The mood in world’s largest democratic republic is pensive. Everybody is angry and almost everybody wants to light a candle. Everybody (including the burgeoning misnomer called ‘middle class’ represented by the fashionable ‘civil society’) is of the view that politics is at the heart of corruption –a term conveniently used to generalize everything wrong in the society.
This wisdom spawns from the deep seated cynicism, which in turn manifests itself in unsavory externalization and eventual marginalization of the bigger and more dangerous problem-what ails politics?Yes,politics does matter, especially in a country where State assumes humongous and homogenous powers bestowed upon by its people-the very edifice of a democratic structure. Politics is the manifestation of people power, their needs and desires and a suitable method of facilitating the creation of a systematic mechanism to further their cause; in terms of public policies, agendas and manifestoes.
Sounds a diabetically succulent chimera-good responsible politics. Aren’t politicians and polity per se supposed to be the active evangelists, perpetrators and protectors of all that ails the social fabric? Yes and No. While cynical, myopic and blinkered political bashing is increasingly becoming our alter ego, a word of caution is more than welcome. To put the onus entirely, (un)fairly and squarely on a systematic mechanism and to proclaim and promulgate that the buck finally does start and stop there is a classic case of narcissistic-fascist ideology, based on the idea of an exclusive abstinence from the malaise and its medicine. The proponents of this view believe that corruption is the root cause of all the ailments, politics is at the heart of corruption and the only way to snap this corruption-politician nexus is creation of better laws. While it sounds good and appears fashionable, this constricted, stigmatized, skewed vision of apparent vibrancy is only an extension of our proclivity of externalization.
Poor and opaque systems of accountability, verification and prosecution and staunchly centralized decision making sites create a celebrated chasm, that diabolic dichotomy which festers filthy socio-economic contrasts leading to corruption by means and for means. To blame corruption as the sole reason for the stark naked inequalities thus becomes a slightly shaky proposition; it is instead a symptom of the central malaise that affects us. Then, to say that corruption is nestled and protected by politicians is true and false in equal measure. Politics inevitably will find itself interlinked even with the most apolitical issues, and yes, corruption exists in apolitical circles too. It’s all too easy to debate if strong regulation reduces corruption, but heartbreaking as it may sound, politics is, and can never be controlled by legislation; for legislation itself is approved, endorsed and sanctioned by political bodies, and this circularity is omnipresent. This doesn’t imply that laws are nothing better than voluminous legislative literature, of course a democracy exists due to the existence of a system of checks and balances, but to believe it to be the one stop shop for every political infirmity would be personification of the exaggerated optimism at its very best.
Top has to be self regulatory and politics has to be a self censuring activity. Evils of politics can be countered by more and mature politics, effective politics, a better kind of politics, and this breed of hitherto unknown, unheard politics requires a public re-orientation to be seen. It’s present in the daily struggles of ordinary citizens to alter and balance power equations. If politics is the heart of every evil we love to hate, it’s also the heart of every change wish want to see. Undoubtedly it’s one of the more chequered social activity, but to be fair to it, the good breed of politics transcends the trammels of formal, sacrosanct structures of politics, much like the results of the kind of ambiguous, ambivalent brand of politics we love to hate.
Politics is not, as many believe, the bridge between the immoral and the illegal. What is morally wrong can never be politically right. Politics deserves better than the unwanted pariah treatment so often reserved for it, it deserves a hearing and an informed participation. Jaundiced views and choleric critique might make for an engaging read, but in effect it’s far removed from the constructive cataclysm we lust for. Politics matters for all this, and more. 
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