Its Time for the Political Parties to Mend Their Ways

We Indians have been inflicted with a disorder from time immemorial; we feel that when we have political power in our hands, we can commit any degree of loathsome violence against the weak sections of the society who have no strength to challenge the gruesome might of the perpetrators. It seems that there is no remedy available for this ailment and to make matters worse, generations after generations are getting affected with this problem. This was visibly evident from the attacks carried out by some of the members of CPI (M) and its sister organs some weeks back in Kerala

The most important reason for this condition is the confidence these perpetrators have on the government machinery and its nepotism. The seriousness of the crime and the trouble that has befallen on the victims are not of any serious concern for the government or for any political party. Law and order is a mess and anyone with money and power can commit any crime and can walk freely in our state. If he has some contact with some leaders of the political parties, then he has no one to worry about, not even the judicial system. And of course, political leaders of all hues have long lost conscience and ethics is something which is as rare as a solar eclipse.

As Bertrand Russell had opined, the aim of politics should be to make the lives of individuals as good as possible and there is nothing for the politician to consider outside or above the various men, women, and children who compose the world. But politics and political parties have become a real bane for the society. Any relationship with them, good or bad, has got the potential to land you in trouble and danger as discovered by the jailer at Vellore jail recently with the arrival of Priyanka Gandhi at the jail to meet one of the conspirators of her father’s assassination. The beleaguered jailer was told by the Congress politicians to keep her visit as a secret, but later made it public to publicise her magnanimity. Now the jailer is in trouble as he hadn’t kept any record at the jail about the visit of this prominent guest.

Democracy is perhaps the most powerful device, so far invented, that has the potential to create a society where equality and personal liberty are guaranteed to the majority of the people. And for democracy to continue, political parties are necessary and hence we would conclude, yet again, that political parties are a necessary evil. At the same time, it is again a truism that political parties in India have to mend their ways, sooner rather than later, if the economic and societal development of this great country has to go on, unabated, unchallenged.