Inspiration to this came from my father when he said "I am a big notch beurocrat; I have a salary of Rs. 35,000; I can be honest. But how can I expect a peon with salary of Rs 4000 to be honest. Its is impractical. And brutal. And dishonest"
Just thought of some wierd idea for improving Indian political system.. Brickbats welcome..Bouqets most welcome.
Should Indian political parties be paying salaries to its workers ? It was a concept that was tried (and perhaps still is) in Communist parties. But I am talking about bigger salaries. This system I feel can cleanse the Indian political system. (You can not live at Rs 850 salary in Delhi)
I feel the reason behind corruption is that once a person decides to step into politics there is no legitimate way for him\her to earn money. We are still stuck with politics being the oh so noble profession. But it still is a profession. Think of it. We would never had Gandhiji as Mahatma had Gokhale not persuaded him to stop worryin aout money for his family and that people would take care of him. And they did take of him. And he did not paid to most of them back. And he was the mahatma. But what happens to the young guy who at a stage in his life tells his parents "I am going to be a politician".
Think of yourslef as that person. And think what would parents reaction be. You can fight all about chaning the system and the system needing good people. But what happens and the end of it. How will you support your life. Either your turn yourself to the mahatma and reduce your needs to the minimum. But what if you can't ? You then indulge in all illegitimate methods to earn money. And turn into a goon .Is politics a profession only for saints or goons ?
sadly this has been the story of our democracy for the past 50-60 years. For the 10-15 years you had saints( till late 60s). Then you had all goons( represented by Sanjay). Then JP launched his well intentioned but completely misdirected sampoorna Kranti missile. It had all the noble aspiring youngsters like Laloo, paswan jumping into politics to clean it. But without money to feed his family of 9 (or 10 or 11) did laloo had a choice other than to turn to corruption ?So after that you had two breeds of corrupt folks- one new breed of Jannta family and other old family of congress fighting till late 90s. In 90s with growing frustration among people emerged a new alternative. The RSS family. But it had a gene pool almost same as the other two. Once it failed you now have the current no one is fit to rule situation.
And let us admit there have been attempts to cleanse the system. By Rajiv, by Vinoba Bhave, by JP, by many people. But I suspect it is more directed at the superficial. The political parties pick from people who select to be there workers (atleast theoritically). And these workers do not have any means to support them and there family if they enter politics full time (and you can't make it big unless you are full time). So you either kill your desires (which is a great idea but not always possible). Or they be paid honest salaries.
There are some more ideas but let us open this to discussion first.
2 comments:
I always think, why can't there be a corporate party. I mean one with a leader like gandhi, wherein if somebody takes bribe, he is fired form the party. And the partymen are paid well.
Or to some to more practical terms, what about paying a handsome salary to NGO workers. There are many people, who want to do something for nation, but not able to do, due to family and economic pressures.
All ministers on the singapore government are CEO's from multinationals and they are paid in millions.
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