ARE VOTERS EULOGIZING CORRUPT & FRAUDULENT LEADERS?

The epoch from August 2004 to August 2009 can be termed as THE DARKEST AEON for the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. Andhra Pradesh was then governed by Congress chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who indulged in big ticket spending programmes; some of them supposedly developmental and others populist. However, all the spending programmes were beset with massive corruption, with some large irrigation, infrastructure and Industrial projects just confining to the files.

Nevertheless, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was a leader with a saviour face but with a sinister heart as CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigations have revealed. He allegedly abused his official position to help his son build his business empire by bestowing favours on individuals and entities. Squarely and unfairly, his son Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy amassed wealth by pressuring companies to "invest" in his businesses in return for various favours bestowed by the YSR Reddy government, an innovative and unconventional corruption.

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However, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and his cronies excelled at marketing and popularising with the masses, many of the yet to take off projects and all exchequer draining "politically popular" social programmes which have reaped him immense political benefits after his first 5 year tenure as Chief Minister. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, politically succeeded as voters unaware of the massive corruption underlying the big ticket spending re-elected him for a second term too. As the tentacles of corruption reached far too wide, the KARMA caught up with the father and he died in a Helicoptor crash in August 2009. Still unaware of any of their wrongdoings, people of Andhra Pradesh showered immense sympathy towards his son and other members of his family, post the crash. Seizing the opportunity, the wealth hungry son turned power hungry too and demanded the Congress leadership to anoint him as the successor in the state. However, Congress leadership, known for their unfathomable PRIDE, did not budge to the demands of Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, which resulted in the son walking out of Congress party and start his own outfit, which had the solid backing of colossal wealth amassed in just 5 years. In order to make his outfit a political force he eulogized his father as “MAHA NETA” (A great leader) through mass contact programmes and Print and electronic media owned by him. He succeeded to a great extent in his endeavour of eulogizing his father as a great leader, which made him a political force to reckon with. However, Congress leadership, seething in anger for defying their diktats, triggered investigations by CBI and ED, which saw Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy being arrested. However, political alignments changed with in the state due to ugly rise of separatist demands, which facilitated a truce between Congress leadership and Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy that set him free to pursue his political goal.

Alas, Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy was able to create a formidable impression on

a   .      A segment of voters who seem to be fine with corruption so long as some of the money trickles down to them.

b   .      A segment of naive voters who still eulogized his father

c   .      A segment of voters who were beneficiaries of his father’s regime.

d   .      A segment of gullible voters with caste and/ or religious affinities.

To the dismay of many, Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy has polled 12.8 million votes in the 2014 elections vis-a-vis 13.3 million votes polled for the party that is voted to power. It is spine chilling, when one thinks of, how democracy can be undermined with ill gotten wealth, eulogizing demised corrupt leaders and abusing caste and/ or religion for political gains.

Andhra Pradesh is NOT YET OUT OF DANGER OF RELAPSE OF THE DARKEST AEON, unless wisdom dawns upon half the voters of the state.

(Disclaimer: Corruption is rampant in India and it afflicts every ruling party. As per consensus among whistle blowers and corruption fighting activists, five to seven per cent is lost to corruption, but in Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's irrigation programmes that figure is more than 15 to 20 per cent. Although, I am disgruntled with most parties for their apathy to curb corruption, I believe in lesser evil being the best to take both state and country forward.)

ANDHRA PRADESH BY-POLL RESULTS: A REFLECTION OF DETERIORATION OF ELECTORATE’S MORAL VALUES

Andhra Pradesh (AP, India) by-poll results have shown the apparent weakness in the institution of Democracy. It has shown that the Democracy can easily be compromised and incessantly abused for electoral politics and personal gains by corrupt few by manipulating a few hundred thousand (applicable in a multi-party electoral system) of MOB-VOTERS, who are ignorant, foolish and short sighted citizens lacking long term vision and empathy for their future generations. Unfortunately, these mob-voters, through wrong use of their voting rights, are paving a path for apparently corrupt and shady leaders to get elected to vital power centers, thus perilously compromising the social and economic security rights of majority of their fellow citizens. This is akin to handing over the security keys of defense arsenal and public treasury to dacoits.  

Democratic system in its noblest form represents equality, freedom and security for every citizen of a nation. However, the system had been shoddily abused in the last few decades by a few self centered politicos for power and material gains, in some of the following methods.

1.        Henry Louis Mencken quoted a century earlier that “Democracy is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses”.  A few individuals and couple of political families have diligently converted Democracy in to a form of worship of individuals and their dynasties, thus weakening the democratic system, institutions and its processes.

2.       Pluto quoted a few centuries earlier that “Democracy is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequal alike”. Unfortunately, some of the politicians have created social chaos and unfathomable divide in the Indian society by advocating unjust social and religious reservations and quotas, which have eroded the unity and ethics in the Indian public. These apart from other short sighted social and policy measures stalled the country’s economic and social progress.

3.       An anonymous quote says “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not”. Precisely, this was proven in the past in some other countries. All political parties, irrespective of their political and economic ideologies had never tried to get to the crux of the social and economic inequalities. Instead, they pursued the short sighted electoral politics by relying too heavily on non-revenue expenditure to appease the masses, which has in fact made the socially and economic weaker sections more dependent on the government rather than being self-dependent, which may ultimately lead to a massive social unrest, which is detrimental to the country’s future.

4.       Another anonymous quote says “Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated”. Successive governments have never made genuine efforts to thrust upon  vital aspects of compulsory education and population control on both the socially and economically backward masses and the elected representatives, which otherwise could have narrowed down the social and economic divide thus strengthening the Democratic systems and institutions.  

5.       Apparently in the last decade, with the advent of coalition politics, political games played by some politicos are resulting in numerous elections and by-elections, which are significantly held at great cost to the state. Repeated electoral processes involve considerable deployment of human and financial resources to non-developmental activities, thus decelerating the social and economic growth of the state as well as the nation. This unfortunate development has ensured that Andhra Pradesh, which was one of the most progressive states a decade earlier, has been lagging behind the other states, in the last few years.   

It is high time for both mob-voters and rogue politicos to realize that Democracy is much more than just two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

The beauty of Democracy is that the country’s DESTINY is always commensurate with its’ voters’ wisdom and democratic values.

ANTI-INDUSTRY TIRADES IN INDIA

Indian growth story  of late is seriously faltered by unrestrained population explosion, lack of education and skill levels to majority of its citizens, limited natural resources and short sighted vote bank as well as highly divisive politics by the politicos. Unfortunately, genuine efforts have been far and few to rein in these impediments of Indian growth story both at the macro level as well as micro level.

Indian financial health could be maintained satisfactorily in the last decade due to the twin factors of growth of its GDP at the rate of 7 to 9% and high savings rate of its Citizens, despite constricted tax net and heavy non-revenue expenditure that includes heavy subsidies and fuel imports. Largely visible and populist Subsidy route was pursued by government, instead of more reliable techno-community farming, to prop up agricultural sector though it has been contributing a measly 1 to 2% of GDP growth.

Unfortunately, some of the ideologues and the citizens ridiculously failed to realize the importance of Industrial growth and the associated socio-economic benefits, both tangible and intangible, to be accrued to them in their regions. Despite being direct beneficiaries’ of governments subsidies as well as welfare schemes and the same time being tax-exclusives, some sleazy people and their leaders have been vehemently protesting against setting up of Major industries in their regions, for some irrational and self-centered reasons best known to them.

States like Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu are highly debt ridden and Electrical power hungry states where growth is paramount for uplifting their poor. However, violent protests in Nandigram and Singur of West Bengal had resulted in shelving of Major investments in that region thus robbing themselves of some great long term opportunities like employment, infrastructure development, improvement in living standards apart from a host of indirect benefits. Similar protests are continuing in Kakrapalli and Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu against Green field thermal and nuclear power projects. Similar protests have become the order of day in some regions of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh against Mining and setting up of new Industrial establishments.

Unjustifiable nature of the protests against power projects can be gauged by reviewing at the electric power demand for the year 2010-2011. According to the 17th electric power survey of India report, India's industrial demand accounted for 35% of electrical power requirement, domestic household use accounted for 28%, agriculture 21%, commercial 9%, public lighting and other miscellaneous applications accounted for the rest. Agricultural demand is a whopping 21%, and the electrical power is supplied free of cost to farmers in states like Andhra Pradesh, already grappling with crippling blackouts lasting several hours; where populist schemes are unabatedly and blatantly pampered by ruling class at the expense of the common man. The protestors and their instigators should realize that the electricity blackouts and power shedding is not only interrupting manufacturing sector but irrigation too across the country.
Indian citizen will be embarrassed to know that India imports marginal amounts of electricity from our smaller neighbors; Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh despite having the obligatory resources and skills.

It is the state and central government’s obligation to immediately resolve the land acquisition issues, accelerate the governments mandatory approvals and environmental clearances, speed up the infrastructure development and enable training of skilled manpower (to prevent talent shortages for operating latest technology plants and mitigate unemployment) to facilitate a reasonable business climate in the country. Since, land acquisition results in loss of useful agricultural lands and wetlands, governments shall endeavor to reclaim the lost agricultural lands by converting barren lands to new water bodies, leading to more green pastures and cultivable lands around them. It may be noted that governments schemes such as drought areas programme and Integrated Watershed Development Programme have resulted in barren lands converting to more green pastures and cultivable lands, in the past.

Most importantly, state and central government shall regulate and monitor the Environmental balance of the regions due to new industries to ensure that no resistance or opposition is likely to arise from any category of stake-holders including the local population.