Post Mumbai 26/11, all of them came on the streets bashing security lapses and sleeping politicians, rightly so. The youth suddenly realized how important it is to vote and make a difference, however small it may be.
Percentage of people voted in Mumbai 2004 elections: ~49%
Percentage of people voted in Mumbai 2009 elections: ~44%
Percentage of people voted in Bangalore 2009 elections: ~46%
The people who will rule in Mumbai and B'lore clearly belong to the minority.
Here is a funny piece: reasons why people didn't vote in the South Mumbai constituency
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Courtesy rediff:
Here are 10 reasons why South Mumbai didn't come out to vote on April 30.
* Clashed with Salsa class
* Election whites not drycleaned
* No candidate a hottie
* Tony Jethmalani contesting from suburbs. Sigh
* No valet parking at booth
* Spotted servant in queue ahead of us
* Driver not come
* Elections over dude, Obama won!
* No party tackling real issues, eg, reduce Goly Gym rates.
* No home delivery!
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And some more genuine ones to add:
1. Name not found in the electoral list
2. Heat waves
3. Fear of Maoists (terror attacks)
4. There is no 'None of the above' option in voting machine
5. All the contestants in my constituents are criminals and scoundrels
Any other reason apart from these are mere excuses. Lovely..urban apathy at its best..I'm sure some of the reasons quoted above are true and wont be much different for B'lore as well. If behenji (Mayawati) comes to power which of course I DO NOT want, whom do you blame. Of course a big part of the blame is on ourselves. I guess we all deserve it to some extent. Now, how do you change all this ?
Clearly, voting alone wont be the solution. I strongly think, by mere voting things are clearly not going to change a lot. But, abstaining from voting wont do any difference at all. I guess voting is important. It is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for better governance. When you have such a rotten system to govern such a complex society, we need an equally strong and influential force to counter it, let alone change it. The youth which has a clear thinking have to join politics at all levels, in all ranks and file of the system. There has to be a movement, right from the Panchayat Rajs upto national level politics. Education at all levels is needed and education does not merely mean learning how to read and write. Whats more important is to question, analyze and think and ACT. Whoever comes to power, should implement the following changes, that will bring in people's confidence in the system:
1. Police reforms
2. Administrative reforms
3. Judicial reforms
Of course, all these institutions, Police, Administration and judiciary have to decoupled from the politicians. They are meant to serve the society and not the ruling parties. They don't have to be accountable to the ruling party, but to the society like the politicians should be.
The problem is also with the way our society is, our upbringing is. The Indian society is a highly individualistic society. What comes first is 'me', 'I', then the family, then friends, society, state and yeah if there is some space left, then the country. Right from pre-nursery, kids are taught to study, be competitive, get good grades. Being part and winning the rat race is inculcated right from childhood. Here lies the basis of building the process of 'me-first', 'me-first' attitude. We all grow up being a selfish lot. We keep our houses clean and wont bother to keep our streets and neighbourhoods clean. Who the fuck cares as long as 'I' am clean and happy and am getting what I want. This is the attitude of a typical Indian. Everything else comes later. Even when it comes to issues people face in the country, everything is localized, though people across the breadth and length of the country faces similar issues. Water, bad governance, corruption, safety -- all these problems are not restricted to a single place or state. Its sprinkled all over the country. The problem, as Arun Shourie puts it, there is no one who can clearly channelize these issues to be fought on a national level. There are no national movements. There is no leader who can do this, who can weave a common thread to bind the different communities across the entire nation. The only leaders who can do it were during the pre-independence era - M.K Gandhi, Sardar Patel are no more. Most of the leaders today thrive on caste politics and have myopic view on the country's future. Though, there are some(Arun Jaitely, Kapil Sibal, Arun Shourie) who have amazing clarity in thought, a handful cant make much of a difference. Obviously these people are right at the top, there is no way such clarity is percolates right down to the bottom, to the leaf nodes. Of course, there is no magic potion to to solve this, but a nation, we need to think about this seriously and start executing plans. Change our archaic British-raj laws, have a more practical system in place. While the British have moved on changing the rules and laws in their country, we still are stuck in old-era style of governance. We should perhaps learn a few lessons on administration and accountability from Singapore.
But, I do see things change, however gradual it may be. India, being a democratic country also ranks pretty good in freedom index and in freedom of press. It may not be as high as US is, but its much much better than many nations such as some Islamist and communist countries, where hardly have any say in the affairs of the country. We should make good use of it to make things happen. As I write this, there is a TV show going on hosted by one of India's leading news channel, where some politicians are debating on low voters turnout and if voting has to be made compulsory. Someone from the audience said, "All the politicians out there are scoundrels. Why should I vote ?". One of the politicians commented on that saying, "If you are not happy with the current breed of politicians, please, please assert your anger." People still are not feeling the pinch of bad governance. I'm sure once the tolerance levels are breached, there is going to be a massive movement. I am waiting for that.
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