Of Indan Politicians and Godmen
In India custom and culture the politician and the godmen are all powerful. Since last two decades or so we increasingly find their influence grow considerably in the society. Both are interested in first acquiring power and then amassing wealth. In between they also indulge in carnal pleasures as a side benefit of their growing clout. They are sure that they can get away because of their power and wealth.
The politician starts his career with the avowed aim of serving the society. The godmen also starts their journey by promising salvation to their would be followers. Both may be genuine at the beginning but a good number of them lose their mission half way. Power, fame and money act as roadblocks in their mission if at all they had it in the first place.
It has been universally observed that both class of such persons become immensely rich and acquire huge properties in the process of their becoming powerful. By hindsight it can be concluded that it was amassing wealth which was the aim, but was camouflaged under the garb of service to humanity.
The political class has been at the receiving end from quite some time now. However the godmen are feared by the common persons because of them being associated with supernatural powers. But what is interesting is that even when politicians are disgraced they are neither apologetic nor are willing to resign from their posts. They have now become so brazen that public humiliation also does not shame them. Similarly the godmen also are not ready to accept that they have been caught literally with their pants down. They divert attention by saying that attack on them is an attack on their religion.
In both cases gullible followers take cudgels on their behalf and take to the streets in the mistaken belief that their bosses are righteous and are being unfairly targeted. It is a tribute to their blind belief that they are willing to undertake any amount of hardship on behalf of their masters. Of course there will be a good percent of paid supporters also on the roads.
The fact that increasingly families have become nuclear and migration to urban areas has created large population of anonymous persons, is what is making many persons to turn to politicians and godmen in large numbers for local support and their psychological needs. In their need to connect and lessen the burden of loneliness the followers are ready to overlook the shortcomings in their politicians and godmen. For, if they do so they themselves will feel hurt and rejected. It is this that gives an opportunity to the unscrupulous politicians and godmen to exploit them in their favour.
The politician plays on the fear of local environment and the godmen plays on the need to belong and in the process the uprooted and hapless person is hooked. The more he is hooked the more he is exploited in a subtle manner by both. A time comes when the person is not able to disassociate himself even if he wants to. He is so entangled that separation now seems to be a defeatist idea. The person does not want to tell himself that he has placed his faith in a wrong entity.
In recent days we have seen politicians mired in corruption cases whose sole purpose is to amass wealth at the public's cost. upon exposure they desperately want to cling to their posts because the cash cow will desert them. That they are humiliated is not their concern. Loss of the opportunity to continue to milk the public finances is all that tey are worried about. They too have their misguided supporters.
Similarly the godmen after gaining the trust of their followers start misusing this trust and may also exploit sexually or otherwise many of their followers. for fear of public shame they do not come forward and continue to be further exploited and suffer in silence. This benefits the godmen and emboldens them to continue ith their nefarious activities unhindered. In fact their are well meaning followers who refuse to believe such stories as they find it hard to believe that the godman can stoop so low. Attack on him is in fact considered by many an attack on religion.
It is therefore time that such wrongdoing politicians and godmen are continually exposed and the law deals with them as it would do with ordinary citizens. There should be no delay and justice should be delivered promptly. This will give the ordinary citizens the chance to evaluate whether they should be more smart in future.
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