Now, yet another angry tirade from Pramod Mahajan, this time against the children of Rajiv Gandhi. When he spoke about this, his expression was scary. I wonder why he is so insecure and nervous about Priyanka Gandhi? She or anyone else has the democratic right to enter politics. It is silly to make this an issue and I am surprised our press falls into this trap over and over again. And, if he does want to take this absurd issue to its logical conclusion, all those born in Pakistan and Bangladesh should be debarred as well. So should most candidates from North India who originally hail from Central Asia! Over centuries there have been cross marriages and therefore most inhabitants of India should stay away from the political space. Next we will be told that Parsees are from Persepolis and heaven knows what else.
The other strange thing is that no one seems to understand the meaning of ?dynasty? and dynastic transfer of position and power. Dynastic transfer of power is when there is no election to the post. It makes no sense in the democratic process where you have to fight an election and win to get a position of power. Anyone from any family can stand, including the Gandhis, Patnaiks, Gujrals, and if they win, good luck to them. It has nothing whatsoever to do with dynastic handover. Since English is not our first language, most do not seem to understand its usage!
Let?s look at how the governors of the states are suddenly becoming political and over-active. This was not the role conceived for governors. They were meant to be apolitical eminent citizens with a progressive and well-established professional status. The creme de la creme. Today, they are lobbying, jockeying for political space and behaving in a partisan fashion. A fine institution going to seed. These are the checks and balances of a functioning democracy that are being consciously corroded. Everyone has noticed and everyone is concerned.
Do our airports and railway stations make us ?feel good?? Good citizens are being pushed off trains for preventing the harassment of women with the police looking on ? and all of this is accepted. Now, since the recent victim of this very Indian brutality happens to be the grand nephew of the Prime Minister, we hope severe action will be taken, particularly against the ?passive? police. The time has come for every cabinet minister to give up his sarkari car, take an auto alone and go to the railway station and board a train, second non a/c three tier, and travel from Delhi to Mumbai. No escort, no travelling companion. It is only then that they will understand the horrors of India today, the ?feel good? in 2004. Railway ministers do not know what they put paying passengers through. They travel in their plush bogies that are attached to the train. True socialist/samata hypocrisy!
Those who are truly ?feeling good? are the leaders. They have never had it better, professionally or personally. They are living in plush homes in Lutyen?s Delhi, they have the government machinery at their beck and call, they are flying about in private jet liners, they are feted at lavish dinner parties and they can dispense largesse to build their constituencies. The are feeling good with the free use of us tax payers? money. It is their time and days in the sun!
I do wish Mr Mahajan would get as excited about the fact that lakhs and lakhs of voters have been taken off the voters list in Andhra, and I believe in Tamilnadu as well, as he does with the possibility of Priyanka Gandhi entering the political space. Surely these are the correctives in our democratic process that the ruling party should be wholly concerned about? Or are they content with hundreds of thousands of names eliminated from the voters lists across this country? Does the discrepancy help them? Are the next generation voters there? Will they be turned away when they go to vote? Is this why they want an early poll? Why not get things in order and then go to the hustings? There are many questions that need to be answered.