Midst all the talks of
Bharat Mata, youth power and ideas and the beehive diligence, India remains a
dark reminder of a story that took on to the wrong path before it could see the
right one when it began in 1947.
And there is no need to
go back in the history
to analyse it. Almost all of the second generation politicians today are the products of the political dynasties. Having
grown up and seen affluent lives, a clear disconnect from the ground reality of
India can easily be seen in their attitudes. They talk big. They talk
insensitive. They talk meaningless. Rarely, we find them walking the talk. A
look at the recent political scene is self-explanatory.
Among the high-talking
points these days is the Maharashtra drought. The industrialized state of the
western India is facing the worst
drought in 40 years.
Yet, Deputy Chief
Minister of the state, Ajit Pawar, a product of the dynasty politics in India
(being from the powerful Pawar family), breaches every level of insensitivity
with his ‘urinate in the dams’ remark while commenting the drought situation. According to a Times
of India report, during a rally in Pune, the politician, while trying to slight
the fast of a farmer, Prabhakar Deshmukh from the
drought hit Solapur district, said, “He has been fasting for the last
55 days. If there is no water in the dam, how can we release it? Should we
urinate into it? If there is no water to drink, even urination is not
possible”.
By saying so, he has
slighted the humanity, he has slighted his own existence, and he has slighted
an already debased Indian political scene even more. It was unethical. It was
audacious when procedures were mocked to reinstate Pawar as the Deputy CM after
he was forced to resign for his role in the alleged 70,000 irrigation scam of
Maharashtra. Even at this moment of
human crisis, Pawar has been alleged to divert water in dams (supposed to go to the people) to
the industries when people in drought-hit areas are reeling under the water
scarcity.
Even, the other
prominent second generation politicians in Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray and
Raj Thackeray, are the products of the dynasty politics. Okay, being from a
political dynasty is not a crime but what about the brand of divisive politics
they are practicing?
Let’s come to the national
scene.
The youth power of India
is in vogue – not in terms of productivity but in speechmaking of the
politicians like Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi. It is so because they form the
largest chunk of the votebank and can swing the all important ‘who wins or who loses’ outcome in the upcoming Lok Sabha
election.
Rahul Gandhi has been
very specific about promoting youth though there are very few grassroots
leaders in his youth brigade who are without any political inheritance or who
are not from the affluent
background. And almost none of that kind (the grassroots) has reached to the
level of the policymaking
bodies like the Union Cabinet. Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Milind
Deora, Deepender Hooda and Rahul himself, all are products of the dynasty politics.
Unfortunately (for India), the list is long and is getting longer.
Why Rahul Gandhi’s
speeches have become so repetitive?
Why his speeches only talk of questions?
Why he never talks about
solutions in concrete, tangible terms?
It is because, the ‘disconnect’ is
still there. It reflects in Rahul’s reluctance in taking the political
centrestage on vital issues like the Lokpal Bill or the Delhi gangrape that agitate the whole country.
What India needs to come
out of its dark is a leader who is sensitive and who cares for and practices a
life of probity. But the way the governments and the administrative machineries
were manipulated to give clean chit to Robert Vadra in controversial land deals
puts valid question marks on Rahul’s intentions. Okay, Vadra might be clean and
what he has amassed (wealth) might be due to his business acumen (and luck),
but being from the family that has been at the political forefront of the
independent India, Vadra needed to
come out clean in a ‘clean manner’ if Rahul means what all he is
talking about, be it in Jaipur when he was elected vice president of the
Congress party or at the CII annual general meeting speech in Delhi. But that
is not being done. That is just
not happening.
Let’s pan across the
country to see the second
generation leaders who claim the states now (and some of them can and will claim the nation later).