In Uttarakhand political crisis, the people were betrayed

The uncertain clouds of constitutional crisis are gone and democracy comes to its feet again. But the real question remains unanswered. Is it what the people of Uttarakhand wanted? In this whole game of dog and bone for political might, 11 chosen representatives switched sides, open horse trading for selling and buying them happened, corruption showed its ugly face again but at the end nothing changed. People who were in power played the game, few among them won and few fell. It was a game played by the power elite where the "people" had no say, no referee, no victory, no loss.

So where is democracy? That is envisaged for the people and by the people? It looks a politics by the elite and the powerful over the people. As Italian sociologist Vilfredo Pareto said, history is a never ending "circulation of elites", and nothing really changes in history, it only remains a "graveyard of aristocracies".

The constant upwelling of different political parties one after another, predatory politics and its never-ending nature seems to reflect Pareto's circulation of elites.

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Democracy is just an illusion of free choice and participation when the public knows nothing other than what the media portraits. When there is no direct communication among the chosen leader and the electing mass, no questioning by the public and an excessive dependence on news media for political awareness, democracy becomes nothing but a mindless consumer.

In the case of Uttarakhand, none of the MLAs seemed to have a concern for the real challenges of law-making. The state has been facing loss of agriculture, drought, forest fires, dying ecosystems, excessive mining, rampant unemployment, alcoholism and dying tourism. The capital city at the western end of the hill state became the epicentre of political earthquakes and big decisions. Representative and progressive governance has been missing. There has been domination by the chosen few.

A layman, who does not understand the constitutional complexity, is not concerned about which is the ruling party. He is concerned about the timely delivery of social security measures, stable politics for the implementation of long-term and sustainable policies, an alert bureaucracy which does not wait for the Centre and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) for tackling forest fires and a sensitive intelligentsia which does not place the whole burden of ecological loss on the poor.

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Women of the hills do not ask for a share in power but an accessible water source, a little less tiring day in the fields, some rain for their millets, protection of its crops and fruit trees from wild animals and a nearby school for their children. Elders, left alone in barren villages, want a glimpse of the postman bringing a letter or some money from their migrated families and children want enough food.

Entangled in issues of their own, our leaders forgot it all. The monopoly of power with a few old and influential politicians who had similar and interconnected lifestyles, who always held posts of command, bouncing from one party to another, who knew nothing about the harsh living conditions of the state, is nothing but colonisation of the hill state by its own leaders.

This monopoly is cohesive to the core when it exploits people, and fragments only when its sectional interests are not met, not for advocating people's welfare. The politics was supposed to be a debate between people and leaders who will represent it and strive for its betterment, but now it looks like a war of who has the right to exploit more.

The saddest part is that media, the fourth pillar of democracy is neck-deep in this case, presenting the false political crisis as "state crisis", which it is not. Nothing changes when one elite group replaces another in the fight of political supremacy, they all are exploiters and what we need is an alternative.

Whatever little hope that there is, it is from the youth of the state to come up as strong-willed leaders, use life experiences of struggle in the hills and replace old and greedy politics and establish a true and interactive democracy.

The hope is also on the media doing investigative journalism, and engaging in not just make-believe sting operations, but exposing real life crises and helping those who hardly have anyone by their side.