dabbling in slime

I have a great interest in Indian politics - I like to know what's going on, what kind of alliances are being made, and what kind of shenanigans committed by our elected leaders are ridiculously obvious. Of late, most of my interest in politics has been of extreme rage, I think mainly because of the obviousness of the deception that so many of the leaders at the national and state level are pulling and yet we've been either helpless to do anything or blind to see it. I believe its the first one that is more prevalent.

The last few years of the UPeeA regime have been an epoch in terms of Indian politics and governance, because this government demonstrated on a lot of fronts that no low is too low. What has been fascinating is the absolute brazenness with which the leaders of this country go about doing what they do best without a hint of fear, guilt, shame or anything else for that matter. Sometimes I just can't figure out what is bigger news - the societal/social aspect of such news or the political aspect.

Today for example, M. Karunanidhi's daughter, who is also a Member of Parliament in the Upper House, was denied bail and sent to jail for her role in the 2G Scam, one of UPeeA government's grand milestones in office. So I am not able to understand what the news is - that a wrongdoer who made money off the process is being punished, or that the DMK is angry at the CONgress for letting her go to jail?

I don't know, my fragile little mind is just unable to grasp what's important here. Blah, what does it matter anyway? Two dynastic political parties playing politics with each other shamelessly while the nation watches? So what else is new?

My personal opinion is that when it comes to subservience and sycophancy, the CONgress is an unbeatable party, but then i've been proven wrong for a lot of things in the past.

"There is no doubt the Congress is to be blamed for everything, even for Kanimozhi's arrest today. What have they done to help us? Nothing," said a former DMK minister angrily.

...there was a sense of shock and betrayal among DMK cadres in the run-up to the April 13 assembly elections over the arrest of former telecom minister A Raja in connection with the 2G spectrum scam. It is now boiling over into a deep resentment and anger against the Congress with the arrest of Kanimozhi on Friday.

So yes, I suppose I can say that those who have served the Karunanidhi family well would be shocked that their great leader's daughter is going to jail for something in which they all - the family, the party and some minions, they all made money. Hmm, but just like in international relations, so too in politics, there are no friends, only interests. So yes, now that the scam is done and the money divided and the scapegoat found, I suppose it was time to move on, but could it be that maybe even the CONgress felt that this time the general public seems a lot more restless and unwilling to move on so easily? So no worries, you show to them that you care and you get a few more people arrested.

Okay, we know that the system is entirely and completely twistable right? Maybe that's why the DMK is angry with the CONgress, because with the games these two are playing, I am sure they must've allowed the courts to go ahead and deny bail to her and arrest her. Its quite akin to the recent MMRCA decision to downselect the Americans - It was a political decision to let it be a technical decision. Of course all politicians are connected by similar thoughts and feelings and if nothing else, at least share an honour among thieves. So now that the Tamil Nadu elections are over, JJ is back in the saddle and the DMK is routed, thus comes the arrest of Kanimozhi. Sitaram Yechury may not be much of anything else, but at least he can see far into the future.

So despite all these claims that the law is slowly taking its course and slowly even the big names are coming under the scanner in all these scams, somehow the 'whiny bitch' in me tells that its all a farce which should die down once the population of this nation moves onto more important things such as more cricket, Bollywood tabloid stories and other good things.  

And what does your Prime Minister do? Well, he's the most adorable, impeccable, honest leader we've ever had, so lets just deal with this minor issue ourselves and leave him alone, shall we? What about the first family? Oh how can one even think they would even stoop to such level? Yes, its best we leave them alone too and deal with our own problems.

In fact, this quietness has been a hallmark of this government, which has gone about doing everything that it has been doing - good and bad - without any need or desire to tell the nation about it, or even attempt to explain or debate the issues. Of course, these people were brought back to power even stronger by the people of the country. I wonder what we have to say for ourselves now?

According to Shekar Gupta in the Indian Express:

From day one, UPA 2 seemed like it was embarrassed by the very factors that had given its voters such an aspirational belief. It was shy of talking growth, employment generation, modernisation, even national pride. It was shy of even sending a thank-you card of some kind to those who had voted it back to power.

This has been the quietest, the most shy government in India’s history, and nobody can govern this country from the trenches.

Because in a democracy, politicians must speak with people, to sell their ideas, plans, explain their mistakes, promise redress, and so on. But here, Sonia and Rahul rarely, if ever, speak in public. They almost never speak to the media or make an intervention in Parliament and rarer still on behalf of the government. The party behaves as if this government has been outsourced to bureaucrats. The prime minister too speaks rarely and his minders seem to not only draw great comfort from it, but also take pride in it, as if they have a prime minister they need to protect, and hide from public interaction and gaze.

This reminds me of that warm sunny day when the Prime Minister addressed the nation and talked about how one has to accept these things in coaltion politics. As the joke goes, the Prime Minister's response on the 2G scandal was - "I know only 2G - Sonia G and Rahul G."