The Hindu Business Line : Alarming trends

THE standards of public life and the quality of political discourse are falling precipitously everywhere, but some States, particularly those in the South, were until some years ago comparatively better off in respect of observance of decencies and discipline. Judged by recent happenings, they seem to be fast catching up with the alarming trends prevalent elsewhere.

Election time nowadays brings out the worst in all of them, leading to the ironical situation of democratic processes being enforced at gun-point by having to deploy large contingents of police and para-military personnel at election booths on the days of polling and counting of votes. Here again, at least the civic and panchayat elections used to be free from the kind of murder and mayhem that occurred at the time of Assembly and Parliamentary elections.

Alas, no longer. Times are a-changing for the worse. Even the Southern States are not an exception. Some years ago, for the first time, goondas let loose by contesting parties invaded counting booths during Assembly election in Tamil Nadu and wrought havoc. Again, polling and counting connected with the by-elections to two wards of the Chennai Corporation held on April 19-20 the unruly behaviour indulged in by party leaders and cadres was so shocking as to invite a stinging rebuke from the High Court.

Those at the helm of the parties concerned must undoubtedly be aware of the proneness of their henchmen to go on a rampage on such occasions. All this in the land of Mahatma Gandhi, revered as the Father of the Nation and dutifully garlanded on the days of his birth and martyrdom, forgetting the stringent code of civilised conduct he used to impose on his followers which prescribed abjuring of violence at any cost. He had even called off his movements half-way at the first sign of violation of his code.

It is conceivable that the present-day political leaders, being mostly of the post-Gandhi generation, do not realise the incredibly high moral pedestal to which he had elevated this country. The least they can do to honour his memory is to emulate him by laying down for their own party members a similar inviolable code binding them to non-violence and purity of means, and take them to task publicly and severely if they stray from it. Will they?

B. S. Raghavan

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