Rules of the game – By Sheena Roy

Source: http://sheenaroy.wordpress.com/

A strange and interesting incident occurred in a Telangana district recently. In a very thought provoking protest, the locals in a village played a game of Kabaddi. This game is usually played with two teams of five. It is played in a rectangular box with lines that are similar to the yardage lines on the American football field. One person repeatedly utters the word ‘kabaddi’ without pausing for breath, goes into the other team aiming to take out the players by touching them. Once a player on the other side is touched, the entrant needs to get back to the yardage line without being caught. If he pauses for breath or if he is wrestled to the ground by the other team, he is out.

In this particular game, Team A had eight members and Team B had five. The yardage line was shorter for Team A, they didn’t need to abide by any rules, when they were ‘out’, they were really not ‘out’, they could pause for breath any time they wanted. The referee was chosen from Team A and completely sided with Team A breaking all rules. The outcome was ‘Team T’ lost miserably. The villagers applauded the win by Team A, the village head gave the trophy to Team A amongst much fanfare.

This was a unique protest conducted by the villagers depicted the current political scenario in Andhra Pradesh. ‘Team A’ hailed from Andhra and Rayala Seema, ‘Team T’ hailed from Telangana. The simple play that was enacted clearly showed what could happen if there is no level playing field and if the game is not played by the rules.

According to Hobbes, man in the state of nature seeks nothing but his own selfish pleasure, but such individualism naturally leads to a war in which every man’s hand is against his neighbour. In pure self-interest and for self-preservation men entered into a compact by which they agreed to surrender part of their natural freedom to an absolute ruler in order to preserve the rest. The State determines what is just and unjust, right and wrong; and the strong arm of the law provides the ultimate sanction for right conduct. (Catholic Encyclopedia: Obligation, 1911). Thus Hobbes supports an absolute monarchy, where power resides in the king or queen, as this absolute power to create and enforce laws was necessary for justice and the formation of a moral society.

Since then, times have changed. We, the people believed in a democracy, we didn’t need monarchy anymore, we needed elected representatives of people who can make decisions for the electees.

Telangana elected representatives to play for them, but they were smaller in number, less effective because they could not elect a chief minister from their region for the last 27 years, in fact, during the entire 53 years, there were only four chief ministers from Telangana, most of them did not complete their full term in the assembly as chief minister.

I have heard from many people hailing from Andhra and Seema saying that the Telangana leaders are useless, are weak, and are unable to fulfill the demands of Telangana. Partly it is true, there was always dissension amongst the Telangana leaders and they squabbled amongst themselves for fame, glory, and the tidbits that are thrown to them by the Andhra Chief Ministers. But there is another side to the equation. It is very simple, they couldn’t get their demands heard by the more powerful lobbies from Andhra and Seema. If a Telangana leader made a fuss, he was immediately shifted to a lesser known post in the cabinet. They were emasculated and stamped upon at every turn. The weaker leaders who turned into ‘yes’ men were given posts that are strong but were manipulated and played as puppets from behind the scene. The balance always tilted toward Andhra and Seema in regard to Power projects, irrigation projects, jobs, education institutions, and disaster relief funds.

Today a friend of mine said that competition can only occur when there is a level playing field. Where is the level playing field? Who is abiding by rules of the game?