Let Your Senses Act

So I thought the sequel to my previous post on my dear “doublethink” was never coming. But what could be a better time than to put it up right before the polls day. This nation, your nation, mine too; needs us. No matter how clichéd it may sound but it is an undeniable truth.

Tomorrow you would want to laze around and call your friends up to help you finish the stock of beers you have, wake up late or just not vote because it is difficult for you to decide whom to vote for. I can understand that, I am no different.

But hey, your casting the vote is the first step towards a better India. You sure do not want to entire politics, but atleast cast that damn vote so you don’t blame yourself.

But apart from that there are a few things you can do in order to revive this nation.

1. File RTIs. Many people think that RTIs are of no use, but it really is a way to get that extra information about the laws made and question the dilly-dally implementation of these laws. You can file RTI for a whole lot of things. Ever thought about filing an RTI about how much fuel goes into running these government vehicles?
We all must have heard some distant relative say, government jobs are the best. We get so many advantages. They brag about their brother’s daughter or son being an IAS, IPS officer. Excuse me if I am wrong, very few stick to their business and most of them are corrupt. It is shameful that when people talk about government jobs which are about being public servants or working for proper administration (or may be it never was) it is instead about the extra benefits, travel incentives, extra holidays, compensatory holidays and medical benefits.
A normal Indian, service class person pays taxes every year without fail, the taxes which have been increasing with every financial budget since almost six years and has even taken place in my online shopping, are spent to provide benefits to these public servants so they can render their duties with full dedication. In return, what does a common man get, being forced to bribe the babu in government offices so he does his work in time. I am sorry to say, but here I don’t see that bribe being a failure on part of the common man, but a failure of the Indian Administrative System… or say any Indian System altogether, now blame me for generalizing and talking about the typical Indian system, I do not care. It is a fact no one can change. So think about these little issues, knock the authorities down with multiple RTIs to know more. You can stalk that girl and get her number from everywhere, think about stalking the government and you might just get to know things you could have never even imagined.
You could however also get to know about the good things which have been done, perhaps some increase in the literacy rate in an area due to proper implementation of the education reform, spread that and let people know who, which party indulges for real in substantive reforms and public welfare.

2. Form communities and file cases. Very recently the Supreme Court has dismissed a PIL with asked for post poll alliances being banned. It said that the courts couldn’t restrict parties to not form alliances with some other parties to form a government. I personally thought that the PIL made sense.
If people who share the same views regarding the development of the nation, they must set platform and brainstorm about the possible glitches in the system and find out possible direction to the correction.
Think about it, in this ‘secular’ nation, we form communities for our religion and propagate it because our constitution gives us the leverage to do so, but have we ever thought about forming groups which help increase development. The day we liberate ourselves of these minor differences, then can we think about greater meaning of words like developments.
So form communities, irrespective of whatever differences you can possibly think- divide you and the other person, for when you come together for real as a power, then only will these politicians take us seriously.
Think about it, this nation has over a thousand registered political parties, all approved by the Election Commission. It is rather funny that this commission, which can give parties the license to contest election cannot dismantle parties. So a party can get 10% votes once and manage staying in politics, for FOREVER. Ever thought, how such a big pool be checked?

3. Now that you have found out issues in the system and made communities of the intellectuals, the nation lovers and the informed, you need to file PILs. Public Interest Litigations could be a boon to the Indian systems. It is the only way I know, that a citizen of this nation can raise his voice for the correction of the ill practices which have slowly crept in and now exist and defining the system for all the bad reasons.

I apologize if I sound all preachy. I know all of us are too busy with our lives, but what is the use of living a life, which is not worth living. We slog ourselves hard from when in school to get good grades, to get the stream we wish for, to study in the top most college, till we retire all to have a good retired life. How will you feel if someone told you that you wasted it for being a narcissist?

Rise above and let your senses act.
Happy reading.

We Are Fools

India is the most populated democracy and the sad truth is that this population has no value. We all are mere ‘LOTAS’ (a utensil with a round base). We run in herds and our top floors stop working. We are conformists.

Indian population still thinks highly in terms of caste and religion. I don’t know if it’s just sad or devastating instead. Some time back, I was watching the Big Fight on NDTV. One of the panelists, a Journalist herself, said in her rounding up statement based on her research that “We vote for our caste.”

Why is it that the person standing for a seat does not matter to us? Why is it that we don’t go about inspecting the background of these candidates? Why is it that we don’t understand the politics these parties try to play? Or are we just helpless because all of these people (well mostly) are the same, and we try to choose a better option from amongst the worst…?

Today they claim to be our well wishers and tomorrow come out barking and biting at us as if they have all the power… even though in a democracy rightly people must be the wielders of the power. These so called well wishers then, come in the position they contest for and forget they are our servants- PUBLIC SERVANTS- and not some minister only.

With all of these things running in my mind these days, the only thing which comes clearly as a conclusion is that we have been reduced to mere votes and the individuality, humanity and the concern for development from the grassroots has gone to dogs (literally). Ask a young person about politics and the most obvious answer you will get is “Its shit!”

Indian voters are caught between the devil and the deep sea. If we don’t vote, we don’t exercise our right and thus don’t have the right to vent out anger about the government that comes in the position and if we do, we don’t know, who to choose?

The biggest scam in these general elections is the new entry on the board, NOTA. This “none of the above” option, as I know, seems to be the choice of many young voters. But here’s an advice, I might sound all stupid, but if you are considering NOTA, then you are caught in a trap.

You will go and press NOTA and think you have exercised your right, but here’s the catch, your vote is still wasted- or say Indian systems are wasted. If most people go for NOTA, even then, the party which gets the maximum votes of people, shall form the government; minority rule.

So minority is okay, but deceiving people is definitely not. What sense NOTA makes, when the Election Commission cannot announce re-election if most people opt for NOTA? Its rather a trap for the literate classes (ahem ahem), they will think they have cast their vote, but it will remain as useless.

So lets imagine, someone gets frustrated of all of this and decides, hello! I must stand against it. So he does. He forms a party. He comes in power, because people seem to ‘vote for change.’ Then these age-old parties full of almost dead people and thugs and goons, start to harp on that new person like vultures.

They call him politically inexperienced. And I find that amusing. Extremely amusing. Yes AMUSING! I mean the poor guy tries to stand against the ill in the system, you smash him down the seat and call him inexperienced in every move he makes. He has got to be inexperienced because he has come there for the first time and experience comes when you let people work their way out. Everyone’s not lucky to have the points for being the part of national movement or when some party started the two party system here in India for the first time…was new too. And this was the path they tread as well.

Yes he is politically inexperienced. Because he did not buy people’s votes with tablets, laptops and cash, because he did not use the tool of caste and religion, because he did not loot people to come in news because he wanted to gain publicity for his might for standing for elections… instead people saw in him which all these politician have drained themselves off and have a tainted image now from the legacy of being in politics.

But its not their fault. Its OUR fault. We vote for these people and when they come in positions, we treat them like our masters and be their slaves… we must instead make them realize that they are our servants and meant to work for us and not boss around.

Its rather sad that India has never had a revolution I feel. The condition of this country is regressing day by day and we just slog harder by day to earn our bread and confine to our bread earning. Its sad that the young blood boils and resides momentarily. On one hand I see people of my age protesting on India Gate and facing water cannons for the brutal rape of some girl they don’t know and on the other hand they choose the comfortable option of criticising what’s going and returning back to our business.

We all love power. But somewhere, deep down we all also think how power to every individual divided equally would make this country a better place. Lofty words, I know, but lets not let this die. Its high time, we did something.

The next post, I shall tell you what you can do 😉

Happy Reading.