The list of presidential nominees to the Upper House (announced last week), intended for people celebrated in the realm of arts and literature and in non-government and non-political activism in the best possible definition of the word, has introduced a Congress politician. Elected candidates find their place in the Lok Sabha, and the Rajya Sabha accommodates all those who fail to win an election but need to be nominated parliamentarians if they are to hold rank and office in the Central cabinet or in other such bodies. The president’s list of nominations, on the other hand, saluted professionals like Shyam Benegal, Kapila Vatsyayan, and such stalwarts before them.

This time, however, we have a Congress politician who should have entered the Rajya Sabha through the good offices of his party and not via this special dispensation. We also have a husband whose wife was a member during the tenure of an earlier president via the same dispensation. Then we have the head of a national institution that should have been India’s most prestigious for advanced studies, but is, alas, lying in neglect, and which the concerned nominated member failed to put on a fast-track trajectory that would ensure its revival. Why do we always end up corroding good practice and destroying the fundamental values and intellectual ethics that govern our institutions? At whose behest and by what procedures are these feeble but expensive sinecures handed out to retired candidates who need to be ‘placed’ somewhere? How does it all work? Lobbying for these plums and peaches, and other handouts like the Padma awards or the presidential nominations to the Rajya Sabha has radically diluted these ‘awards for meritorious work’ meant for those in spheres other than politics and babugiri.

Lost the plot

Are we becoming a rather careless mess? Do we need to reassess norms, procedures and delivery mechanisms in an effort to restore some dignity into the manner in which we use the ‘system’? Misuse has been rampant for so long that we have forgotten what is right and what is wrong. A ‘free for all’, regardless of rules, has taken precedence, and needs to be dislodged urgently. We have damaged our legacy, abused our tried-and-tested traditions, abdicated our fine culture and their complex nuances that have withstood the ravages of alien intervention, and adjusted ourselves with changing times over centuries, all for short-term self-aggrandizement and personal survival. Where this civilization nurtured excellence and passed philosophies, expertise, skills and more down the generations, and secured a profound sensibility, both intellectual and aesthetic, modern, democratic India has adulterated the values intrinsic to us as a people and watered down the best we have to offer our fellow citizens and those of the larger world.

We honour those who kow-tow and are no challenge. We pay tribute to the mediocre, and never applaud the best and the brightest. We encourage sychophancy, not spirited individualism. We explain away all that has been degraded by passing the buck. We are ruled by an administration that has surrendered to easy, untenable options. We elect a political class to power which acts without any commitment to the people. We cannot bear to see our professional peers achieve great heights. We manipulate to pull them down by any means. We have forgotten how to pay homage to achievers and risk-takers. We have failed to recognize the courageous and the honest. We have lost the plot.

It is shameful how our members of parliament behave in the House when in disgreement. If these are the actions of our leaders, how can we except dignity to enter the public domain? It is for the party leaders to baulk this unacceptable trend. They are responsible and must be made accountable.