Skip to main content

'Mockery of democracy': Distributing tickets to turncoats, film stars or celebrities

By Sudhansu R Das* 
The candidates’ capacity to spend and win elections is not his real capacity to protect the interest of the state. So, distributing tickets on the basis of the candidates’ chance of winning is a political blunder because it excludes a large number of leaders who can’t spend but are quite capable of contributing to improve the governance and quality of life in the country.
Distributing tickets to turncoats, film stars or celebrities without knowing their real contribution to society is a mockery of democracy. A large number of potential young leaders face exclusion for life time because they can’t spend money on election campaigns. 
What is the use of living in a political party for life time which can’t support the dedicated workers to become public representatives? The interest of the party and the nation is above the whims and fancy of the Supremos.
Political parties randomly pick up non-party members to contest elections at the last moment. Major political parties in Odisha should understand the sentiments of their workers and give tickets to the deserving candidates only.
They can choose from the general public but the candidates should be good; he may not have enough money to spend on a high profile election campaign but has the capacity and the vision to contribute for nation building. The political parties should meet the election expenditure of those candidates.
There is no dearth of brave scholars, academicians, journalists, social workers, experienced farmers, skilled artisans, saints and seers in Odisha; they should be given party tickets to contest election before it is too late and they become too far from politics. Political parties which are flushed with donations from electoral bonds have the opportunity to distribute tickets to the capable people in the society.
A rich man, a rich cricketer, a rich industrialist and a rich film actor can win the election, but what will he do post election? A few of them have really contributed to nation building in the past many decades. The rest have remained absent maximum hours during the parliament and assembly sessions; this is a colossal waste only.
Now BJP, BJD and Congress should immediately withdraw tickets distributed to those people and give the tickets to the candidates who can protect the economic, social and cultural interest of the state. Over decades,
Odisha has lost its precious border land, language, culture, natural resources, crop diversity, precious temple idols and water bodies because the parties have given tickets to undeserving candidates to fight elections. The state has lost too much and the people have suffered endlessly. Time has come to correct the past mistake.
When an election is declared, many opportunist leaders hop from one party to another; they read the direction of the wind and jump in that direction. Those leaders take advantage of the weak leadership of the party and easily enter into a new party just before the election.
Many unknown new faces without any contribution to society and the state get tickets. The centrist parties of India, the BJP and the Congress, should have a strong policy to prevent turncoats' entry into their parties; they can sabotage democracy.
The nation should have strong laws to eradicate the turncoats and party hoppers for the safety of the democracy. Indian intellectuals, judiciary, media, social reformers, saints and seers should wake up to stop the hazard of turncoat politics.
The centrist parties should not look at the face value of the candidates; they should not give tickets to people with celebrity status or some glamour attached without judging their contribution to the society. A film star is useful in cinema only and he may not be able to serve the state.
Political candidates should know the pulse of the people, the economy and the culture of the state; they should know the status of unemployment, farmers, weavers, artisans, industries, services sector, small businessmen, water bodies, crop diversity and the social environment etc.
Anybody with a film background or with money power should not make a cakewalk into any centrist party. Politics is a seva and not a Bhog Bilas which no candidate should aspire to get it through politics.
The state media should help good candidates to win elections. Media should educate and inform people about the candidates’ capacity to govern. Without the support of the media, it is not possible for any turncoat to win an election; it is not possible for any party to win an election with bad candidates.
The media in Odisha can play a key role to project good candidates irrespective of party. The electoral battle is about to begin. The sound of the Panchajanya is heard. The media, intellectuals, youth and conscious citizens have to decide which side they should choose.

Comments

TRENDING

Gujarat's high profile GIFT city 'fails to attract' funds, India's FinTech investment dips

By Rajiv Shah  While the Narendra Modi government may have gone out of the way to promote the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), sought to be developed as India’s formidable financial technology hub off the state capital Gandhinagar, just 20 km from Ahmedabad, a recent report , prepared by Tracxn Technologies suggests that neither of the two cities figure in the list of top FinTech funding receiving centres.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Why Ramdev, vaccine producing pharma companies and government are all at fault

By Colin Gonsalves*  It was perhaps Ramdev’s closeness to government which made him over-confident. According to reports he promoted a cure for Covid, thus directly contravening various provisions of The Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954. Persons convicted of such offences may not get away with a mere apology and would suffer imprisonment.

RSS 'never supported' reservation, Golwalkar didn't think casteism hindered Hindu unity

By Shamsul Islam*  RSS which claims to be the biggest organization of Hindus in the world is, in fact, a unique organization which trains its cadres in manufacturing and spreading lies in the pure Goebbelsian tradition. It functions as a gurukul; a high Caste learning institution for Hindu high castes where students also graduate in practicing what George Orwell termed ‘doublespeak’ and thus RSS has rightly been described as an “organization that thrives on political doublespeak”. [Edit, ‘Sangh’s triple-speak’, "The Times of India", 26 August 2002]. It is through lies that poison is spread against lower castes, minorities and all those who stand for multi-culturalism.

Urban Naxal to Amit Shah, AAP Bharuch candidate tops ADR's Gujarat criminal cases list

By Rajiv Shah  Refusing to go beyond the data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on the Lok Sabha candidates’ own declarations of their criminal record, educational qualification and assets, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), a top-notch advocacy group, has declared Aam Aadmi Party candidate Chaitar Vasava, 35, having the highest number of criminal cases of all those fighting the electoral battle on 26 seats in Gujarat.

Modi win may force Pak to put Kashmir on backburner, resume trade ties with India

By Salman Rafi Sheikh*  When Narendra Modi returned to power for a second term in India with a landslide victory in 2019, his government acted swiftly. Just months after the election, the Modi government abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution of India. In doing so, it stripped the special constitutional status conferred on Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, and downgraded its status from a state with its own elected assembly to a union territory administered by the central government in Delhi. 

Decade long Modi rule 'undermines' people's welfare and democracy

By Ram Puniyani*  Modi has many ploys up his sleeves when it comes to propaganda. On one hand he is turning many a pronouncements of Congress in the communal direction, on the other he is claiming that whatever has been achieved during last ten years of his rule is phenomenal, but it is still a ‘trailer’ and the bigger things are in the offing as he claims to be coming to power yet again in 2024. While his admirers are ga ga about his achievements, the truth lies somewhere else.

Malayalam movie Aadujeevitham: Unrealistic, disservice to pastoralists

By Rosamma Thomas*  The Malayalam movie 'Aadujeevitham' (Goat Life), currently screening in movie theatres in Kerala, has received positive reviews and was featured also on the website of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The story is based on a 2008 novel by Benyamin, and relates the real-life story of a job-seeker from Kerala tricked into working in slave conditions in a goat farm in Saudi Arabia.

Can universal basic income help usher in sustainable egalitarianism in India?

By Prof RR Prasad*  The ongoing debate on application of Article 39(b) in the Supreme Court on redistribution of community material resources to subserve common good and for ushering in an egalitarian society has opened new vistas wherein possible available alternative solutions could be explored.

Adopted from British policy of divide and rule: Hindus versus Muslims

Syed Osman Sher*  The slogan of “Hindus versus Muslims” is resounding these days so forcefully that the democratic and syncretic fabric of Indian society seems, once again, to be put to tatters by hatred. And this voice is coming loud from no less a person than the head of the Indian Government himself who is at the helm of affairs for the last ten years.