SANJAY SAHAY
The pious thought and act, selfless in service, with total commitment of service to one and all, is Langar. There are no proclamations about it, it’s quiet, seamless and effective to the core. Langar in its physical manifestation is the community kitchen of a Gurdwara which serves vegetarian meals to all visitors. In recent times, two variants have won the hearts and minds of all Indians, one is providing food at the protest site during the farmers agitation on Delhi’s borders,* to support the farmers fighting for their cause. Perhaps the most innovative ever, would be the Oxygen Langars during Covid, when the state had nearly ceased to exist.
Far away from anything close to it, and a mindset and attitude completely contrary, is what I term as Electoral Langars. These are acts of so-called community service with a vested agenda. The funds are someone else’s, redistribution plans of which are made public, even before they get a temporary ownership of it. The service, facility or cash is promised, if the majority of the present, consent in its favour. These are the freebies we are talking about, that have become the centre stage of every political party’s election campaign. It is around this fulcrum the government and governance operates to everyone’s peril.
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How the funds are arranged for Langar has never been a matter of debate or concern? The pious act keeps going on. In the case of Electoral Langar, the ensuing government is pushed to penury, attracting criticism and backlash. What a shame, that they keep defending their “pious act”. Without any format or template or limits and with little or no understanding of finance, the “Electoral Langars” provide a platform for most unhealthy electoral competition. My Langar is better than yours is the battle cry. By hook or by crook, the political party has to attract you to its Langar. Once they are able to do that, pre or post delivery, their job is done.
Electoral Langar is traded for votes. This Langar of late can have a cash component as well and that has been the most successful and extremely liked variant of Electoral Langar. Its variant can take any form, it can offer free medicare to free education, free electricity, free travel and what not. The biggest inherent contradiction is that it is being done with someone else’s money, the taxpayer. He is not a part of decision making, planning or execution in this regard. The catch is that the political party, its government and its leaders hanker for its credit. It gives a feeling that this largesse is funded from their pockets. A logical corollary to it, is that the “beneficiary” as he is called, should repay by way of his vote, when the next election happens. He is not only reminded over and over again, he is even chased for it.
(The writer is a former Karnataka cadre IPS officer, Founder & Director, TechConPro, Cyber Security Expert, Professional Public Speaker & Writer. Hailing from Palamu, Jharkhand, he lives in Bangalore.)
