I will talk about Maharashtra politics and the psychology existing in it today. Where have we reached? My father, who has been a journalist for 43 years, says, such a volatile atmosphere never existed in Maharashtra. There is only revenge and getting back to each other here. Corruption has reached all together newer heights and definitions of corruption have changed too. There are people instigating us on our castes, and then there are clashes over castes and yes, there are very few who get punished; but then they become immune to it after sometime. I agree, third grade people should be punished, but then, how many of them are left? I feel the number of third grade people is only increasing around me as more and more skeletons are coming out. Has this been our culture ever what we are seeing or hearing now? Corrupt, bogus people existed then too, aree baba, there was full-fledged underworld ruling us, yet Maharashtra was never so volatile. There was no insecurity at all in any one of us before 2019. Today it is not politics anymore. It is GANG WAR. No one here accepts defeat or has a large heart to let go of many things.
Is this the same Maharashtra where today one MLA dares to fire a weapon in the police station itself and out of personal rivalry we see a young politician getting killed on Facebook live. Where have we come, my dear readers? And mind you, Devendra Fadnavis is not at all responsible for this. He himself is a victim too of backstabbing and being overpowered! Will all of this stop here, no, absolutely not! We have Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar undergoing tremendous stress today as they see their ships sinking, but wasn’t it the same when Devendra Fadnavis was not allowed to form government in 2019? Imagine what Fadnavis must have gone through or today what Sharad Pawar and his party men and Uddhav Thackeray and his party men are going through, MENTALLY? Is all of this above our own health, mental peace, and atmosphere at home? No, never!!
This is not so simple. I am sure even if we always find Fadnavis smiling in any adverse condition, it is because he has trained his mind to be like this. But does it not hamper him; surely it does, but the wounds are internal. We as a society, especially our political fraternity, today is gripped with anger, fear, revenge, greed for power and money, and so many other attributes, if I have left any. We have built the Ram Mandir but is there Ram left inside us? No–we are all mentally ILL, we will have to accept this hard fact. Yes, each and every one of us, and who pays for this? We pay through cancer, diabetes, blood sugar, and most importantly with our own family members as it is us only who keep our home atmosphere –tensed always due to our nature!
Greed of power and money cannot be stopped. One DCP has to become Jt CP at any cost. One politician has to become the Minister at any cost. One journalist needs to be awarded at any cost. One bureaucrat has to save his posting and yet stay away from income tax noticies. Many of us have either asked our children to leave us and study abroad, because even we know one day all our greed will have to pay here only. Either it will be our health or our children’s lives! A non-corrupt officer often sees anyone entering his cabin to ask for genuine help with suspicion only! Even he is unwell. Our family knows it, but we are so much into the game that we don’t want to listen to them.
Enemies cannot be left as they will overpower you one day. Our lifestyles have become so ‘Page 3’ that whatever time we get, we either are partying (drinking or snorting lines of cocaine) or busy investing our money. We are not seeing our next generation grow up into fine human-beings. Politician sons are having a riot in the city. Who will stop them and who has the time to stop them? Mother is busy with kitty parties and father is milking the state. Money is freely moving in homes and the newly rich family is investing in Rolexes and penthouses. Culture, when asked, they say, what about it?
The most irritating habit in Maharashtra is show-off of power these days. There are goonda’s roaming in bungalows and meeting politicians and vice-versa. There are politicians’ sons creating scenes in night clubs. Everyone today, if they are on the ‘right’ side today, feels invincible about themselves. There is no KARMA word existing for them! I am telling you, Karma is really a bitch! Many have seen this, many are facing it. If not you, it is your children who are paying. And when I see the father just earning a few crores per year through corruption, I want to tell them, boss by any chance, do you think your child is “napunsak”? Why are you not letting them earn their own money? You set the standards so high (lifestyle) that tomorrow when the child does not earn to match that standard, divorces and suicides are common things we hear, don’t we?
Today after the young Gosalkar was killed, I tweeted that cancel all the firearm licenses issued by the Government in the last 3 to 4 years. But is that it? Will that stop the killings? If not guns, we have traffic or frustrations, less income, bad marriages are not enough, we have ‘competition’ killing us. Everyone wants to kill (not in literal sense) everyone to grab that one post and earn that extra money. Aree baba, let something go na, we won’t get everything all the time!
Since this government is really into listening to suggestions, may I ask the Chief Minister and DCM to compulsorily have psychological testing of every politician and bureaucrat working in this Maharashtra every year? This will help us improve our mental health, which we ignore big time. IT IS THE NEED OF THE HOUR EVEN FOR THE OPPOSITION. See how opposition leaders are quickly running to join the biggest party? why? because it is that anxiety about their future. No one wants to rest or put a full stop. The mental evaluation will in turn curb crimes, corruption, and this arrogance we possess. We will come to know that we are mentally ILL. This evaluation will also help in identifying and curbing the anxieties and the insecurities we all possess. Most importantly this evaluation will lower our GREED. IF we start the process now, by 2024 we will have less egoistic, less corrupt politicians and bureaucrats serving us and making our Maharashtra mentally very very strong!! And please, for 2024, we need ‘education and being khandani’ qualifications as the top priority for any party to distribute tickets.
– Vikrant Hemant Joshi
