RK Nagar symptom of crippling poll disease

It is the image hit about which no one seems to care. But then you don't expect politicians to be concerned about anything except power and themselves, of course.

Tamil Nadu's name is mud these days. No one seems outraged by all the things that happened to the state in the wake of the former chief minister's hospitalisation and subsequent death.

The RK Nagar poll experience is the icing on the cake as it were, the last nail in the coffin of infamy surrounding the politics of the state.

The cancellation of the bypoll did not even cause a ripple. But then this is the state with considerable experience in these matters, beginning with the Thirumangalam bypoll of long ago and going through Thanjavur and Arruvankurichi to culminate in the very constituency from which J. Jyalalithaa stood and won twice, however not doing too much for its reputation as the lesser end of Chennai where the North-South divide is as pronounced as the two banks of the Thames in the city of Westminster in London.

RK Nagar passes on into history as another constituency where a poll could not be held because the atmosphere was so vitiated by open bribery on the part of at least two of the leading contestants, inevitably the Dravidian majors.  

The race for power became so intent in this poll post the Jaya demise that those in the fray with the biggest stake and the most to win or lose stopped at nothing.

Following the law was the last thing on anyone's agenda, so much so it appeared that at last one party to this charade seemed so determined as to make us believe they would be happy if the poll were postponed.

In public they probably said the opposite. However, we need no reminding that the last politician to tell the truth is probably long interred. A recently recycled saying of Alfred E. Neumann said it all in a meme with the classic line — The only time a politician tells the truth is when he says another politician is lying.

This is a reflection of how low the stock of the average politician has become in a state in which a minister can enact a drama about sending his daughter to school when Income-Tax investigators were wanting to know about a diabolical scheme to spread the moolah in a systematic way to 80 per cent of the voters of RK Nagar.

If Rs 89 crore said to have been earmarked for bribes is a small matter, just imagine how much of an enterprise the running of a state has become.

Political parties could say it is their money, but how so much could have been obtained to be spent on just one constituency tells a tale of where we stand today as politicians have hijacked the state as a business proposition while the voters count the measly sums of Rs 5,000 as a prized return for their vote.

The problem is resurrection is impossible now that the state has gone down this path in the past 25 years or so to the extent that it is Tamil Nadu Inc. to be owned by those who can corner a meaningful majority of the popular vote. That it may be no different in many other states is of no consolation.

It is a different matter that the decision to postpone the poll by the Election Commission of India is mere escapism.

The EC will hold the poll at a later date when exactly the same players will face the voters and the highest bidder might still win, as we saw in Thanjavur and Aruvankurichi.

There are provisions in the law that can be used against political parties and their candidates but they are rarely used by an EC that has progressively failed to use its powers since the days of the strongman TN 'Alsatian' Seshan who demonstrated what a committed bureaucrat can do to show the path.

The idea we cherished of a democracy in which people had the choice of who they wished among political parties and their members to lead them seems to be under threat, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.  

What we need for the people to reclaim it is a strong Election Commission of India whose power will reflect downwards.

The problem is politicians will not want a powerful EC so that they can play the game as they wish. And the people are stuck in between. RK Nagar is only a symptom of a disease, which must be cured if elections are to be free and fair again.