RAAEE SE PARVAT KARE PARVAT RAAEE MAHI

nation that won’t respect pratibha
Suhel Seth |
It is a disaster that this week our country will have a President no one wants foisted on us. Sometimes I think even Pratibha Patil doesn’t want to be President. What is galling is not that we’ll have a President no one respects. In this area, we have got quite used to the realities of our politics. I mean which sane man would want Arjun Singh as the man responsible for educating Indians when he can barely open his eyes, leave alone his mind?

The fact that a country of more than a billion people — with some bright people — couldn’t find anyone to be its President is a telling shame on the manner in which our politics is run. The campaign has been scurrilous. In any other country, Pratibha Patil would have withdrawn, but in our country she is busy jetting around meeting chief ministers and rustling up votes in the states, which again is abominable.

Read more hard-hitting columns

The truth of the matter is that the people really don’t matter. You can run campaigns on television and print, but we don’t have human beings running the politics of the country. They are thick-skinned hippos. Nothing seems to wash with them. You can be the most corrupt politician in the country, but you will win elections and be feted all over again.

Last month, Mayawati was the cynosure of all eyes. She then went on to declare assets worth Rs 52 crores, and this poor woman must now command the respect of all and sundry. It is sad that the government, which actually is of the people, takes the people so lightly. Just see how quiet the CBI has suddenly gone on Mayawati for the Taj Corridor case. It is this brazenness that is worrying and the reasons for this are many.

The principal reason is we tout our democracy too much. My question is, of what use is this democracy if people don’t matter? Of what use are elections when you know you have to elect crooks since the choice is between a known crook and an unknown one? Of what use is this democracy when the likes of Sanjeev Nanda can cock a snook at the judicial system and nothing happens? Of what use is an independent judiciary when lawyers sell themselves in order to placate the rich? Of what use is this so-called people’s Parliament if it never functions and where the Union Budget is passed without a debate? Of what use is a law and order force which can’t arrest criminals, and who instead attend Cabinet meetings?

Obviously, we are creating two kinds of talent pools: one pool is people like us who have to work to make a living and ensure we are above the law just so that the system doesn’t get back at us for what we write or say, and then there’s the enduring tragedy of corruption. Today, when the world is talking of transparency and talking about corporate governance, we have examples of IPOs which have decimated the rights of minority shareholders going through, only so that their promoters and their ilk can now find themselves on rich lists. I find the whole thing staggeringly distasteful, but the truth of the matter is that dissent itself is in a minority, and that is the first sign of a fraying democracy. Any democracy where the voice of the people is silenced and instead usurped by those we elect is a democracy in trouble.

We are in serious trouble in the three basic Ps. We have no primary health to talk of; no primary education worthy of replication (apart from the Indian School of Business of course which many consultant-types believe is a replacement for primary education), and no population plan in place; and what we are seeking is to go out and conquer the world. And just about every political party is the same. Mamata Banerjee is no different. Jayalalithaa was as crooked as perhaps her successor is, but we just can’t say or more importantly, do anything about it. There was a time when you could actually take some critical matters to court, but then when the courts themselves question public interest litigation as private interest litigation, you know you have a problem.

The other day I was horrified to see a judge in a white Toyota car, bearing a Chandigarh number plate, driving on the streets of Delhi with a cavalcade of cars, blaring sirens, police jeeps, red lights and that too on a Sunday. He was apparently a senior judge. I wish I knew his name so that we could publish it and shame him. People like him are dragging down the fair name of the judiciary. Of what use is law if the enforcers are going to be law-breakers?

Pratibha Patil is only symptomatic of the malaise that afflicts our democracy. She is not the problem per se. The problem is our own mental and physical lethargy, our tolerance levels and our reluctance to shake the system by its bootstraps. In effect, we the people now live in an India that is by us, of us, but rarely for us. It is a disaster that this week our country will have a President no one wants foisted on us. Sometimes I think even Pratibha Patil doesn’t want to be President. What is galling is not that we’ll have a President no one respects. In this area, we have got quite used to the realities of our politics. I mean which sane man would want Arjun Singh as the man responsible for educating Indians when he can barely open his eyes, leave alone his mind?

The fact that a country of more than a billion people — with some bright people — couldn’t find anyone to be its President is a telling shame on the manner in which our politics is run. The campaign has been scurrilous. In any other country, Pratibha Patil would have withdrawn, but in our country she is busy jetting around meeting chief ministers and rustling up votes in the states, which again is abominable.

Read more hard-hitting columns

The truth of the matter is that the people really don’t matter. You can run campaigns on television and print, but we don’t have human beings running the politics of the country. They are thick-skinned hippos. Nothing seems to wash with them. You can be the most corrupt politician in the country, but you will win elections and be feted all over again.

Last month, Mayawati was the cynosure of all eyes. She then went on to declare assets worth Rs 52 crores, and this poor woman must now command the respect of all and sundry. It is sad that the government, which actually is of the people, takes the people so lightly. Just see how quiet the CBI has suddenly gone on Mayawati for the Taj Corridor case. It is this brazenness that is worrying and the reasons for this are many.

The principal reason is we tout our democracy too much. My question is, of what use is this democracy if people don’t matter? Of what use are elections when you know you have to elect crooks since the choice is between a known crook and an unknown one? Of what use is this democracy when the likes of Sanjeev Nanda can cock a snook at the judicial system and nothing happens? Of what use is an independent judiciary when lawyers sell themselves in order to placate the rich? Of what use is this so-called people’s Parliament if it never functions and where the Union Budget is passed without a debate? Of what use is a law and order force which can’t arrest criminals, and who instead attend Cabinet meetings?

Obviously, we are creating two kinds of talent pools: one pool is people like us who have to work to make a living and ensure we are above the law just so that the system doesn’t get back at us for what we write or say, and then there’s the enduring tragedy of corruption. Today, when the world is talking of transparency and talking about corporate governance, we have examples of IPOs which have decimated the rights of minority shareholders going through, only so that their promoters and their ilk can now find themselves on rich lists. I find the whole thing staggeringly distasteful, but the truth of the matter is that dissent itself is in a minority, and that is the first sign of a fraying democracy. Any democracy where the voice of the people is silenced and instead usurped by those we elect is a democracy in trouble.

We are in serious trouble in the three basic Ps. We have no primary health to talk of; no primary education worthy of replication (apart from the Indian School of Business of course which many consultant-types believe is a replacement for primary education), and no population plan in place; and what we are seeking is to go out and conquer the world. And just about every political party is the same. Mamata Banerjee is no different. Jayalalithaa was as crooked as perhaps her successor is, but we just can’t say or more importantly, do anything about it. There was a time when you could actually take some critical matters to court, but then when the courts themselves question public interest litigation as private interest litigation, you know you have a problem.

The other day I was horrified to see a judge in a white Toyota car, bearing a Chandigarh number plate, driving on the streets of Delhi with a cavalcade of cars, blaring sirens, police jeeps, red lights and that too on a Sunday. He was apparently a senior judge. I wish I knew his name so that we could publish it and shame him. People like him are dragging down the fair name of the judiciary. Of what use is law if the enforcers are going to be law-breakers?

Pratibha Patil is only symptomatic of the malaise that afflicts our democracy. She is not the problem per se. The problem is our own mental and physical lethargy, our tolerance levels and our reluctance to shake the system by its bootstraps. In effect, we the people now live in an India that is by us, of us, but rarely for us.


NOTE: RAAEE SE PARVAT KARE, PARVAT RAAEE MAHI, A hINDU RELIGIOUS SAYING, I.E. God can turn a mustard seed into a mountain and a mountain into a mustard seed and that's the reason that an Italian woman, of not much lineage or consequence, etc. is directing the destiny of one billion people, mafia style. So who we are to question God or her.