R.I.P., decent, civil political discourse!

The year 2021 is the year of Ox as per the Chinese Zodiac calendar. It is the strongest animal according to the Chinese and the symbol means diligence, strength, honesty, down-to-earth persistence, and wealth. However, these are internal qualities that don't belong to our politicians. The only quality they love is the thickness of this particular animal's skin. Nothing else matters to them. Look at the colourful language that our leaders have started using in their moral slide. One may call them curse words, swear words, profanities, four-letter words or imprecations..it does not matter as long one knows them..just use them.

If nothing else, at least accuse the other of some form of corruption. Andhra Pradesh saw several developments that left it sometimes bemused and many times aghast these 12 months. Some might have been offended while the others could have been ruminating the fate of the polity.

No doubt, AP now is a residual State. There is not much amusement to the Telugus here. The only entertainment that it could boast of, the films, are also not many to be seen. So, our politicians devised a new entertainment that could keep everyone hooked. In fact, the entire State has become one big colosseum where our political gladiators have been clashing.

No one was spared during the sparring. Judiciary continued to take the brunt, the executive had to beat a hasty retreat after displaying some exceptional loyalty to its bosses and the legislature burnt its fingers playing scrabble.

The bottomless efforts ended up in dragging the families of the top leaders into the muck. On the other hand, the politicians loved their dribbling skills too and played soccer with every institution including that of the State Election Commission.

What was surprising is the alacrity with which the social media played its role gutsily only to land in trouble finally when judiciary woke up to the realty.

Few would deny the indispensability of Social Media in contemporary society, empowering the communication process like never before. In the last decade and a half we have witnessed an unprecedented growth in social networking sites, with increased presence of the population in the virtual platform to connect and share with like-minded individuals on diverse political, social and economic issues.

Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp are among some of the most popular social networking sites where political engagement and participation has largely increased among political organisations and parties especially among the political leaders, creating an augmented virtual sphere for online political discourse and interaction.

However, politicos or celebrities using these platforms to meet their goals is one thing. The activists of social media found a new disparaging energy to strike at will at their perceived opponents.

There was only one constant throughout. Caste!

A rebel MP trains his guns against the ruling party and gets targeted. It soon becomes a caste war. The ruling party attacks high ranking officials, a remnant of the previous regime, it become a caste bugle. The Judiciary is attacked again because of caste matters. Petitions are filed, counters are lodged and Joinders take place...all in support of a particular caste.

For an outsider the ugly war of words makes it sound as if there are no politicians in the State except caste leaders. What a swell ! All that is left now is the debasement of AP political discourse. It was not something new in Indian politics but the grammar, tone and vocabulary of debates and discussion in AP political discourse has escalated to new lows. The new trend is the use of derogatory and abusive language to make a point, even it may be a trivial one. The other is the use of devious language to make arguments to divide the body politic. Both have the potential to change the practice of politics altogether.

This coarse undignified political discourse has become our new educational policy. Everyone is using and promoting the expletive to promote their own agenda. Welcome to the true residual State of morality, ethics and civil behaviour. There is no need to use a bar of soap to wash your mouth after using such colourful language here. No mask and no sanitization required.