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Articles: Devotion | Birth of Democracy Part III
- Prof. Narasimham Brahmandam
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Democracy Part III
“ It is easy to understand bribery and threat. But what is hypocrisy and division?” asked Crocodile Eyes. “It is simple,” replied Kalanemi. “ If the people are all one, it is difficult to deal with them. You should drive wedges between them so that they suspect each other and they would rather trust you than another fellow man. You should start with differences between the groups. Then encourage them to talk about the differences, quarrel over them and fight for them. For example, some eat pork, some eat beef and some eat both and some neither. Some may keep the hair on the chins and shave their heads clean; some may keep the hair on their pates but shave their beards off. Some may keep both and some neither. Some may have kunkum on their foreheads and some not. Some pray before idols, some before symbols and some before clean walls. Some yell out to God, some sing to him, some murmur to him and some whisper. Such differences should be played up and should be given deep religious significance. If necessary, you should infiltrate into them and give twisted interpretations of their sacred books to suit your purpose. Men, as you know, fight more for empty words and slogans than for food and shelter. Screw them up till they call each other, heathens, kafirs and mlechas. You should pretend to respect every one of them and uphold their right to be ignorant, superstitious and foolish. Never try to enlighten them; it is not only foolish but also dangerous. This is called division.”
“Since our own interest lies in keeping them at each other’s throat, the tact we display to achieve this purpose is hypocrisy. Some people are enterprising, educated and rich. Some are uneducated, unenterprising and poor. You should pretend to be the champions of the latter. You should din into their ears that they are poor because the rich or rich. You may construct exclusive colonies for them, separate hostels for their children. You may reserve jobs for them, reduce for them the qualifications for recruitment; give accelerated promotions even though not merited. In short, never allow them to forget that they are a separate group being solely protected by you. That way you ensure permanence of the division. This is hypocrisy.
All this time, Always Angry was staring beyond Kalanemi without a wink. He cleared his throat and said, “You have been talking all the while about taking over the place of the king and keeping them quarreling among themselves perpetually. But we want our fun. Let us not get enmeshed in this complex business of governing forgetting why we have met here” His call seemed to have suddenly brought back all the demons down to earth from their flight into a new realm of government, constitution, and justice for all, to which they were alien by temperament. They burst into a chorus, “ yes, our sport! Talk about our sport and our food!”
It was getting late. Kalanemi was tired. “You have to govern them if you want to torture them. There is no other way. Only it should not be called the government of the demons. It has to be given a name, which means the government of the people. Within this framework, let us think of ways of torture. We shall meet tomorrow to consider some possibilities” So saying he got down from the stone.
We know that on this momentous occasion, he laid the foundations of demonocrasy and made it presentable and acceptable to its victims by a slight variation of the word to ‘democracy’.
Next morning dawned more hopefully on the demons. Everyone was speaking to any one he met about the bright prospect that lay before them. Here seemed to be everything they wished for demanding nothing in return. There was to be no war, no deaths of their folk. The victims were to walk to them by themselves willingly or perforce – something they never imagined would ever be possible. They gathered quite early at the meeting place. Kalanemi was a little late. But they waited patiently for him a hailed him as they sighted him. The great one sat on the stone and surveyed the demons whose morale was distinctly higher than the previous day. He started off slowly.
“Money is used by men to measure the value of things. But once one makes a little money, one forgets its use. He begins to love it for its own sake. Love will soon become a passion and passion, a mission in life. It then becomes a motive force for crime; and crime is the source of our pleasure.” Said Kalanemi almost as a digression. While the demons were wondering why he changed the subject, he spoke again. “Money shall be our new weapon. We shall not use our other weapons any longer.” It was a good philosophical argument. But how could it be put to practical use? Some of the demons almost rose to deride him of failing practical sense. But they soon remembered how he chastised him the previous day. Their reverence for him was also more intense to day. So they waited for him to elaborate.
“The person who wants to get elected will need money to go about and meet people, to employ agents to persuade, lure or threaten voters and many other clandestine things he will have to do. May be he will have to employ some strong demons to protect him and to terrify his opponents or the voters or those conducting the voting. These have to be satiated with food, drink and women. All this would need money”
“If getting elected is so difficult,” wondered Hairy Body, “how many of us will be interested in contesting elections? Where does one get so much money?”
“It is not very difficult.” assured Klansman. “Send word to a trader and tell him that you understand his problems. He will soon give you a dinner with good drinks and take you to his private room where he will tell you that he is very much harassed by the taxman and the police. Promise him that if you get into the ruling class you would put a stop to the harassment. He will present you with a decent amount without your asking. It will be his investment for improving his earnings and is only a small part of his anticipated profits”
“Why” burst out Pot Belly, “this is simple bribery!” “Yes, it will be a bribe if you take it in your own name.” Explained Kalanemi, “But if you take it in the name of your party, it becomes sacred, because it is to promote people’s Government.” “Won’t people ask the party who gave the money and how it is going to be spent?” asked Elephant Ears. “ You have the constitution which is a sanctified instrument of the people’s government. You have only to introduce into it slyly a sentence that moneys given to and accepted by political parties need not be accounted for publicly” explained Kalanemi. “Will the people agree to have such a clause in the constitution?” asked Elephant Ears again.
“Remember” roared Kalanemi. “ We call it the people’s government to fool the people. It is really government of the elected representatives. It is they who make rules and approve changes. Justice is not what is just but what the majority of the representatives say. People’s government is a government of numbers, not principles. Well, the people asked for it; they have got it. Of their own free will, they put it in the hands of the representatives. They have only themselves to blame. They have to suffer it. Now, it is only given to them to vote. They can do nothing more about it.” Kalanemi was very emphatic in his tones as he propounded this one of the great weaknesses of a kingless government.”
Many in the audience felt that interruptions only provoked the great one into philosophical and legal discourses, needlessly strained him and diverted them from the main objective of the meet. So they pulled down Elephant Ears and begged Kalanemi not to take the trouble to answer such doubts.
Kalanemi continued, “ If the river should come to the fields, dams have to be built. Roads, and buildings have to be constructed. Our demons can become the building contractors (or simply contractors). The government will give them the building materials. They will only procure the labour. But they will get enormously more money than what they have to spend as wages. They may also sell away the good materials given by the government and use cheaper and useless materials. By promising to close your eyes to it, you may get part of what they amass by such means. They are in direct touch with the laborers whom they can influence to vote for you. Now, somebody, don’t object that the quality of work will be poor and that if the dams burst or buildings collapse, people would meet a horrible death. Such occurrences will be your delight. Won’t you be happy to see some one crushed under a falling roof or villages being swept under floods due to a dam burst, without your having to take the trouble of doing it yourself? At the same time you have the satisfaction that it is your handiwork – because you or at the root of it all! If there is any one here who is not happy at the prospect, I am sure he is no demon; he is a human in demon’s garb and should be sent out of this meeting” said Kalanemi, forestalling any silly and undemonly objections. Sure, there were none.
“Some of you may straight away hide in forests, propound queer political doctrines and destroy government property, and kill people. While you can kill persons without qualms, if any of you are killed by the police, your lawyers can raise dust that human rights have been suppressed. Demons employed in the police can torture persons as they choose as part of interrogative procedures. You can develop into authorized torturers.”
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