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Paradigms of Power
Shantanu Dutta
Recently the pet dog of the Police Commissioner of Delhi got lost. The dog- a 12 year old Daschund went missing last Saturday and sent the establishment into a tizzy. But Toto is one lucky thing for its master wields a lot of power and so the police establishment swung into action to find and restore the pet to its delighted owner, who had announced a reward of Rs10,000( out of the Commissioner’s own pocket) for the dog.
Looking at the time available to the Station House Officer of the Nizamuddin Police Station and others to track the dog, one could perhaps safely assume that Delhi is a crime-free city where the police find diversion in looking for lost pets but the facts are that Delhi is not just the political capital of the country but also the Crime capital of the nation too. “3,244 criminal cases - including 467 murders, 581 rapes, 1764 dacoity and other heinous crimes - were registered in the city during the 2007 .During the last year, the capital also emerged more bloodthirsty compared to 2006 when 462 murders had taken place” .
Further, according to the National Human Rights Commission, the capital records the maximum number of cases of missing children. In India more than 44,000 children of all ages go missing annually and Delhi has topped the list with 6.7 percent of the total cases. I The NHRC report goes onto say that of the missing children, only about 80 percent are eventually traced. Given the pay hike given to the “public servants” so that they can serve bettter, it is possible now that senior bureaucrats will now cultivate more exotic and extravagant pets which if lost can be tracked.
This is not a reflection on dogs or police commissioners or the Pay Commission- but on power. Power on the face of it has nothing shadowy about it – if you have it, you flaunt it- if you don’t , you moan sitting in a corner and cringe before those who have it. One would have you believe that if you don’t parade it, you don’t have it. And lest there be any doubt, you display it blatantly - be it in the red beacon on your car or the gun toting security guards by your side or the slap that an MLA administers on a hapless commoner.
It looks graceless when people with the power which only their position gives them use it so coarsely – whether it be by slapping a liftman or using the hapless, over worked people under you to look for a missing pet ( for a report on the working conditions of the Delhi Police look here) or raping a woman or through in any of the innumerable ways in which we demonstrate our power, not to lift up the weak but to further crush those who are already trampled.
There is a sad anachronism about the society we live in that people who are paid hefty salaries to serve exhibit raw muscle power at its most base or use it for various forms of gratification. Anachronistic because grand old men like the late Baba Amte who died recently, at the ripe age of 92, felt the call to serve and with problems of the spine which rendered him bed ridden and problems of the heart which a broken pace maker could not repair used to trundle through Anandwan in a bullock cart.
The sad paradigm of power is that the truly powerful seem to be frail of body like broken reeds like Gandhiji or Baba Amte or Nanaji Deshmush or Mother Teresa while their shadows flaunt a caricature of power through golden cages of glitzy cars or the grandeur of Lutyens' bungalows displaying vain glory in the guise of the emperor’s new clothes as in Hans Christen Anderson. Truely Gandhiji in his loin cloth was far better clothed than those in resplendent robes of office unaware of their nakedness.
Paradigms of Power
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IdeaSmith
URL
April 2, 2008
01:21 AM
This is disturbing and true. The people we appoint as our leaders, our idols, our symbols of respect have turned into barking goons at best and lowlife scum at worst.
K. M.
URL
April 2, 2008
03:01 AM
You should ask what gives these men their power (or their position). After all these men speak of the same ideals that Gandhi, Baba Amte and Mother Teresa stand for. Why is it that those who practise these ideals are powerless and those who flout them become powerful? Is it because it is in the nature of evil to succeed? No matter whether you answer that question in the positive or in the negative, you will be left with the answer that there is something profoundly wrong with conventional morality. Either way it proves that conventional moral ideals contradict reality to such a degree, that they cannot be successfully implemented.
K. M.
Ayan Roy
URL
April 2, 2008
04:22 AM
The quote "With great power comes great responsibility" rings true here.
POWER + EGO + GREED = "I am the greatest!! I can do anything! Nobody can touch me! I can crush you like a fly! Mwuhuhuahahahahaaaa !"
People like Gandhi, Teresa, Baba Amte had the qualities of SELFLESSNESS, HUMILITY, CHARACHTER and RESPONSIBILITTY imbibed in them from a very young are.
Unfortunately today, the wrong people are coming to the high posts of power. Is it a symptom of the society in general? Or is it true that power can corrupt an angel too?
Why does the system weed out the good and select the bad?
I too am thinking of answers to this question..
kerty
April 2, 2008
07:59 AM
Author starts off good by highlighting the culture of crimes but then he leap frogs all over places to make unsubstantiated claims and wild linkages and predictably ends up looking for Gandhi and alike.
Culture of crime is a product of break down in social norms and values, of dis-empowerment of forces of good, of empowerment of ideas that are corruptive and destructive. When social and cultural infra-structure is erased, no social or moral development can ever take place in a society and no amount of laws and police can control billion strong mob out to trample on each other.
We blame our politicians for the sorry mess, but they are held accountable thru elections. If they are such jack ass, they can be kicked out. They keep getting elected, and so obviously people are happy with them. What plagues India is not politicians who can be held accountable - it is people who hold soft power thru their ideas but refuse to be held accountable for their ideas. They mostly fall in media, bolywood, NGOs, activists. Gandhi is a prime example - his ideas enjoy power, but consequences of those ideas rarely get accounted for. If Gandhi ran for office, his ideas would be dissected by opponents and we would have honest accountability of ideas. But because he shunned political offices, his ideas have enjoyed political power without having to submit to political process or accountability that goes with political offices. Power without accountability is a mother of corruption - and that is what Gandhism has become - a refuge of scoundrels who get instant face lift by dipping in few Gandhian slogans. Even terrorists like Munnabhai look adorable when they wrap themselves in superficial Gandhigiri. As long as people keep blindly worshiping Gandhis and Terresas, crimes and corruption can only prosper in all walks of life.
K. M.
URL
April 2, 2008
02:02 PM
If you are wondering why it is that those practising moral ideals are powerless and those flouting them rise to power, all you have to do is question the nature of moral ideals. The unquestioned moral ideal today is altruism. It is the idea that the good is sacrificing for others. It is obvious that when someone is making sacrifices, someone must be collecting them. If a person who makes sacrifices is good, what is the nature of a person who collects sacrifices? Why is it good to serve evil? What results do you expect from a moral system that requires the good to serve evil?
K. M.
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