Where are we heading to? Who are the ones leading us? What has happened to politics? Has it turned cheap or something more abysmal than meets the eye? These were some of the questions constantly flashing in my mind since last week. It started with Narendra Modi’s remark on Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar, where the former jibed “Wah kya girlfriend hai. Aapne kabhi dekha hai 50 crore ka girlfriend?” It was later followed by Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s remark who crossed even the lowest ebb of cheapness and said, “a ministry of love affairs should be created for him.”
The first thing that comes to mind after reading such inelegant and vulgar remarks is: do we really need such debates and remarks? Don’t we have anything more important to discuss? Is the country so stable that we need not mention inflation, human rights violations, etc., in our political manifestos and could easily rely on snide remarks that would fetch votes? Is the issue of illegal arrests over? Has poverty been completely eradicated and homelessness wiped out that we can focus on who is doing what in their private life? Such remarks raise questions on the very institution of politics.
Politics has turned into a blame game and nothing else. Everyone is trying to bank upon the faults of others and does not spare any thought of doing any service to the country. While throwing tantrums at others they forget that they, in their very lives, have done the same sort of corruption and disservices. Politicians play dirty and cheap politics in order to fetch votes, religion and caste are used as a tool to mobilise people, riots and bomb blasts are often manufactured to turn the tables in one’s favour and core issues are often left unattended as if they do not exist. The general masses remain largely uneducated and even if they are educated they fail to comprehend the devilish plots and their mere promises which would never come true. The huge rallies before the election hardly address the issue of the causes of inflation, the changing domestic policies, the primordial reasons for poverty, etc., and the innocent, gullible people again fall into their trap and vote, only to be disappointed later.
What is being completely missed these days is that the reason for such a sorry situation prevailing in the country is not only because of the domestic factors but international factors. Politicians are avoiding serious discussions on issues of inflation, recession, etc. because they themselves know that they will not be able to handle them as it is being imposed upon them from outside, from sources beyond their control. Masses must realise that a mere change of face will not do unless the external factors are dealt with.