Protecting democracy from likes of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev

Hemant Dubey "Ekam Sat Vipra Bahuda Vadanti"

18 June, 2012

The often quoted definition of democracy is 'Democracy is the rule of the people, by the people and for the people.' But when I see the current situation in India, I feel that Abraham Lincoln should have clearly defined what he meant by 'the people' - like who are these 'people,' who would be ruling, whom they would be ruling and for whom? This article explores the hypocrisy of India's ruling class, according to whom anti-corruption movements are a threat to Democracy.

LIKE SO many other things, I think majority of Indian politicians have taken advantage of ambiguity in Lincoln’s quote, and defined “the people” as their own family, relatives and friends. So the new improvised version of Lincoln’s definition in Indian context has become something like “Democracy is the rule of the family, relatives and friends, by the family, relative and friends, for the family, relative and friends.”

I am not joking as when you see Mulayam and his family enjoying the exploits in UP, Gandhis at the Centre, YSR’s son Jagan in AP, Yediyurappa and his family in Karnatak, Farukh Abdullah in J&K, Badals in Punjab, Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu, Lalu in Bihar, Sangmas in Meghalay, Thackreys, Pawars and Chauhans in Maharashtra, Hoodas & Chautalas in Haryana and you will soon realize that democracy has got a new name and form in India and it’s called “Famocracy.”

Doesn’t it sound like some remote Middle Eastern / African country’s ruling system? The way we are being governed by few corrupt families and their well-wishers, we will soon have worse situation for common masses and life will become more difficult. It’s a sad but true reality of today’s India.

Mulayam talks about being an ardent follower of Ram Manohar Lohia’s socialism but all I can see how busy he is in promoting his own dynasty rule. Lohiaji who remained unmarried, never had any bank balance and opposed the dynastic rule till his death must be agitated in heavens by what all Mulayam is doing in his name. The most wonderful thing of Mualayam was, his daughter in law getting elected unopposed in recent elections for MP in Kannauj parliamentary constituency, which was vacated because her husband and Mulayam’s son became Chief Minister of UP. Mulayam’s form of democracy should be adopted all over the India so that the general public doesn’t have to face inconvenience of going to the voting booth and all the MPs can get elected on some or other arrangements where no one fights elections against anyone and everyone gets elected unopposed.

It will save more money from public exchequer (your and my money - if you are an honest taxpayer), prevent infusion of black money in economy and we won’t have to suffer from endless public debates, exit polls and noise pollution for so many days. I think all parties including Congress, BJP and BSP must have decided that in the interest of common public good they shouldn’t fight elections against Mulayam’s daughter in law and by doing that they have shown a new way of democracy to the whole world. But I wonder how this is different from election of some ruthless dictator in sub-Saharan African country, who gets 99% of votes or from election of Saddam Hussain in Iraq?

There are so many criminal cases of serious charges such as murder, rape and corruption against so many of honorable parliamentarians and they say that they want to save democracy from autocratic people like Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev! Any politician who says things like this.

Some of our honorable MPs and politicians who haven’t hesitated in eating fodder meant for animals, claim that the biggest threat to the great Indian democracy comes from an unmarried 74-year-old former armyman, a former IRS officer, a patriotic unmarried Sanyasi, a decorated former IPS lady officer and millions of educated and young middle class Indians like you and me.

Perhaps, the political class and their cronies in TV and print news media need to understand that the biggest threat to democracy comes when handful of corrupt people start twisting the system to suit their own needs, when the murders, corrupts and criminals go unpunished just because they have money and power while the poor and helpless are denied the justice and forced to pay bribe to get their work done. It’s so easy to understand but our honorable politicians & their cronies have insatiable desire to earn more and more which doesn’t get satisfied by amassment of billions of dollars in Swiss Banks which they can’t even count properly as there are so many zeros involved.

As you have seen the Mulayam form of democracy is not good for common Indian public, because we will be denied all the chances of growth and opportunities while the likes of Mulayam and his cronies will flourish on our expense. The Mulayam form of democracy is so treacherous that you will be eating your words just after announcing in full public view press conference that Shri Abdul Kalam is his first choice for president of India. After few hours he cut some deal in his favor with Sonia and backtracks from his words and giving complex to likes of Mir Jafars and Jay Chands of Indian History. This Mulayam form of Democracy was actually started by Gandhis and Nehrus and sustained by all other politicians who saw its merit. They jointly deny the common masses the chance to be the participants in India’s story and corner all the butter for themselves and their cronies. That’s why they invent new issues of dividing the society in different ways and keep their rule relevant by following the divide & rule policy of British. Irony is we wanted the freedom from British for the same reasons and still our own people are behaving the same way.

I wonder sometimes that was this the India for which likes of Chandrashekhar Azad, Bose, Bhagat Singh, Sardar Patel and Lala Lajpat Rai fought against the British and gave their life? I am an eternal optimist and I still believe that all is not lost. We have a few shining examples like Narendra Modiji, VajpayeeJi, Naveen Patnaik and Nitish Kumar who are doing real good work and keep the faith of common Indians like me alive in real democracy. If we Indians really want to make the real definition of Lincoln’s democracy true in India we all need to play our part and teach a lesson to all the corrupts by voting against them and rising against injustice. Let’s take pledge to make India the place which the real patriots like Vivekanand dreamed of and make their dream our own reality.