“Yathaa Rajaa, Tathaa Prajaa..” (How the king is, so are the people) – goes a saying in Sanskrit. It means people will follow the same path shown by the rulers.
But popular political strategist-turned-politician and founder of Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) Prashant Kishor has now given a new twist to this saying. According to him, it is now “Yathaa Prajaa, Tathaa Neta” (Like people, like leader).
Prashant Kishor blamed it on the people for the rampant corruption being indulged in by the rulers.
“How can you expect the leaders to be honest and virtuous, if the people themselves have become corrupt?” he asked, in an interaction with media.
He said the leaders would become corrupt and looters of public money, when the voters were sold out for money.
“It is unfair to expect the leaders to be synonyms of emperor Harishchandra, while the voters demand money from them to cast their vote,” he said.
The political strategist said if the voters sold out their votes for Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 each, the leaders mortgage them for Rs 5,000.
“As long as the voters yield to freebies, liquor and chicken biryani, they have no right to pull up the corrupt leaders,” he said.
Stating that leaders would follow the same path as that of people, Prashant Kishor said once the leaders come to power, they would fleece the people indirectly to spend money on freebies in the name of welfare schemes.
“This is because they have to bribe the voters to win the elections,” he pointed.
So, the bottom line is that the people would have to pay heavy penalty for taking money from leaders to cast their vote in the elections.
