The DNA of Politicians

Anyone who follows Indian politics (or politics anywhere else) will agree to the fact that almost all politicians hate being criticised. The politicians also perceive themselves to be beyond questioning and assume that they always act in the best interest of party, country and the people. These traits seem the inherent part of a politician’s DNA.

Mamata Banerjee, Narendra Modi, Mulayam Yadav, Indira Gandhi.. the list is tiresomely long. I wonder whether this is one of the basic attributes of being successful in politics. I am utterly disappointed by our politicians. In a democracy, politicians are to represent peoples view and work for people’s interest. This requires a personality and attitude that are accommodating of criticisms, different opinions and an open mind  for participatory decision making. Sad that our politician’s DNA  does value these things.

Arvind Kejriwal is the newest entrants in the list and a very apt example. His entire tirade was against the centralised and dictatorial processes and he promised that everyone will be part of the governance and decision making both at the party level as well as in the governance of state. But  he seems to have developed allergy to criticism. Whatever be his intentions and however selfless be his acts, criticism is something that cannot be ignored. Criticism is part of the process. It need to be factored in and properly addressed through a transparent process.

Shame on Us!

I just watched this interview of the lawyer who is defending accused of Nirbhaya’s rape case.  To say the least, this is utterly disgusting to here his views on rape and women.

The lawyer is obviously justifying his asinine opinions of woman and sex through his imbecile arguments that are based his contorted understanding of what he calls Indian culture. Unfortunately, the lawyer is not alone in putting the blame on rape victims (he explicitly mentions that there is no rape without a girl/woman’s consent), his views have been reflected by many of our politicians, policemen and godmen.

This is a more serious concern that despite all the education,exposure and media campaigns, women are still seen in a very demeaning and cruel way in the society which ironically asserts “Yatra Naryastu Pujyante, Ramante Tatra Devata (Where women are worshiped, divinity resides there)”. We, as a society too, have been able to force change this thinking where women are seen as sex-objects, not equal to men and several stupid stereotypes that men creates.

Somewhere I see failure of our education system and social sanctions that have not made people discard these kind of thinking. I wish along with pointing out what is wrong with our society we also start seriously focusing on how to change the situation.