Politics and Change
By: Amit Bhushan Date: 10th Aug. 2014
The good outcome of the electoral results especially for those who sought 'change in the polity' is that nearly every political party is now looking to transform itself in order to be better aligned with 'their constituency'. While the pundits may easily point out several flaws in the outcome that can be potentially dicey for the larger public, but one will agree that the politics is moving away from what it used to be as in yesteryears and intervention of Aam Admi through the social media or via direct political intervention as done by a new party, does have impact and now this cannot be written off. The political leaders are trying to hunt for 'workers' and in the process they will soon realize that parties of similar ideological leanings will be hunting amongst the same 'pool' for political talent. While the initial response will be to deploy 'big faces' and possibly 'money' to attract and motivate a large chunk of this talent, but ultimately the leaders will have to bury 'ego' to form some sort of a 'political combine' which has potential to conjure a 'winning' mandate or a substantive/formidable challenge to reckon with. This is because as more and more people take on social media, generation of new political ideas will flower and also old ideas will be put to dust with increasingly sharp rationale. It is going to be a test for 'ego', 'money' and 'facevalue' and 'a combination of the three', in the go between periods.
The challenge for the old guard is manifold. They have practiced the politics of self promotion over the years where the lower ranks have little credibility or public profile and frequently the 'criminal' elements compete for these ranks under guidance of 'super-duper' netas who vouch for these people endorsing their candidature and the victory of such 'leaders' is offered as excuse of such people having public support. The fact is that very few criminals may have a case to be put forth to public for 'sympathetic' consideration, however most simply rely on money power to finance 'slogan shouters' and wade their way through actually dividing the 'opposition' votes by various means. The mass media still has not focused to bring out such stories for various reasons which also may include lack of credible proof although even this does seem to be changing a bit (in a state) and this should be encouraged. While the politics seems to be moving towards era where we having credible ground level faces are required to canvass for votes however very few parties are encouraging participation of ground level workers in media debates of highlighting achievement of ground level workers for the society. This is done to snub workers and maintain dependency on 'senior neta' and this is likely to cost as new parties take up the cause of such workers by giving them better roles and treatment.
Move towards transparency of distribution of 'doles' is another area which is being neglected. While decibels have been raised about sanitation/toilets and power/electricity, however action if any seems to be is area of 'projects' while no effort is being made to resurrect the supporting ecosystem and to bring transparency to support the maintenance of such an ecosystem in a fair manner. Some media elements did raise the voice about 'localities' which are drain of the power ecosystem but the effort to identify the 20% elements consuming 80% of the drained power resources in such areas is lacking, possibly due to lack of political will and to avoid a 'free for all' that might get ensued due to such action. Similarly, talking about the absent toilets and arranging 'government support' is fashionable to talk about, but no one yet is talking to streamline the PDS system/food for work, school etc. where 'financing/subsidy' is likely to increase but effectiveness of the distribution remains pathetic and no party wants to rake up the sensitive issue since nearly all have a stake as such distribution agency/license has been distributed along political lines over the years.
Increase in 'political violence' over non-public issues i.e. not pertaining to 'roti, kapra or makaan or skilling' as a means to drum up support is likely to fail big time because the people who swing basis religion also swing basis caste. Since the old guard has just failed once and are not dead, and they are likely to swing back with the divisive politics to take over a potentially winning combine, if such politics of non-public issues gets deepen in any constituency. The more progressive urbanized voters with howsoever small vote bank may continue to search for newer political avatars that abound with 'people friendly' policies and therefore newbie politics of change is likely to flourish since it suits interest and temperament of the people. The politicians especially those at the state level have continued with the old ways and done little to identify with people by exploring 'solutions' like dramatic possibility to improve agriculture by technology inputs from genomics industry or explore electronic devices which can bring down the cost of education by bringing down cost of books and support materials and thus improve school education. This is even as tonnes of public money is wasted in populist schemes whereas some of the money could have easily been used to conjure up effective solutions and give rise to a 'support system that works'. Similarly, little efforts has gone into improving access of common man to banks and other financial services, encouraging low cost healthcare industry etc. The politics of rhetoric is seen as the only way since any other way is regarded as infeasible and this is likely to cost political leaders dearly especially ones who are hoping to make their case for larger roles in public life. The continued apathy of political leaders towards bureaucratic capabilities and capacities at the state level is one of the primary reason for such failure since the bureaucracy which finds itself incompetent to deal with issues is unlikely to rise up to challenges of the emerging scenarios especially ones which are highly complex and require specialist understanding. To deal with such handicaps and come up to expectations of the people is the real challenge for the politicians and also to make delivery of people's expectation within the allotted time.
By: Amit Bhushan Date: 10th Aug. 2014
The good outcome of the electoral results especially for those who sought 'change in the polity' is that nearly every political party is now looking to transform itself in order to be better aligned with 'their constituency'. While the pundits may easily point out several flaws in the outcome that can be potentially dicey for the larger public, but one will agree that the politics is moving away from what it used to be as in yesteryears and intervention of Aam Admi through the social media or via direct political intervention as done by a new party, does have impact and now this cannot be written off. The political leaders are trying to hunt for 'workers' and in the process they will soon realize that parties of similar ideological leanings will be hunting amongst the same 'pool' for political talent. While the initial response will be to deploy 'big faces' and possibly 'money' to attract and motivate a large chunk of this talent, but ultimately the leaders will have to bury 'ego' to form some sort of a 'political combine' which has potential to conjure a 'winning' mandate or a substantive/formidable challenge to reckon with. This is because as more and more people take on social media, generation of new political ideas will flower and also old ideas will be put to dust with increasingly sharp rationale. It is going to be a test for 'ego', 'money' and 'facevalue' and 'a combination of the three', in the go between periods.
The challenge for the old guard is manifold. They have practiced the politics of self promotion over the years where the lower ranks have little credibility or public profile and frequently the 'criminal' elements compete for these ranks under guidance of 'super-duper' netas who vouch for these people endorsing their candidature and the victory of such 'leaders' is offered as excuse of such people having public support. The fact is that very few criminals may have a case to be put forth to public for 'sympathetic' consideration, however most simply rely on money power to finance 'slogan shouters' and wade their way through actually dividing the 'opposition' votes by various means. The mass media still has not focused to bring out such stories for various reasons which also may include lack of credible proof although even this does seem to be changing a bit (in a state) and this should be encouraged. While the politics seems to be moving towards era where we having credible ground level faces are required to canvass for votes however very few parties are encouraging participation of ground level workers in media debates of highlighting achievement of ground level workers for the society. This is done to snub workers and maintain dependency on 'senior neta' and this is likely to cost as new parties take up the cause of such workers by giving them better roles and treatment.
Move towards transparency of distribution of 'doles' is another area which is being neglected. While decibels have been raised about sanitation/toilets and power/electricity, however action if any seems to be is area of 'projects' while no effort is being made to resurrect the supporting ecosystem and to bring transparency to support the maintenance of such an ecosystem in a fair manner. Some media elements did raise the voice about 'localities' which are drain of the power ecosystem but the effort to identify the 20% elements consuming 80% of the drained power resources in such areas is lacking, possibly due to lack of political will and to avoid a 'free for all' that might get ensued due to such action. Similarly, talking about the absent toilets and arranging 'government support' is fashionable to talk about, but no one yet is talking to streamline the PDS system/food for work, school etc. where 'financing/subsidy' is likely to increase but effectiveness of the distribution remains pathetic and no party wants to rake up the sensitive issue since nearly all have a stake as such distribution agency/license has been distributed along political lines over the years.
Increase in 'political violence' over non-public issues i.e. not pertaining to 'roti, kapra or makaan or skilling' as a means to drum up support is likely to fail big time because the people who swing basis religion also swing basis caste. Since the old guard has just failed once and are not dead, and they are likely to swing back with the divisive politics to take over a potentially winning combine, if such politics of non-public issues gets deepen in any constituency. The more progressive urbanized voters with howsoever small vote bank may continue to search for newer political avatars that abound with 'people friendly' policies and therefore newbie politics of change is likely to flourish since it suits interest and temperament of the people. The politicians especially those at the state level have continued with the old ways and done little to identify with people by exploring 'solutions' like dramatic possibility to improve agriculture by technology inputs from genomics industry or explore electronic devices which can bring down the cost of education by bringing down cost of books and support materials and thus improve school education. This is even as tonnes of public money is wasted in populist schemes whereas some of the money could have easily been used to conjure up effective solutions and give rise to a 'support system that works'. Similarly, little efforts has gone into improving access of common man to banks and other financial services, encouraging low cost healthcare industry etc. The politics of rhetoric is seen as the only way since any other way is regarded as infeasible and this is likely to cost political leaders dearly especially ones who are hoping to make their case for larger roles in public life. The continued apathy of political leaders towards bureaucratic capabilities and capacities at the state level is one of the primary reason for such failure since the bureaucracy which finds itself incompetent to deal with issues is unlikely to rise up to challenges of the emerging scenarios especially ones which are highly complex and require specialist understanding. To deal with such handicaps and come up to expectations of the people is the real challenge for the politicians and also to make delivery of people's expectation within the allotted time.