We are not sure if God frequently surfaces in the form of man, as is commonly believed. But what we can be dead certain is the fact that his arch enemy Satan often manifests himself, especially in India that is Bharat, in the form of politicians. These incarnations of Satan, who are now running amok with the people’s sensibilities, have cast such a nasty spell on the nation that it is well nigh impossible for the prajas who elected them in the first place, to retain even a semblance of sanity.
There could be no other logical explanation to the goings on in the political arena than taking refuge in the unnatural and the irrational. And for the teeming millions who had inflicted this handful of pests on themselves, there could be no other option but to bemoan their fate. The curse, call it the millenium curse, is well and truly upon us.
It would be an understatement to say that there is something very basically wrong with our polity. Things have now come to such a pass that the country can neither move forward nor backward but remain painfully suspended in a maze of anarchy and disorder, a sort of Trisanga naragm.
The scourge of politicians have indeed taken a heavy toll, not only of the nation’s riches but also of its psyche. The epidemic is now all pervading and has invaded the very roots of the country’s integrity and well being thereby impeding its prosperity and peace. Whatever the party, whatever their ideology and hue, when it comes to pursuit of power and pelf, our politicians are at their wily best and very united too in their mission.
If only these characters demonstrate the same solidarity and zeal in nation building, things would have been much different. But alas, their penchant for self-preservation has always won over patriotism, their quest for wealth has always been at the nation’s expense and above all their instinct for survival has always prevailed over the nation’s.
They have always prospered even as the nation disintegrated, and they are always in a position of strength, be it ‘secularism or communalism’ that is at play. But what about the nine hundred and odd million who elected them? They are never in the reckoning.
Even six hundred senses would not suffice to decipher what is going on in the political theatre. Pundits are busy (mis)interpreting the constitution, the President is busy meeting ‘distinguished’ visitors, the politicians are busy flirting between secularism and communalism and the entire country is busy…doing nothing except groping in the dark.
No laudatory obituary can be sung for the Vajpayee government for it always had a foot in the grave from the beginning and its demise was only expected. If it was’nt one ally it would have been somebody else, even its own big brother, the RSS. Rather there were several pall bearers waiting in the wings for the inevitable funeral.
It was always a question of time, like a baby born with a hole in the heart. Yet when Vajpayee ascended the gaddi, the nation did see a ray of hope, because the BJP was touted as the only untested party outside of the omnipresent Congress and the transient Third front. It is solely for this reason that the fall of the BJP government owing to the unrelenting gravitational pulls of itself and its allies- in political parlance it is called weight of own contradictions-merits a lapse into pathos.
The BJP’s contribution in these thirteen months to the pool of national disillusionment has been supreme. If the nation gets pushed into the paws of a Congress rejuvenated by a transfusion of Italian blood, the BJP has itself to blame for the not so grand resurrection of the party of yore from virtual debris.
If there are no tears for the exit of the Vajpayee government, there could be no cheers too about the alternative, even as fears abound about a mid-term poll if current trends are any indication. Congressmen’s appetite for power and intolerance of others enjoying it is legendary.
But what the secular friends of the Congress have failed to see is the party’s preference for absolute power, and not mere crumbs of office. The moment the BJP government had been felled, out jumps the Congress wolf which was in waiting, demanding that it be given the entire pound of flesh.
Would the other hounds in the hunt heed the Congress’s aspirations, even if it is for the sake of upholding that dubious concept called secularism? The Congress must be kidding itself. Mulayams know better. But would they be serving the cause of the much bandied about secularism if the ball is lobbed back into the BJP court? Would the nation’s interest be salvaged if fresh polls are ordered?
But as usual it is the people and their nerves that are being put to severe test. They are never a party to deals that have a direct bearing on their bread and butter and in which they are the purported partners and intended beneficiaries too, something that is untenable even under ordinary law. But then there is no point telling that to the lawless politicians.
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