Thursday, March 01, 2012

The Paradox of Ballot

By Siddarth Sehgal

Right now the media and the people in India are enchanted by the elections in Uttar Pradesh; this state plays a huge role in deciding which political side will be coroneted in New Delhi to rule India for five years. Hence the state level elections become extremely important for all kinds of ideological groups. As usual, politicians are knee deep in slinging mud at each other. Political equations are being calculated, balanced and unbalanced at every step. It’s Indian politics at its best.

But a long time ago, I learned a very important lesson about democracy. It challenged and changed my views in some ways about the principles on which my country was founded. I was pursuing my bachelor's and had the habit of taking life for granted. At the time of the incident I am describing, there were some elections going on at the local level in my home town and all the political parties were up on their toes to attract voters by all means necessary. I went to a nearby store to buy some groceries; the man on the counter was in his late thirties, fairly educated and very engaging in conversation just like millions of average shopkeepers in India. During our discussion about the election festivities in the city, I asked about his political inclination and who he will be voting for. What were his agendas for selecting candidate, his issues such as electricity, inflation, conditions of the road or any other reason for choosing his representative.

 Surprisingly, he said that he was not worried about matters like electricity or water because he knew that things were not going to change, he didn’t had any political inclination as such, he was only as much concerned about politics as Bulgarians concern about weather in Nepal but he told me that he was going to vote not because he felt responsible about it but because the candidate he was going to vote distributed liquor and shirts in last election and he was looking forward to those generosities in this election too.

What amused me was not the fact that he was wasting his ballot for a bottle of liquor and a shirt because that is a common malpractice of corrupt politicians to lure voters but the thing that amazed me most is that the power of vote or ballot, which Mahatma Gandhi defined as the greatest weapon ever given in the hands of man, lost its meaning completely.

I am not saying that every voter in India is like that shopkeeper but the ignorance, lack of awareness and illiteracy of millions of people leads to the misfortune of our democracy. There is a general perception among Indians that politics should be left for politicians, rich and bureaucrats; they have enough worries of their own.

Well, whatever may be the result of the state legislative elections in Uttar Pradesh, things will remain the same. There is no doubt that ballot is the most powerful weapon in the hands of an ordinary citizen but it is still a weapon, it can be used to protect, to defend or to bring destruction. Our challenges are not food prices or water supply but lack of vision, lack of leadership. I have yet to see a politician speaking against the cast based reservation system; I have yet to see a political party not promoting nepotism. I have yet to see the elections where people don’t have to choose bad among worst.  It’s up to you if you agree with my views or not but let me tell you a fact from the history before closing this discussion.

“It was the People who fought, died and gave India its freedom and it was the politicians who gave Pakistan”

- By Siddarth Sehgal

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