Politics of one-upmanship doing no good to anybody

India seems to be passing through a peculiar phase of politics. This article may not be so palatable to many of the political leaders but then facts cannot be changed. Compared to be old time politicians, the present leaders who run the affairs both at the central and state level seem to be ignoring the ground realities in the process of governance.

In the past the leaders used to be among the people most of the time and were open to suggestions from all quarters. Meaningful debates and discussions used to take place in Parliament and Legislatures. Not that the opposition and ruling party never clashed with each other. They used to clash and accuse each other but in a proper and a decent manner and never crossed the limits nor did they ever drag the family members into politics nor did they indulge in mudslinging the way it is being done now.

Now all norms have been thrown to the winds. We have written many times in these columns on how the level of discussion had taken a nosedive and how the Parliament and Assemblies are wasting public money by stalling the proceedings in the name of protests and using foul language instead of giving importance resolving issues through proper discussion.

Confrontationist attitude, over-dependence on freebies and dividing people on caste basis have become the order of the day to woo the voters and in the process ground realities are being ignored.

We are also witnessing lack of prudence in financial management. Governments are taking decisions sitting in ivory towers. The State governments keep announcing freebies beyond the revenue earning capacity of the States pushing them into heavy debt trap and all this in the name of welfare measures.

The governments and their financial advisors may defend heavy borrowings but that really does not help the economy and ultimately, it is the genuine taxpayer who gets more and more burdened. It also effects attracting investments.

The most unfortunate aspect of governance in the country today is that all political parties are adopting short-term measures and indulging in more of theatrics with single point agenda to come back to power.

Why not work hard, with greater responsibility, understand what the people really need and take decisions in consultation with stake holders and win the good will of people and come back to power? Use muscle power and administrative power, decimate the opposition and harass anyone who raises his voice seems to be the style of running administration and no party is exception to it.

Let us take the example of the paddy procurement in Telangana. The Centre blames the State, the State accuses the Centre. No one seems to be doing anything to help the farmers.

'While farmers work in acres, not in hours', the TRS and the BJP in Telangana were toiling even more to hit the ball into each other's court ever since the paddy procurement issue snowballed into a major concern. They refuse to accept that it is the responsibility of both the Centre and the State. Both the parties are more concerned about how to politicise the issue and use it as a tool to hit each other. The TRS wants to give it a colour that the Centre was against Telangana and hence was targeting the farmers. The Centre wants to prove that are the real saviours of the farmers and had gone overboard in agreeing to buy nearly 60 lakh metric tonnes of paddy during present kharif and had not only enhanced the quantity of last rabi crop but also gave four extensions but it is the State which had failed to deliver. The State alleges that the Centre was not lifting and was not providing rakes. The Centre says they are ready to provide as many rakes as required. But still the problem remains unresolved.

Taking the political battle further, the State government proposes to spend over Rs 200 crore on hiring about 1000 trucks which perhaps includes the cost of paddy they would pay to the farmers and take it to Delhi to dump them in front of India Gate, the house of Union Minister G Kishen Reddy and Parliament House if not in front of PMs residence.

What kind of thought is this is something one fails to understand. Why spend such huge amounts and waste the paddy? Instead, why not the State government spend that money in buying paddy from the farmers? The minister says they do not have enough space to store the paddy.

Well when the State government has created irrigation facilities, it must have calculated the likely growth in paddy output and should have simultaneously planned for enhancing storage facilities and should have encouraged manufacturing units of agro-based products. The idea of carrying paddy and dumping in Delhi may give some headlines for the media but neither would it help the farmers nor would it help the TRS to get tonnes of votes.

The fact is government had not gone in with comprehensive planning. This exactly is what is happening across the country. Even Centre is not focussing on such measures. It also makes quintals of promises on the eve of elections whether it be some assembly (particularly in North as it is not much bothered about South) or when it must face Lok Sabha elections. It even rakes up issues like Special Category Status contrary to its earlier statement in Parliament that special status was a thing a past.

The strategy of all political parties is confusing the voters since they cannot convince them as there is not much any party had done for the people. But they should understand that people are not so innocent. We have seen how note for vote in Huzurabad by elections did not work as expected though the rate for each vote was nothing less than Rs 5000 if not more.

In case of the paddy purchase issue too, both the TRS and BJP should understand that the farmers are angry with both the parties. The farmers are now opening up and have come to the conclusion that the way the two governments are quarrelling over paddy procurement is disgusting. This indicates that in future none of them can be their saviour – neither the Centre nor the State as they both want to escape from the responsibility.

They are engaged in a vicious game of accusing each other to divert the people's attention from other major issues. It's ridiculous to see the Chief Minister sitting in a dharna in Hyderabad.

The farmers say that the government should have come up with its agriculture plan for Rabi much earlier. Now they do not have enough time to prepare their farms for other crops. The State government only says it will not buy paddy during rabi. But so far it has not given any guarantee that if will buy alternate crops like maize, sorghum or millets or pulses.

All this confusion is giving rise to farmers in the border districts to smuggle paddy out to neighbouring states with help of middlemen so that they can recover at least some of the investment they had made.

It's high time the ruling parties realise the ground situation and evolve plans to provide appropriate and good governance. Agitation for separate state was different issue. Similar formula for every issue could prove to be harmful to the state and the farmers.