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

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 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...
16 comments
Read more

Liberated

Fiction - parable Vijay was familiar enough with soil and the stones it turns up to realise that he had struck something rare.   It was a tiny stone, a pitch black speck not larger than the tip of his little finger. It turned up from the intestine of the earth while Vijay was digging a pit for the biogas plant. Anand, the scientist from the village, got the stone analysed in his lab and assured, “It is a rare object.   A compound of carbonic acid and magnesium.” Anand and his fellow scientists believed that it must be a fragment of a meteoroid that hit the earth millions of years ago.   “Very rare indeed,” concluded the scientist. Now, it’s plain commonsense that something that’s very rare indeed must be very valuable too. All the more so if it came from the heavens. So Vijay got the village goldsmith to set it on a gold ring.   Vijay wore the ring proudly on his ring finger. Nobody, in the village, however bothered to pay any homage to Vijay’s...
47 comments
Read more

The Call of Islamic State

A year ago, the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT) reported that about 4000 people from the West left their homes and countries to join the Islamic State (IS).  Many of them are women.  The reporters had made a special study of the women who joined the terrorist outfit and found that it was difficult to categorise which type of women were particularly drawn to IS. “While most of the girls are young, some as young as fifteen,” says the report,  “there are also mothers with young children who make the trip. Some of the girls have difficulties in school and are said to have an IQ below average,  but there are also women who are highly educated. It also appears that even though a relatively large portion of the girls had (or still have) a troubled childhood, there are some who come from families with no known problems with the authorities. Most of the girls come from religiously moderate Muslim families,  yet some converted to Islam a...
33 comments
Read more

AAP and I

Who defeated Arvind Kejriwal?  Himself or us? His party ruled for just 49 days.  They were momentous days.  He implemented his promise on setting up a number for reporting corruption; in two weeks instead of the promised two days.  He met people to discuss corruption issues, though the crowd was beyond his control.  He did what he could.  He would have done more if he could.  He put an end to the VVIP culture in politics.  The politician became aam aadmi.  Ministers started travelling in vehicles without the screaming red lights and horrifying screeches.  But the police had to go out of their way to provide protection to the chief minister.  Who defeated the chief minister’s vision that political leaders need no such protection from their own people? He revolutionised the admission procedures in schools.  Schools which charged hefty amounts from parents illegally stood to lose.  The aam aadmi would have g...
25 comments
Read more

The Plague

When the world today is struggling with the pandemic of Covid-19, Albert Camus’s novel The Plague can offer some stimulating lessons. When a plague breaks out in the city of Oran, initially the political authorities fail to deal with it as a serious problem. The ordinary people also don’t view it as an epidemic that requires public action rather than as individual annoyances. The people of Oran are obsessed with their personal sufferings and inconveniences. Finally the authorities are forced to put Oran in quarantine. Father Paneloux, a Jesuit priest, delivers a sermon declaring the epidemic as God’s punishment for Oran’s sins. Months of suffering make people rise above their selfish notions and obsessions and join anti-plague efforts being carried out by people like Dr Rieux. Dr Rieux is an atheist but committed to service of humanity. He questions Father Paneloux’s religious views when a small boy is killed by the epidemic. The priest delivers another sermon on the necess...
28 comments
Read more