The good leader of Hindustan?

This rant began taking shape in my head in early December when there was a People’s United Front, a group of Mumbaikars fed up with the current state of affairs after the 26/11 (Funny how it has the same sing-along tone of 9/11 and equally horrifying memories.) attacks.
All those who cared — I can only recall young faces here — gathered together at the Gateway of India and asked for a better administration with placards and slogans. There are only two placards that remained with me: “Will I be alive till the next election” and “US politicians go to Yale, ours go to jail
Of course, now that we have to elect the 15th Lok Sabha by June 2, the two slogans have begun to take root and prompted me to write this.
I read this Washington Post article about Norm Eisen who is the White House ethics adviser. And it has prompted me to remember the placards. Why don’t we have a government that has ethics committee or even a proper ethics manifest, let alone leaders and staff that follows them ethically? And the land of great dreams has a person who tells even the President what is ethically right while he holds the high office.
I talked with a lawyer friend a few months ago, right after the attacks, when I was as affected by the fear that ruled us all — what can be done to change the Constitution.
Sadly, his answer made me angrier. The Constitution cannot be changed by just about anyone. I wanted to change the Constitution so that we could get ‘proper leaders’, the ones who rise above caste politics and hemming their own pockets to help improve the country; who had, at least, the minimum qualification to rule a population, a nation. However, my dreams of that change came crashing down when I realised the ones who will make the change into a legal amendment will be those who will be most affected by that change —the politicians. So, I had to kiss that particular change goodbye forever.
However, there is this new party, called the Professional’s Party of India, which launched its Mumbai office a couple of weeks ago. This, if it stays true to its party objective, could be the collective Obama for India — Change, We Can. It is a party that has professional taking up the political mantle and trying to do something better than the way-beyond-expiry date politicians of our country.
Anyone who has been convicted or incarcerated can contest to be the Member of Parliament, if only a higher court suspends their sentence or punishment — what kind of logic is that? It means any serial killer, a psychopath, any sociopath can contest election. Just get any higher court to approve of their petition and voila, we have a contestant. The latest news of party infighting and allies turning foes have only left me more disillusioned. At times, I try to understand, where did we go wrong!
On a funnier note though, there is Bleed India — of course, those who have tired of reading about TOI's Lead India project — so that we the citizens can see for themselves what exactly have we got despite exercising our franchise.