I often feel ashamed of being a part of the educated class in India. We are a pampered lot (In a lot of ways) and it shows up most obviously on election day. For most, its a glorious holiday!! The reality that people don't do their duty has made companies now declare it a working day, with a few hours permission at best.... Supposedly to vote!!
We read news papers, many a magazines and are also active on the net. I witness the enormous amount of appeals, comments of outrage, opinions, etc., that flows through my mail box and group messages daily.
One question. Did you vote? is like the school bell, suddenly rendering everyone speechless or rather text less....
A few brave souls reply with the obvious justifications like; Whats the use? Everyone is as bad as the other and so on.
I have only 2 views about this -
1. This is our duty. In return for our identity as an Indian, the least we can do is VOTE. Ask the people who live in non-democratic countries what a luxury this is. We are given this right and duty by our constitution and yet most fritter it away.
2. Now I speak like a retailer. Do you know how to increase the margins of a category or a store? You focus on the relatively better margin products. Slowly and surely the margins move up. It does not happen overnight. But it happens. Similarly, I agree that the choices are not great. But, support the lesser of the evils. Slowly and surely the message will get through and the bar will raise.
I sincerely hope that the coming election is a landmark in Indian history because the educated class voted and they defined the standards we want for an India we want to leave for our children!
Postscript - Another excuse albeit a genuine one! I don't have an election card and it is too difficult and time consuming to get one. And my response - Anyone who says this should never ever bother about a gas connection, ration card, driving license, passport, etc. If the person has any one of these, we all know the effort required for that. Cant that person expend the same as a duty towards the country?
Sunday, March 22, 2009
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1 comments:
Hello Rajesh!
Your blog makes an interesting and thought provoking piece of reading. I would like to share my thoughts in this context.Being an ex-serviceman, I consider a few things in life as a must - like following all rules, being prompt in making payments like tax,etc, and in general, leading an orderly life. But I find only chaos, utter disregard/disrespect to society/system in every walk of life feeling totally disappointed and many times left wondering 'are these my fellow countrymen for whose sake I had volunteered to lay down my life?'
I had been to the city corporation office to get myself photographed and collect my voter id card - without which I can not cast my vote. What could have been done in 10/15 minutes took a good part of the day. There was no order in any way you look at it - there was a huge crowd and the authorities did precious nothing to guide/manage the crowd. The entry/exit was blocked by two wheelers left in a hurry, parking lot was overflowing with vehicles parked in whichever way people found it convenient, there was only one counter each for verification of data and taking photographs, a few persons involved in this activity were very rude and hostile taking their own time to process the request - well, the list can go on. And what about the duty conscious citizens who had turned up there? Less said the better. Our people do not believe in maintaining an orderly que and stand behind another person and wait for the turn. A family/batch of more than two persons would make a small cluster and go on discussing various aspects of life - and this in turn making the que meaningless - creating confusion, frequent shouts, jostling, etc.
I also wanted to collect a receipt for the property tax I had paid earlier - well that is another episode altogether - the entire office was full of overstuffed almirahs, broken furniture amidst dust and cobwebs, and the so called 'public servants' - greedy, corrupt,inefficient, lazy, indifferent and callous - most of them absent and those who were present taking frequent coffee breaks unmindful of the people waiting - well, should we grin, grunt and bear?
Well, I am not giving up!
Major Bhargava
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