BY MANISH ANAND
Yatha praja tatha raja!! It's no more yatha raja tatha praja. It's the refrain when you talk to politicos on questions of ambitious party workers are doling out big booty to get party tickets ahead of the Delhi Assembly polls.
"It's a changed time. Now, people elect goons with 50 and more murder scalps on their heads. Even our security deposits in Lok Sabha elections get forfeited," says a Congress veteran of two decades of active politics and having been in Lok Sabha on a number of occasions from UP.
He recalls the time when it was "yatha raja tatha praja (as the king so the people)". "But, now, it's just "yatha praja tatha raja (as the people so the king)"," he adds with much remorse.
Does it mean that the people at large are also like those having more than 50 murder scalps on their heads ? Probably not! But the nice people in politics in their hinterlands have just lost the power to read the pulse of their audience and have been left behind in the cutting age politics.
But may be the case is different.
"The time was different two decades back. Good people used to be picked up by the high-ups in the politics," says another Congress veteran of three decades of Lok Sabha stint from the Punjab region.
It makes us curious to enquire about their backgrounds. The self-effacing Punjabi politician says he was a Professor, then the pro-Vice Chancellor of the Punjab University and had taught in a top US university. He was picked up by the top Congress leadership when he was in his hey-days.
His colleague's eyes lit, as he too recalls being the student leader in the Banaras Hindu University, then doing his B. Tech in Chemical Engineering and then heading to the US for professorship. He too was "picked up" by the top leadership in his heydays.
But the time has changed for them, as they interview hundreds of rustic party workers with no decent education behind them. They have no other option, as they say they live with the humiliation of losing the political turf like UP to ruffians who should have been behind the bar.
But who will take the blame for the rot and who will take the corrective measures. No answers though big yawns.
"It's a changed time. Now, people elect goons with 50 and more murder scalps on their heads. Even our security deposits in Lok Sabha elections get forfeited," says a Congress veteran of two decades of active politics and having been in Lok Sabha on a number of occasions from UP.
He recalls the time when it was "yatha raja tatha praja (as the king so the people)". "But, now, it's just "yatha praja tatha raja (as the people so the king)"," he adds with much remorse.
Does it mean that the people at large are also like those having more than 50 murder scalps on their heads ? Probably not! But the nice people in politics in their hinterlands have just lost the power to read the pulse of their audience and have been left behind in the cutting age politics.
But may be the case is different.
"The time was different two decades back. Good people used to be picked up by the high-ups in the politics," says another Congress veteran of three decades of Lok Sabha stint from the Punjab region.
It makes us curious to enquire about their backgrounds. The self-effacing Punjabi politician says he was a Professor, then the pro-Vice Chancellor of the Punjab University and had taught in a top US university. He was picked up by the top Congress leadership when he was in his hey-days.
His colleague's eyes lit, as he too recalls being the student leader in the Banaras Hindu University, then doing his B. Tech in Chemical Engineering and then heading to the US for professorship. He too was "picked up" by the top leadership in his heydays.
But the time has changed for them, as they interview hundreds of rustic party workers with no decent education behind them. They have no other option, as they say they live with the humiliation of losing the political turf like UP to ruffians who should have been behind the bar.
But who will take the blame for the rot and who will take the corrective measures. No answers though big yawns.
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