In divorcing itself from any moral compulsions in l’affaire Varun Gandhi, the BJP has taken the same stand that it took in l’affaire Narendra Modi. Namely, in a democracy, the people will decide if they were right or wrong. The Congress, and countless other parties which put up killers, kidnappers, rapists, with gay abandon, has taken the same line in the past. But merely because “the majority” endorses the bestial, does it make it right?
***
B.G. Varghese in Deccan Herald:
“The BSP’s list of Lok Sabha candidates from Uttar Pradesh includes five persons facing murder charges and two nominees allegedly involved in other crimes. Five wives have been given tickets…. Other parties have also dredged dirt to pick up candidates. At least two Hindu right extremists who have been in the news of late for all the wrong reasons, are seeking court permission to contest the elections.
“Whatever the law, it is morally wrong to release such undertrials on bail to contest elections and, if they perchance win, to claim thereafter that they have been exonerated by the ‘people’s court’ and now stand above the law in their new avatar.”
Read the full article: Will they ever learn?
Cartoon: courtesy Surendra/ The Hindu
Politics is the only profession in India which doesn’t require any qualification – education, character of the candidate, skill sets, previous experience, any achievements, age limit nothing is looked into while giving a party ticket to a candidate. Once elected by wooing the gullible masses with muscle and money power, this bunch of criminals and thugs later dictate and loot the country. In a democracy, is the public so helpless that it can do nothing about it?
Is this rhetorical question? Of course what the parties are doing is wrong. When was the last time a political individual or outfit did something, _anything_ right in India?
I loved the cartoon, though!
Check the article in rediff http://election.rediff.com/election/2009/mar/18/loksabhapoll-i-am-the-victim-of-a-political-conspiracy-says-varun.htm
If everybody started caring about morality then you would have only candidates like Atal Behari Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh and APJ Abdul Kalam, and the country would have perhaps become better.
Sanjay Dutt , Patriot of the Nation , is being supported by the SP and indirectly by the Congress.
Subbu , nepali fugitive , convict is also given a ticket by the congress.
Can go on with the list , so dont keep harping on some HINDU EXTREMISTs etc when we have TWO CONVICTS given tickets.
Good God! Let me leave aside Modi and Varun. The former is my idol and the latter can be too if he is sincere and stays the course.
But, the point I’m on is that our politicians are part of our society. They are our people. When are we, the so-called better educated fellows going to realize that before shooting our mouths off?
I have only one thing to say that would be a logical remedy.
Abolish Universal Suffrage and limit the Right to Vote.
Two words:
Votebank Politics.
“Abolish Universal Suffrage and limit the Right to Vote.”
:-)
Specific details please? Maybe you need to prepare a ‘Black Manifesto’ a la the fictional Igor Komarov of the fictional ‘Union of Patriotic Forces’!!
:-)
“Specific details please?” – Make a minimum educational qualification coupled with a service record, compulsory for voting. Same rule should apply to contestants.
You need educated voters to identify “uneducated” contestants. Since democracy is supposed to be; By, For and Of the people, why not look at the quality of voters?
I’ll ignore the snide nothingness you have on display.
@Palahalli,… What you said is intellectual arrogance. Education and Intelligence are not same. Most educated (including me) are Opinionated ignorants. People like you and me do not know the problems that each region faces. We live glass houses and never look at issues of slums.
Time and again illiterate voters have given amazing verdicts while we educated showed apathy! It is those illiterates who have kept the democracy alive while we only know to criticize.
Look at the verdicts voters have given. During Emergency; Initially making Roti, kapda makan as poll issues; then they made Bijli sadak pani as issues;
Most educated like you and me know US president but we dont even know our local MP/MLA. We educated just dont care!
We want everyone else to be saints while we dont want to do anything! We just criticize and criticize and criticize and criticize… Our knowledge is only from the sensational media. Infact, we must be called uneducated. We know math, physics, engineering, medicine.. but, we are illiterate in issues that our country faces.
rajkiran – Sorry, I cannot debate like this. You make too many assumptions.
Please give me specific objections to my proposal.