What's the height of being 'besharam'?

This is a real life account. And it happened in the week that just went by. Not much of a TV news viewer, I woke up on Tuesday to read the headlines that the Union government had sent an ordinance for the President’s approval, that will allow convicted elected representatives to continue to hold office despite a Supreme Court ruling to the contrary.

The ordinance was on its way to becoming a law if and when the President signed it. From the news story it looked as if it was just a matter of formality now. Something inside me snapped. I was appalled at the gall of such an act. What audacity, I thought to myself.

‘Besharam’ suddenly took on a new topicality, besides the Kapoor clan’s magnum opus that will release on Shastriji’s birthday.

I could not concentrate on the rest of the news. I tweeted my disgust immediately. I talked to people in high offices in the media, honchos of big corporate offices, to a few influential friends and family members, and sent direct messages to politicos and journalists who I follow on social networks. I tried to garner support for a protest march by befriending like-minded tweeple who also seemed equally disturbed.

By noon all I had done was vented, raved and ranted my angst. I could not see any solution on the horizon. I spent the first half of the working day looking for a solution for this ‘national issue’, setting aside pending office work. For some reason, this matter was far more important and everything else could wait. I was just too disturbed at the thought of such a law and the potential inability of even the apex court to debunk such travesty. For the first time, I felt alone and helpless. ‘Besharam’ electorate, I thought to myself.

By lunch time I found out that there was a press conference being held by the Aam Aadmi Party to address the ‘unconstitutionality’ of the ordinance. I watched it live on the internet.

I understood the issue even more deeply. I heard that the President was being requested to give an audience to them and members of some Opposition parties. But not having heard any strong dissenting voices from any party before the ordinance was passed, I was certain this was another ‘Clan Act’, where politicians as a clan protect each other despite having apparent ideological differences. Just like Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav have decided not to field their candidates from those constituencies where Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi will contest elections.

Just like the political parties are unanimous in seeking an RTI amendent that keeps them outside its ambit and immunizes them against accountability to the public. Just like no political party protested strongly when the government did not take up the German finance minister’s offer to provide the names of Indian citizens who had black money stashed away in overseas banks. ‘Besharam’ is the epithet I always had for a majority of the corrupt, semi-literates and criminals who govern us in the name of policy makers.

And then the most bizarre thing happened in the next few days. While government officials were still defending the ordinance in press conferences, the impetuous vice-president [some call him yuvraj, I am told] of the Congress party made a four-minute whirlwind entry and exit at an official press briefing, rubbishing the ordinance, which in any case was presented by his party after his ‘tacit’ approval.

To him it may have been a ‘small compromise’; to me it was ‘big treason’. Where in the world have you seen an ordinary member of Parliament embarrassing a Union minister, publicly lampooning him for endorsing his party’s own decision? And the very same much-educated and experienced Union minister singing a different tune five minutes later, praising the less-educated and less-experienced MP? This is not bizarre. This is the height of being ‘besharam’. The Congress is ‘besharam’ in treating its accomplished work force and the offices of elected institutions like its private servants.

Where did all this leave me? I was sincerely hoping that our President should hold his ground and refuse to sign – which he has done. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court in another judgment on electoral reforms approved the right to reject – even if it needs more buttressing. I finally felt that I was not alone or helpless. I felt that my angst was heard.

The voice of the people does make a difference. My tweets, chats and direct messages, any of those could have been responsible in adding to the larger chatter of creating the negative ‘public mood’. So raise your voice. Even if you think raving, ranting and complaining is perhaps all you can do, do it and do it publicly. If you feel let down and cheated, say so, without considering what others may think of you. Even if it feels like yours is the lone voice that could drown in the avalanche of political considerations, use it and use it in as ‘besharam’ a manner as your proprieties allow. It will make a difference.

(The writer is managing consultant of The Key Consumer Diagnostics Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai-based qualitative research company)