I belong to the middle class. So it's hardly surprising that I have the middle class mentality. Meaning that I think linear. Mostly. Therefore I can't figure out the politicians of today, for whom I barely exist, especially in an election year. The proletariat has the numbers on its side. No wonder it is the politician's darling. It gets promises of cheap grain and kerosene. The capitalist has money on his side and the politician needs it, lots of it, to go to the proletariat. So he gets to collect promises of a rebate in duties and taxes, and then foots the politician's bills. I am the middle class, so I don't have the numbers. And money I certainly don't have. Therefore my vote counts for little. As a result I am a political orphan. I am promised nothing, and delivered nothing.Since I am an orphan, I do not have to get all emotional and mushy and attach myself to a leader or a party. Not being affiliated, I can afford to be rational, to think linear. I believe that people are at their mental and physicalpeak in their forties -- when astronauts are sent into space -- or the fifties on the outside. Logically, therefore, one would expect the person who rules a country to be in that age group. Look at Tony Blair in his forties and his leader of the opposition in the high thirties. Clinton got the top job while he was in his forties. Even in India, age is at a discount in most spheres. For example, I can't get a car loan if I am past 55. If I am above 62, no credit card for me. The health insurance agencies charge a person of 70 a premium almost twice that of one in the forties, although it is the former who is likely to need healthcare most. A government employee retires at 58 and a Supreme Court judge at 65. Almost as though they are put out to pasture. Yet the politician is in his prime in his seventies. He is fit to be Prime Minister. Just look at the galaxy of gerontocrats on offer. Vajpayee the mask at 74, Gujral the garrulous no-commenter at 78, Jyotida the red capitalist at 81, Chacha Kesri in a hurry at82, Gowda the fumble harmer a spring chicken at 64. I could go on and on. It looks as though the Prime Minister does not have to take decisions as demanding or as momentous as the bureaucrat or the judge, nor work half as hard.
You must be wondering why I have been discreet and avoided mentioning a certain somebody who is also in the running, clandestinely though, for PM. Because of my middle class mind. I think that if you have to lead a political party, let alone rule a country, you ought to have been baptised in the cut and thrust of politics. Or you have to be a great communicator in at least one Indian language. If you are neither, then you should have demonstrated extraordinary ability in some area of endeavour. If you have none of these and yet aspire to be a leader or PM then the nation is chancing it's future in your hands when it just can't afford to do so. But try telling that to the politician, especially of the Congress hue.
It all sounds like the political boss who took recourse to aconsultant to select his secretary. There were three candidates. The first one was asked by the consultant, ``How much do two and two make?'' ``Four, sir,'' said the girl. ``She's practical,'' remarked the consultant. The second one answered, ``22,'' to the same question. ``Imaginative,'' commented the consultant. ``It can mean either 4 or 22,'' replied the third. ``She is both practical and imaginative. Whom would you pick?'' the consultant asked the boss. ``The one in the red blouse,'' was the prompt response.
I, of the middle class, am the consultant and whichever way I vote the politician will select the one in the sari, or the old patriarch, for all my troubles. And I, of the middle class, shall rationalise and wait patiently for the next round to cast another speculative vote.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
