The term democracy has taken on two meanings and both of them
are disjointed and nowhere near each other. First meaning which is classical in
its reach and impact, it is a system where representative are selected and
elected from amongst the population who are segregated according to either
geography or some type of classification, such that a bunch of representatives
standing in for those who have elected them, guide to safeguard their common
economics in a manner in which the life of the entire population improves and
wherein their common voice is understood to be the voice of the majority
numbers amongst the population. The other meaning more modern but narrow in its
perception, winning election is more about number games, money, strategies and
less about representing the will of the people because people have an inherent
obligation to vote even if they can’t align with the will of the candidate, the
body of such elected candidates is considered supreme in all decision making
within the combined geography of the people that they are no more representative
of the people but of themselves. It can be easily inferred that the latter is a
crude misrepresentation of the former line of thought. Today in India we are
living with the second and inferior form of democracy whether we like it or
not. The optimists keep pointing at the fact that people can reject a candidate
or its party in five years’ time and therefore they do have real power in their
hands. This is a false perception because all political parties have accepted
this as a fundamental fact that each party rules
for five years at a time. Since elections are held in five years it is possible
to fool the people for five years at a time but fear of losing an election is
no reason to surrender the power of decision making to serve the good of the maximum. Mark that I have underlined
the words rule and serve.
It is my understanding that democracy was never a philosophy that
originated or prevailed in this land of India. It is a foreign concept which we
have suddenly applied without a discussion and debate under the naïve
assumption that it would be the best thing that could happen to us. When one
looks at traditions happily or unhappily this land since the age of the Vedas
has always been moving through phases of united or fragmented rule of powerful
men and women, always a disorganized bunch of autocracies. We the people of
this land have always aligned our will to the will of the most powerful person
in the locality or region. One was born powerful and therefore power was to be retained
or otherwise snatched. It is quite silly for the ordinary people to imagine that
they can dictate their will on the most powerful person in the locality or
region. Therefore whenever there was a good king who apart from being powerful
also looked after the benefits of the weak people, such a king was considered
great and remembered with awe, credited with representing a golden period in
the time of the locality or region. A good king is praised in our scriptures;
duties of a good king are laid down in the scriptures. That is the psyche of
the average Indian. It is therefore not a surprise that today the politicians
and the industrialists have assumed the mantle of the erstwhile kings, in
charge of their small kingdom, controlling their subjects, working hard to
expand and preserve their kingdom.
Anna Hazare is a man who is an absolute misfit in the
circumstance; he is neither a king because he is without a kingdom and neither
a modern leader as we now understand the term because he is sans the election
route. That he is loved and accepted by the masses is a mystery to the
politicians, they are numbed, unhappy and hurt and like a player against
another who breaks the accepted rules, all they can call out is “Foul”. All
that Anna Hazare is doing goes against the basic rules of politics and rules of
kingdom-hood. For starters he is asking the elected representatives to align
themselves with the will of the people who elected them. This however has never
been the tradition of this land. Next he is asking the elected representatives
to serve the people instead of filling their personal coffers. This again is
against the traditions of this land. He says that people are the kings and the
elected representatives are their servants, a potentially preposterous and evil
thought. He is asking for laws to be enacted that will forever break the strangle
hold that the corrupt and the inefficient have established over the governance
system. Ludicrous - that will destroy all the apparent benefits of being a
modern king. He wants laws that will prevent the moneyed and powerful people
from having any nexus with the officials of governance. This man wants to kill
all the powerful people in one stroke, why don’t people see through his game?
Why do they love him so? Foul, Foul and more Foul.
Anna Harare’s appeal for a strong Lokpal bill has struck a
strong cord with the people of this land. There are a few reasons for this.
One, having experienced and understood the process of democracy and having seen
the eye wash that politicians shell out in the name of democracy, people see
him as an opportunity to project their assertiveness. By supporting him, people
want to send a message to the rulers that better behavior is envisaged. Second,
because of the free flow of information people have become aware of the
difference in the standards of living in this country and in the west and the
primary reason for that, they are also aware that China which was as good as us
fifty years ago during our independence, is now streets ahead of us and that
too only because of sensible governance. People see Anna Hazare as a harbinger
for better times. People are aware that neither has China or the USA been able
to do away with their kings or their modern avatar the Minister’s and the Prime
Minister, but they do wish that if our Minister’s and Prime Minister can start
applying themselves to their task like their counterparts, India will become a
better place to live for everybody and not just the powerful. Our politicians
need to wake up. The days of the wicked, irresponsible or inefficient kings are
over. The king is now expected to look and learn from his peers in other
advanced countries. Anna Hazare today has done enough to ignite a hunger for
change. He has single handedly altered the political finger-prints of this land
to such an extent that those now playing the game gasp at the change they are required
to face.
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