“Every one thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself”

Leo Tolstoy said “Every one thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself”. Leadership remains in short supply in India which hardly follows the normal election conventions. Ideology, if it has to withstand the test of time, could never remain in frozen state. It has to go through stages of evolution. This should be the scale in judging political ideology. Every political ideology has its growth cycle. The pillars of nation states rest on well defined ideology.
We think that national enemy is somewhere lying at the other side of the boarder of our country and spend huge amounts on procuring weapons to defend. But that the real national enemy is within our own country, along with us and moving with us which is corruption. Abuse of public power for private gains is corruption. The constitutional right to govern the state has been taken for granted as a right to corruption. It is so much so that corruption has almost become an accepted reality and a way of life in Indian society. Degrading of moral values is the most endemic and entrenched manifestation of poor governance.
Not only the corruption that is worrying this country, but the criminal character and attitude of the people involved, the evils associated and the determination of those people to suppress, deface and dilute the issues is more disturbing. Really people are confused as for whom to blame for the sad state of affairs in our country. When it comes to the public, it is the “yadhaa raaja, tadhaa praja” attitude. How the rulers live, the same way people live. They do not have any thing of their own and so flexible that they just imitate the rulers. In the organized corruption, one clever and corrupt makes ground for corruption, silently drags all the people around him and swiftly infects this disease to as many people as possible. He pulls, traps, and entangles more and more innocent people into the ring and creates a wall around him with these innocent people.
India is the largest democracy in the world. Indian politicians, who are at the helm of affairs or holding power, to transfer power legitimately to their wards ignoring or simply overlooking the claim of other able politicians in their bid to remain in power permanently, have converted democracy into hereditary democracy. The motives are to enjoy enormous powers and prestige; they are inured to it, dislike to shift the balance of power and amassing enormous wealth and unaccounted black money, disproportionate to income.
Political competence neither comes by conventional education alone, nor by mere acquaintance or association or heritage as well. A competent political leader’s wife, son or daughter need not be equally competent. Most of them do not know real public service. Degeneration of our democratic framework can be traced back to this dangerous reality. There is no minimum qualification to enter this profession and there are no minimum standards to be maintained for climbing the career ladder. The most unqualified and unscrupulous are proving to be most successful in politics. Those who are more visible inside and outside the parliament are those who do not participate in the law making process and debates about the country’s development and future. Most of them are blissfully ignorant of the requirements of a struggling population and the options available in terms of technology, infrastructure and resources for taking India forward. Many are sitting in the law making bodies only by virtue of their heredity or seniority in career politics. Once out of power, many of them will be like fish out of water.
Politics should not become a profession but professionals are needed in politics if development and deliverance are the purpose of governance. It is time for democratic India to think seriously about minimum qualifications for being in politics. Left to career and hereditary politicians, Indian democracy where there is one out of every 27 persons living in slums and one out of every 5 persons going to bed without food and each person living in India carries Rs. 22,500 public debt on his/her head; Rs.1300 is paid towards the interest alone every year by every citizen including the infant child will be in shambles in not so distant future.
The present rule of our elected governments is to spend the first year for the celebration of victory, lobbying for the choice post in government etc. The next on studying & understanding the problems, situation, status, areas, approach, strategy, actions needed for the development, administration, mechanism, system etc. Third for making proposals, getting funds, meetings and negotiations. Fourth for making plans which are never practical. And the fifth, time to prepare for the battle once again to win in the next elections.
If we fail to prevent the degeneration of democracy into hereditary democracy, it may deteriorate further in the near future, making every system a casualty, posing threat to very existence of democracy.