Topic: Politics, Politicians and Nationalism
26th January, 1950, a golden day in Indian history. The most important reason behind the celebration of Republic Day is enforcement of our Constitution. One of the pioneers of India, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, was the person who crafted our Constitution. Indian Constitution inculcates the pros of the Constitutions of different countries and develops the rules which are suitable to Indian conditions. Being a visionary leader, Ambedkar provided us with the best-suited mechanisms and rules in every field of its implementation. e.g. Politics, Legislature, Administration. A close watch on the present Indian political scenario reflects the truth of our current status.
'Politics', as defined by Frank J. Goodnow in his book' Politics and Administration', quotes, "Politics has o do with policies or expressions of the state will". Interpretation of this statement tells us that politics is making policies and executing them for the benefit of the state, or, in other words, people. This was taught us in the school days itself that Government is by the people, of the people and for the people. But, taking a single read in daily newspaper would help you in making the appropriate corrections to that childhood teaching. Our media is not full with the news of World Cup win or Sunita Williams now. Instead, it provides us with the acts of our cunning and cruel politicians raising the redundant and suppressing the important issues. The quest for power has spoiled the present administrative and general conditions. There are issues from 123 Nuclear agreement to Ramar Sethu hitting the front pages of all the important dailies and popular magazines representing the National situation.
It wonders me that how an important agreement like 123 Nuclear agreement is not able to get consensus. Congress led UPA Govt. is barred by a party which is not even inside the Govt. Left parties have consistently produced the obstacles for the smooth cruising of this agreement. Every one of us knows that 123 is an agreement with USA, one of the super powers in the world. And India, with rapidly increasing urban population is in a dying need of Energy, be it of any form. The top politicians of India who came into power by the people (as it looks) are not able to find an appropriate solution to this problem which is getting bigger day by day. Hyde act has been frightening us and Vienna Convention is sole discussion topic in American assemblies. Both the parties have been indulged in various types of parlays several times. But, as a matter of fact, out top politicians were unable to reach on common grounds. The success of '123'is of viral importance to both the countries, in general and India, in particular. This can not be said, that the agreement in its present America-specific structure is suitable for India, and can be accepted. But India should grab the opportunity by modifying the scaffold of the agreement.
H.D. Devegowda, one of the former prime ministers, is among the great ‘POLITICIANS’. Mind you, I am saying politician, not necessarily the correct politician. The way in which he and his son H.D. Kumaraswamy disturb the political situation of the Karnataka is worth watching. This is somewhat difficult for me to understand, that how a person who has been P.M. and a person who has been a C.M. change their decisions so frequently. If they can’t have one solid decision, about supporting which Govt., what these people would have done, when faced up by some crucial problems in their tenure. It is very hard to imagine about the modicum, of their important tasks being satisfactorily being completed in their term period.
15th August, 1947, is one of those days, which are not on the remembrance list. We remember this day i.e. independence day as our birthday, as our parents’ anniversary, and many other important dates. But I am surprised to pinnacle, when the message inbox of my cell phone, is overfluous, with the messages of my friends, on Valentine’s and Friendship day, but I get only a few messages on Independence and Republic day. Mahatma Gandhi said, “We are paying a huge cost in return for our independence.” We, in return, had to partition our nation into two separate entities. We people can’t even imagine the difficulties, faced by our politicians at that time. We had Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel, as Prime minister and Home minister to tackle the situation. We had Mahatma Gandhi who went into fast until death, only for the sake of ceasing the riots (which started after partition). But today, we have Nandi gram and Gujarat, and instead of knowing the measures taken by the CM’s, we are acknowledged (by our media at least) that the riots themselves were organized by our supreme leaders, not in the interest of nation, but whole and sole, in their cheap, subtle interests. WE had Sardar Patel, who didn’t sleep for several nights and also made the complete governmental machinery work for 24 hours, day and night, to provide us with a refined and magnificent state. Today, we have Devegowda, and several other politicians, who sleep in parliament itself, where, I think, they are expected to take some highly important decisions. On one hand, we had Bhagat Singh, and his comrades Rajguru and Sukhdev who went happily to death, for their ‘Bharat Maata’. On the other hand, today, we can’t even sentence Mohd. Afzal, a terrorist, who attacked our parliament and killed many security personnel; to death.
We ride on a wave of high growth and development with 9 percent GDP and 20,000+ sensex. But, according to United Nations Human Development Report (UNHDR), India ranks 128th in Human Development Index (HDI) list, two places down from its last position of 126. We are not lagging behind US, UK, China, Russia only, but we lag behind several small countries like Bolivia, Cuba and Guatemala, which have themselves faced many incidents in past which acted as a deterrence and retrograded them. We have more than 30 percent children underweight, at the time of birth and hold one of the top positions in number of malnourished children. Despite this auspicious growth, we have not been able to provide women-security. The molestation cases are proliferating rapidly and we are not able to deter them in our most secure city itself.
Politics is a bad game, as they say. But it is only up to us to give whatever structure we ought to provide it. Politicians consider victories in elections as their prime objective. Instead, they should try to walk on path of our veteran leaders and carry that same flamboyance to procure appropriate solutions to national problems. They should overtly or covertly work only in perpetual national interest. If they work for an intransigent and unbiased motive, only then we can see India moving on to the actual development path, as envisioned by Gandhiji and other prominent leaders. We, on our part, need to defy the insidiously managed souvenirs and acclimatize to bring Reality at a new dawn in India.
