Do we deserve our rulers?

Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled over a small kingdom somewhere in India. Like many other rulers, he spent his time enjoying the good things in life, with his ministers and officials managing the affairs of his kingdom. One night, he dreamt of a majestic, resplendent deity who thundered – “O King. Anarchy reigns on your kingdom. Go and mingle with your people to find out for yourself the extent of their misery. If you don’t mend your ways, I, your kuldevi, shall destroy you and your family”

The king woke up, very much disturbed and a little scared. He decided to move around his capital incognito. Without fail, he noticed the traders trying to overcharge, the buyers trying to steal and his officials extort. The next day, early morning, he moved further to the outskirts of his capital and saw an old man cleaning thorns and broken glass from his door. Unfortunately, a thorn pricked the poor man’s foot and he fell down crying. Curiously, as he picked the thorn out, he cursed – “The way this thorn has pricked my foot, let a lance pierce the king's heart”. Offended, the king berated the old man stating ‘You fool. You put your foot on the thorn on account of your falling sight and lack of attention. What has your king to do with it that you curse him thus? The old man replied – “Sire. Law and order is absent in this kingdom. We all live in such fear of robbers that while we have buried all our valuables, to save our lives, we spend our nights in the jungle, after securing our houses by spreading thorns, glass outside the entrances. Each morning, we come back, clean and try to go about our tasks only to repeat the act in the evening. Tell me, if our king had attended to our security, would this thorn have pierced me?”

Failing to provide an answer, the king moved ahead, to find a middle aged woman climbing a tree to pluck some berries. Unfortunately, she slipped and fell down, badly hurt. As she gasped, she cursed – “The way I fell down from the tree, let the king fall off his elephant’s howdah and be crushed under its feet”. Angered the king cried – “You old hag. Your youth has withered but it has not deterred you from youthful activities. You fell down because of your infirmity, not the king.” The woman responded tearfully – “My husband was killed by robbers and I have to sell fruits to sustain myself. I have two young girls and normally would never have had to pluck fruits myself. But worried about them getting picked up, I have to keep them secured in the house, away from eyes of everyone. Had the king upheld law and order, my husband would have been alive and even otherwise, I would not have had to climb trees. So, is not the king responsible for my plight?”

After experiencing more of such snubs, the king realized the folly of his ways and started attending to his kingly duties. Soon thereafter, the situation normalized and the people lived a happy and prosperous life!

This was a story and hence there is a happy ending. More importantly, this tale seeks to link the well being of a people to its very top leadership. And haven’t our scriptures spoken oft about the need for the king to uphold dharma? If the king was righteous, the Gods would be happy, the elements of nature bountiful. It would rain on time, crops would be aplenty, rivers would respect their boundaries, there would be no untimely deaths and so on. If the king would be evil, misery befell his people and the people would themselves adopt to evil ways. Yatha Raja Tatha Praja – As the king, so are his people.

Since the days of kings are no more, one wonders if adages of the old hold true today. Certainly, if we elect our rulers, then is it not that the ruled define the rulers rather than the other way? And if I have continuously elected the corrupt, the dynast, the incompetent as our representatives, then maybe we deserve them. It will be quite funny for a dispassionate observer to see a down and out Jayalalitha winning her next elections or an SP regime, known for lax law and order returning after a stint in the opposition. This peculiar phenomenon of the discredited gaining credibility in cycles is not an Indian phenomenon alone. A Mr 10% of Pakistan rose to become its President while Bangladesh alternates between its two begums, both embroiled in various scams.

So, we are told that if we don’t have qualms to bribe the policeman to let us off hook on the challan or pay some money to the babu to get our files moving, are we not corrupt ourselves? Don’t we then deserve corrupt rulers? We decry any attempt to tinker with the rules but ourselves make a hue and cry to get rules waived if it is for Unmukt Chand or Sachin Tendulkar. We claim to hate murderers but believe that Salman Khan is a National icon. We decry short cuts but Dhirubhai is our role model. My countrymen, don’t we then deserve what we get?

But then again, if the system works well, why would there be any need to pay bribes? If there would be a sufficient fear of the law, would anyone break law with impunity? If law would indeed treat everyone alike, would a son or a son-in-law not hesitate before treating the Nation with contempt? We live in a democracy but the design and costs of our electoral system ensures that we always have to choose between the lesser of two evils, as it appears then. If Jaya had to be punished for her monumental follies, did the Tamil people have any option other than to vote for a thoroughly corrupt DMK? Or, if Left was to be punished, did the Bengali people have any option but to vote for Mamata, even when knowing well that she had little by way of a constructive agenda to offer? More critically, the choices of human beings are always governed by the Recency effect. Exploiting this weakness of the human psyche, it is not difficult for a thoroughly incompetent government to attempt purchasing votes through handing out of copious doles near the election time. In a society where sustenance is the pressing concern, values and larger good of the Nation will by default, be condemned to be relegated to secondary concerns.

Our electoral system needs an overhaul if we have to have a make our representatives accountable to us. We need to evaluate if the American system, where the candidates go through an election process before nomination can be introduced. To reduce the ill effect of vote banks, a two tier election process in which the top 2 vote winners are made to go through a play off election, can be introduced. This would ensure that the local representative can justly claim to be a majority choice and better reflect the concerns of our people. A right to recall those representatives, who fail to meet the people’s aspirations can be introduced. To bring in probity, any candidate for any post, whether nominated or elected, should be made to disclose details of the assets, tax returns and income statement for his entire family and not just for the spouse. 

These steps could of course be ineffectual if not backed by judicial and police reforms. But, a beginning has to be made, if we don’t want to see the rulers continue to rule the way they have ruled us for the last 7 decades.