Scam for a scam politics

Industry honchos are apprehensive of dealing with the government despite the positive vibes let out initially by all governments. They know that petty politics played in India and the business of washing dirty linen in public are not conducive to the investment climate in any way. The fact that our politicians become not just hysterical but also historical and drag names from the graves is not good news to them

Some years ago a graffito in a Belfast lavatory asked "Is there life before death?" It was during a period when sick jokes, sick lyrics and the-so called black comedy were at a zenith. These had become a hallmark of the phenomenon of nonsense. As long as such forms were used to express or interpret human existence in terms of the nonsensical in theatres and music halls, it was not a problem.

But, in real life?

What happens when such nonsense creeps out of the theatre or music halls and permeates institutions of governance? The results could be disastrous. With seriousness gone and silly arguments becoming overriding concern, the debates in democracy could prove to be utter nonsense.

Kafka moved away from the conventional methods of depicting a character and proved that such methods were not essential and James Joyce had successfully proved that plot was dispensable. But the present breed of politicians cultivating the various forms of absurd, have proven that sense is not essential and reason, dispensable.

The plight of our democracy which unveils itself in the form of adjournments, admonitions, arguments, authoritarian tendencies and attitudes, during our Parliamentary sessions is a sad commentary in itself. It is not just about the tax-payers money going waste. The picture that emerges out of this political disunity is frightening.

If we cannot manage ourselves well and conduct our business in style duringpeace times, what would we do during emergencies?

Look at the 'tu tu main main' affair. We have your Chief Minister and my Chief Minister. We have your Ministers and our Ministers. We have yours States and our States. We have your Prime Minister and my leader. Scam to scam, scandal to scandal… the charges and counter charges prove this. The moment a finger is pointed at someone, several from the opposition stand up to stare into opponents faces.

No one seems to belong to all of us. Our ruling party leaders are not considered as our country's leaders. Our Opposition leaders don't act as the country's Opposition leaders. Even those charged under Terror provisions are not terrorists for all Indians. Some political leaders would question the same as they have done often. And when an enemy from across the border snubs us, several faces light up with joy on this side of the border! A classic case of defeatism it is.

In the process of defending their own clan, they end up defending their crimes, their scams and their follies. For the discerning eye, the present burlesque that is going on in the name of the monsoon session is one such thing that fits into the above description. Look at the placards being displayed in the Parliament both by the Treasury benches and the Opposition ranges.

"Pradhan Mantri Chuppi thodo, Sushmaji ko barkhaast karo" (break your silence Prime Minister, shunt Sushma out of the Cabinet". Rahul Gandhi was adamant and said "no session, till resignation". A second one said "Bada Modi Meherban toh Chota Modi pehelwan" (elder Modi obliges, younger Modi flourishes). That was in reference to the Lalitgate again.

Not to be out done, the BJP too had this one up: "Ulta Chor Kothwal ko dantey, Kisaano ka zameen Damaad ko baantey". Did you watch this one Mr Robert Vadra? That one was for you anyway. If my Chief Minister is involved (in a scam) what about your's the other asks. Sadly these leaders only remind us of the fictional characters like Scarlett O' Hara who was so conceited that she always wanted to be the center of any topic of her world, come what may.

These politicians, too, want to hog the limelight. That is the leitmotif of our democracy. Thus, it is a low comedy being played out and not a form of democracy as they claim. The political drama being enacted by some of these leaders trades upon people's relish at seeing others humiliated and ridiculed and involved in scabrous episodes as described by low comedy in dictionaries.

Sir Ernest Gowers coined the term 'officialese' in 1948 to denote the pompous, abstract, euphemistic, polysyllabic and circumlocutory language often used by officials, bureaucrats, politicians etc.

The verbocrap could be obfuscating 'Whitehallese' like the following:

"The efflorescence of a host of specialists in commerce and industry and the ever widening inroad that the Government is forging into our business lives are carcinogens of effective communication; for the jargon of, on the one hand, such people as computer programmers, systems analysts, cyber-neticians, psychologists and, on the other hand, the complex prose of Whitehall constitute an invidious growth which is challenging our ability to express ourselves in clear simple terms.”

Well, do we want to read our Democracy in the above form or in a more simple "of the people, by the people, for the people" form? It is not that our leaders are not aware of the negative impression their actions create in public domain. They very well do. That is why we have a Sonia Gandhi pulling up one of her MPs, Shashi Tharoor, for going public with his personal views against the party’s strategy of obstructing official business.

Then we had seen a Narendra Modi too asking his senior colleague, Shanta Kumar, not to go public with his displeasure. He went on to advise him to speak to the party leadership instead. We, the Indians, may read the story in a particular way. But, the outsiders certainly would not read it the way we do. They tend to see a different narrative altogether.

Corruption and redtapism still continue to haunt the country and squabbles over scams and the present political deadlock, do not infuse confidence among investors in any way. Because, there is no much difference in most of the Bills, anyway. Industry honchos are apprehensive of dealing with the government despite the positive vibes let out initially by all governments.

They know that petty politics played in India and the business of washing dirty linen in public are not conducive to the investment climate in any way. The fact that our politicians become not just hysterical but also historical and drag names from the graves is not good news to them.

That each day of the house costs us Rs 6 crore but is being wasted thus is not pleasant news. Three days down the line, it is now Rs18 crore frittered away. This is insignificant compared to the loss that the country faces due to non-transaction of the business agenda in both the Houses, observers point out.

As the blame game continues and the business gets stalled, accountability has become a casualty. People would like to know who is accountable to whom and for what? The game of dominance apart, they should realize that whether they are in power or out of it, they are answerable to the people and the nation.

Instead of punishing the guilty in the scams, they seem to be punishing the people for electing them. This is the general mood of the nation, not of this author or any individual. Talk to commoners on the streets, intellectuals, foreign journalists covering India for long, or tourists in their favourite hangouts like Paharganj cafes, this is the sense of the street.