Democracy

India recently completed a mammoth exercise, the general elections to elect representatives for the 15th Lok Sabha. People around the world followed in sheer amazement the five phases of our elections, voting, counting and the final announcement of results. In the end the elections this time passed off peacefully with hardly any violence or instances of foul play. India remains an enigma to so many foreigners, who are simply unable to understand how our democracy functions so smoothly in spite of so many regions, cultures and languages. They are not able to comprehend our unity. We are so divided and yet so united. Our government institutions the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary function so independently. We have an alert and responsible press. From the top everything looks so good and promising, but deep underneath there are problems.

After the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, people of Mumbai came out into the streets and castigated our politicians and our security agencies for this huge security lapse where an entire city was held at ransom for two days, by a bunch of terrorists. The entire failure was squarely blamed on our government and our politicians. It looked as if finally the people had woken up and that we would henceforth have a very responsible citizenry who would take the destiny of our country in their own hands. The message from the public to the government was very clear ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

Surprisingly just 6 months later when it came to participating in the elections two of the biggest cities Mumbai and Bangalore had the lowest turnout. People planned picnics and holidays on elections day and to over 50% of the voters in these cities the elections hardly mattered. We had some interesting, young and qualified candidates contesting from these two cities. Yet for the people it hardly mattered and all good candidates lost. The very same people, who spend hours at a stretch cursing the government, politicians, police etc, could be seen picnicking in parks and holiday resorts with their families.

Where had all the anger and frustrations of November 2008 gone suddenly? What happened to the politician bashing? All this proves that we are arm chair democrats only. The affairs of the country mean nothing to us. At the tiniest of excuses we demonstrate in the streets, call for strikes and bundhs, destroy public property for which we ourselves have paid, beat up our own countrymen who disagree with our views and then sit back and gloat, at how responsible and alert we are. We are a free country today, so who cares. The sweat and blood of our forefathers which earned us this freedom and this democracy means nothing. We know only to complain and find fault with everything around us, but we simply run away from our responsibilities. Yet, we want freedom to act as we please and do as we please. To sum up,we are just a nation of extremely selfish and self centred people.

Ask the people of Zimbabwe, Burma, Iran and North Korea just to name a few countries the meaning of democracy. They will tell you what it means to them. To them democracy is only a word mentioned in a dictionary. Ask them to explain about their lives. Do we even spare some time to read about what is going on in so many countries around the world ruled by dictators, criminals and military juntas, where people simply disappear if they dare to open their mouths and complain? Where the smallest of dissent is suppressed with an iron fist. Hundreds and thousands of innocents are rotting in prisons, just because they dared to question. Look at Aung San Sui Kyi in Burma. A frail woman locked up by the junta. Did anyone follow the recent post elections violence in Iran?. Does anyone follow the incidents in Gaza? Ask all these people and only then probably we will realise how blessed, how lucky and how free we are.

If we do not discharge our responsibilities properly, we do not have the right to blame our leaders in the first place. If we look upon them as good for nothing then we must also understand that we, the good for nothing citizens have put them there in the first place. Good for nothing citizens deserve good for nothing politicians and a good for nothing government. We need to blame ourselves before we blame our leaders.

Let us therefore accept our faults and our responsibilities. Let us admit that we have failed our forefathers and that through our continued ignorance and taking for granted attitude we are also badly letting down not only ourselves but also the generations to follow.