Skip to main content

Politics of Allegations


The most sacred duty of our political leaders seems to have become hurling allegations against one another.  Turn to any news channel on the TV at any time and you will hear some politician accusing another one of some crime.  The Prime Minister accuses the Leader of the Opposition of chicanery.  The Chief Minister of Delhi accuses the Prime Minister of possessing fraudulent academic degrees.  In Kerala which is going to the polls next week, every candidate’s speeches are spiced with aspersions cast on the integrity of his opponents.  In addition to all the domestic laundry washing carried out in the public places, the Keralite is condemned to endure much laundry brought from Delhi by all the significant leaders including the Prime Minister.

Moulding Kerala in the Modi way
A Dalit student was raped and killed brutally (or killed and then raped, as reports have it) recently in Kerala.  The police carried out the mandatory investigation in the most perfunctory manner because the woman was a penniless student belonging to a low caste, without any political clout or social support of any sort.  Unexpectedly, however, the case shot to limelight when the Prime Minister himself took a personal interest in it.  The Prime Minister took the politics of allegations to a new height (or depth, if you prefer) by politicising the murder of a woman who was a symbol of the helplessness of the poor people in the country. 

As a helpless observer, I am left wondering why our leaders do nothing more than accusing one another of some crime of commission or omission?  Why not do something for the people instead?

The plain truth is that nobody would have bothered about that Dalit student who was killed brutally had it not been the election time in Kerala.  The painful truth is that the killed student is being killed again and again by the politicians by being converted into a political football that is kicked around in the playground of allegation-game. 

We need leaders who have some creative vision.  Leaders who can envisage what is good for the people and who can implement that vision in practical ways.  The tragedy of India is that it has no such leader today.  Instead it has powerful orators who can entertain us with jibes and rhetoric.


Indian Bloggers





Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 10, 2016 at 9:30 AM

    Seriously during campaigning and elections , the hate speeches shows the real face of our leader. Hitting below the belt has become a regular feature which was repeatedly shown during Delhi , Bihar election

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 10, 2016 at 10:01 AM

      Election after election reveals the sinister faces beneath the polished masks. We are left longing for something that our leaders seem incapable of giving us.

      Delete
  2. Pranju chakrapaniMay 10, 2016 at 9:57 AM

    I sometimes wonder, can there be any political party which sticks to the standard mmorality and ethics and yet compete with the mighty and monstrous, already established but crooked, political parties? Is throwing mud at others the only norm by which that party (although with good intentions and visonary motives) comes into limelight.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 10, 2016 at 10:03 AM

      If intentions are good and motives visionary, mudslinging will not happen.

      Delete
  3. wingsMay 10, 2016 at 3:02 PM

    As you know in Tamil Nadu too, the same condition prevails. Can't we find another Abdul Kalam? Stiĺl such people are never power hungry. So it is impossible to see a visionary holding the power. Only an alternative way of governing people should be designed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 10, 2016 at 8:14 PM

      Is there a better alternative than democracy? I don't know. Earlier there used to be at least some leaders who could inspire people, who looked after people's interests and who had some sort of ideologies. Today we have crooks and criminals sitting in those seats looking after their own interests. This situation should change and people should change it. Stop supporting goons and thugs. Why is democracy becoming demonocracy?

      Delete
  4. JiggyasaMay 11, 2016 at 11:36 AM

    The allegation game has become all the more dirty now..or rather I should say baseless. I think that's the most easiest way to escape the answers of people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 11, 2016 at 5:28 PM

      Passing the buck. That's what the allegation game is about primarily. Then throw slush on perceived enemies. The PM is leading the game.

      Delete
  5. Tina AcharyaMay 16, 2016 at 12:22 PM

    ha ha ha...it seems you don't like Modiji at all. So whatever he does, you have a hate angle to everything. Somalia comment or DNA of Bihar from Modiji are not acceptable...I agree. But there are so many good things about him as well. For me I don't like Kejriwal at all but i always applauded some decisions taken by him. Though I hate Gandhi family like anything but Rahul Gandhi isn't as bad as his forefathers or his mom. He is surely not a PM material but he is damn good as a politician as compared to those who are neck dip with corruptions, allegations and crimes. all i want to say is...coin has two sides, may be don't like one side, but there exist another side which is quite opposite. it applies to human also. when we hate all sides of a person...the problem lies with us...not with the person.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 16, 2016 at 7:20 PM

      Thanks for the counsel, Tina. I'm not sure if my hatred or love are as strong as you seem to perceive. I feel with my brain, so to say. I don't forget history. Modi ji's achievements are not as great as people make them out to be. In the absence of good leaders, he towers above others. As a saying goes in my mother tongue, the man with a broken nose is the king in a country of noseless people.

      Delete
  6. Tina AcharyaMay 17, 2016 at 6:47 PM

    Telling the Indian people nose less...is an insult Sir...more deadlier than Modi's Somalia comment..isn't it. by the way I don't think Modi's achievement (if any) has made a majority of registered voters to vote for him. it was his intent to deliver. My simple logic is ....Modi has committed haters but not committed voters unlike his peers in other political party. If he doesn't deliver, i bet he isn't going to get a second term. I think as a fast learner and clever politician...Modi understands this.all the fuss in parliament is because of this because Modi wants a second term for which he needs to deliver...isn't it something a good scenario for Indian people?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 17, 2016 at 7:38 PM

      I think you should become a politician (if you are not one already).

      Delete

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 Veiled Women

One of the controversies that has been raging in Kerala for quite some time now is about a girl student’s decision to wear the hijab to school. The school run by Christian nuns did not appreciate the girl’s choice of religious identity over the school uniform and punished her by making her stand outside the classroom. The matter was taken up immediately by a fundamentalist Muslim organisation (SDPI) which created the usual sound and fury on the campus as well as outside. Kerala is a liberal state in which Hindus (55%), Muslims (27%), and Christians (18%) have been living in fair though superficial harmony even after Modi’s BJP with its cantankerous exclusivism assumed power in Delhi. Maybe, Modi created much insecurity feeling among the Muslims in Kerala too resulting in some reactionary moves like the hijab mentioned above. The school could have handled it diplomatically given the general nature of Muslims which is not quite amenable to sense and sensibility. From the time I shi...
13 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

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

Taliban and India

Illustration by Copilot Designer Two things happened on 14 Oct 2025. One: India rolled out the red carpet for an Afghan delegation led by the Taliban Administration’s Foreign Minister. Two: a young man was forced to wash the feet of a Brahmin and drink that water. This happened in Madhya Pradesh, not too far from where the Taliban leaders were being given regal reception in tune with India’s philosophy of Atithi Devo Bhava (Guest is God). Afghanistan’s Taliban and India’s RSS (which shaped Modi’s thinking) have much in common. The former seeks to build a state based on its interpretation of Islamic law aiming for a society governed by strict religious codes. The RSS promotes Hindutva, the idea of India as primarily a Hindu nation, where Hindu values form the cultural and political foundation. Both fuse religious identity with national identity, marginalising those who don’t fit their vision of the nation. The man who was made to wash a Brahmin’s feet and drink that water in Madh...
22 comments
Read more