HELL, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against. ~W.C. Fields
It was the afternoon of 22 July 2008. Venue was Lok Sabha - the temple of Indian democracy. An important debate was under way on the confidence motion tabled by Mr. Prime Minister on the floor of Lok Sabha. Whole nation was watching the much anticipated debate on national television. Suddenly three Members of Parliament started flashing the bundle of currency notes they said were being doled out by government supporters to bribe them ahead of a crucial trust vote later in the day. Soon the pictures were being aired all over the news channels. We were once again reminded by the electronic as well as print media that most politicians could not be trusted.
Political parties soon started playing their favorite game – blaming each other. But let’s be honest – people from all political parties have been caught doing disgusting things. Although now and then, we might run into someone in politics who actually is honest. But these are few and far between.
If at one end media was doing its bit, we were doing ours at the other. We were once again cursing our politicians for their corrupt acts. In fact we have become habitual of blaming politicians for almost every problem we are facing today. But did we ever care to ask ourselves why did we reach here? Or, are we honest enough to point fingers at anybody else, including the politicians? Do we always follow our conscience while voting? Surely we are not always blessed with the great choices but among the choices, do we always choose the best person? When we elect someone in an election, do we always prefer competency over other factors like region, religion, cast or gender etc?
Unfortunately the answer is a big NO. If the answer would have been yes, we would not have seen so many criminals sitting in parliament or legislature houses. The truth is that we are not fair enough in making our choices. Why it is that a female contestant, no matter how good singer she is, never becomes an Indian Idol? Why it is that an honest person like Debojeet Saha is evicted from Bigg Boss house and all the cunning persons are still enjoying people’s love in the form of votes? There are many other questions that can be raised in support of the fact that we don’t always prefer competency over other petty things.
Coincidently, I have witnessed such an incident in my home town too. I hail from a small town in western Uttar Pradesh where elections for the chairperson of municipality were going on few years back. The mood was euphoric and people were celebrating this event like a festival. There were six candidates in the fray. Five of them were hardcore politicians who had been in politics for a long time. Only one candidate had no prior experience in politics but was still a household name because of his social works. Everyone in town recognized his services to the society. Everybody was of the view that he was the only qualified person for the post. His poster read, "Don’t say again that you didn’t have better choice."
But the trends suggested that he was not likely to win the election. I was obviously shocked about this contradictory behavior of the people. Then I tried to find the reason why he was trailing behind. I talked a number of people about this and the revelations were even more shocking. Some people complained that he did not look like a politician. Others said that he looked like an ordinary man like them. He did not have money and muscle power either. He was not always crowded by sycophants. He refused to distribute liquor, sweets or money to win the votes. He did not belong to an influential family and the biggest factor was that he belonged to a cast that had insignificant number of voters.
As predicted, the best man lost election with a big margin. The winner was a business tycoon and perhaps the most corrupt among all. He had used every trick in the book to win the elections. He bribed voters and obliged them with liquor. Some voters even sold their votes for merely Rs 500.
Nevertheless to say, election was fair and choice was ours. We chose a politician over a non-political entity. We chose corruption over honesty. We chose Rs 500 over five years of good governance. We chose liquor over pure water. We chose cast over competency.
Politicians do not have their postal addresses at moon. They are among us. They are corrupt because we are also the same. We don’t want to change the scenario or we don’t care anymore. Half of our voting population doesn’t even care to vote. Sincere people either don’t join politics, and if they do so, we thrash them the way I described above. In fact, politicians are as good or as bad as we are. So, we should introspect ourselves before blaming them.
It was the afternoon of 22 July 2008. Venue was Lok Sabha - the temple of Indian democracy. An important debate was under way on the confidence motion tabled by Mr. Prime Minister on the floor of Lok Sabha. Whole nation was watching the much anticipated debate on national television. Suddenly three Members of Parliament started flashing the bundle of currency notes they said were being doled out by government supporters to bribe them ahead of a crucial trust vote later in the day. Soon the pictures were being aired all over the news channels. We were once again reminded by the electronic as well as print media that most politicians could not be trusted.
Political parties soon started playing their favorite game – blaming each other. But let’s be honest – people from all political parties have been caught doing disgusting things. Although now and then, we might run into someone in politics who actually is honest. But these are few and far between.
If at one end media was doing its bit, we were doing ours at the other. We were once again cursing our politicians for their corrupt acts. In fact we have become habitual of blaming politicians for almost every problem we are facing today. But did we ever care to ask ourselves why did we reach here? Or, are we honest enough to point fingers at anybody else, including the politicians? Do we always follow our conscience while voting? Surely we are not always blessed with the great choices but among the choices, do we always choose the best person? When we elect someone in an election, do we always prefer competency over other factors like region, religion, cast or gender etc?
Unfortunately the answer is a big NO. If the answer would have been yes, we would not have seen so many criminals sitting in parliament or legislature houses. The truth is that we are not fair enough in making our choices. Why it is that a female contestant, no matter how good singer she is, never becomes an Indian Idol? Why it is that an honest person like Debojeet Saha is evicted from Bigg Boss house and all the cunning persons are still enjoying people’s love in the form of votes? There are many other questions that can be raised in support of the fact that we don’t always prefer competency over other petty things.
Coincidently, I have witnessed such an incident in my home town too. I hail from a small town in western Uttar Pradesh where elections for the chairperson of municipality were going on few years back. The mood was euphoric and people were celebrating this event like a festival. There were six candidates in the fray. Five of them were hardcore politicians who had been in politics for a long time. Only one candidate had no prior experience in politics but was still a household name because of his social works. Everyone in town recognized his services to the society. Everybody was of the view that he was the only qualified person for the post. His poster read, "Don’t say again that you didn’t have better choice."
But the trends suggested that he was not likely to win the election. I was obviously shocked about this contradictory behavior of the people. Then I tried to find the reason why he was trailing behind. I talked a number of people about this and the revelations were even more shocking. Some people complained that he did not look like a politician. Others said that he looked like an ordinary man like them. He did not have money and muscle power either. He was not always crowded by sycophants. He refused to distribute liquor, sweets or money to win the votes. He did not belong to an influential family and the biggest factor was that he belonged to a cast that had insignificant number of voters.
As predicted, the best man lost election with a big margin. The winner was a business tycoon and perhaps the most corrupt among all. He had used every trick in the book to win the elections. He bribed voters and obliged them with liquor. Some voters even sold their votes for merely Rs 500.
Nevertheless to say, election was fair and choice was ours. We chose a politician over a non-political entity. We chose corruption over honesty. We chose Rs 500 over five years of good governance. We chose liquor over pure water. We chose cast over competency.
Politicians do not have their postal addresses at moon. They are among us. They are corrupt because we are also the same. We don’t want to change the scenario or we don’t care anymore. Half of our voting population doesn’t even care to vote. Sincere people either don’t join politics, and if they do so, we thrash them the way I described above. In fact, politicians are as good or as bad as we are. So, we should introspect ourselves before blaming them.
1 comment:
testing purpose.
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