Why Indian Politicians Dont Retire .!!

Why do Indian politicians not retire ?Because they are not like you and me

What do we  do when  there is nothing to do? Well for us  that is not a problem. We sleep. We laze. We bond. We read or, more probably, doze before the more mindless television junk. We might even indulge in some minor free-market crime, like watching pirated movies.Or have food at a dhabha or a restaurant.Or log on to Facebook for hours .  There is lots to do when there is nothing to do. For normal people.

But since those who have once tasted power tend to be too grand to be normal, they have a problem when ejected out of office. After a spell of life during which every minute is allotted, either to work or to flatterers, the absence of a printed schedule (not to mention the absence of hangers-on) can be tormenting.

Politicians in other countries  have  found solutions. In America they all sign up with agents who put them on lecture tours. America is a very audio-friendly society. Instead of falling asleep at lectures, people actually pay to hear them. An orator like Bill Clinton makes millions out of lectures. This may not sound surprising, given the number of women anxious for proximity!!; but even serious men are willing to lay out a budget for the privilege of hearing him speak. Even British politicians with some cache are beginning to get on. Then there is membership of the board of companies. British politicians are far more adept at becoming directors. The city keeps a fair percentage of its space at the top for out-of-work politicians.

Then of course there are books. The Clintons, Bill and Hillary, made, together, nearly twenty million dollars at the very least from their respective memoirs. Colin Powell saved himself from any chance of penury with his book about the first Bush-Gulf war. The trick of course is to be known well-enough to be a regular face on television. If you are seen on TV your book will be purchased by large numbers of suckers who have no desire whatsoever to open its pages, except perhaps to get the copy signed by the author.

We can see instantly that almost none of this works in India. Who was the last Indian politician who wrote a best-seller? Who was the last Indian politician who wrote a book? The only author-politicians who come to mind are Natwar Singh, Mani Shankar Aiyar and former finance minister of Bengal Ashok Mitra, and that is because politics is a second, post-retirement, occupation for them. (I can’t include Arun Shourie in this category because there is some doubt as to whether he was ever a politician. He was in office but never in politics.) Atal Behari Vajpayee wrote good poetry, which is evidence of his difference, but while poetry might fetch an audience it does not fetch royalties.

 
So does it mean that our politicians don’t retire because they are not good at earning a living outside politics ?Well true to some extent but not wholly .Kapil Sibal and Arun Jaitley are brilliant professionals and if they retire they will make their millions .Does it mean that Indian politicians cant write and speak like their counterparts in England and America ?Again yes and no .Just read what J.Nehru wrote  on Gandhi,  for at least two reasons: to glimpse the quality of politics in his time, and for the sheer joy of reading excellent prose.
 
‘And then came Gandhi… Much that he said we only partially accepted or sometimes did not accept at all. But all this was secondary. The essence of his teaching was fearlessness and truth … abhaya, fearlessness, not merely bodily courage but the absence of fear from the mind. Janaka and Yajnavalka had said, at the dawn of our history, that it was the function of the leaders of a people to make them fearless. But the dominant impulse in India under British rule was that of fear. Pervasive, oppressing, strangling fear… It was against this all-pervading fear that Gandhi’s quiet and determined voice was raised: Be not afraid. Was it so simple as all that? Not quite. And yet fear builds its phantoms which are more fearsome than reality itself, and reality when calmly analysed and its consequences willingly accepted loses much of its terror.’

Brilliant –but how many Nehrus do we have ???.

Anyway ,since I am not a politician ,and since I am not drawn to the cesspool of power –I am on my way to just about completing a book .It may not make me a millionaire ,but it will surely provide me with dal and roti –which is all that I eat these days .!!My wife earns enough and my son is on his way to becoming independent .So i dont have to worry about them .