After the recent Mumbai attacks by terrorists, common people are out on the streets demonstrating and protesting about the apparent failure of the political system and the politicians in general in protecting the masses from such incidents. Almost every demonstrator was angry and frustrated and fed up over the lax attitude of carelessness that the politico's showed towards ordinary citizens. People have also raised anger over the establishment and elected officials and their misgivings and shady deals that have led to an almost non-existent crumbled mechanism of protection & security for the people.
Look deeper into the issue and you can see a common thread in all these protests. A majority of the signboards at these protests were in English. Most of them were typed in probably using power point on some PC and then printed and neatly displayed for everyone to read. A lot of the signboards were angry sarcastic pokes of humor at the politicians themselves. Although a BJP spokesman was chided for remarking that people with lipstick and suits don't represent the nation, that was what we saw at the protests. It was almost all middle to upper middle class people. So, where was the common man? Where is the protest from the common man? Where were the laborers? where were the minimum wage income earners who often pelt stones and burn effigies at such occasions? The answer is that they were missing from the process. There are several people out there in the city that are very very angry, but, could not be part of this process. Unfortunately, it is these people that elect the system in place.
India continues to have a huge number of people that live under the poverty line. These sets of population tend to be the 'blanket & black label' voters in our democracy. Come election time, the local casteist politician either pitches his caste against the opponent or just goes and buys blankets & alcohol for them. This way a majority of votes are just plain bought out. In this electoral class-warfare, the poor class wins as they represent majority of the votes in practically any constituency. Often elections are also rigged by transporting tons of migrants from another part of town or out of state into an area. Naturally, the product of such elections is the government that we see today. The governance is filled up of people who would be remarkable success stories financially since they often come to power and abuse it to their own good. These people are not only unqualified, they are detrimental to the development of our society. Their poor backgrounds devoid of education and qualification ensures that they have a zealous greed to succeed financially and enforce their power on others through their corrupt ways.
How can a democracy like India function when a majority of its politicos come from such backgrounds. How will it progress when their lack of vision cannot take the people anywhere. How? The answer is that they wont. I am of the belief that in any population, the majority of voters are idiots. These determine the fate of the other minority that are continually disillusioned by the thought that since they are the smarter ones, they are in control. Therefore, a democracy in a country like India is a failure in the longer run.
I can state an instance of our dear neighbor, China. Which has had a democratic-dictatorship of sorts. If these attacks had happened in China sponsored by Taiwan, they wouldn't be watching replays on TV. Chinese battleships would have littered the coastline of taiwan and cruise missiles would have been launched attacking them mercilessly. I am not saying that that is the right approach to solving the India-Pakistan issue, but, it has given them decisive leadership that can drive the nation towards an established goal. India is yet to design its goals as they remain shrouded and lost in its incapable, uneducated, corrupt leaders of its wholly illiterate masses.
Democracy fails us another time
No comments:
Post a Comment