Where are we headed?

It should come as no surprise that the potency of the heady mix of money power and criminal elements in the higher echelons of power keeps rising every Lok Sabha elections in India? (“Richest take on poorest in Telegana,” April 10, Gulf Today).

Our Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is packed with millionaires. According to a recent report 83 per cent of the lawmakers are millionaires. Not a bad showing indeed, despite millions of rupees being siphoned off by diamond merchants and sundry and after a nation-wide cleansing of so called black money via the demonetizing drive.

Earlier this year the Oxfam survey pointed out that India’s top 1% of the population holds 73% of the wealth while 67 crore citizens, comprising the country’s poorest half, saw their wealth rise by just 1%. Juxtaposing the two indicators, we can safely say that our politicians are the top bracket. If that be the case, I have a query. If 83 per cent of our politicians are millionaires, who are they representing? Not the common man for sure.

Let’s take the criminal element. According to Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) 33 per cent of sitting Members of Parliament have criminal cases against them. 106 of them have serious criminal cases including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, communal disharmony, kidnapping and crimes against women. Those are some figures of the composition of the largest democracy in the world. It’s that time again, when we could make a change. As a citizen, we have some introspection to do before we cast our vote.

Mohammed H, By email