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





Comments

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

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

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prelude to AtoZ

  From Garden of 5 Senses, Delhi [file pic] Hindsight gives an unearthly charm and order to the past. There can be pain too. A lot of things could have been different, much better, if only we possessed the wisdom of our old age back in those days. As a writer put it, Oedipus, Hamlet, Lear and a lot of those guys must have thought, “I wish I had known this some time ago.” Life is a series of errors with intermittent achievements. The only usefulness of the errors may be the lessons they teach us. Probably, that is their purpose too. We are created to err so that we learn, I dare to put it that way. I turn 64 in a month’s time. It’s not inappropriate to look back at some of the people whom life brought into my life so that I would learn certain lessons. No, I don’t mean to say that life has any such purpose or design or anything. Life is absurd. People come into your life as haphazardly as vehicles ply on your road or birds poop on your head. Some of these people change the chemist

Why I won’t vote

From Deshabhimani , Malayalam weekly Exactly a month from today is the Parliamentary election in my state of Kerala. This time, I’m not going to vote. Bernard Shaw defined democracy , with his characteristic cynicism, as “ a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve .” We elect our government in a democracy. And the government invariably sucks our blood – whichever the party is. The BJP and the Congress are like Tweedledum and Tweedledee though the former makes all sorts of other claims day in and day out. BJP = Congress + the holy cow. The holy cow has turned out to be quite a vampire and that makes a difference, no doubt. In our Prime Minister’s algebra, it is: (a+b) 2 which should be equal to a 2 and b 2 . There is an extra 2ab which is the holy cow. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm , the animals revolt against the human master and set up their own nationalist republic. Soon politics develops in the republic and some pigs become leaders. The porcine

How Arvind Kejriwal can save himself

Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have a clear vision. Eliminate all opposition. Decimate them or absorb them. My previous post [link below] showed a few people decimated by them. Today let’s look at the others: those who are saved by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP]. 1. Himanta Biswa Sarma  This guy was in Congress and faced serious charges related to the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam. He also faced corruption charges related to drinking water supply in Guwahati. His house was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation [CBI]. Then he switched over to BJP and all his crimes just vanished. It’s as simple as taking a dip in the Ganga and all your sins are forgiven. Today he is the chief minister of Assam. Nothing is heard of all the charges that were levelled against him. 2. Amarinder Singh  This former Captain in the Indian Army was a Congressman until Modi’s Enforcement Directorate [ED] started raiding him, his son and his son-in-law. He put an end to all those raid

The Good Old World

Book Review Title: Dukhi Dadiba and irony of fate Author: Dadi Edulji Taraporewala Translators: Aban Mukherji and Tulsi Vatsal Publisher: Ratna Books, Delhi, 2023 Pages: 314 If you want to return to the good old days of the late 19 th century, this is an ideal novel for you. This was published originally in Gujarati in 1913. It appeared as a serial before that from 1898 onwards in a periodical. The conflict between good and evil is the dominant motif though there is romance, betrayal, disappointment, regret, and pretty much of traditional morality. Reading this novel is quite like watching an old Bollywood movie, 1960s style. Ardeshir Bahadurshah, a wealthy Parsi aristocrat in Surat, dies having obligated his son Jehangir to find out his long-lost brother Rustom. Rustom was Bahadurshah’s son in his first marriage. The mother died when the boy was too small and the nurse who looked after the child vanished with it one day. Ratanmai, Bahadurshah’s present wife, takes her

Kejriwal’s Arrest in Modi’s Kurukshetra

For some mysterious reason, Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest reminded me of Haren Pandya. Maybe, because Pandya’s 21 st death anniversary is approaching (26 March). Have you forgotten Haren Pandya? He was the Home Minister of Gujarat before Narendra Modi assumed dictatorial powers in that state. Modi chose to teach humility to Pandya by making him the Minister of State for revenue. Pandya chose not to learn humility from Modi and resigned from that post in Aug 2002. Remember Gujarat of 2002? You should. A fire engulfed a train on 27 Feb 2002 killing 58 Hindu pilgrims who were returning from Ayodhya where they had gone to discover their god, not very unlike Christopher Columbus undertaking a voyage to discover India and messing it all up. What caused the fire in the train? Lord Ram knows probably. The upshot was that there was a riot in Gujarat by Hindus against Muslims. Haren Pandya is one of the BJP leaders who gave statements in many places indicting Modi for the riots. He asser