Writings @ Ankur Mutreja by Ankur Mutreja - HTML preview

Chapter 4.5.5: No Entry for Politicians...Dogs Considered

Sometimes, I really wonder what purpose these politicians really serve. However they are, at present, the most important ingredient of the democratic, as well as the communist, countries as they make law. And, the power to make law gives them the power to rule and to blatantly break and manipulate all laws they make and thus to make the importance of laws equivalent to cipher.

The politicians, as a class, have replaced the autocratic rulers of the past, and what worse, with the advances in technology, they have gained even larger control over the lives of the people. This class is growing day-by-day, especially in strongly democratic countries where each and every person gets an opportunity to practice politics in their workplace, in social groups, with friends and even within families. The politicians are the flag bearers of collectivism and, ironically, are also the loneliest souls in the world. They are surrounded by all sorts of people but can’t trust even one. It’s a pity that a single person in pursuit of power and control over the lives of others becomes a non-living creature himself, without any self respect, without any peace, without any integrity, and without any heart. However, the more alarming is the spread of politics into the lives of the people. It is unimaginable to think of a world where everybody would be acting like a politician: existing as an isolated non-trusting individual, concerned only with his own power, status and ego.

Knowledge is an antidote to politics because with knowledge a common man can challenge the arbitrary mechanisms of the politicians: he can, instead of going to the politicians for justice and in turn mortgaging his own power, explore the legal mechanisms for maintaining and even gaining power, and when more and more people would resort to legal recourse, the legal system is also bound to change weeding out judicial inefficiency, corruption and distrust from the legal system. However, unfortunately, the lawyers are themselves most involved in politics concerned only in saving their preferential status achieved through close contacts with the politicians and the police. Therefore, it is necessary that the law should come out of the grip of the lawyers, the police and the politicians: a common man should become interested in his own protection and more and more plaintiffs-in-person and defendants-in-person should be seen in courts fighting their own cases.

Similarly, the knowledge of science, literature, sports, arts, etc., can make a person rely more on his own innovations to gain inner peace rather than relying on the half religious, half political ways of the politicians. The close links between the Godmen and the politicians have surfaced many times in the past. The politicians, as opportunists as they are, use religion for achieving their mean purposes. Local ramlilas, jagrans, religious discourses, religious events, etc., are organized at a very huge scale while pushing already illusioned people more into the grips of these Godmen: the religious events become the platforms for spreading political messages. However, a knowledgeable person can easily see through the mirage created by these politicians and can separate the grain from the chaff.

Last but not the least, the knowledge of finance and technology has become extremely important today, especially in capitalist democracies like the USA and the UK. In these places, the politicians use the power of money to increase their own power and to increase their control over the people. In this, they get full support from the big business houses. Of course, these big business houses also want to retain their own power through money. Not only that, they also have vested interests in the growth of the power of money per se. Well…this is a veiled attack on the power of the politicians. The best example in India of such a system is Gujarat. Everything is wrong over there: The State itself has acted as a terrorist; the law is highly authoritative in complete disregard of individual rights, for e.g. the Freedom(?) of Religion Act; the people have become extremely jingoistic; the money has become all important; and the police, the business, the media, the religion and the politicians act in tandem to curb individual rights in the name of economic prosperity. No wonder India Inc wants Modi to become the next PM.

A society can prosper while respecting individual freedoms only if the role of politicians is marginalized/extinguished, which can happen only if every door on every street reads, “No Entry for Politicians…Dogs Considered” (the word “Dogs” is included because it looks nice that way, no offense intended towards dogs). ©2009-2015 Ankur Mutreja