Dance of Democracy

Few months back I just happened to watch a debate on a news channel, the topic for which was Political ideology, Mr. Sanjay Nirupam (Congress MP from Mumbai north) was asked a reasonably simple question by the host on Mr. Narayan Rane (previously a member of Shiv Sena but currently in Indian National Congress and revenue minister in Government of Maharashtra), “Do you think the Congress party and its leaders were able to infuse the party’s political ideology in Mr. Rane since his inception in the Indian National Congress?”. It was a sincere and straightforward question which demanded an equally simple and straight answer. To everyone’s amazement and horror Mr. Nirupam for a split second had WHAT IS HE ASKING!!! expression and looked clueless on top of that, he had his mouth open for 10 seconds (enough to challenge a swarm of bees to build a nest in) as he was left speechless trying to figure out answers. All eyes were on him, waiting patiently for 15 seconds believing he would compose himself and answer in the affirmative, but one could see his inner voice imploring from within “What type of a question is this? Get me out of here!!!”. The next second he tried to speak poignantly (his mouth by now was in vacuum as all the air seemed to be sucked out of him) on the politically aesthetic ideas (trying to divert from the situation at hand), the studio audience who until then sat in a state of remorse anxiously waiting for their chance to express themselves suddenly woke up observing the facial expressions of the man and burst out in applause, giggles and murmurs which created a bit of chaos and stir in the usually effervescent atmosphere, eventually it led the host of the show to declare a break (the gold rush which all the news channels die for) in order to give him some respite from the uncomfortable scene building up. Mr Nirupam’s face by now had undergone a dramatic transformation from confident and cherubic to "What should I say?" pale and distressed. This is one form of dance in democracy where leaders join any political parties whenever they wish without taking a crash course (the least that they can do) on the ideologies of the parties involved. So this begs the question, Are Political parties today driven by any ideology? No, is my answer as they represent the likes of pre-medieval nomadic tribes who migrate from one ideology to another depending on the situation at hand with great zest and zeal. Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.

Where is the Mahatma in the Gandhis? I bet he would have committed hara-kiri several times had he been alive 10 years hence the 20th century to observe the facial expressions of Mr. Nirupam. Jawaharlal Nehru in an interview in the year 1947 said "Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse.” I wonder if he or the Mahatma or for that matter any freedom fighter were alive today would they think the same way? What is Democracy? Democracy is a popular term with a populist meaning. What is its definition in the Indian constitution? “For the people, of the people, by the people”, that is what is inscribed in the Indian preamble. Did our political leaders of the past define the essence of democracy? When India is in despair and often feels the danger from its friendly yet volatile neighbors’, whom do they look up to, to bring them back to surface from the depth of the oceans?. Yes, you have guessed it right (no prizes for guessing though), USA. “For the people, of the people, by the people” was quoted by Abraham Lincoln and it is from there we got the essence and flavor of the term democracy (before the speech and several years hence we were clueless of its meaning). Aping the west has been India’s enigma, one which we can do away with, especially the ones which does not hold true or perhaps has no place in our society. Democracy is one such thing, which compels me to reiterate another saying which does the rounds in our everyday life “Little or half knowledge of anything is a dangerous thing”.

Democracy has acquired many cultural and ethnic dance forms in our country as it has been reinvented and mutated based on what each perceived or should I say misconceived.

Recently I came to know about another form of democracy. Mr. Lalit Modi the suspended Chairman and Commissioner of the IPL (Indian Party League as some say right now due to India’s T20 world cup debacle twice in a row) has been accused of several fraudulent money transactions and ownership deals of various franchises, therefore in his place Mr. Chirayu Amin (noted businessman as the BCCI portrayed, never knew him, was he noted by anyone before? let alone me) has been made the interim Chairman of the IPL. He passed a statement recently that all IPL decisions will be taken democratically and with everyone’s consent. “Wait a minute now!!!” as I paused trying to gather sense of the sentence in my mind and thought what does democratically mean here? I did not take long to conclude that in this case democratically meant decisions taken in cohesion with the governing council members of the IPL. So ultimately the people in the so called preamble definition are thrown out of the window as if some aliens from far and away planets come to watch the game and turn a deaf ear to opinions of the people who shed the big bucks and make the game popular.

As far as the common man goes, needless to say, everyone has developed their own way to be democratic and it changes from person to person based on their perception or misconception, but that can only be changed when our leaders show us its true meaning. Putting it in perspective Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people in our country.

I believe a conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking, therefore I would like to end this blog by a quote from Thomas Jefferson “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” Being liberal is what we should crave for. Here’s hoping for a bright and liberal future…