Recalling the idea of fairness and honour in governance

The idea of fairness and honour, our aged-old tradition, are indispensable in reviving our community. In contrast, over-emphasis on expediency has led to excessive misuse and exception, rendering the whole system dysfunctional. Morality is a thing of a far cry today and is being relegated as a system with no real application.

The most visible effect is growing over-dependence on outside assistance and dissipation of freedom and autonomy in the true sense. Over addiction to government aid in every sphere of life while no sufficient production is visible starting from food grains are simple truths and manifestations of a decadent community.

That’s the reason why MLA and autonomous district council (ADC) elections are overrated and fought tooth and nail, deploying all possible means fair and unfair, a triumph of Machiavellianism over Platonic idealism. But Machiavelli, mind you, mirrors our sad reality: confused, messed up and divided. There has to be a balance.

Ours is all about cronyism or crony capitalism that thrives on illegal collusion between politicians and contractors. This has become the main source of wealth, at least for our community. But why? Can’t we work and generate wealth meaningfully? Are we being destined to remain a perpetual beggar community? It’s time we slow down and recall Kant’s categorical imperative — to act only on that maxim by which you can at the same time that it should become a universal law and never separate from means to an end— to rediscover and enjoy the fruit of real hard work and creativity.

Remember our pioneers in education and Christianity. They worked hard in spirit and action. Churches were built facing insurmountable persecution and challenges. Despite meagre resources, schools used to run to promote education, and there was no compromise. Roads were cut open with raw muscle power. That’s how our foundation as modern society was laid. But we lost it somewhere after them.

Crony contractors and MLAs will not make us rich. It’s just a fable not real in a true sense. The moment one reaches a higher income group or access to higher wealth, fair or unfair, standard of living and economic security needs get enhanced at geometric progression.

So no wonder, political class and core workers consume all the funding for economic ( infrastructure) and social overheads. To appreciate the true expenditure scenario, let us examine an item for funding available to one MLA in the state and an item for his expenditure.

Say, sanctioned local area development fund is Rs 3 crore per year at the current rate. Over his tenure of five years, this works out to Rs 15 crore. Going by the trend, he needs one fancy car above Rs 40 lakh and a fleet of SUV/MUV, that combined, easily run above Rs 1 crore, and recurring expenditure on staff, operation and maintenance will cost a lot more. Besides, with a high taste, one Gucci luxury handbag can cost above Rs 1 lakh today.

His next to kin, close inner circle of supporters and crony contractors expect no less to make hay while the sun shines. Even if he brings in hundreds of crores of rupees, the sponges around him are too numerous. Besides, he needs to plan for future contests too.

Buying and muscling into public office needs proper social cost-benefit analysis and persistent wide publicity. So, it’s not a surprise that not much money is left for meaningful public work. The current approach or model is not working. Elections should be less expensive and a man of straw should be discouraged. The public should not run after unreal dreams.

Rather they should learn to enjoy real hard work and real productive activities while developing their personality imbued with high value and ability or become a better version of themselves. After all, we only live once and have to do it right. That way, the community will produce sufficient goods and services to create wealth for all and ensure general happiness.

Government funding for public goods, perhaps, should be augmented with local resources to create satisfactory public assets both in quantitative and qualitative terms. So, in this sense, the real duty of a public representative, when redefined truly, is to aid such productive activities by formulating new policies and fine-tuning government functions in providing effective and efficient public services. It’s not to manipulate and disturb the ambience for productive activities.

No doubt, identity politics is critically important, but fairness will ensure electing genuine representatives who represent the will and wish of the people. It’s an extreme pessimism to believe that people’s choices would most probably go wrong if left to them. One should trust the public because they know what they want. When they are over-conditioned or constrained against their organic or free decision-making process, then things go wrong.

If we are sober enough and don’t deny the reality, we must agree to the idea that we have seen enough in our lifetime. Through bitter experiences and as we age, we must realise the need to abandon what is not right and make corrections, otherwise, a sense of insecurity and hopelessness will prevail upon us. Contrary to what we strive for, the outside world too will always dismiss us as a backward community so long as we fail to stand on our own feet. Such a negative impression works to our great disadvantage.

Of course, there are innumerable debatable issues that are too complicated to reach agreeable conclusions. It’s a waste of time. But reviving a sense of fairness and honour will recreate a space for common ground or a meeting point, and that will only guarantee our way forward to progress and prosperity.

We need to be careful with what we develop and how we use our institutions and conventions. If we fail to imbibe positive values in our public life and in running our socio-political institutions, a skewed system can paralyse us contrary to their original enabling role.

We need not lose heart or bury our heads in the sand over the present setbacks. Hegel would say in his dialectical idealism that human progress has not always been a linear progression, rather, regression is a normal phenomenon. However, it’s up to us how we stop the uncanny colossal mistakes of the past and present from continuing.

Do we co-opt or ride it along into the future or do we actively make efforts to discontinue it? It may be difficult to fight against the negative undercurrents in the present but the choice is there for the younger generation because individual behemoths can not live forever. Yet the danger is, it may assume immortality once seeped into the bloodstream of our culture and practices. Let’s bet in unison to escape the Machiavellian trap that has ensnared us for nearly two decades now.

The author is a homemaker and did her Master’s in Social Work.

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