The ‘Power’ Game

Every one is aware that ‘Power corrupts all’ but now we have also come to know that ‘Discretionary power’ makes the person more powerful. Discretionary power to allot prime land, government bungalows at prime location, allotment of petrol pumps and the list goes on like a never ending ‘Akshaya Patra’. A chief Minister having discretionary power can grab land and allot them to his kith &  kin at throw away price and no amount of hue and cry can challenge his authority. Their prerogative becomes their pride and prejudice for not so lucky one.

I fail to understand why opposition parties make such a noise, disrupting legislative assembly or the parliament. After all they too get chance to come to the power to make good the loss. Who else does not (mis)use his or her discretionary authority? Government officials and police personals use government vehicles for going to market, cinema or dropping their children to school, Theatre owners use their discretionary power to issue complimentary passes,  School/College authorities keep some seats vacant for hefty donors, journalist keep writing about somebody they want to promote hence why blame the politician alone.

The power of Tamil Nadu chief Minister/s is different from other states. Here who so ever is in power, the ministers and public alike, likes to treat them as powerful God having huge discretionary power and they like to fall on their feet again and again wherever they go. It reminds me of Emergency period of India when ministers were asked to bend, they started crawling!

If you think that only we are blessed with this discretionary power, then think hard again. Do not be surprised if I tell you that even our Gods have different level of powers. There is a ‘Visa Balaji’ temple in Hyderabad where if you go and pray the lord, getting visa becomes very easy surpassing all the hassles of going to consulates! There is no dearth of Balaji temples in our country but this one has special discretionary power to grant Visa. I heard that similarly a ‘Hanuman Temple’ exists some where in Northern India specializing in Visa.

There are some powerful Devi temples where a childless woman can get conceived after prayers there or a powerful ‘Shani’ Temple like the one at Thirunallar near Pondicherry to ward off all your problems. Not all Devi or Shani temple Gods have this charismatic discretionary power bestowed upon them. Who has not heard of ‘Siddhi Vinayaka temple’ of Mumbai which is patronized by our Bollywood fraternity for its super power which the next door/ street Vinayaka temple has not got. People throng the Tirupathi Balji temple with their long list of demands and wishes in lieu of all their ill gotten wealth in return, but the Balaji temple next to my house does not attract the same crowd.

In short, it’s all in the game-The Power game. More the power, more the powerful one is, be it a politician or the God.