DNA Edit: Politically (in)correct

The Rajya Sabha polls spectacle in Gujarat was, to put it mildly, unedifying. Throwing propriety to the winds, all parties concerned displayed a kind of behaviour that is unbecoming of people holding public office. No wonder Election Commissioner OP Rawat was forced to break his silence over the “creeping new normal of political morality” in which poaching of legislators is glorified as smart political management, money is used as bait and ‘state machinery’ is used with impunity ‘for intimidation’.

This new culture, shorn of ethics, revolves around the philosophy of winning at all cost. The overall deterioration of political discourse too mirrors this unseemly state of affairs where personal attacks are considered par for the course. The EC’s lament should be a wake-up call for political outfits and prompt them to do some soul-searching. The Machiavellian dictum that everything is fair in love and war doesn’t always reap a generous harvest. Equally important is the issue of political funding that points to corruption in political funding. The Association of Democratic Reforms’ report that nearly 2,000 donations to political parties — amounting to Rs 384 crore — didn’t have PAN details underscores the opacity in political funding. The central government needs to make the process of donations transparent. Otherwise, democracy will fall critically ill.