AAP's only latest in India's long-established tradition of abusing common man's name

Voices

What is so common about all Indians that the country’s politicians loot the nation in the name of the common man? Think about it. The Common Man comic character was created by the late author and cartoonist R.K. Laxman over 50 years ago to capture the hopes and aspirations of an independent India. Where is that iconic Common Man today? The question is even more pertinent today than it was at the dawn of the country’s independence because the common person has been the most abused in the country, lacking basic privileges such as food, water, electricity, education and health care. The common man is now the common denominator on which the edifice of corruption in India is systematically erected by dynastic politics. Leaders are “anointed” and Lok Sabha tickets are given to family members while the rest of us have to work for years and prove our loyalty to a political party and gangs within them before we can dream of entering Parliament on merit. Nobody questions – nobody dare question or disturb the gravy train which includes politicians, NGOs, corporate leaders, academics and unfortunately some in the media. Here is what we think. Politicians abuse the common man It is a ruse to keep millions poor forever. Obviously the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is the first off the bloc. Its entire premise was built on ensuring that the millions of Indians who go to bed on a hungry stomach and wakeup with no prospects of anything in life will find their rightful place under the sun. Instead, the party’s head and now Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal finds himself facing numerous allegations. Now the common man is a full-fledged political party with a symbol which is hollow and self-serving. While he is the most blatant example of abusing the hopes of common people, other politicians are not very different. They have been at it for much longer and know all the ropes. Come election time and they show up in their constituencies promising to build a Shanghai or a Switzerland in a poor village when all that people wants is good roads, drains, schools and jobs. The term is pejorative and reeks with arrogance What gives India’s politicians the right to call people who vote them to power by the term common man? By that very definition politicians place themselves on a pedestal deserving of superior services not available to the rest of us. From gas connections to school and university admissions, from plum jobs to foreign assignments the common man has a snowball’s chance in hell to get the first cut. While projects are inaugurated, foundation stones laid and funds are allocated in our name, the benefits are transferred to politicians, their families and factotums. If this is not corruption and sleaze, what is it? Carving out a distance between us and them, the privileged and the rest and appearing shamelessly on national television networks saying they are doing everything for the country is to think Indians are brainless. It is an Indian phenomenon Yes, we know Evita Péron belted out Don’t Cry for me Argentina as she used her humble beginning to reach the pinnacles of power, but there was one Evita and one Imelda Marcos in the Philippines. Neither were democracies. India is one – in fact the world’s largest and arguably the most diverse and vibrant. Imagine Angela Merkel of Germany or the Obama administration running around the length and breadth of the country speaking for the common man while doing nothing concrete? The democratic world has come a long way from the time Mari Antoinette haughtily announced “let them (common people) have cake” but in India it works. This type of nonsense may still work in the corporate sector and family business in Europe and the United States (US) but rarely at the expense of quality and certainly not with elected representatives. Sycophancy comes to us naturally It seems so. We are the ultimate suckers and losers. In a country where numbers are vast and resources are limited there has to be something else that separates sycophant from sycophant. And this is what politicians exploit, this is their trump card. They know for every Indian who complains, ten can be bought off with trinkets. They know how the durbar works because they have been part of palace intrigues for generations. If this were not the case, many politicians would have been booted out a long time ago. If this is incorrect, then we need to explain why we regularly re-elect corrupt, venal and ordinary people to govern the country. Somewhere, we have abdicated our responsibilities to rigorously question our elected representatives. We have also given notoriously corrupt and convicted politicians the power and the language to call us common and therefore pliable. That is the ultimate slap on the face of Indians. If we allow our elected representatives to continue to treat us without respect, the blame is ours too and no amount of instant or manufactured outrage can change that. This piece grew out of a conversation this writer had with award-winning journalist and RTI activist Vinita Deshmukh in Pune

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