It has become something of a habit for Indians in general to blame whatever goes wrong on politicians. Whether it is the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack or a train derailment or a bridge collapse, there is hardly any tragedy where we do not see the politician's dirty hand. Perhaps, the public got the clue from the politicians themselves. After all, not too long ago, most of the country's problems used to be blamed on the CIA or the ISI by our ruling classes.
Take the case of 26/11. The chattering classes and the electronic media were vying with one another to blame the politician for whatever was happening. With honourable exceptions, nobody was asking how a bunch of terrorists could navigate its way through the rough seas to the Indian shores, walk unnoticed into the city, set up base there and plan its operation for days on end without any risk of detection.
What were our much-vaunted Navy and Coast Guard doing when the deadly bunch was headed towards Mumbai? What were the Mumbai Police doing when the terrorists walked into the city and set up base in preparation for their dastardly acts? Was it not possible that there was some negligence on the part of someone in these services which allowed them free play? But such questions seemed to be far from the minds of most of us including the electronic media who seemed hell-bent on whipping up an anti-politician hysteria by laying all the blame at the door of the politician.
I do not hold any brief for our political class. The majority of the politicians do not deserve to represent us. Having said that, I also believe that there are bad eggs in every profession and every walk of life. Therefore, stereotyping the entire political class and tarring all politicians with the same brush is nothing but intellectual dishonesty, which will only serve to sweep important issues under the carpet. Let us not forget that a democracy does need the political class to run it. It was the same political class represented by Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Rajaji, Kamaraj and scores of others which facilitated the adoption and practice of the largely western concept of democracy in a feudal society like ours.
It was the same political class that showed the sagacity to choose for the newly born Indian republic the middle path between crass capitalism and utopian socialism, which in the light of the current financial meltdown appears wisdom of the highest order. It was the same political class which had the vision to set up the hydroelectric dams, the steel plants, the shipyards, the IITs, the IIMs and hundreds of other undertakings and establishments which laid the foundations for India's emergence as a major power in the world and wove a secular polity, however fragile, in the face of the competing claims of religions, castes, creeds and languages. And, more recently, it was the same political class, which, in the face of all odds, ushered in the era of computerisation and communication revolution in the country.
As I write this, I cannot resist the temptation to share a painful adolescent memory with the readers. Circa 1967, my father was working for a cement factory in an industrial township in Orissa. We had no telephone at home. My maternal grandmother was in her deathbed in her native village in Kerala. A maternal uncle tried to communicate the news to my father by booking a trunk call to his office telephone. Those days such calls had to be routed through a number of telephone exchanges and one considered oneself lucky if they materialised. The call to my father never materialised. Ultimately, a telegram was sent to my mother from her village. The telegram reached us four days after my grandmother died. Through the mists of time, I can still hear the heartrending wailing of my mother that followed the reading of the telegram. The denouement might have been the same even if the trunk call had materialised. But had the call materialised in time, it might have at least allowed my mother a chance to make a dash to her village by train to be with my grandmother in her final moments. In the present age of mobile telephones and e-mail, the above instance may read like fiction. Let us therefore not deny credit to the people who made such changes possible.
Coming back to the point, a politician does not spring from a vacuum. He or she is the product of the same milieu as are the rest of us. A social set-up which believes that might is right and money is all that matters can hardly be expected to produce politicians who are solely driven by the concern for public welfare. And that goes for us common citizens too. Most of us may not be bribe-takers. But, how many of us can honestly say that we have never tried to bribe the attendant in the three-tier sleeper coach to jump the queue and get a berth during our unreserved train journeys? How many of us can honestly say that we have never used the services of a ‘middleman' to bribe our way to getting a driving licence or ration card? Is not bribe giving as much a crime as bribe-taking? By that yardstick, are we not as unethical as the politicians we so often condemn?
Therefore, while we need to be relentless in holding politicians accountable for their acts of omission and commission, we should tone down our holier-than-thou attitude while judging them. At the same time, the citizenry and the Fourth Estate should create space for and build up well-meaning, public spirited and committed politicians so that ultimately there is less and less space for the bad ones. But when all is said and done, it will be naïve to think that our politicians are responsible for all our problems for, they are only the symptoms of a society which is in a hurry to leave its ethical moorings behind.
Values above money
Most of our problems can truly go away only when the average Indian starts placing principles above money and believing in the value of a hard and honest day's work, irrespective of his rank and status. However utopian that might sound, it is worth waiting and praying for.
(The writer's email is ggmenon14@rediffmail.com)
