Do Nothing to Serve Society!

Although the Wikileak’s acts of hacktivism and several journalistic exposes may not support their claim, politicians would like us to believe that they have entered the arena of politics in order to serve the public at large. Without so much as challenging their noble intentions, let us assume that their choice of vocation has been from the deep inherent urge to serve fellow humans on the planet. “What is your contribution to society?”, is the question that one would be confronted with, if you’ve declared your good intentions to the public at large. While a doctor can cite how lives of the critically ill have been saved or the pain and suffering of his patients relieved - and a teacher can boast of the phenomenal success of his or her brilliant students, who have made it big in life upon graduating out of school or college, what can a politician who has pledged to serve society boast of, except, of course, a quantum jump in their wealth and a corresponding depletion of the exchequer?

One wonders whether this question ever troubles anyone who has chosen to get into the field of politics. If coffee-table conversations with colleagues and rickshaw drivers are to be believed, there is no noble deed sought to be done, nor any service to be rendered in the subject profession, but only a host of privileges to be availed of, with good times and high life thrown in for good measure.
Ever since India has evolved as a leader in services rather than a manufacturing giant, the taxation of services has been the focus of the Finance Ministry.
Some years ago P. Chidambaram, the then Finance Minister had jocularly replied to a query about whether lawyers were subject to Service Tax, “I don’t think lawyers provide any service”, he had replied. However, with changing times and a ballooning fiscal deficit posing a threat to the financial health of the nation, the present Finance Minister had to hold the view that a lawyer indeed does “provide service” after all!

“Providing service” therefore differs from “serving people” and thus faces the inevitable threat of coming in the tax net. If politicians were to be seen as “providing service”, the entire amounts paid to the tribe including the amounts en-massed would be subject to tax, I guess. “Serving the nation”, is admittedly different, meant to be a noble act, although regretfully, it is now synonymous with lustful acts of self-aggrandizements by various means, which have been made known to us all by the media. The heap of scams that have descended upon us has created an industry by itself – committees, government agencies, legal experts to investigate them would work seamlessly for decades to come.

One wonders whether the uproar in Parliament over the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee to investigate the 2G scam, was a blessing in disguise in that no business done - hence no harm done to the depleting Exchequer? In that regard, one is reminded of Milton’s famous quote, “They also serve who only stand and wait”. Perhaps the best we can suggest to our politicians is to take note of these wise words, which, although not really understood all along, have lent some meaning to all those who sought it in these famous quote. After all, it has been our country, India, which has given the world the numeral “zero” and more recently, the concept of a “missed call” resulting in a zero bill – why not add “doing nothing to serve society” to this illustrious list of contributions to global progress? Let us hope to work on it right now, before the Exchequer comes close to being a big Zero and the number of zeros in the scam figures tends to infinity.

Now that’s one Ex the politicians love so much!

Our fervent plea to all Indian politicians:
Please do nothing - to serve us!