Somewhere in the suburbs of a city in India, thousands of people gawk and start waving at the sun-bleached sky to the buzz of an approaching helicopter. Emerges the "Neta"(politician) from the chopper, walks towards the centre-stage set for the rally, escorted by the security-guards and the partymen, climbs the dais. After few heeded words from the comrades, takes the charge of the podium and delivers the speech, primarily, reciped by the ingredients such false promises, void sops, targetting the other party blended with some communal provocating words. The speech intermittenly paused by the resonarting sound of the claps of the audience. Job done...!! Our "Neta" relinquishes the dais and rushes towards the chopper in waiting to attend another rally in some other city.
No, this is not a script of any movie...but a hackneyed scene in any constituency during the election compaigning which had been going on in the country. Today was the last day of campaigning for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. During this episode, we witnessed the politicians crossing all thresholds of code of conduct. This often left the impression that the supposedly watchdog, Election Commission of India was a mere spectator barring couple of (mis)incidents where required actions were taken. This time as usual, we saw many new pre-poll alliances with leaders from different parties holding joint rallies, thus fostering the alliance and also showcasing the strength and integrity of the same. We watched in this edition of campaigning, the politicians making fallacious promises, slanderous remarks and making every ditch effort to allure the electorate, even on the communal and caste grounds. They made all the promises except those not harnessing their future such ensuring that no person with criminal background enters the house of Parliament, making the number of women candidates at par with those of men, setting minimum qualifications as a prerequisite for the candidature,etc.etc. We have also witnessed the conscience of the politicians plummeting and touching abyssmal levels.There were few cases wherein it was the evident that one candidate was involved in the murder of the rival but no action taken. Many politicians didnt hesitate to entice the people by abusing the other communities and couple of them went to the limit of doubting the integrity of the nation and demanding separate land. I feel hapless as these politicians will again be seen, after the elections, making a mockery of the democracy on the floors of house breaking all the binding disciplines. Somewhere, it all points finger towards us who vote for them and elect them as our representative.... the representatives who come to see us only after 5 years (assuming there is stable government completing th etenure of 5 years). Yes, we are also responsible. Even after 60 years of independence, I feel that we as a nation have not grown into a mature democracy. We must realise that it is not only important to vote but more significantly, we must vote for the right candidate.
Jai Hind..!!!
Thanks,Vivek
Chennai
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