> (politically) in India. Unfortunately, all of those who can really make > a difference are busy "living" their lives and those in power are mostly > those who have nothing better to do in life. People who are honest are > probably knocked off before they can make a dent in the corrupt
I don't have very much (good) to say about the character of most politicians in India, but I think - moral failings aside - it would be a mistake to believe that politicians are stupid/lazy/incompetent/not capable of succeeding at anything else. I think you need to be remarkably smart, hard-working and intelligent to be successful as a politician in India (family connections help - like in any other profession - but they can only take you so far). In other words, the fact that many (most?) politicians are corrupt doesn't mean they are incompetent - it just means that that's how political culture has degraded over the decades in India. I read somewhere recently that "India votes for identity, not policy" and I thought that was a very apt quote (and a large part of the problem). I mean, what is the incentive for a politician to stay honest if he knows that his corruption (or even his violent criminal record for that matter) and complete lack of policy and ideas have no relevance to his ability to get elected and wield power, as long as he controls the correct caste votebank? I was once discussing this with some American friends and they said it sounded a lot like the days "machine politics" in the US a century or so ago - although for them the votebanks were divided along ethnic/national origin lines. They got over it. I think we will too. > > Yours truly is guilty as the rest of the "living" people. I have no time > or inclination right now to actively involve myself in politics to be > able to make a difference. Neither can I start a grassroots movement to > make an iota of difference to the already corrupt politicians. Those who You - and the middle class in general - just need to start voting. As a general rule in India, people who can manage to do so, just isolate themselves from all the problems - it's people who can't do that who wind up voting.
