pIndia is plagued by many maladies and evils like corruption,
nepotism and redtapism, genderbias etc in the political front,
inflation, black money, unemployment and poverty etc in the
economic front, caste system, child marriage, infanticide, dowry
system, child labour, illiteracy and beggary etc in the social
front. Some of these evils like poverty, beggary, dowry system etc
are overlapping issues both in the economic and social front.ppThe
root causes for many of the above mentioned issues are illiteracy,
deeply ingrained superstitions and religious beliefs.ppIf we take
up the political evils mentioned above, corruption has become the
part and parcel of Indian political and social system and some
political leaders even define corruption as a world phenomenon. A
strong political will coupled with stern action from the political
leaders is required to root out corruption in the public life. As
far as common people are concerned they seemed to have resigned to
the fact that corruption is a part of Indian political system.
Corruption largely manifests itself and plays a vital role during
the day to day administration of its bureaucracy and during the
elections. The people who become victims of corruption or
corruptive system, simply curse the system without playing any role
on their part to root out corruption. They should come forward to
play their role of desisting from cooperating in a corruptive
system, though there may be hurdles or even hardships at the
initial stage.ppNepotism is another political evil which has a
monstrous growth in the Indian politics in the modern days.The
Indian democracy being hailed as the largest democracy in the
world, is gradually slipping towards hereditary democracy. The
conspicuous feature of this hereditary democracy is the planned
upbringing by the political leaders of their wards as the political
heirs or heirapparent to the higher posts in politics. Similarly,
in the name of fidelity and maintenance of secrecy and
confidence,close relatives are frequently appointed or recommended
to the responsible posts at the highest level, thereby depriving
the common man any semblance of authority in politics.ppNo doubt
the common man has a vital role to play in the Indian politics. He
has to identify the genuine men of principles as politicians who
are free from any isms and personal motives and shun others who
have ulterior motives and designs coupled with nepotism. Especially
during elections he has to pick and choose the persons who are
genuine. Otherwise, there is no use in cursing the
system.ppSimilarly redtapism plagues the Indian political system
that rests responsibility with many a hands in the name of
decentralisation, thereby driving the common man from pillar to
post in search of his legitimate remedy. But when a common man
remains vigilant and has sufficient political awareness, the evils
of redtapism may be largely reduced or even avoided.ppGenderbias is
another important political issue which is spoiling the Indian
political system. Though the Indian constitution has guaranteed
equal political rights to both men and women, still men play a
dominant role in Indian politics, thereby depriving women their
legitimate share and role in Indian politics.Apart from Indias
President Pratibha Patil, women politicians like Ms. Sonia Gandhi,
Ms. Mayavati, Ms. Jayalalitha and Ms. Sushma Swaraj are some
exceptions in Indian politics There are some people who still argue
that there is no genderbias in Indian politics since the Indian
constitution does not discriminate on the basis of sex.But the
reality is the women do not have adequate representation both in
Parliament and the state assemblies, proportionate to their
population strength and so the womens organizations are clamouring
for womens empowerment and demand reservation for women in
parliament and the state assemblies.ppThe Womens Reservation Bill
providing 33 quota for women in parliament and state assemblies,
recently introduced in the Indian Parliament amidst a high drama is
a step in the right direction. However the bill has a long way to
go before being enacted into a law.ppDespite of boasting itself as
the largest democracy in the world, India is being plagued by the
above political evils. Apart from political consciousness and
cooperation of the Indian people, a political messiah is needed to
steer India on its right political course.pp1. The Hindu dailypp2.
The Deccan Chronicledailyp
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