lows of the constituency they come from, let alone the big (and
important) state or India centric thinking.
They cannot walk but they
continue to be members of the legislatures. By the time they retire or go, they
already have got established their sons, wives, daughters, and kith and kin in
politics.
And people keep on voting for
them.
And they keep on making or
amending the policies that is aimed at benefitting the ruling class first.
And people still look to this
ruling class to make India
a developed nation.
Yes, India is in need of a system
overhaul now if it has to look for a redemption. That requires a cultural
change in the ruling class. But who would drive the change?
Are the Indian masses awake
enough to begin the process?
Can we expect the political class
to create the situation that would work to make a progressive and true
democratic society that, in turn, would be able to elect and prepare a
political class that would run (and not rule) the country in a true democratic
spirit?
Indian democracy is at the crossroads
of such burning questions. Neither the cultural milieu looks apt to modify the
political environment, nor does the political atmosphere look willing to rework
the cultural milieu.
There are no clear answers yet.
Yes, there are some sparks here and there, like the hugely popular
anti-corruption movement last year or the sustained anti-nuclear plant protests
at Kudankulam this year or the government forced to drop the amendments to the
RTI Act now, but overall, it’s a vacuum there, a killing void hampering the
India growth story, giving us an India where Indians are thrown behind bars for
making cartoons or tweeting against the politicians.
These Sparks
are the only hope for the ‘India
redemption story’. They need to become the radiance of the change.