With the presidential election of the United States of America inching closer, the debate between the two contenders, John McCain and Barack Obama, has got sharper and clearer. India has many lessons to learn from the nearly year-long debate these two men had on all national and international issues that have affected the people of their country. More often than not, it was intelligent, serious and combative, enlightened and critical, and occasionally, laced with humour. Even lay people like me began to comprehend the internal complexities of the US polity. The excitement generated made one regret the absence of committed debate in the Indian political space.

The rhetoric of the members of the Indian political parties — as they fight against each other bitterly — leaves one disappointed, saddened by its deplorable intellectual standard, and finally, infuriated by the fact that most of these politicians, although elected and nominated by the people, are definitely not representative of the great Indian public, with its mental agility and myriad skills. These politicians are people who have used their power to betray India and damage its socio-economic growth.

In recent years, the Opposition in the parliament has managed to successfully destroy democratic debate by compelling adjournments and walk-outs. Protests have been simplistic and juvenile, with no new ideas or fresh alternatives being presented to deal with a deteriorating reality. The institutions that are supposed to protect our freedoms have demeaned themselves by jockeying for power and by indulging in absurd acrobatics for that purpose. The tax payers’ money has been misused on many illegal activities that have breached the oath of office. Incidents ranging from the one in which the speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, was humiliated by his own partymen who wanted him to adopt a partisan position to suit their ‘demand’, to constant, uncivilized yelling and screeching by the elected members of the house, have repeatedly injured and insulted the Indian parliament.

Bury the trash

The citizens of India — ordinary, hardworking people, who are perpetually harassed as they try to earn their living — need to be asked, through a nationwide survey, whether all the unnecessary privileges given to members of the parliament need to be taken away from them because they have let India down by misusing their power and have delivered next to nothing in return. They have only endorsed corruption, thus making it a virtually incurable cancer that has eaten into the limbs of Bharat. And they have made sure that any honest enterprise is stalled by dishonest babus and red-tapism. The time has come to lift the veil that protects the political and administrative class and to expose it.

Post-1977, this breed of professional bureaucrats, with the exception of a few extraordinary individuals, has managed to successfully suffocate and destroy the values, ethics and manners that were an intrinsic part of India and Indians of all caste, creed and faith. The manipulation of the laws and the democratic institutions of this country by the political and administrative class has resulted in the breakdown of governance. In the bargain, these men and women have secured their nests. But for how long will this continue?

Floundering in the bottom of the pit, unable to breathe clean air, India has no option but to extricate itself from this filthy mire if it is to be restored as a nation of the first order. The people of India want change. But political parties and the babus want to enjoy and exploit their stranglehold on the people. Good and honest governance has to come into play if the condition of India is to be improved. Superficial, populist rhetoric has to be buried forever.