Vivekanand Jha, Ranchi. The electoral outcome of bye election in Mandi and other parts of India, barring West Bengal, when the election results were divided between BJP and Congress, sent me reeling into deeper reflection of the state of India today: The bi-polarity in the country is the matter of tremendous consternation as well as grave discomfiture. Significantly, India today is in grip of an orchestrated frenzy–the frenzy of opting for obsequiousness and subordination. Regrettably, 1.30 billion people are intoxicated to be the cheerleaders of either BJP or Congress, far oblivious of the rights and power that Constitution has bestowed upon them. Worse still, the priceless votes which entitle them to be the masters to send their representatives to Parliament or State Legislature, have been pathetically reduced to be their cheerleaders of their representatives, is the matter of deepest angst and sheer disgrace which, once the consciousness of this Constitutional distortion and travesty dawned on me as a thinker, my heart sank, and it continues to sink, beholding this humongous tragedy engulfing the republic in its octopus like grip. The vote of an individual citizen is saleable for rupees five hundred to one thousand or for a bottle of hooch, indicts India’s democratic which stands bedeviled by all such muck, unthinkable and inconceivable to the Constitution makers who, not even in their remotest of imagination, must have thought that the people for whom they were making an elaborate Constitution, would end up being slaves to a new manipulator: The Indian elites. No wonder the ruling elites, even in a far greater degree, have continued to oscilate between one end of the pendulum to another: only the face of rulers have changed, the state of the nation remained constant.
Millennia ago, Magadha was smouldering under Dhana Nanda, the most corrupt ruler of Magadha. The king, himself involved neck deep in corruption and debauchery, the subject, despite being excruciatingly harassed by the morally degrading dispensation, yet reduced to the state of cheer leading their king and his cohorts. But then the curtain, as the nature envisages, finally comes down of any era, be it as golden as that of Sri Ram, the Maryada Purushottam, or that disgracefully worse, as that of Dhana Nanda, it had to have a definitive end to it. The rise of great Chanakya, the teacher who prescribed Lokneeti in the geographical entity called Jamboo Dwipa, had overthrown Dhana Nanda, with the help of his disciple, Chandragupta Maurya. Significantly, the code of Lokneeti which great Chanakya had succinctly laid down—A Journey from Rajneeti to Lokneeti encompasses the Supreme vision of great Chanakya–that the happiness and the joy of king are unequivocally premised on the happiness and joy of the subject. Hence, the king lives not for himself, but only for his subject. Chandragupta, who began sulking, beholding the majesticity of the king being substantially diluted, serendipitously stumbled upon the elixir for his own joy and happiness which emanated from the happiness and joy of his subject. Contrast this with contemporary situation, when the Prime Minister, the equivalent of the king of yesteryears, buys a plane worth more than seven thousand crores, builds up a new House for himself, while People were dying like flies falling casualty to Corona. Worse still, if we look at the other options, we have even worst types: Rahul Gandhi, the prince of the dynasty, desperately awaits his turn to replace the incumbent Prime Minister who, if ever becomes PM, will fly to Italy for his sabbatical leaving the nation of 1.30 billion people in lurch; Mamata, on the other hand, who too, has started day dreaming to enter new Prime Minister’s House–at least, her nephew would like us to believe—will make Rohingyas India’s only citizens, and Hindus as their slaves. In fact, the situation is extremely scary, with Constitution being long reduced to a farce, the power elites have molested its sanctity, and only invokes it when it serves their cynical motives.
Now, when the situation has reached its nadir; when the underlying spirit of Indian Constitution being expediently manipulated to interpret exactly opposite of what it prescribes: while Constitution prescribes that the People of India should choose their representatives who, in their turn, will elect the Prime Minister. The existing practice has deteriorated to impose on us as to who we should vote for Prime Ministership. This is the irony of ironies which needs quick fixing. After all, how long people of India will continue to live in blissful ignorance perpetuated by the ruling class by orchestrating red herring? The deliberate ploy to keep the multitude ignorant, unfettered, despite the passage of decades, is the ulterior design to feed upon the gullibility of over a billion people. Worse still, to buy their votes by throwing a rupee five hundred note and doling out deshi daru, how long the rule of Dhana Nand will perpetuate in this country? India needs a desperate change; a change for the better; for the brighter India, where the citizens will be their own Bhagya Vidhata. This is the underlying spirit of Lokneeti which, sooner than later, will be ushered in the country. The people of India should know about this humongous fraud perpetrated upon them for decades, it is the time to let go the diabolical form of Rajneeti, and embrace the pristine values of Lokneeti to usher in the genuine Diwali in the lives of one and all. The nation should rise beyond this deliberately orchestrated bi-polarity, to repose their faith and confidence in the tenets of Lokneeti, the elixir for the empowerment of one and all. It is the time to shake off the shackles of macrocosmic days of Dhana Nanda in India today, and switch over to the resplendent days of Lokneeti of Chanakya-Chandragupta Maurya.
Happy Diwali to all friends and well wishers and the fellow compatriots of Bharatvarsha.
Vivekanand Jha, author of A Journey from Rajneeti to Lokneeti, is an author, academician and a Public intellectual. He is the Convener of Education pe Charcha.
