Words such as honesty, morality and integrity have become untouchable for the political leaders. Today's political leaders have become skilled in defecting and building alliances as per their whims and fancies. What is more concerning is that they have also become expert in regaining and maintaining their vote share by vote buying. As unfortunate as it may sound, it seems that contesting and winning elections on the basis of concrete development are well behind us. The candidates have learnt their way around creating their pool of votes by studying demographics of their constituencies and so, they play by the politics of caste.
This allows them to get away with anything as they have already secured their safe margin of votes. Social media plays a crucial role in today's elections and since almost every candidate has a well-prepared social media team ready behind them for the promotions, leaders today do not have to visit each voter's house personally. Therefore it has become convenient for the leaders to not work hard to prove their loyalty towards their voters. Integrity, loyalty towards their political party and voters as well as healthy competitive spirit have become a thing of the past.This has encouraged the candidates to defect as and when convenient to them since being in a position of power safeguards them. Politicians without any hesitation claim that their decision to defect was for the betterment of his people which is a tried and tested statement in the political world. Indeed, this has been going on ever since the economy trumped politics and the only difference is degradation used to be gradual in the past as compared to it is now. One can assess the decline in the quality of Indian politics when the leader's answer to his defection is “When I asked God, he told me join the BJP.” Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar’s decision to break away his alliance with RJD to sit in BJP’s lap is a minor degradation. Eknath Shinde leaving the original Shiv Sena with 40 MLAs to form a coalition with BJP in order to become chief minister does not sound exactly ethical. Ajit Pawar’s camp departing from the Sharad Pawar faction to join power with the Shinde-Fadnavis group does not seem ethical either. One has to accept the truth that such leaders cannot survive without the shield of power. One cannot be an active participant in the development of the state when the leader is in opposition is the reason given by many opportunistic defectors. Does that mean there should be no opposition whatsoever in a democratic country? Indeed, that seems to be the strategy of the current rulers. A capable opposition is the sign of healthy democracy but if the opposition members themselves jump around three parties in a single night then morals, ethics and values hold little to no significance. Goa, the smallest state, has a long reputation for such political decline which simply overpowers its tiny size. Voters may wonder why to maintain the sanctity of their votes when the elected candidate does not mind defecting to the other party overnight for Rs 50 crore . This is the prime reason why voters have started to auction their votes. Ideally, the voters should not let this affect their voting process but when their votes do not hold much value even in the Courts, it is understandable. In the diabolical case of Shinde vs Thackeray faction in Maharashtra, Supreme Court observed that the government cannot be dismissed by law despite it being unconstitutional after Uddhav Thacekary resigned from his chief ministerial post. However, the crucial matter of votes cast by voters were not taken into consideration. Should not there be any value to the vote in the Constitution? And if there is, then should the judiciary not take it into consideration? But unfortunately, the votes have become a mere part of the election process. Today’s political leaders have grown strong faith in believing buying of votes as a part of the election process. Therefore it has become clear that party and its policies have become negligible when it comes to voting. This has led to the sinking of belief in democratic system. Legislature, Executive, Judiciary and Media are still considered as four pillars of Indian democracy but are they still in practice in its true sense of the world? There is an atmosphere of mistrust in the country with split between religions further dividing. It is every single Indian’s duty to protect the system awarded to us by our Constitution before it fully collapses.