There is a peculiarly Indian political idea that is suddenly back in fashion. It is called pro-people. In more sophisticated democracies,you never come across this kind of idea because it is assumed that nobody in their right mind would enter public life unless they were interested in serving the people. In India because we have seen a political career become the easiest way to becoming a billionaire,our politicians feel the need to clarify their reasons for wanting to serve the people.
So Mamata Banerjee as an explanation for the disgraceful manner in which she had the Railway Minister sacked,said it was because she was pro-people and this was the DNA of her political party. Naturally then she could not possibly tolerate a minister from her own party daring to raise the price of railway tickets and exhibit such a recklessly anti-people attitude. Train fares have not gone up in a decade because railway ministers have been too frightened of being labelled anti-people. But,there is more to this pro-people business than is immediately obvious.
You do not need me to remind you of those gareebi hatao times but perhaps you do need me to remind you that despite decades of pro-people leaders,Indias people remain in very bad shape. Half our children are malnourished and most of our people are so poor that
Indiras daughter-in-law felt the need to introduce a scheme that guarantees a hundred days of annual employment for every poor,rural family. It is a poignant reminder of just how destitute our poorest citizens are that Rs 10,000 a year should make a huge difference.
With so many passionately pro-people leaders around,why are things so bad? There are those who blame corruption for this unhappy state of affairs but they are only partly right. While it is true that most of our pro-people programmes are rotten to the core,there is,in my view,a more important reason why the average Indian continues to be bereft of something as basic as a decent roof over his head. As I pointed out in this column last week,seventy per cent of Indians live in one and two room tenements that would be considered hovels in most countries.
As someone who despises poverty and longs to see it erased totally from the face of our fair and wondrous land,I spend long hours mulling over its causes. From these private ruminations,I have concluded that the real reason why poverty has not disappeared is because our political leaders do not want it to disappear. If there were no poor people left in India,where would their voters come from? As they saw from the sort of people who joined Anna Hazares protest movement last year,the middle classes ask too many questions. And,they complain too much.
There are hundreds of thousands of villages in India where electricity remains elusive,erratic or unavailable. This causes immeasurable harm to agriculture but because the average Indian farmer is too poor to protest,he accepts his lot silently. But,let the lights go out in a middle class Delhi colony for more than a couple of hours and women hurling abuse and brickbats appear in the streets. Let the water stop running in their taps and they can get even nastier.
It is because poor people rarely indulge in this sort of bad behaviour that our politicians love them and do their best to ensure that they remain poor forever. This is their cynical,ugly secret and so it has to be hidden from voters and what better way to hide it than to go on and on about being pro-people. Notice,by the way,that the ever so pro-people Mamata Banerjee,a former railway minister herself,has never shed a tear over giving the people the dirtiest,most unsafe and most inefficient railway services in the world. Is this what being pro-people means?
Follow Tavleen Singh on Twitter @ tavleen_singh
