Leading lights in society of the past, both near and far on time scale, are more to be found in the sleepy pages of the land’s recorded history than remembered by present generation. Even the few among them whose life and exemplary deeds are recalled by some public speakers would have got erased from memory but for the various occasions celebrated with or without solemnity and clearly for self-glorification of the respective speakers, invariably the flock of neo-netas across the country, including Karnataka. The common outlook of treating the land’s epics as more fiction nowadays has further hurt the cause of impressing upon the young minds the importance of universally accepted good habits that have acquired a low premium in our times. There is hardly any village across the country which has not hosted individuals, both men and women, of eminence in different fields of human activity, including teachers, warriors, singers, writers, philosophers, mentors and so on.

While the quality and content of education at all levels in the country, barring exception of some institutions, have been bestowed low rating in knowledgeable circles, we hear from many achievers in different fields about their rural origins and learning through the medium of regional languages as opposed to English. Even the non-achievers who have surged politically take fascination to identify themselves as sons of the soil.

The top brass in both the Union Government and Karnataka Government have just got into top gear in (a) hurling accusations of misdeeds (b) claims to working for raising the levels of prosperity in their respective jurisdictions (c) downgrading the track record of their political rivals (d) loading their public speeches with slogans and figures leaving the electorate on the high horns of dilemma in the matter of which political party to be favoured in the ensuing polls, and last but not the least (e) to score high on popularity scale. With the media extending its unalloyed hospitality through column-space in dailies of all hues and telecast time of television channels, there is a dramatic rise in the number of netas creating a scenario of big fish swallowing the sundries, with the gullible electorate offering a helping hand.

In the current dispensation, the dominant players seem to have forsaken the diktat of ‘doing the right things and doing them rightly’ while the land’s masses have no clue on stopping the emergence of neo-netas in every region of the nation.