Politics is service – beyond the ego

There is absolutely nothing wrong for any political party to think of achieving new heights in politics and remain in power for long. No political party is launched for social work. It is meant to face tough fight and give tough fight to rival parties. "Jo Jeeta Vahi Sikander," that is what the present-day political parties believe in. One cannot point a finger at any of the parties on this issue. But what is expected from these parties is to have social consciousness and a large heart to serve the people of the country or the state or the panchayat they are heading.

Unfortunately, politics, more so in the last three decades, have undergone a complete change. Whether it is a national party or a regional party, the political 'Funda' is throw peanuts and get votes. The quantum of peanuts keeps changing from election to election. Earlier, political leaders used to be among people. Today, the leaders prefer to be away from the 'Praja' and live under the impression that they are Raja's. They call themselves democratic and accuse others of being authoritative and brand them as demons; but, in practice, all political parties have become one man show with zero tolerance towards reality. Everyone feels he is the epitome of intelligence, vision and wisdom while rivals are good for nothing.

The main reason for such degeneration of political thinking is "Ego" and if one tries to measure it by any instrument, I am sure the instrument will break. No political party which is in power wants any other party to throw any challenge at them or even try their luck in elections.

It is a sad story and a painful commentary on the political situation in the country. They refuse to accept that they are egoistic. That is the first sign of being egoistic.

Ego according to Sri Sri Ravishankar is your enemy and it keeps you out of touch with reality. Your ego is what prevents you from hearing criticism which is necessary feedback from others. Ego makes you over-estimate your own abilities and worth, and under-estimate the effort and skill required to achieve your goals.

Ego, if properly understood, can give strength and courage to bring valour to meet challenges with endurance and perseverance. It can counteract depression and be a great motivating factor as long as one does not turn selfish and only think of how only I can benefit and how my family can benefit and how to use others for the purpose.

Sri Sri says there are three types of ego – sattvic, rajasic and tamasic. Tamasic ego is barbaric, blind and self-destructive Rajasic ego is self-centered and causes misery to oneself and others. Sattvic ego is creative and has protective tendencies. If you cannot surrender, at least have a sattvic ego, as a sattvic ego is always ready to sacrifice, he says.

Ego is not being natural, not feeling at home, and not having a sense of belongingness. This is what creates tension and problems within you. It makes you stiff and ultimately it makes you suffer. Ego is essential till a certain stage of growth, but then it must be transcended like a caterpillar. The intention of a caterpillar is to fly high, but it winds itself into a cocoon; it does just the opposite of flying. But then, it comes out of the cocoon as a butterfly and flies high. There are so-called mature people in high positions that say, "My country is better than your country" and "My state is better than your state." Ego creates this fear in you – what will the other think about me? Are they respecting me or not? A very egotistic person is very comfortable being alone. Egotistic people are different in different company.

A story about Mullah Nasruddin

Sri Sri explains with a story. He says Mullah Nasruddin once went to Calgary. He was honoured there in a very big way, but none of his friends was there to watch that, and unfortunately no one had a video camera.

People were giving so many compliments and praises to Mullah while he was searching the whole crowd to see whether there was someone from Turkey, his home town, or anywhere nearby. He thought: even a German would do! He even asked on the mic, "Are there any Germans here?" Nobody raised their hand. Then he asked, "Anyone who is French?" No one raised their hand. Suddenly Mullah became very sad, he said, "I am so unfortunate – all this honour and praise and not a single person from my hometown to hear it."

Ego wants recognition – that too recognition from people in front of whom you want to show off. Such an ego needs to be superseded, or transcended.

Why all this narrative? The reason is very simple: the attitude of present-day politicians. One may ask what is wrong with them. Well, that the people must judge after analysing the present political culture and scenario in detail and impartially. Let us begin with what Rahul Gandhi said on April 14, 2021 talking to a news agency. He alleged that he was mocked when he warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2020 as he cautioned about the possible consequences of Coronavirus and was accused of scaring people. "All Congress leaders and I collectively said to PM that India is going to be affected by Covid-19. You should start preparing to save economy, migrant labourers and small-scale industry." He said he was mocked, saying that he was fear monger. "Narendra Modi said beat thaali, corona will go. He said bang bells and thaalis. After that, he asked people to take out their mobile phones and switch on flashlights. If the government had acted immediately, several lives would have been saved."

After a long lull, when Covid threatens to stage a comeback at the centre of India's health and political map, the Prime Minister and the government advised people to get vaccinated and mask up and said random sample testing will be conducted at airports for passengers arriving from China and other countries as three cases of the Omicron subvariant BF.7, apparently the strain driving China's current surge of Covid cases, were detected. Hence, as a precaution, they asked the Congress party to follow Covid protocols. What were Rahul and other Congress leaders including Digvijay Singh's reaction?

Rahul and Co said the BJP fears them and is using Covid as an excuse to stop the Bharat Jodo Yatra. "It's their (BJP) new idea, they wrote a letter to me saying COVID is coming & stop the Yatra. All these are excuses to stop this Yatra, they are scared of India's truth," Rahul tweeted. What did the Government of India advise? It said follow Covid protocols. When Congress reacted the way it did, the government said if you cannot or do not want to follow protocols, suspend your yatra.

How would one describe Congress reaction to government advice? What is it if not 'Ego?' What prevents them from following protocols? Have Rahul and Congress forgotten the kind of catastrophe the country witnessed during the first two waves of Covid-19? What is wrong if all the foot walkers use masks and maintain social distance? Does it mean that Congress and its leaders have not learnt any lessons from the first two waves?

Let's take another example. TDP, which has been decimated in Telangana post bifurcation, made an attempt to revive the party with a massive public meeting addressed by its national president N Chandrababu Naidu. Now the leaders of TRS, sorry BRS which wants to fly the pink flag in Delhi and rule the country, allege that Naidu was another weapon of BJP against them. TDP wants to patch up with Modi and hence they are talking of revival in Telangana. They further say that TDP has no right to enter Telangana since the rulers from Andhra destroyed Telangana.

To quote Sister B K Shivani of Brahmakumaris, your anger gets recorded in your system and you react in the same manner repeatedly. It becomes your natural way of living. If one cannot transcend this stage then one cannot feel nice and make others feel nice. The pink party leaders seem to have made hatred towards the leaders of a political party from Andhra their way of life.

The Indian National Congress was established when 72 delegates from all over the country met in Bombay in 1885. Prominent delegates included Dadabhai Naoroji, Surendranath Banerjee, Badruddin Tyabji, Pherozeshah Mehta W.C. Bonnerjee, S Ramaswami Mudaliar, S Subramania Iyer, and Romesh Chunder Dutt. The Congress ruled Telangana for nearly three decades. If the pink party's analogy is extended to the grand old national party, which migrated from Bombay (now Mumbai), it, too, should not be allowed to contest in Telangana. Similarly, BJP was not born here. So even it has no right to contest here.

This certainly is not the way a party, which takes pride in saying that it had introduced the best of the schemes in the state and had ensured all-round development, had overcome water shortage and power problems and had provided employment opportunities, taken care of farmers, backward classes and economically weaker sections by introducing innovative schemes, should speak about other political parties.

When you know what you have done for the people and if you are confident that people are with you, then one need not go to the extent of saying that so and so party has no right to contest. When you are the best in all respects, why bother about some who do not have even a sarpanch here?

A leader who was with Naidu till a couple of years back and now a minister says Naidu cannot claim that he had brought IT revolution and transformed the city. He had constructed only one building. It may be recalled that even the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao or the IT minister K T Rama Rao never made such comments.

What do we call this, if not egoism? Political rivalry is fine and understandable. But claiming that no one else has the right to enter Telangana does not display the national outlook.