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Change in Mindsets of Indian Politicians since Independence

Change in Mindsets of Indian Politicians since Independence

August 11, 2014
The nation celebrates its 68th Independence Day on August 15. A couple of days back, the activists of a ‘swadeshi’ outfit vandalised three 200-year-old life size statues of Queen Victoria in a museum in Mathura, as they felt they were “symbols of British colonialism”.
Change in Mindsets of Indian Politicians since IndependenceThis makes me wonder whether our railway network is not a British legacy. What about our President’s House and India Gate? Aren’t they symbols of “British colonialism”? Every Independence Day, the prime minister hoists the Tricolour at the Red Fort. Isn’t the Red Fort a symbol of the Mughal rule over India? Should they also desecrate the Taj Mahal ?
It is one thing to be promoting ‘swadeshi’ and another to politicise it for cheap political gains. The Mathura incident cannot be treated as an isolated case of vandalism. It reflects on the quality of our leadership and the ways the political aspirants vie with each other to emerge as ‘leaders’.
Isn’t it true that leaders are born today by whipping up mass frenzy and hysteria over certain petty issues? We don’t need to dig deep to get an answer.
Little surprise, therefore, that leadership today is more associated with power politics than public service. The concept of welfare state that our founding fathers had envisaged, has given way to crony capitalism and self-serving motives. Social welfare is now driven by market economy and not government schemes.
It is hard to believe that just about six decades back we had no dearth of political leaders who could be our role models. Mahatma Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, Rajendra Prasad, Sarojini Naidu, Maulana Azad, Lal Bahadur Shastri, B R Ambedkar, Jayprakash Narayan .… the list goes on.
There may be opinions now on the policies of a Nehru or a Gandhi every now and then, but the fact is that they all commanded adulation and were public icons. None can question their sacrifices and love for the country and the fact that their legacy still endures is testimony to their stature and greatness.
I am sure that there would be considerable debate amongst us on the choice of a personal favourite. Yet each one of them was not just a freedom fighter, but advocated probity in public life, fought for the larger cause of the masses and was a visionary and erudite scholar. Significantly, each of them was a leader because of popular acceptance and not creepy manipulation! They were the founding fathers of our democracy. Can we compare them with our present breed of leaders?
Much water has flown down the Ganges thereafter. We don’t have such leaders now and why?
An important reason for this is that politics is now a business and political parties are treated like the fiefdom of a select few powerful satraps. What else would describe the autocracy within political parties?
There has, indeed, been a systematic corrosion of our political system. Prolonged coalition era politics meant emergence of power brokers in the guise of leaders.
We find that in the last couple of decades, politics has become a vocation of those concerned more about perks and emoluments than public service. They join it for the sake of a money-spinning career and this is evident with the scams involving politicians. Isn’t politics today more dynastic in character than ever with inheritance becoming a fad? Also, look at the way our elected representatives demand more salaries for their services to the nation!
It is a pity that today’s leaders are more known for their non transparent financial dealings than their public work.
The political parties too are not known for maintaining proper books of accounts. (Refer to the guideline note on ‘Accounting and Auditing of Political Parties” prepared by the Institute of Chartered Accountant of India in February 2012 at the behest of the Election Commission of India. The note points out that the present system of accounting and financial reporting followed by political parties in India “does not adequately meet the accountability concerns of the stakeholders”).

Who should we blame for these self-serving leaders?

There is an old saying that people deserve the government that they get. Don’t we deserve the leaders that we elect? I would say yes because over the years, we have indeed become a victim of our own contorted vision that revolves around self-serving goals and selfish motives? Doesn’t the growing disparity between the rich and the poor – the gap between Bharat and India – suggest that we have long forgotten thinking about our social concerns? Aren’t the present-day politics a product of our constipated thoughts? If they are so, can we expect a Victorian era relic – even if it is a statue of Queen Victoria – to be safe in our country? Because even our own destiny is not in safe hands!
It is, indeed, time that we have a leader who is above religion, caste, and sectarian politics and yet popular with the masses? Can Narendra Modi fill the void? Only time will judge what difference he makes to the contemporary politics.

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