Elections or death game of democracy?

A very bitter and nasty election campaign ended thankfully in Telangana. Despite all the ‘checks’ and ‘flying squads’, money has flown like water in an election campaign where the limit for campaign expenditure is set to 28 lakhs per candidate. It is a joke as crores have gone into bribing the voters with direct hard cash. Many are just flocking to their constituencies leaving their jobs to make money from all parties. In such a corrupt open practice, our media, press, judiciary, and law enforcers seem just powerless to prevent anything.

The corruption to win an election is overwhelming irrespective of any party; and it is no wonder that after winning, all efforts ensue to recover the money. Not only that, to fight the next election, money accumulation becomes a priority for a party in power. Can a poor or middle-class man even think about standing for elections though theoretically possible? The corruption at the top transfers itself into corruption and inefficiency at every level of administration and ‘nation building’. The great reflection of this corruption are the roads of any area which are in a state of constant creation and destruction like the cosmos itself. I am yet to come across a road which has stayed resilient without potholes for a continuous period of six months.

This is not the India which Sri Aurobindo or Swami Vivekananda visualised for us. As a rabid social balkanisation ensues with each caste, community, religion segregated and angry by the electioneering strategies and a widespread corruption starting from the top itself; the concerned citizens shed silent tears for the death of democracy in India. And unfortunately, it is the middle-class tax paying citizen who bears the brunt. The rich and the powerful escape with anything and the poor need not bother as geometrically progressing welfare schemes take over the necessity to work.

- Dr Pingali Gopal, Warangal