Opinion Do we deserve better politicians?
Having spent my formative years in olden socialist times I pay close attention to political witch-hunts.
Having spent my formative years in olden socialist times I pay close attention to political witch-hunts. They were the norm in the days when the Soviet Union ruled our hearts and minds and our Prime Minister routinely blamed the CIA for everything,from failed assassinations to failed monsoons. Far from questioning this hysteria,we of the Fourth Estate,joined in it passionately. We were all socialists then. Your columnist was no exception. I was not among those who were paid by Moscow. But,as former KGB spymaster,Vasili Nikitch Mitrokhin,later revealed there were many important journalists in Delhi who were paid by the Soviets to take the party line on major issues of politics,economics and foreign policy. Read The Mitrokhin Archives II: the KGB in the World to discover how many people in Delhi were on Moscows payroll. Politicians,bureaucrats and journalists.
In the newspaper offices in which I worked in those socialist times I met almost nobody who was not of Leftist persuasion. Arun Shourie was the first and I only met him in the late eighties. Times were beginning to change by then but not enough for him to escape being labelled a fascist. This atmosphere of thought control led us en masse to support a particular kind of politician. The rural kind. We loved Mulayam,Lalu and Mayawati because of their uncouth manners and their rusticity. It was only when Lalu Yadav handed Bihar over to his semi-literate wife after being charged with making money on fodder meant for Bihari cows that we began to see the light. But,in recent days the witch-hunt against Shashi Tharoor is beginning to make me believe that when it comes to the kind of politicians we support,not much has changed.
Tharoor is intelligent,sophisticated,educated and aware of the big international issues of the day. He did not slip into politics through the Rajya Sabhas backdoor but stood for election from Thiruvananthapuram and won handsomely. The Prime Minister did well by making him a junior minister in the Ministry of External Affairs. As someone who spent twenty years working for the United Nations he is more than qualified for the job. But,ever since he got it he has faced hostility from his colleagues in the Congress Party and a witch-hunt from the media. Barack Obama and many other world leaders use Twitter but when Tharoor uses it he is vilified as the Minister of Twitter. Every hack in Delhi uses a Blackberry or its lesser cousin but Tharoor gets flak even for this. As a Minister of External Affairs he should be analysing Indian foreign policy but this is interpreted by most of the media as criticism of Jawaharlal Nehru. So far the only charge against Tharoor that is worrying is that he is using Indian embassies to buy his books and promote them abroad.
Even if he is and even if he charged the Ministry for his ill-advised sojourn in the Taj Mahal hotel,it is small stuff compared to what is going on in some other ministries. The Congress Partys coalition partners openly bargain for certain ministries and threaten to leave if they do not get them. Ask yourself why.
If you have ever seen Indian politicians speak at international forums you would agree that 99 per cent of them come across as Third World clowns. There is the rustic lot who speak no known language well,not even their own,and then there are the princelings who are in politics only because they had a Daddy,Mummy or Sugar Daddy in the right place. They are all educated,and luckily have learned how to speak at least English coherently,but ask them to speak about any major issue from climate change to the fight against poverty and all you get is jargon. They know all the buzzwords and that is about it. They are nearly all in politics only because next to stardom in Bollywood it is the quickest way to fame and fortune.
If politics and governance is to improve in India we need a better kind of politician. We need many more educated,intelligent Indians to come into politics with the idea of serving Indias interests and not their own. Princelings and peasants have ruined us. In recent years that is all we have been bequeathed,not because that is what the people want but because the people have been given almost no choice. Tharoor may have his flaws but we need many,many more like him if we are to achieve the dream of transforming India into a developed country by the middle of the 21st century. If the media wants to have some fun taking potshots at politicians there is a circus of inept princelings and peasants to choose from.
Share
