Chance to Change : Rajesh's Rainbow

This is that time of the year (or 5 years) when the political juices of people in India are really overflowing. The election time in India is like a big charismatic carnival:  vivid, crowd pulling, deafening, fanfare, showmanship, media hype and what not? Come elections and the excitement levels are at peak. Even those who do not seem excited, find it difficult to curb their curiosity as the results of the top examination of their country roll out. In more than six decades of Independence, elections in India have grown bigger and bigger in volume, expenses and populace but the vital question is that whether they have become more significant? Do they pull the present generations out of their homes to the polling booths? Many election scenarios and memories cross my mind today as I watch election news of India.    

 

The first memory is of my childhood days; getting ready early and accompanying my parents to the polling station on the day of election. On the way, my father would educate me on the nuances of voting and its effects on our country. I had to stay out while they voted. I used to be really fascinated to see that indelible ink on their finger and would try to do the same on my finger at home but the ink of my father’s pen would not stay for long. 

 

Once, a few days before the elections, we were with our grandmother in her village. I vaguely remember that a political leader (maybe the sitting MP) came to the village. He went from home to home with folded hands. As he reached our home, he requested my grandmother to vote for him. My grandmother; though illiterate; was a bold and wise lady. She lambasted him left and right, “Now you have come for votes. Look at these streets and drains. They have never been repaired. Electricity is hardly ever supplied to the village. Last time you promised that soon we would have a bus coming here, where is that?” The sheepish M.P. struggled to speak as he was not expecting this kind of hauling over the coals from an old lady of a small village. He insisted that ‘soon’ all facilities would be provided to the village people. This is yet another story that even after three decades of that incident, the condition of the village has not changed much. Nonetheless, my undaunted grandmother considered it her pious duty to cast her vote till the end of her life. She had to be sometimes carried to the polling station when she was not able to walk but she never stopped voting although she hardly knew anything beyond the ruling party.   

 

Many years later, I met another lady with similar fervour for voting. She was my grandmother-in-law, an educated woman who also worked as a teacher for a short while. On the Election Day, she would wake up with a sense of duty and wait for someone to take her to the voting station. She was aware of the credentials of most of the contestants of her constituency. She would egg on other family members too to perform their ‘sacred duty.’ In case of both of those reverential ladies, the enthusiasm (to vote) never faded, the energy never ebbed and they never ceased from speaking their minds on the political conditions of India.

 

Conversely, generation ‘Y’ today thinks that Election Day is just another day or worse a holiday to relax at their leisure. Many of them cannot even tell the difference between ‘Loksabha’ and ‘Vidhansabha.’ Urban educated masses have also distanced themselves from enfranchisement as they find it an exercise in futile. They feel that things in India will not change in any case. A resigned attitude has superseded the sense of responsibility.  They no longer see it as their chance to change the fate of their country as they feel that most of the political parties have no mission or vision and trading  Tom for Dick or for Harry is not going to change the fortune of India.

Despite the entire disillusion, still the Indian citizens should try to fulfil the responsibility entrusted on to them by the constitution of India by voting for the most suitable candidate. They all must take inspiration from the 97 year old; Mr. Shyam Saran Negi of Kinnaur, Himachal Pardesh; the first voter of Independent India who feels proud to have voted in each election ever since 1951 . Beyond doubt, India needs good governance from the people who are genuinely interested to empower and develop it further but on the other hand the people also must willingly participate in the process of giving a suitable and stable government to India. 

 

Bricks & Bouquets: Do you think that elections change the fate of a country? Please share with me at rajesh@rainbow.org.nz