The Indian Political IQ!

Indian politics has entered the most bizarre stage on show since the last two years thanks mainly to two crucial factors. First, a series of unprecedented scams terribly undermined the ruling coalition government and the opposition political parties saw a godsend opportunity in this to corner the government for lucrative gains or power in the next General Elections in 2014. Second, the anti-corruption movement by Anna Hazare and party that made the skeletons cascade out of the cupboard affecting one and all in politics irrespective of ideologies or party affiliations. Politicians and upstarts created out of the anti-corruption fight made the scenario worse.

Endless allegations, charges and counter-charges, litigation and mushrooming court cases, character assassinations, personal banalities and a gleefully indulgent media ushered India into its most sordid era of politics. Maybe the nip of uncertainty in the atmosphere and a haunting apprehension made the politicians psychic and unbalanced. They uttered what they should never have, did what they should never have and kept or left companies that they should never have.

Finally it had to boil down to the IQ levels on display all around. None other than the President of the main national opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Nitin Gadkari, found himself neck-deep in an IQ controversy. Finding another opportunity in the anti-corruption movement to corner the government Gadkari and his party initially shared the ideology and the platforms with Anna Hazare and other anti-corruption activists. But he and his party reeled when some activists-turned-politicians pounced on him and his party for corrupt practices. The BJP had hardly any option but to defend its President stoutly.

Still under attack and investigations Gadkari created another huge controversy when he wanted to show his eloquent and scholarly articulation so unnecessarily. In a public function he compared the IQ levels of Swami Vivekananda and underworld fugitive Don Dawood Ibrahim. Assuming the role of an astute psychologist Nitin Gadkari said that basically the IQ levels of these persons could have been the same, but one used it for noble and spiritual reasons and the other used it for criminal and destructive purposes. It was a nationwide rage.

His party defended him again overcoming friction within with key party functionaries either resigning or criticizing bitterly. Charges and denials chased each other endlessly. Gadkari insisted he meant only a basic point that people with similar intelligence or brains do not necessarily follow the same noble way.

Now to the moot point. If the Indian politicians are so concerned about IQ levels and their uses why not they themselves use theirs for the right cause? Why they do not see good reasons in simple good reasons? Why their IQ levels or brains or intelligence always fail to determine what is right for the country? Why even the ‘Left’ part of the brains so hopelessly clueless?

India stands to benefit immensely if its politicians strike the right IQ level!