Ruminations post polling

                                            Ruminations  post  polling

Yesterday was the voting day for us in Delhi.  The timing had been scheduled from 7 in the morning till 6 in the evening. Last time when the Delhi Assembly elections were held, we three-my husband, my daughter and I-  went around 2pm thinking that for Delhi-ites, it would be the siesta hour and therefore casting our votes  will be a quick and quiet job . To our surprise we found the queue was a mile long and we had to wait for two hours for our turn to ping the button. I had decided that this time we will be there at 7 am even though I knew as early birds we were unlikely to get any special worm.  I could not get to sleep the previous night lest I should fail to keep my 7am tryst at the voting booth. I woke up even before the darkness lifted and the twilight of the morning was visible. Knowing the reluctance of the other two to give up on their early morning sIeep I opened the windows- especially the ones that always opened with a thumping sound as though bullets were thudding them. By the time we got ready the sun had risen and there was nothing unusual about its rise. I recalled Samuel Beckett’s famous line: “The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.”

There was quietness in the neighbouring school where the booth was located for our colony. We were the first ones to arrive even as the policemen were yawning. It took us less than five minutes to come out properly inked on the left forefinger.  We have to wait for another five weeks to know if our votes had been for the winner or the loser. The cynic in me chortled for I knew and as all others knew that whosoever be the winner, it would make no difference to the voters. Life will proceed just the same way as before once the election frenzy gets muted till such time when the next elections will take place- five years or even less than that.

We are residents of south Delhi  whose voters  comprise  the affluent and the upper middle classes in posh colonies, the lower  middle class in government colonies, the average middle classes in Delhi Development Authority’s housing apartments along with a large number of Muslims in the old poorly developed localities dotting the borders of the well heeled communities and the adjacent lower class colonies consisting of  one and two room tenements . The canvassing this time was on a low key and unlike the December Delhi elections, even the text messages on the mobiles were few and far between.  I learnt later that there were no long queues at any point of time- again a contrast with what we had seen in December ( though the media report is to the contrary)

It is difficult to discern any voting pattern in these assorted groups except for what one reads in the newspapers and views on the TV channels besides what the bookies offer. It is foolish and naïve to think that the parties in the election fray have a magic wand to dispel gloom and despondency that had gripped the minds of most people and that it will all be hunky-dory after a new party takes over. India is too vast a country to be governed both in terms of space and numbers. Governance is as difficult to understand as rocket science needing both remarkable intelligence and ability. There has been a steady decline in governance and administration after the first few years of the Nehruvian era and it has hit the lowest depths in the last two decades. Three different parties battling on the electoral ground have pitched high their strength and their resolve to give good governance in their manifestoes. The fledgling AAP promises to rid the country of corruption, the BJP promises spring in the air with decisive leadership and the oldest GOP promises to fulfill people’s fundamental rights to health and pension and empowerment of the weaker sections. But none of the three have provided a hint of how they will realize their promises as they know that fulfilling them is like catching a leviathan in a fly net.  Corruption today has become a part of our DNA, democracy cannot accept unilateral leadership and inclusive development is more of a mirage than reality.

What ails our nation? What ails our much vaunted democracy? The simple and straightforward answer is We, the people of India. Corruption as alleged by AAP and by BJP whenever the latter wanted to train its guns on the party in power is not the monopoly of the politicians. The AAP’s tarring of politicians of all stripes sparing their own party has given greater license to the rest of the people of India to indulge in sly and covert underhand dealings because they are not the target of attack of those who are in power and who bid for power. Corruption has to be viewed as a double headed hydra as both the bribe giver and the bribe taker contribute to our present venal society. To avoid paying a few extra rupees on sales tax, we tell the shopkeeper not to make the bill which suits him equally. The trader-customer dishonesty is a daily and ubiquitous happening. We go to any length to conceal our income to avoid paying income tax. We , the clerks and babus in government offices make short shrift of the innumerable requests of fellow Indians for gas and power connections, for making alterations in their homes, for water supply, for delivery of essential municipal services including health and education, for resolving public grievances  etc unless we swell their purses. It is a standard joke that we need to grease the wheels of our applications to make them move from one desk to another and to be satisfactorily resolved at the highest desk in the municipal offices. We, the fruit and vegetable vendors sell poor quality to our fellow citizens at astronomical price even as we make money by exporting choice agricultural products to the rich class and to NRIs abroad. We, the teachers are either absent from the class or when present provide sub standard lessons to students expecting them to come home for tuition to pass the examinations. We, the doctors prescribe unnecessary multiple diagnostic tests and scans at clinics and laboratories from where we  would  in turn receive a part  of the  exorbitant fees to be paid for such investigations in those diagnostic centres.  We, the engineers in cahoots with contractors and building material suppliers do not mind risking the safety of fellow beings by using inferior material in constructing their houses. We, the Administrators go for larger sums for awarding contract and for effecting land deals from the poor farmers and villagers. We, the ‘jugad’ experts make huge profit by producing spurious medicines, illicit alcohol, deadly drugs and crude bombs with no concern for the lives of our fellow citizens. We, the police refuse to file a FIR or act for the security of the citizens unless our palms are oiled. The list is endless and so the AAP’s target of the politicians to win the hearts of the other bribers is naïve if not trickery. Karl Kraus said: “ Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual; the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.”
 

 Democracy for India has been good as it had stopped fuelling dictatorship that had been the case with our western neighbor. It has stayed its course for the last 66 years except for a brief 21 month period in the mid-‘70s. Indira Gandhi had to revoke emergency as democratic India refused to yield to her authoritarian rule by decree, allowing elections to be suspended and civil liberties to be curbed. From that experience, it is clear that We, the people of India will be hard put to accept a strong leader who has not displayed the gentler and democratic aspect of his personality during the last 16 years of his tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat. Thomas Jefferson had once warned the Americans that “Consolidation of power in one individual is a threat to democracy and will lead to corruption, its necessary consequence.

But in our love for democracy that confers on us freedom of speech and action, freedom to enjoy the fundamental rights provided in the Constitution, we have forgotten that duties come before rights. To the above list of our acts of corruption, we the people of India have added corruption of the mind and spirit. Indiscipline is endemic among us and is seen in every walk of life. We, the early morning walkers , walk three abreast on a narrow garden  path that is wide enough to accommodate just one person. We push aside the lone aged walker and stride past him/her without so much as a ‘sorry, please’. We spit on the road, we throw garbage on the road, we pride in jumping the lights at crossings, we hoot and drive roughshod over others, we scream “No queues for us ;we are Indians” and refuse to line up- in short, we are woefully negligent with regard to minimal courtesy and duty by fellow citizens.  Duty is a social force that binds us to the course of actions demanded by that force. Both our  demanding our rights and the political parties wooing the voters with concession to those demands are maladroit acts . As a democratic nation we have failed to understand  Rockefeller’s statement that “Every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty"

 In a thought provoking article on  Nadella as Microsoft CEO: A Slap in the Face for Indian System,  the writer Jagannathan points out how our democratic system encourages talkers than doers and how our argumentative and democratic nature stops with running down people and not solving any problems. AAP’s approach has been clearly on these lines. The rise of one individual as a leader like Jayalalitha in Chennai, Mamta in WestBengal, Patnaik in Odisha and Narendra Modi in Gujarat reveal the bankruptcy of our democratic spirit.  Earlier it was Indira Gandhi. The  personality cult around which the power is now built bodes ill for a vibrant democracy. Jagannathan recognizes that the innate flaw of democracy in India lies in  its inability to tolerate success. This  has been the bane of our system:  “Our system kills initiative rather than engender it. We want pliable yes-men and non-achievers around us, not non-conformists and people with ideas of their own.”

We have cast our votes as democratic citizens of India. The media has gone bonkers with their mindless coverage of speeches of leaders that are empty of ideas and full of venom and hatred. It has covertly campaigned in favour of authoritarian leadership on the one hand and cleansing of the augean task of reforming politics and democracy in the country. What has been set in motion is chaos and confusion with grandstanding about empowerment and change.

I voted for the first time nearly half a decade ago in 1962. Jawaharlal Nehru was then voted back to power for a third time. Those elections had still the remnants of Indian nationalism and Gandhian idealism . As we now approach the 16^th Lok Sabha, we cannot ignore the depths to which we as a nation have fallen. I wish the new Lok Sabha elects people of reputation, of spotless integrity and selfless dedication to steer the country out of the moral morass that we have created for ourselves. As I returned home from the polling booth, these lines from Shakespeare’s Richard II echoed through my mind as though by its repetition I could still hope that we the people of India  have discharged our duty and responsibility for a positive mandate.

                                                         My dear, dear Lord,
                                                   The purest treasure mortal times afford
                                                    is spotless reputation; that away
                                                    Men are but gilded loan or painted clay...
                                                    Mine honor is my life; both grow in one;
                                                   Take honor from me, and my life is done.”