The Riddle of Politics

I never got attracted to politics. In fact, I do not understand what politics is all about. After all, what in heaven's name is politics? To seek an answer I turned to the trusted friend...the O.E.D. According to it politics "is the art and science of government; political affairs or life; (as pl.) political principles." Well, clear as mud-water, isn't it! Nevertheless one can safely conclude that politics does have something to do with government, and hence, governance as well.

If that be so, then what kind of art prompted some wise men of Norway to bestow the Nobel Peace Prize on Barack Obama, the still-wet-behind-the-ears President of the USA who was practically unheard of before his nomination for the big job came by? This gesture does smack strongly of politics since it defies any logic, rhyme or reason. Unless of course it was not politics but economics! Or was this no piece of art at all? Was it the enunciation of some esoteric theory of modern science?

Take the case of our home-grown Manu Sharma. He shot and killed a young lady in a night club in full public because she refused to serve him yet another drink. He was convicted with great difficulty and sentenced to life imprisonment after initially having been aquitted by the law courts. (For God's sake!) It was outraged public opinion that forced the justice system to have a re-look at the case and bring about the conviction. But the coup-de-grace is that, after all this, Sharma was let out on parole for two months ostensibly to attend to his ailing mother who was found busy campaigning for her husband's election! No prizes for guessing that Sharma Snr belongs to the ruling party! Manu Sharma was also to perform the last rites of his grandmother who had passed away months previously! And the piece-de-resistance, as it were, is that the criminal had the temerity to also request for parole in order to attend to his business! And we are talking about a criminal convicted for cold-blooded murder! What kind of subtle art or science was being indulged in by the goverment in providing this out-of-turn parole to a vicious killer?

Our Union Cabinet Ministers choose not to operate from the seat of the nation's government, i.e. the capital, but rather from the state which returned them to the parliament, with both eyes firmly fixed on the Chief Minister's chair. They ignore cabinet meetings with disdain. They oppose moves of their own government. They do not even look towards the Centre, where they belong in the first place, when things go grossly wrong in their own ministries. But they thrive they prosper in the nation's Council of Ministry, since "politics" does not permit anything otherwise.

And the people, poor us, the bulwark of a democracy that India is, is powerless to do anything about this"art and science of government". We vote but we do not choose our government nor the way we want to be governed. This is politics. This is what I do not understand. No wonder a great man had said that"democracy is the worst form of government, except for the others!" But does it mean that we the people have to unendingly resign ourselves to suffer under undesirable governance just becaus of the so-called "compulsions of politics?" Will the good people in government continue to be arm-twisted by the bad ones, not in the interest of the nation and its populace, but in the dubious interest of politics? There is obvious truth in the belief that good people have just to do nothing to enable evil to take root.

Because of this and much more, I do not understand politics, O.E.D.'s contribution notwithstanding. The persisting fear is....what other acts of horror are in store for us in its name or in its compulsions?