MAKING POLITICS CLEANER

Indians today are acting and behaving like a bunch of uneducated fickle minded people vulnerable to exploitation at the hands of resourceful and opportunist politicians. We have become a large bunch of stupid selfish hypocrites who despite being highly educated are communally divided and very sadly, the cost of this hypocrisy is borne by the nation we all claim to love. This isn’t just an allegation on the Indians but a well proven fact and very sadly I wish to confess that I do not want to be a part of such a lot.

Our country is a unique union of diversity and naturally, it has never been as divided as it today seems to be. The divide has been created by the politicians of this country who have but one aim in mind which is to attain power and to fill their own pockets. These politicians are successful in doing all that they are doing because we readily support them despite knowing what their ulterior motive is. I do not wish to hijack the ability of people to make a choice for themselves, I simply wish to educate them of the right motive and allegiance which shall help them make the right choice them.

REALIZING DEMOCRACY

In order to understand how motive and allegiance operate which motive is a higher motive in democracy, we must first understand what democracy means and more importantly what it implies. Democracy, as Mr. Abraham Lincoln said is a ‘Government of the people, FOR THE PEOPLE and by the by the people’. Democracy is, therefore a three-dimensional concept and a state is truly democratic only when all the three dimensions are equally and symmetrically realized. 

The Indian democracy has however largely been two-dimensional and also highly asymmetrical. The dimension which has so far been realized is ‘Government BY the people’ and the credit for this goes to a strong Election Commission. 

The dimension which has been only ‘somewhat’ realized is ‘Government OF the people’. There are two major political parties in the country, the dynastic Congress party and the BJP. The majority of the Independent Indian political history has been shaped by the dynastic congress party wherein the country did not have a government ‘OF’ the people but a government ‘OF’ a family. Only recently do we see a transition in that with the BJP coming power and also with the formation and empowerment of new regional and all India political parties. However, quite unfortunately even these new parties are composed of the rich, powerful and influential people and not of the common Indians. 

The dimension which is most ignored in the Indian democracy is ‘Government FOR the people’. According to me, there have been two phases of democracy in our country. First phase from Independence till 2014 and second from 2014 till date. The first phase was entirely dictated by the congress party and what India witnessed, especially in the second half of the first phase (1991 – 2014) was a long and never ending string of corruptions and economic stagnancy. Our country had become an empire ruled, exploited and looted by Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and her family members like Mr. Robert Vadra. Thus, in the first phase, it was the ruling government which did not let the much important dimension be realized. 

In 2014 the Indians voted for a change and the change did come. The BJP was voted to power and what came next was a string of reforms to undo the mess created by the preceding government. The results were visible and were not to the liking of the opposition for the results not only strengthened the position of the Modi government but they also added to the popularity of the government in power. What followed was cheap communal politics by the opposition which vertically dissected the Indian population and half of us have become reluctant to support the government in bringing about the much-needed reforms. Thus, in the second phase it is the people of the country who are not letting the third aspect of democracy come true and the idea of a Government FOR THE PEOPLE is becoming a distant dream.  

Upholding and strengthening a democracy for the betterment of the people and of the nation implies equal and symmetric empowerment of all three aspects of it. The burden of this not only lies upon the government in power or upon the opposition but also equally upon the citizens.

UNDERSTANDING MOTIVE 

With what motive should we make a political choice or what should we have in mind before making any sort of a political choice in a democracy? How should we judge which block to stand with and which to stand against is a question which many have failed to answer and have ended up on the wrong side of the fence. 

Motive and allegiance are the two forces which are instrumental in making people choose a side for themselves and they both go hand in hand. Despite being closely related, it is important for every individual to ensure that there is a proper differentiation between the two and more importantly one needs to ensure that it is their motive which decides their allegiance and not the other way round because as long as our motive defines our allegiance it is us who benefit whereas when our allegiance starts to define our motive, we simply become instruments in the hands of political parties and we lose all our objectivity. 

Motive is for the individual to decide and no one or no side should ever intervene in the motive that a person has behind making a choice of any sort, be it political or apolitical. Robbing a person of the right to decide upon a motive for his/her allegiance is like robbing an individual of his/her human rights and liberty. However, what we have seen happening lately in our country is a constant and a fierce attempt by the opposition to shape motives for the Indians and to shake their allegiance. In fact, these attempts are soo desperate and soo fierce that they are evident even to the politically uneducated.

Let us now objectively check which motive is a higher motive and which motive is likely to benefit us more because ultimately all we want is for ourselves to benefit and for ourselves to grow. Let us first list out certain motives which people have behind making political choices. Some of the common and possible motives are

1. Nationalism: The motive of national benefit
2. Self-Betterment: The motive to improve one’s own life and conditions
3. Communal motive: The motive to strengthen the position of one’s own community in the country
4. Corporate motive: The motive to strengthen and benefit one’s own enterprise.
5. Political motive: The motive to attain power and to improve politically.
6. Ideological motive: The motive to bring in place a particular ideology that one believes in.

The above listed are a few common motives which people have behind making a political choice or behind backing a particular block and therefore each political party claims to deliver on each and to further each motive stated and  thereby tries to increase its vote share. Now if we objectively check, we find that the objective of nationalism is the highest motive. The reason behind this being that nationalism is one such motive which covers all the other motives i.e. when we choose the betterment and development of the nation, we automatically choose the betterment of the citizens, the communities and the enterprises therein. Whereas when we choose any other motive we simply choose that particular motive and nothing else. For instance, if we back a political party or a side which when comes to power may strengthen the position of our community then in such a case, we choose communal benefits above others which may or may not be realized. Thus, the higher motive, in my opinion, is the motive of national benefit and of national empowerment.

CLAIMS

As already stated, motive is for an individual to choose and therefore If an individual chooses communal or national or any other motive it is the individual’s choice and should not be questioned. The issue that irritates me is the claims that people make, almost every individual (politicians and citizens) claims that all they want is for the nation or for the country to grow but deep inside they all have their own petty motives which they are either afraid or ashamed to acknowledge in the modern secular and global world. The issue becomes all the more dreadening at times when the nation is in transition or is under reform.  

For a healthy political environment, there should be a clear sync between what an individual wants and what he claims he wants for only when our claims are loud and clear only then will they reach the government and only then can the government work towards attaining them.

CONCLUSION

It is quite painful for me to be living in times when despite being educated we are slaves to politics and have lost all our objectivity to it. It is better to be the one who takes a step towards change than someone who prefers being a bystander to avoid the pain. Surely my country is in transition and surely these are turbulent times but I will support those who want to bring about a constructive change and I will be the change that I want to see. I also respect those who may have motives different than mine but who true in what they say. 

I have written this piece not as someone who supports the BJP government but as someone who wants politics to be cleaned and made healthy because I do not want to be a mere pawn in the hands of any political party.  

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