Middle Finger Blues

Aristotle the Geek has provided the link to this hilarious photo of the Maharashtra CM and his wife showing off their middle fingers after voting.

My question: How many megatons of indelible ink are bought for the elections? What is the total cost of ink? What is the cost of transporting all this ink to all the polling stations?

What is the total cost of all the electronic voting machines, including transportation?

What is the total cost of all the government personnel commandeered for election duty, including their special allowances?

What is the total loss effected by closing down all liquor shops for days prior to and during the elections?

If we add all these up, we get the total cost of electing a parliament.

Now add to that the total annual cost of running parliament, the salaries and allowances of the MPs, the secretariat staff, and the 2 crore rupee constituency development fund that every MP receives.

If we add all these up, we arrive at the full and total cost of our farcical democracy.

The Lok Sabha met for just 32 days last year.

And 25 per cent of its time was wasted by uproarious scenes within the “august house.”

The Lok Sabha recently passed 8 bills in 17 minutes, without debate. Indeed, amidst a "din."

Note that the prime minister, good old Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi, has never been elected to the Lok Sabha. He is referred to in this column as an “unelectable leader.” But he is PM!

Something very fishy going on here. Perhaps there is more meaning to the middle finger politicians wave around after voting.

However, there is some good news: 1473 voters in MP registered a “negative vote,” saying they did not approve of any candidate on the list.

Recommended reading: Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s “Democracy, The God That Failed.” Hoppe contrasts monarchy with democracy, and finds it better: a “limited private government” is better than an “unlimited public government.” He does not advocate monarchy though, preferring the “natural order” of a rule of law society.

Excellent book.

Leaves you with much to think about.

Especially the fact that we would all be better off showing our middle fingers to the Establishment, that too, without indelible ink stains on them.