Coronation virus

 Since the past few weeks, the deadly coronavirus has put the nation on notice and a national emergency has come into effect although the government has fallen short of announcing it. The coronavirus is likely to rage on for some time till it’s effect dies down by itself or is successfully contained.There is another virus that continues to plague India. It is a peculiar but common form of ‘human virus’ that originates within the deep labyrinths of corrupt minds and nurtured by a lust for power. The disease known as coronation virus is endemic among politicians. Those who are afflicted with Coronation virus exhibit certain symptoms such as–suffering from amnesia: they forget their promises to work for the people and cannot differentiate between self interest from public interest; cannot control their tongues from lying; are vain and egoistical; practise an ideology that believes the end justifies the means ; offer themselves for sale as commodities or horse trading; suffer from morbid fears of being out of power ; appear like rolling stones, ready to change sides when opportunity knocks on the door etc. The stupefied electorate in India have witnessed on countless occasions when defectors, turncoats, traitors in politics have thrown democracy to the dustbin. The voters should recoil when their own elected representatives cheat and lie without shame in justifying the betrayal of the mandate given to them. Unfortunately, the voter sees principled politics through the prism of winnability. Forming governments is the main purpose of parliamentary democracy so that those in power can serve the people who voted for them. When people want to be in power along with their elected representatives then they also become part of the problem.That is why Indian politics continues to be held hostage by the Coronation virus. The virus has brought down governments in several states when unprincipled politics exposed to the bare the hollowness of tall claims of nationalism, ideology and people’s welfare to the dictates of money and power. In the most recent episode, the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, was dethroned by the coronation virus. The BJP will, in all likelihood, come to power through backdoor. A total of 22 rebel Congress legislators were herded and taken to Bengaluru in chartered flights and housed in a five star resort. Is this what the voters wanted? These turncoats will join the BJP later and the party will use all resources to get them re-elected. Some would be made ministers as reward for their contribution in installing a government through backdoor. The coronation virus was also witnessed earlier in Karnataka where over a dozen legislators from Congress and JDS dethroned their coalition party government and brought BJP to power through backdoor. They then got re-elected on BJP tickets and some were given ministerial berths. The BJP used the same tactic to destabilise and dethrone Congress governments in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh, the same year in 2016 and came to power through backdoor. There is strong indications that the BJP’s next targets would be Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan (It lost power in both states to the Congress). All these cannot be due to internal problems. Democracy in India is in decline because of the menace of political turncoats whose only ideology is to look for greener pastures. Also the machinations of the party in power at the Centre in engineering splits is a blot on Indian democracy as these happen only in tin pot democracies and banana republics.