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

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...
18 comments
Read more

The Vegetarian

Book Review Title: The Vegetarian Author: Han Kang Translator: Deborah Smith [from Korean] Publisher: Granta, London, 2018 Pages: 183 Insanity can provide infinite opportunities to a novelist. The protagonist of Nobel laureate Han Kang’s Booker-winner novel, The Vegetarian , thinks of herself as a tree. One can argue with ample logic and conviction that trees are far better than humans. “Trees are like brothers and sisters,” Yeong-hye, the protagonist, says. She identifies herself with the trees and turns vegetarian one day. Worse, she gives up all food eventually. Of course, she ends up in a mental hospital. The Vegetarian tells Yeong-hye’s tragic story on the surface. Below that surface, it raises too many questions that leave us pondering deeply. What does it mean to be human? Must humanity always entail violence? Is madness a form of truth, a more profound truth than sanity’s wisdom? In the disturbing world of this novel, trees represent peace, stillness, and nonviol...
6 comments
Read more

The RSS does not exist

An organisation that has 80,000 branches in India does not exist legally in any document. This is the cover story of The Caravan this month. By the way, The Caravan is one of the very few publications that still continues to exist in spite of being overtly critical of Narendra Modi and his Sangh Parivar. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is not registered as an organisation under any of the usual Indian registration laws such as the Societies Registration Act or as a trust or company. It functions as an unregistered voluntary organisation, though it is arguably the largest public organisation in the country. This situation makes the organisation absolutely unaccountable to anyone, argues The Caravan . The RSS is not legally required to file annual returns to the Tax department or disclose its financial details publicly though it deals with thousands of crores of rupees every year especially after Modi became the Prime Minister of the country. The membership of the organisat...
12 comments
Read more

No Problems Only Opportunities

You’ve probably heard this joke. A young man walked into his office one morning and found a beautiful young lady sitting in his chair. He called the MD and said, “Sir, I have a problem.” The MD replied, “Don’t you know our company’s motto, young man? No Problems, Only Opportunities .” When Suchita of The Blogchatter sent me a mail with the topic of this week’s blog hop –  - the first thing that came to my mind was the above joke. I know many people – too many, in fact – who went through terrible problems. My own life was a series of problems in none of which was there the consolation of any beautiful woman. One essential lesson I learnt from life is that life is a series of problems. You solve one and then arises the next one. Now I have reached an age when problems are no more problems: they are life itself. If you ask me what was the biggest problem I ever dealt with, it was my last years in Shillong. I was a lecturer in a college drawing a fat salary stipulated by the U...
13 comments
Read more