Skip to main content

Those Pricey Netas


Some three or four years ago, a former student of mine who was then a budding leader of a national political party, told me that he could “sell” me a party ticket for Rs 5 crore.  The sum astounded me.  “It’s nothing, sir,” he reassured me, “I’ll teach you how to get that amount back in a month’s time once you win the election.”

When I heard Aam Aadmi Party’s lament that the BJP was trying to buy its MLA for Rs 4 crore, it didn’t surprise me.  If people are ready to buy party tickets before the election for crores of rupees, the neta’s price after winning the election should be a double digit crore.  Four crore is rather cheap, I think, for a sitting MLA.  Is that why AAP decided to cry foul?

Delhi BJP vice president, Sher Singh Dagar, reacted very formulaically.  “If it is proved I’ll not only resign from the party, but from politics itself,” he said.  Every neta worth his sodium chloride knows how to plug any hole with darkness.  If you are not a master of darkness, you can’t be a neta, in the first place.  Once you become a neta, you will find it painful to come out into sunshine.  The air-conditioned comfort of the dark halls and alleys will make light unbearable.


Once you’re used to those halls and alleys, whenever any challenge is levelled against you ,you can boldly place your palm on your heart and swear that you would quit politics if the charge is ever proved.  You know it won’t be proved.  That is the art of plugging holes with darkness.  Such plugs are costly, though.  In politics everything is costly, except the citizen who votes each time hoping for a brighter tomorrow.
Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 9, 2014 at 12:32 PM

    I have dreams of entering politics someday but I just don't have it in me to buy everything with money. Seeing your post I have understood I cant become a neta for obvious reasons( don't have the money or that level of cheapness). You an me cast our votes and feel happy when something nice is done and can do nothing more than feel sick in our stomachs when we see that our hard earned money; the taxes we pay are just filling up pockets and lockers of various netas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 9, 2014 at 4:50 PM

      You want to do service to the nation entering politics but the price is too high for you, Athena. Even your own service comes at a high price in our country, you see.

      Delete
  2. Ravish ManiSeptember 9, 2014 at 1:44 PM

    Matheikal, it isn't only the netas have price but a citizen too. They also bribe citizens for voting in election. If such citizens have to elect their leaders what would one expect from them?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 9, 2014 at 4:50 PM

      It's a mutual process, I agree, Ravish. Money flows this way and that. And after all those transactions are done, we preach morality.

      Delete
  3. Datta GhoshSeptember 9, 2014 at 3:48 PM

    I am thinking should I comment or not comment. Commenting can land me in jail, brand me a terrorist even I can get rapped and murdered....yes I live in India.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 9, 2014 at 4:51 PM

      True, it's a slippery ground we tread on. But fortunately there are still people bringing the truth out, you see.

      Delete
  4. Renu VyasSeptember 9, 2014 at 5:15 PM

    "In politics everything is costly, except the citizen who votes each time hoping for a brighter tomorrow."
    A shameful reality..you described it well Sir.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 9, 2014 at 10:07 PM

      The country seems to offer so little for us, ordinary citizens , to be proud of. Shameful indeed, Renu.

      Delete
  5. AnonymousSeptember 9, 2014 at 8:51 PM

    If power do corrupt politics is the epitome of that...a sensible post

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 9, 2014 at 10:09 PM

      And India may top among the list of corrupt countries though we now have a govt that promised to root out corruption, bring back black money and give us achche din.

      Delete
  6. Roohi BhatnagarSeptember 9, 2014 at 10:23 PM

    What a shame!! So much greed..

    ReplyDelete
  7. Vinay NagarajuSeptember 10, 2014 at 11:38 AM

    Such a shame! A little shocked to read this. Selling a party ticket for 5 crore? And promising to get back within a month? Absolute Shame!!
    "In politics everything is costly, except the citizen who votes each time hoping for a brighter tomorrow." Rightly said! Such an insult for the honest voters

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 11, 2014 at 11:43 AM

      Nowadays people in political circles speak in terms of lakhs of crores, Vinay.

      Delete
  8. Ismail.April 24, 2015 at 9:55 PM

    Nice post. Please check my blog too.
    www.wonderremedies.blogspot.in

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

Whose Rama?

Book Review Title: Whose Rama? [Malayalam] Author: T S Syamkumar Publisher: D C Books, Kerala Pages: 352 Rama may be an incarnation of God Vishnu, but is he as noble a man [ Maryada Purushottam ] as he is projected to be by certain sections of Hindus? This is the theme of Dr Syamkumar’s book, written in Malayalam. There is no English translation available yet. Rama is a creation of the Brahmins, asserts the author of this book. The Ramayana upholds the unjust caste system created by Brahmins for their own wellbeing. Everyone else exists for the sake of the Brahmin wellbeing. If the Kshatriyas are given the role of rulers, it is only because the Brahmins need such men to fight and die for them. Valmiki’s Rama too upheld that unjust system merely because that was his Kshatriya-dharma, allotted by the Brahmins. One of the many evils that Valmiki’s Rama perpetrates heartlessly is the killing of Shambuka, a boy who belonged to a low caste but chose to become an ascetic. The...
8 comments
Read more

Maveli in the Pothole Republic

Illustration by Copilot Designer I was trying to navigate the moonscape they call a ‘national highway’ when my shoe vanished into a crater big enough to host the G20 summit. Out of it rose a tall figure, crowned and regal, though with a slight limp. “Maveli!” I exclaimed. “Yes,” he said grimly. “Your roads are terrible. I thought the netherworld was bad, but this—this is hell on asphalt.” I helped him up. “Don’t worry, Maveli, our leaders say we’re heading toward becoming a global economic superpower. See, even Donald Trump is impotent before our might.”   Maveli frowned. “Yes, yes. I saw your leader guffawing in the company of Putin and Xi Jinping. When he’s in the company of world leaders, he behaves like a little boy who’s got his coveted toy.” “Are you a little jealous of him, Maveli?” I asked. “I have reasons to be, but I’m not. Let him enjoy his limelight. A day will come when history will put its merciless foot on his head and send him to his own Patala.” Tha...
8 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
19 comments
Read more

The Real Enemies of India

People in general are inclined to pass the blame on to others whatever the fault.  For example, we Indians love to blame the British for their alleged ‘divide-and-rule’ policy.  Did the British really divide India into Hindus and Muslims or did the Indians do it themselves?  Was there any unified entity called India in the first place before the British unified it? Having raised those questions, I’m going to commit a further sacrilege of quoting a British journalist-cum-historian.  In his magnum opus, India: a History , John Keay says that the “stock accusations of a wider Machiavellian intent to ‘divide and rule’ and to ‘stir up Hindu-Muslim animosity’” levelled against the British Raj made little sense when the freedom struggle was going on in India because there really was no unified India until the British unified it politically.  Communal divisions existed in India despite the political unification.  In fact, they existed even before the Briti...
16 comments
Read more