I just read a news article about how a man got into an
accident, and died on the pavement while they waited for the CM’s convoy to
pass before they could take him to a hospital.
What has this country come to? What have its people come to?
Since when did a supposed public servant become more important than the public?
The entire system of democracy was invented so that people could vote a person
from among themselves to take care of the State while they took care of other
business.
It’s a job, Chief Ministership. It’s not supposed to be
about power, it’s supposed to be about responsibility. The entire state has
been given to him, but that’s just to take care of.
He doesn’t have the right to take tax money to fund his own
household interests. Nobody said anything about traffic being pushed out of the
way so that his car can pass. He can’t, ideally, be allowed to put his own
children in expensive private schools, even send them abroad, while the schools
that his own government run go to the dogs. Ideally, his children would be required
to study in a government school, since he is a government employee.
Of course there is a certain amount of power that comes with
the position, but the power is not for misusing, the power has been given to
you so you can use it to fulfil the State’s requirements.
And to make sure that people don’t get lazy and misuse the
post, they came up with the five-year system.
But it seems to be backfiring. The five-year system is
making potential candidates paranoid about “The Seat With All the Power” rather
than ensuring that they serve the public trust as they’re supposed to do.
Rather than do the job which they were appointed for in the first place,
Keeping the Chair has become of paramount importance; Power, at the cost of
State, at the cost of its people, at any cost.
Corruption has set in, because of laziness, bribery, greed.
And because corruption has set in, the people who can’t fuel
the corruption (the ones without money, basically) get sidelined. The State
becomes about amassing more money, getting more power, associating with and
protecting the people who can afford its protection.
The poor suffer. The rich, who understand the power-play
better, because they go to the better-managed, more expensive private schools,
suffer in their turn because the voting majority is still the poor. So freebies
are offered, rather than roads being built, the tax the rich pay goes,
basically, into buying TVs for the poor, and that’s a complete waste of anybody’s
money. All that can ensure is you might get voted next time by people who
realise that long-term changes are scarce, betterment of the State is a
laughable goal, and maybe if they get another free TV next time too, at least
they’re getting something out of it.
This game, of Keeping the Chair goes beyond a simple play
with people’s minds into something more sinister, because power, or the promise
of it, turns people’s heads. Fully around in some cases.
Because of the imbalance of awareness caused by a neglected
education system, the poor are in no place to actually stand for election. The
rich, on the other hand, are two things; unpopular because they are seen as
exploiters of the poor, and uninterested, because America’s got better jobs and
a better quality of life.
So who stands for election? The people with the clout. The
people who can back their claim to power with a more sinister, physical sort of
power.
And they have to Get the Chair at any cost – whether it
means bribery, or false promises, invoking emotions, or even physical clout. “Politics”
is invented – a word that becomes dirtier every time you say it.
Suddenly, the definition of equality changes. Because people
are suddenly just some sort of object to be manipulated for your own needs, so
you can Keep the Chair, they lose importance as people. And since you have all
the power, and those people you’ve neglected could get angry at any time, you
make sure that doesn’t happen by keeping them in fear at all times. The
Minister becomes the most important person in the State, as opposed to a person
who’s supposed to take care of the State.
The police become tools to be used, the people become
vote-fingers, nothing more, and then the scene described above takes place.
In this case, the common man became so common that even his
life was less important than easy passage for the Minister.
The Minister is not important. The State is. And since the
State is made of common people, the people are far more important that the
Minister.
When this is forgotten, when people become insignificant,
when a life doesn’t matter anymore if it doesn’t belong to the influential
class, that’s when the system has failed. That’s when it needs to be changed,
including everyone in it.