Volgaris Politics
Declaration: The writer does not belong to any political party, hence be measured politically-neutral, and it doesn’t mean she’s apolitical. She refuse to distance herself from ‘Volgaris Politics’ (Oxford English Dictionary gives the traditional meaning of vulgar as “People belonging to the ordinary of common class, especially the uneducated and ignorant”) and has strong personal opinions on almost all political happenings and is ideologically left. The views expressed are personal.
I strongly condemn all those individuals who did not vote in a democratic election just because they thought it was ‘insignificant’ or ‘immaterial’ or ‘just tired of dirty politics’, I believe it’s an honour , ‘the right’ we fought for and desperately grabbed from the hands of non-democratic institutions, a long time ago. As a common man living in India, watching filthy politics, dramatic parliament moments and desperate cry in Jantar Mantar almost every day, disappoints me. I sturdily believe, in India, we need an alternate political option, a strong challenge to the traditional ruling parties of our country.
As a taxpayer, often watching Parliament-dramas make me sick. “Each minute of running Parliament during sessions costs the exchequer Rs. 2.5 lakh”, monetarily speaking, we as taxpayers and voters (who voted those nincompoops to power) are all losers. The ‘elected representatives’ sit and play their hoary blame game, list the murders and scams the other committed, sleep well and go back to the luxury of allowances and facilities ‘for the people’. Debates and discussions are necessary and protest is crucial but it should not merely be cheap arguments about each other for the entire session, we get nothing productive out of it. One liners, punchy slogans, smart trade of poverty and feminism, re-reading ‘history and heroes’, (wait, misreading actually) I’m tired of it all. For blame games, I propose Jantar Mantar and it’s ‘no work, no pay’ (dies non). Oh, strict attendance on work days, I almost forgot.
I don’t want to give a NOTA (none of the above), I want to be sure-fire of a candidate and his ideology. Why can’t we have someone like Justin Trudeau? (Sorry, he’s my new political crush) Why can’t we have someone with humanitarian considerations and not religious, caste or geographical sentiments, why can’t we have a solid opposition in the parliament who communicate for the general public rather than playing archaic blame games. Why is it so impossible to find a ‘spot-on democratic leader’ from a population of 1.31 billion? Don’t underestimate the voters saying they have a usual voting pattern, the recent Delhi election did prove all those imprudent dogmas wrong. The rise of AAP to the national scene,at least express the distress of general public, it was the result of a class struggle, an alternative to the multimillion-dollar scams and communalism. I was thrilled to have a ‘new dawn in Indian politics’ but eventually, they saddened me but I cannot disregard the fact that Kejriwal empowered the common man, at least for few days in India and I’m pleased he inspired Arslan Ul Mulk, Mian Ghulam Rasool etc in our neighbouring Pakistan, yes it bears watching. I’m trying to validate the frantic cry of voters for change, a replacement.
The new age media politics remind me of Nayantara Sahgal’s “nationalized individuals”, who had no idea of the difficulties faced by common man. I give a damn when people like Mr Goswami, the ‘just journalist’ flash his screen with ticker tape on flame, brand his panellists as anti-nationals and terrorists (without evidence). To some extent, they are successful, successful at injecting suspicion into the minds of common public and misdirecting their views. Yes, media politics, it isn’t new to India,1984, Misra commission found that the shout –“ khoon ka badla khoon” had been repeated 18 times spread over 37 seconds on the state- controlled broadcaster Doordarshan. We have lost true journalism a long time ago, what we see and read today is just a slice of the ‘Big Game’. At times (desperate moments) I think of Anons, WikiLeaks, how and why they got established, I think of how the general public gets fooled, how we have lost privacy over lives and how we have blindly trusted the governments we elected to power. I was saddened to read Manu Joseph (someone I admired, once upon a time), I felt miserable reading him being reduced to a liberal upper-class conformist, the elite’s general aversion towards ‘anti-developmental’ poor. What makes a person with good intellect (I mean it) think “farmer suicide is a depression story, not economic story”? What does he mean by saying “What exactly is a twenty-nine-year-old student’? That, too, in liberal arts”? I refuse to think you have political gains to reap Mr Joseph, please tell me you were two beers down. Gimme a break, I think Arundhati Roy is far better than Joseph, call her a hypocrite and a fiction writer, she’s more humane and committed a citizen. (Where’s she these days? I miss her on TV). To be precise, common man is a fool.
India is a tolerant nation. Period. A nation that has been so tolerant towards arrogance and hypocrisy, a nation on the thresholds of development that dreams of a UN security council permanent membership with millions of illiterates who live under poverty line without basic sanitation and safe drinking water, a nation that gives speeches and international summits, opens museums on exotic culture and traditional practices and gives even more hopes on a trickle down development agenda, a nation that tolerates upper caste intolerance, think-tank elite nationalism and closed governmental ears, a nation that refuse to answer, talk, express and just bleed. It's volgaris politics?!
“Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero.”
“No, Andrea, unhappy is the land that needs a hero.”