Talking politics

Off late, politics has again caught a great deal of attention with the Adarsh scam still shining bright in all of the political gimmicks in recent times. Corruption in India picked up great momentum with our late Prime minister Narasimha Rao tangled in urea scam, followed by the king of cows, Lalu yadav who fiddled with their fodder and not to forget, the bofors scam which was an unavoidable taint on the country’s biggest political party, Congress! And then there was no looking back for media. Where making news was like binging on spicy chicken tandoori, such news fueled a useless anger in the Indians, who, except a few, raged, yelled, discussed and then as usual accepted the situation as a fact of life. With time, it seemed, the urge to question a wrong doing disappeared into thin air. And then such incidents are forgotten and lost in history and are not remembered until another interesting story on corruption pops up!

So when it comes to development, India has not only progressed economically and technically, but has taken a giant leap in the study of corruption. I wont be surprised if corruption is included as a subject in economics in near future, in the academic curriculum. No, am fun or pun intended, but I am quite serious and at the same time amazed at how success and development have had an exponential growth with corruption. Or is it, that our politicians have made great efforts to stick their bum to the chair? I would carefully avoid blaming politicians for anything other than good happening in this country, which is quite unlikely of me as before. There was a time in school, when I was seething at every politician, blaming, cursing and berating them on every chance I got. That is when a wise man advised me to reserve my right to silence. He said, ‘the politicians of a country reflect the attitude of people living in the country’.

Today I can say, if we find out politicians useless, then I believe, the fault lies with us. When I went to vote for the first time, I was appalled by the measly number of people who were exercising their rights, with the primary one of voting. In a country where democracy is the order of the day, and where people fail to understand its meaning and use their rights rightly, they have absolutely no right to blame a political system, which has come to power on the bulwark of their votes. Recently I was also quite surprised at people blaming the corruption here, as if it existed in India alone. Not a good thing! If you find your country handicapped, why don’t you take efforts to bring in a change? If you cannot, the best thing for you is to accept all nonsense with grace. Other countries have other problems. For instance, can you imagine walking on the streets of the Imperial kingdom of Middle East, as you can zoom here on a bike even at 3 AM in the morning? To appreciate the worth of what one has got, one needs to understand what it feels like to be deprived of the worthwhile. Although our country ranks in corruption, it ranks in other fields too. With the largest contribution towards IT, Science and Research and Development, it still offers a tough competition to Western countries.

I do not follow politics any more, except for what interests me and so am not giving you any stats and figures here, as most of it is all loaded on the Internet. The reason for why I felt like writing on this topic is the hypocrisy of people who rebuke everything, they are a part of. Politics is dirty, I agree, but it is not dirtier than people’s attitude and indifference towards the subject.

Please note: This post is not some rant or vented out opinions. Just a viewpoint, or let me say a sane attempt to let people know the importance of their rights. Because, when you do not exercise your right, you have absolutely NO right to enjoy the privileges of democracy! PERIOD.