To be frank, truth and politics never go hand in hand. Ever since politics was invented, lies have always been regarded as necessary and justifiable tools of the trade. In admitting this basic fact, we are simply following Machiavelli’s rather sound advice that it is always “more appropriate to follow up the real truth of a matter than the imagination of it”. That being said, however, there are types of political lies, some beneficial and others damaging. A good political lie is one that has at least some basic resemblance to the facts and cannot easily be disproven. That’s what makes it effective. A bad political lie on the other hand is one that flies in the face of fact and crumbles under either the most cursory examination or by the simple passage of time. When it collapses, all it does is expose a government to ridicule. In time, even if the government speaks the truth, it’s not believed. The more such bad lies are exposed, the tighter the government’s fist over whatever means it has at its disposal becomes: language becomes vaguer, argument becomes more vulgar, the MBC becomes more unwatchable and the state of politics itself takes on a cartoonish character. And everyone suffers.  

Just to take some examples of such disasters: Nothing less than an economic miracle was promised. None came and, two years later, the supposed architects themselves were shunted off to other ministries.  The BAI saga was supposed to be the government saving the country from collapse. A year later, two ministers began publicly bickering over which one of them had caused the crash. No one wanted to claim the credit and assume the mantle of a savior any more! The DTAA renegotiation with India was supposed to be, and was presented as, a victory. The offshore sector immediately reacted with dismay (the treaty accounted for 75% of its business, after all) and one only had to open Indian newspapers and note the air of triumphalism with which the move was presented there. So that was that. The Metro Express was supposed to carry 53,800 people daily and make a Rs220 million profit in its first year. That was revised downwards by Bodha a short time later using the same number of passengers! All ignoring the basic fact that major public infrastructure is never profitable (that’s why private companies don’t start infrastructure projects). And then there were the whole raft of court cases lodged against Ramgoolam. Three years later, with the whole state apparatus at their disposal, the only case left is a much-abused and technical bit of the law that outlaws cash transactions over Rs500,000. Is that all there is to show for it? What became of the monumental corruption that the government had been crowing about since 2014, and the better of part of 2015? And then there are the ministers getting fired and, in each case, the performance is the same: one day defending him and insisting on an investigation and chucking him out the next, and then criticising the opposition for exposing all this the day after. Acting in this schizophrenic way, the government loses on all fronts: it does not get the credit for standing by its own, which tempts others to resort to blackmail to secure their own positions, nor does it get the credit for acting decisively to punish misbehaviour in its own ranks. The quality of politics itself suffers.

At this point, forget miracles and truth, I’ll settle for a good lie. But alas, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. 

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