May 13, 2009
This day is special to me for two reasons. One of them is that I am exercising my adult franchise for the first time in my life, of course other than my college elections. But the importance of this vote is that it is going to be judgemental in electing a representative for my constituency to lead the nation. When I think I own such a huge responsibility, I feel proud indeed. I understand most ppl dont agree with me here, but after all I am a firm believer of democracy.
Its not really a tough option to decide on whom to vote, atleast in the state of Tamilnadu. The political scene here is that there are only two major parties and one has to vote for one alliance to defeat the other. The politics here, I feel is mostly party driven than issue driven. Be it the Srilankan Tamil issue or the Hogannekal issue or the Krishna river issue or the SethuSamudram project issue, the parties here always believe in the stands they take for every issue, no matter how crucial it is. And the funny part is, these stands stand only till the next election dates are announced. Sometimes the extent to which they stress upon their stands kinda makes the issue itself a non issue. I have always found difficult to comprehend about the motive of our political parties - For what do they exist? Is it for doing good to people or is it just to fight out their ego clashes and gain political mileage on people's emotions?
Another point which I find extremely ridiculous about our parties is that almost all of them agree upon the fact that "Ideologies are different and Political alliances are different". In layman terms, it is like saying I believe in a certain set of principles but that doesnt mean I need to follow it. We have seen in the past the Congress aligning with the Communists, the DMK aligning with BJP, the MDMK aligning with DMK. Infact, I feel the only two alliances which have not been tried in our country is the Congress - BJP alliance and the DMK - ADMK alliance. I dont find anything sarcastic here because I feel in the ideologies perspective, atleast the BJP is more common with the Congress than the Communists. When Congress can succesfully complete a five year term with the Communists being a part of their coalition, why not let them align with BJP this time? The optimistic way of looking at this is atleast the nation would be at peace.
A couple of days back, I heard from a friend of mine that a group of people from a leading political party had come down to his house and sought votes. What was thrilling to me was that each of his family members who had the right to vote were offered a sum of money. If the candidate could shell a few thousand of cash for every family, my quantitative skills were up for a toss to find how much of money he has, to spend on the elections. What was even more surprising to me was the attitude my friend had towards this incident. He very righteously believed that it was after all the tax payers money and hence we all deserve to get a share outta it. What a lackadaisical attitude? I was saddened by the fact that our votes today are being sold for peanuts. If a highly educated Indian youth (read my friend) himself had this kinda outlook on the electoral system, I was not able to think about the poor illiterate voters. Where is our country heading to? Isnt this the heights of demonstrating how democracy is being insulted. The purpose of our system of governance is defeated here.
Abraham Lincoln defined democracy as "the Government of the people, by the people and for the people." With the way the election of today is being portrayed, I beg to differ from his definition of democracy by redefining today's Indian democracy as "the government OFF the people, BUY the people and FAR(from) the people." But it is in our hands to make sure that we give a status change to our country from India whining to India shining. Of course to achieve this, we need to take part, participate and make sure we make a difference.
PS: Inspite of this outburst, I still am a firm believer of democracy and most of us dont realise its effectiveness. One humble way of how we can improve the efficiency of our democracy is to cast our simple vote and make an impact in a powerful manner.
PPS: And yeah, the second reason why this day is special to me is that its been exactly an year since I left the lovely BITS campus. Miss you BITS!
Jai Hind!
