Black money and politics

ReflectionS

democracy b n uniyal

 

Black money and politics

People expect too much of their politicians. They wish them to be clean, moral, ethical, honest, upright, truthful and saintly, if not saints. In a word, people want their politicians to be all that they themselves are not. This is an attitude we have inherited from a generation of politicians who actually fit this bill.  Early public life in India did not require much money. The times were simple then and participation in public causes was voluntary, spontaneous. The first generation of public leaders comprised mostly successful professionals—lawyers, journalists, judges and teachers. They often spent their own money for public causes, such as printing and distributing pamphlets, resolutions, etc., for protest meetings and rallies. That was the case from the 1883 Ilbert Bill protests to the founding of the Congress in 1885, when organisers charged a membership fee from delegates, a convention which continued largely until Gandhi’s ascendance in the Congress at Nagpur in 1920.READ MORE