Having been part and prime mover of numerous political
discussions and arguments on contemporary politics over the years with my
friends, I have never taken the time and trouble to put on paper of what my
stand is, on any specific issue. This endeavour, the first of its kind, for me, arises as a result of the combined effect of unexpected and unprecedented public sympathy for a convicted incumbent
Chief Minister of a state, and from a deeper wistfulness on my side, to
establish myself as a writer in future, who can express himself on politics or
any other sphere which has a profound impact on people and their lives.
I have been surprised greatly and it is not just limited to
the rare, quirky successful conviction of a corrupt politician even after
years of struggle and intentional protraction of judiciary proceedings.The
middle class, the Indian urban intelligentsia of which I am very much part of,which was some months back, up in arms against any form or scale of corruption, under the Anna Hazare movement, has suddenly transmuted itself into a mass of
forgiving altruists, ready to brush aside the malfeasance of their leader, simply as a childish, guileless peccadillo committed during her political
infancy.
The reaction to the landmark judgment, can be split into two
– one from the devoted partymen resulting in acts of violence and arson, and
the other from the educated middle class.
The partymen, though their reaction to the event, has been
weak and less pronounced than I anticipated, have continued to damage public
property desperately trying to record their anger, and disrupt normal life as
much as possible. Many of my friends, as well as, noted political commentators
have credited Jayalalitha as an efficient political administrator, having a
near perfect record of maintaining law and order throughout the state during
her regime. The foremost duty of any Chief Minister, which should take
precedence over all other public responsibilities and functions, shall be the
establishment and sustenance of law and order, under any event or political
exigency, throughout his/her administerial domain. The Tamil Nadu Chief
Minister, and a tall political leader at the same time, who elicits so much
adoration and love from her supporters and partymen, could have atleast sent a
word to them, to remain calm and composed, to renounce any acts of instant
furore resulting in violence, assuring them that she can overcome all odds
with resilience by herself, only through the mandated judicial procedure
followed in the country. This could have gone a long way in sustaining the normalcy
in the state and in addition, possibly could have enhanced the respect she
already commands from many quarters.
The middle class on the other hand, have been complaining of
the ruthlessness and vengeance underlining the judgment on the following
grounds- the age, sex of the convict, the negligible degree of corruption and
her achievements as the current Chief Minister.
As everyone might be aware, the corruption case filed in
1997, was in response to her frivolous acts carried out during her first term
(1991-1996) as Chief Minister.
The case began in 1997, and had India been blessed with an robust
and incorruptible judiciary, by all probability, it should have been closed by
end of the millennium, with the accused successfully convicted with a 7-year
term in prison, stripped of the eligibility to contest in polls.
This eventuality would have broken all bases of argument of
her sympathizers. Firstly, the convict would not have aged more than 50 yrs at
that time, which I presume, is not an age that would summon sympathy from most
of us.
Secondly, the 2000s were the age where a crore still
remained a humongous sum, when our politicians were not getting tired of
dealing in lakhs of rupees.The magnitude of the larceny hence,no doubt, would have not looked negligible.
Thirdly, the successful conviction, as early as the 2000s,
would have possibly sealed the fate of the ADMK leader, rendering her
ineligible to contest any elections in the future. No one can doubt the gravity
of such a development, bolstered by, probably, a case of rejection of the bail
plea, on the party organization and its future. The political history of Tamil
Nadu would have been rewritten possibly with Jayalalitha, having been denied
another chance of assuming Chief Ministership
and salvaging herself from the ignominy by implementing expansionary
fiscal policies in defence of the state’s poor.
But, to top it all, it was not just the malleability of the
judiciary that was responsible for the delayed delivery of justice, but also,
the malicious intent and wily execution on part of the accused which expertly
bended the law, to its whim and fancy, to ensure that the justice delivered
was either delayed or obsolescent, and the punishment as benign as possible.
A man’s world, cannot become a woman’s world immediately, if it forgives its delinquent women.
Bill Clinton lost his second election to his presidency,
owing to many reasons, the chief one being his extra marital attachment to a
woman, which in India, would sound very much trifling.
We, Indians, can take dubious pride, from being the only
one among many other nationalities of the world, willing to sympathise with
someone who has been found guilty and deserving punishment by its own judiciary.
We have been voting for aeons, not for the one whom we
prefer, but for the one whom we dislike the least. Many of us, spend not more than ten minutes
of our time daily, to politics and economics, which we very well know, control
every minute of our lives till we are liberated from our existence.
Hence, I cannot be indignant on politicians as much as I am
on my citizenry. I admit, that the instances of corruption, of which we are
getting accustomed to, has been huge and outrageous than its precedents. But,
it is on us, to remain insulated to regressive changes that the system forces on us
and ensure that our perspectives are not diluted and flawed under any
circumstance, and reflect the highest levels of morality, rectitude and reason.
