Indian Politics - Caught between fasting and feasting

I have been away from the blog for sometime since I really did not see anything worth writing about.  However, thanks to the separate Telangana issue, Babu Rao Hazare's anti-corruption movement (I seriously do not know if one can call it that) and by elections that are due in some places, political antics have started coming to the forefront of things yet again and I thought I will share some thoughts with you about the way in which politics are moving forward (actually it should be backward).

P. Chidambaram, the honourable Minister of Home Affairs of India has after making two controversial statements on Telangana in the December of 2009, has once again made a statement.  He says post Bakrid a plan of what will happen to Telangana will be revealed.  That has galvanized the politicians and media in equal measure.  The political agenda in the country is very much dictated by how the media, especially TV represents things.  I deliberately call it representation and not presentation. If you look at K. Chandrashekhar Rao's channel, T News the only news that you can see is about Telangana.  It is mainly about how Congress politicians are continuously betraying the separate Telangana cause but there are also instances when one does see a little more in the form of lionising the likes of K. Chandrashekhar Rao, K. T. Rama Rao and Harish Rao. On the other hand if you see ETV2, the news channel of media baron Ramoji Rao, there is the vilification of the Congress for its failure to take care of farmers with additional inputs about how Chandra Babu Naidu and the Telugu Desam are fighting for some worthy causes.  Then there are the sundry news channels that are looking for something to happen somewhere so that they can send their crews to those locations to fill time. So it could be the fire in the building which houses the Reliance Supermarket or it could news of the OU student who gave up his life for Telangana  by jumping in front of a train in Mancherial.  He did so because he was suffering from jaundice and urinary tract infection which he could not fight since he did not have a job which would be due to him if only Telangana was granted.

Then there are fasts.  Today's newspapers are carrying news about various people fasting.  One news is that Acharya Konda Lakshman Bapuji (the first part i.e Acharya is a recent addition and the last part i.e Bapuji was used from many years, but what is interesting are that both the titles are self conferred much like how film stars confer themselves with titles such as King and Prince), a nonagenarian politician, who was fasting in New Delhi has called off his fast.  He started the fast for a separate Telangana but to me the reasons for his calling his fast off are not yet clear.  Acharya K L Bapuji even when he was a septuagenarian was interested in grabbing land around the Hussain Sagar lake in Hyderabad. He grabbed land from Andhra Pradesh Tourism, called it Jala Drushyam and hired it out for various purposes such as weddings, parties, rock shows and other such things and apparently made a pretty big pile before somebody in AP Tourism realized that the land belonged to them and took it back.  He kicked and cried but had to surrender the land back, though he kept the money that he made from that piece of land.

Then there is Komatireddi Venkat Reddy who is fasting for a separate Telangana even after he has been shifted to NIMS in Hyderabad.  Then there was a lady DSP Nalini, who resigned from her post because of daily humiliations from Andhra officers in the police force.  She says she has resigned, she did this once before, but the police department has said that they have suspended her for bringing disrepute to the police force.  I liked that bit because I was not aware that the police had reputation that could be spoilt.  Anyway, she, meaning Nalini, has decided enough is enough and will soon begin a fast in Jantar Mantar in New Delhi for a separate Telangana so that officers from this region will not be humiliated by Andhra Officers.  I request her to also include in her demands a promise from the Central Government that no Andhra persons will be posted in the new Telangana state if they are selected for IPS by passing the UPSC exam.  For those who do not know police officers are posted to various state cadres by the Central government after they clear the Civil Services Exam and only the top get their home cadres.  So it is still conceivable that those from the new Andhra State who are not in the top may pull strings to come to neighbouring Telangana so that they can be near their own state.  In doing so they will once again humiliate officers like Nalini.  So this much has to be ensured.

I think I have written enough about fasts, there have been so many in the last few months.  Mr. Hazare and his team, with their moral superiority over others have gone on fast so many times that I have forgotten to count.  In this illustrious list of blemishless fasters (my coinage, please excuse me for that but I like the sound of it) are the great Narendra Modi, the incomparable YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, the venerable Chandra Babu Naidu, and all those wonderful middle class people of India who joined Hazare's cleansing efforts by fasting at home for one day, two days or many days.  I am stunned and stupefied by the fact that a country which has such morally unquestionable politicians and a middle class with tremendous rectitude, has such abysmal quality of politics.  I guess it is all down to the rich and the poor.

The rich are greedy, very greedy.  That is what Mani Shankar Aiyar (I think that is the spelling he uses) said when asked to comment on the inaugural Formula1 Grand Prix of India, which was being hailed a huge success by the Gaur family that runs the Jaypee group that constructed the circuit and conducted the Grand Prix, Vijay Mallya and Saharasri Subroto Roy Sahara who co-own the Sahara Force India Formula1 team and many more rich and the famous.  Mani Shankar Aiyar who was once the sports minister of this country believes that India hosting a Formula1 GP, a play ground for the rich and the famous, was morally unsustainable since India had millions who had no access to sanitation, nutritious food and decent housing.  Point taken Mr. Aiyar, but what is the Congress the party to which you belong doing about these things?  Why is it saying that individuals can subsist at Rs. 32 per day and be called above the poverty line?  What has the Congress which has ruled this country for fifty years or more (excuse my arithmetic if it is wrong, I am no good at numbers) been doing to alleviate the suffering of the poor and the destitute?

They have been too busy like the politicians from EVERY other political parties, fattening their purposes and feasting on the thousands of crores that they have made and are still making whenever, wherever and however possible.  They have been winning elections (all representatives of ALL political parties) by giving the poor the ability feast on biryani and beer when the elections are due.  The morally superior middle class will not vote and the rich and the famous are too busy feasting to stand in line in the sun to vote.  Maybe they will along with the middle class if the Electronic Voting Machines are carried to their houses by service personnel appointed by the Election Commission of India.  If the Election Commission is proposing such a move it will do well to remember that the service executive should be trained to read out the names of the candidates and himself press the button on the voting machine upon instructions from the rich and the famous and the worthy middle class voters.

It is disgusting to read news of fasts for causes that stem out of personal agendas and make them look like universal causes.  It is offensive the level of politics have come down well below the sea level.  We are free falling into the lightless, bottomless pit of corrupt politics and most of the time people like me and you do nothing about it.  The question is can something be done?  If so how?  I have no answers for those questions but I have a couple of pointers that could well give us some indication about where the answers could be if we made an attempt to look for them.  This is already a very looooooong post, so I will save that for the next post which will come pretty soon.

P.S. The usual excuse of not having time to proof read and asking for your forgiveness is true for this time as well.  Thank you.