Prof Javed Mughal
Not only India but the entire world is seethed of political contestants, clap-trappers, metamorphoses, silver-tongued orators and what not but a radical question still itches the rational minds as to whether they all deserve to be termed as leaders or not. The father of nation some-days before leaving this world forever had said, “the concept of nation-oriented politics is dwindling into the cult of power politics” and I would not hesitate to go a step futher to say that now that concept of national politics has completely been replaced by an obnoxious culture of chair politics in our country in particular and the entire world in general. The nations are in a muddle and directionless.
No leaders to lead and none to bother about the well being of the nations are visible on this planet. We have parties holding manifestoes to win elections but let me term all these parties the ‘gangues’ to capture power and thereby wealth and their manifestoes are nothing but the mechanisms to use the innocence of the masses as spring-board to go higher in the sky of their aspirations. Someone somewhere has asked a very pertinent question. Where are the leaders of tomorrow? The question has gone viral across the world today and has given way to an all-pervading sardonicism among an entire generation of global demography about politicians and politics. We agree with the question and we also have another to supplement it. Did we have a leader even yesterday who we could trust and look up to? The past two decades have been rather bleak – a saga of continued betrayal of common people by their leaders and politicians. We have seen how people in the West were pushed into unwarranted wars in Afghanistan and Iraq by their leaders like George W. Bush and Tony Blair. In some Asian nations, especially in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc we have been seeing how the demography has been perpetually hit on their heads and continuously betrayed by their leaders.
The assaults of the leaders have been most palpable in the Arab world where a few dictators had turned their countries into their personal fiefdom. Revolutions too failed the Arabs miserably. Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak, Muammar Gaddafi at all were pulled down and their decades of infidelity stopped. But to what avail? They were replaced by rulers who, so far at least, have not shown that they are any different from those they replaced. In fact, everywhere, be it in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, the new rulers have been found far worse. In Israel, the story of leaders’ perfidy towards the citizens has been equally naked. Benjamin Netanyahu and his predecessors, who have been at the helm of affairs and polity for past two decades, have all failed miserably to define future. In their perverted pursuit of suicidal national interest they have criminally defied aspirations of their own countrymen as much as they trampled the Palestinians’ dreams. British political commentator Sam Parker, known for his anti-war stands and an avowed critic of the former British prime minister who deceived not only Britain but also the world along with George W. Bush into an wanton war in Iraq, recalls how his octogenarian father all of a sudden lost his faith in his leaders when Britain walked into the war with Iraq. The octogenarian gentleman instantly became a part, however puny, of an entire generation which was robbed of their faith in politics and leaders. Parker has described how over a million had sent a message to Blair: we don’t want this war. And it wasn’t just London but the message had poured forth also from Damascus, Athens, Seoul, Rome, Tokyo, Sydney – hundreds of cities worldwide. Yet, Blair and Bush ignored the collective aspiration of the world and went ahead with their illegal war with criminal impunity. Billions, across our planet, lost faith in their leaders, in their ability to make the world a better place for humanity to flourish and survive and also in their ability to lead our planet to a better future. The popular perception about our leaders and their leadership capabilities changed into what Ben Denis Aaronovitch, London-born British author is believed to have once said – we will never believe another thing that we are told by our government and perhaps also in our politicians. Crisis of global leadership deepened to depths where even the boldest of the sharks of Atlantic would never dare to venture. Possibility of tomorrow’s leadership germinating was nipped in its bud. Politicians showed how despicably they are just politicians – with all their inabilities to rise beyond their limitations. Politics remained firmly embedded in mucks. Bush and Blair are today on the top of the list of the criminals who “robbed a generation of their faith in politics.” The war on terror is indeed a gorgeous name given to camouflage a rather sordid manifestation of West’s lust and greed to pillage national resources of other countries. Let alone what is happening in Middle East, our country is no exception to the cheap leadership. Blame games, mud-slinging and an obnoxious politics of mutual allegation betraying and misguiding the people just jump into the Morris chair of power has become the order of the day in this country too. Corruption mongers are looming large on the bead of this nation since the dawn of independence. Justice, justification, ethics, moral values, conscience, legalities, norms and conduct are no more the part of their working style and character. From the big things like legislations and enactments to small and familiar issues of transfers and allotments, the curse of nepotism and favourtism is always there.
If someone asks me to name the worst of all in the world, I would not hitch even a bit to name ‘modern politics’ as loudly as possible to make the people listen. Ask anyone in their late twenties to name (a politician) from their lifetime they admire, and most will stare at you blankly. Plenty of us in India and everywhere are engaged in politics, but without relish, voting in elections like we’re choosing from the menu at Wimpy. So when the Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, in his Republic Day speech warned that the Indians were losing faith in their political class, he voiced the feeling of the whole generation of global demography who share the loss of faith in politicians. There are no leaders today who can lead us tomorrow. And there were no leaders who led us yesterday. We had only thugs and betrayers and this repugnant breed shall be there even tomorrow.
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