It’s time now for mature politics

Present day politics are veering round as to who is A team of BJP or Congress and who is B team, challenges like offering return gifts and working out strategies to make the legislatures opposition mukt. It is unfortunate that Neither the government is playing its role properly nor are the opposition parties. Both behave like sworn enemies. There is no outreach between the leaders today.

The ruling parties refuse to accept that the opposition parties have an important role to play in the states ruled by them but vow to bring qualitative change in Indian polity. A senior journalist Shekhar Gupta has rightly commented that today we have strong dictatorial Alpha males as leaders.

Though he was referring to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is an apt observation in regard to many other present-day politicians. The role of opposition party in India is as important as that of the ruling party. They ensure that the acts of the ruling party are not detrimental to the interest of general public or nation at large.

The role of the opposition party is not to oppose every decision of the ruling party. Rather, it is the duty of the opposition party to support the ruling party for the acts that are in the interest of the state or nation.

The opposition parties have a very significant role in democracy since they are the representatives of the people to safeguard their interests. They should be able to question the government if it fails to keep its promise. The Government too should have the magnanimity to look at the criticism from a positive angle and correct their mistakes.

The role of opposition parties gains importance as they are supposed to be the watchdogs and warn the government. It is also necessary that sometimes they show their protest too against the government. Thus, they try to keep the government aware of all the issues so that everything may be on the right path and all-round development may be seen in the country.

But the present opposition Parties never try to extend their support to the ruling party in their welfare measures. Instead they only oppose the government, which is in no way a healthy atmosphere for the progress of the country. All the parties think only for the next election not for the next generation.

The media should also play a vital and bold role in a democracy since it is the popular forum of educating the public and also expressing the public viewpoint. But this has also become a rare commodity. Both the ruling party and opposition should observe the rules of the game.

The opposition parties have been behaving irresponsibly and indulge in unhealthy and destructive criticism instead of constructive discussions thereby they are endangering the democratic fabric.

Unfortunately, the political outlook in the country refuses to mature. Both the ruling party and opposition behave as if they are sworn enemies. Whether there is any need or not the ruling party tries to see that the public representatives of opposition parties are bought over and the legislature parties merge with them.

If they refuse to join ruling party, the opposition legislators are subjected to problems and their constituencies are not given necessary funds. While the ruling parties want almost absolute powers for the states and talk of federal cooperative rule fail to implement where there are in power.

All political parties and leaders should work among the people, win their confidence on the strength of their stated goals and build public opinion in their favour and take the country forward to enjoy better standards of living. But all leaders from Prime Minister to State CMs indulge in either raking up sentiment or theatrics. This apart money also plays a great role in elections.

It is a known fact that rich politicians and parties buy votes, throw temporary advantages to the poor at time of elections and make several promises. Mere proclamation of bringing qualitative change and slogans like cooperative federalism cannot change the fortunes of the people. People themselves have to change their future.