Much has been made of politicians who worship at the Tirumala Tirupati Balaji Temple in Andra Pradesh, India. The photos of bare-bodied politicians at worship have invited much comment in social media and much of it has been negative. Naturally, those who indulge in ridiculing such politicians are quiet when it comes to their heroes doing the same thing. The truth is that we’ve had presidents, prime ministers, ministers, chief ministers and other politicians (of various faiths) making the trip to Tirupathi.
Faith is a personal matter. Politicians are however public figures. They are naturally watched, not least of all because they want to be seen. Faith on the other hand is not a Tirupati preserve. Politicians, like most citizens, are religiously inclined; only, their religiosity is more visible, again because they like being ‘seen’.
Now only they would know what they pray for or request from the particular deity of choice. Again, that’s a personal matter. Who knows, perhaps they could even be beseeching to the god(s) for rain, for prosperity of the citizenry, sustainable development, protection of the forest reserves, the Rule of Law, independence of the judiciary or even yahapalanaya. IF, that is, such things are in the hands of astral entities, but then again that too is a matter of faith.
That’s all in the realm of conjecture. Let’s move to things known.
Even if we assume that your random politician at the altar of his/her choice is not praying for his/her political wellbeing, it seems clear that the demonstrated faith in the extra-terrestrial is not evident when it comes to the people, i.e. the electorate and indeed all citizens whose lives and futures such people claim to be their primary interest. In short, they just don’t seem to have faith in the people. They don’t believe that people are intelligent. They don’t think that we have the intellect and attendant skills backed by centuries of experimentation and innovation to design solutions to the most pressing of our problems.
We have seen how politicians of different ideological persuasions repeatedly place their faith in that dubious and variously clad individual called ‘The Foreign Expert’. They have allowed such individuals to describe and define to us our reality and helped such people design our futures. In this (and in other things too) they’ve demonstrated scandalous servitude.
They show absolutely no trust or confidence in the people. For all the rhetoric the claims of love, loyalty and enthusiasm for the people are hollow, to put it mildly. Instead (and especially in the case of the current regime), the trust and confidence in Washington and Geneva (we need not elaborate what these cities stand for) are absolute. The love professed for these assumed-to-be deliverers of all things wise and wonderful, healthy and wholesome is arguably true to a fault.
How else can we explain ‘Blueprints to Build Paradise on Earth (IN Paradise, so-called, ironically)’ that are drawn up in unknown offices of the Bretton Woods institutions or in the US State Department? How else can we explain the shameless genuflecting by the likes of Mangala Samaraweera to people like Michelle Bachelet? How else can we understand the oft-uttered desires of politicians to turn Sri Lanka into another Singapore?
How else can we understand the direct and indirect whetting of officials to key administrative posts by representatives of other countries operating in Sri Lanka? How else can we understand the fact that policies are actually written or their writing supervised by such persons? How else can we explain the fact that people in office compromise the sovereignty of the nation by co-sponsoring anti-Sri Lanka resolutions in multi-national forums and celebrate the same as a victory?
It is silly, then, to explain those who have decided to place their faith ‘elsewhere’ to protect and/or deliver democracy and other such goodies to a people they clearly don’t trust or else trust less.
Take this government for instance. Breathe one word and they’ll cry out in horror, whimper in dismay or run to Tirupathi or wherever they believe their faith is best rewarded. The ‘one word’ is ‘elections’. Why on earth is this government terrified of holding elections for provincial councils? There are seven whose terms have expired and have been duly dissolved. Three of them have been non-functioning for more than a year and a half. What right does this government or its supports have, then, to talk of democracy? None, whatsoever, is the obvious answer.
It’s again an issue of faith or rather the lack thereof. The government does not trust the people or indeed trusts the people not to trust the government. That’s the only plausible reason for postponing elections.
It is for such reasons that it is perhaps better to leave faith in a private realm and study the virtues of the following oft-quoted lines (misquoted in the Constitution, according to Usvatte-Arachchi, writing in The Island of August 13, 2007): ‘Devo vassatu kalena,, Sassa samapatti hetu ca, Pito bhavatu loko ca, Raja bhavatu dhammiko.’
It means, simply, ‘may rain fall on time, may crops be bountiful, may the people be prosperous and the king righteous.’ Timely rains, bountiful harvests, a prosperous citizenry and righteous rulers — we have none of it as of now. The political devotees at Tirupati have either not asked for such things or the relevant gods are powerless to deliver.
This is about faith. That’s how I began. Let me end with a play on that notion. If faith is to be place on any entity, may it be placed in the people. If politicians do not have faith in the people, there’s no reason whatsoever for the people to place their faith in politicians.
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