The Political Mafia

In Kerala, if you see 4 mallus talking, one thing that you can be sure of is that one among them is an aspiring politician.

Over the years, the politicians have invaded so deep into our lives and minds that we cannot
think of anything without the help(?) of the politicians. Be it admission for your kid to the next door primary school or an electricity connection or a proper drainage facility.

The local library committee, has to have equal portions of the two major political parties.
The founder of the library, who spent his life time for it, is simply left out. The people who read
books, or the local writers, does not have any say in the functioning of the library.
I am just taking this example of a library, but if you look around you, I am sure you can find
hundreds of hijackings done by the political mafia.

Take any unnatural death. The local chotta netavu is the first one to reach the place. He sniffs
around the place, tries to leak a clue from the relatives or friends to find if there any chance for
him or his party to gain anything from the sad incident. At least a few votes. Or a few seconds for himself on the news.

If they find anything that can be utilized, its like winning a jackpot. They are least bothered about the relatives or the person who is dead. They start their campaign. Either against the other political party or the govt or the police or the CBI. All that they want is that their name should be heard. Their faces should be on TV.

The political parties take so much prominence in you daily life, they start speaking for us.
Like the master speaking for the slave. Of course, twisting the facts according to their political
agenda.

In any issue, the political parties take a stand that fits their interests and forces it on to us. We
are to swallow it, without a word. Even if some one dares to oppose this, all of the political mafia
is quick to brand him an outcast, crazy or even personally assault him.

Remember Ajitha ? or Echara varrior ?

The political mafia has now a days started thinking and deciding for us. They have institutionalised us. so without their command we cant do anything.

Consider the reservation issues in the higher education.
All over India, the students are agitating against it. They don’t have any political party to support them. They have formed an association, “students for equality” and they are fighting their cause.

Did you hear anything from Kerala? The most literate state ? The land of stikes, hartals and
bandhs ?
Nothing.
Why ?
because no political parties or their sibling students unions have asked the students to fight. They didn’t start a campaign. Does not the politically un-affiliated students have an opinion in this case, which affects them more than anyone?

We the common people who have not submitted our souls to any political party are left out. We
have lost our voice. We cant express ourselves. We are so dependant on the political mafia.

Now in such a case, the people who are supposed to voice our fears and thoughts are the
sahithya-samskarika nayakar. But if you see what they are doing, you would very much find it just apt to replace the last letter with ‘L’. You show them an award, they come all around you wagging their tails and flexing their flimsy spine. When was the last time a person got to the chairman of any literary organization for his skills than his ability to sing praises for their masters?
“Deepastambham mahascharyam, Namukkum kittanam award!”

The media, which side to they take in this clash between the common man and the political mafia ?

Some time back there was a report in the local televisions about the recent SBI strike.

“Even on the sixth day of the strike, the government has not agreed to the demand of the 2 lakh employees of the SBI. The employees said that they want their pension to be at least 50% of the last salary drawn”

What they didn’t mention was, the strike by just 200,000 employees of the State Bank of India affected transactions, cheque clearing, forex and corporate business across the country. Just 200,000 people holding the money of crores of Indians at ransom. And see the timing of the strike, first week of a month. How else could you blackmail the govt when payment of pension and salaries are affected?

Did any of the local media, tell you the story of an old man who could not withdraw his meager pension amount ? Did the media tell you about the business man whose payment to the international client, worth crores was delayed and hand to pay a penalty?

Forget it, in the much debated smartcity issue, did any media care to go to the local engineering college and ask the students about their opinion ? or the the people who are supposed to get jobs in smartcity ?

Even worse, the media join hands with the mafia. Yea, you know what I am talking about.

What is the solution ? Who will save us?

I dont know.

But blogs are defenitely a step in the right direction. The bloggers are not governed by the editors. They dont rely on favours from the political overlords. They dont need advts from huge corporates. They dont fear if certain groups of people would turn thier ire on you for speaking the truth, creating a fall in the subscription.

We dont have anything to loose, but a whole new world to gain !

( Oops ! sorry if the last line sounded like a political slogan, but didnt I tell you that the politics has made deep roots into our minds ? )