In search of the Tipping point in Indian Democracy

                                     

   

                           Well “Go out and Vote” has been the buzz  statement this elections but few of us care about it and we keep on saying the leadership is useless, no one can do any good to this country. But have we ever thought as to why this country is the way it is now? Is it only because of the leadership or do everybody including ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ contribute towards it. When we talk about a solution to this problem, we say the corrupt should be punished, the guilty (for example terrorists) put to justice. We blame the security network, the police forces for the internal terrorist attacks but is it possible that they can keep a check on every cm of the country. We keep on blaming the governing body for their negligence which ultimately has led to everybody having a notion that the system wouldn’t work and this country cant change towards any good. So isn’t there any solution to the problems that the country faces? The system might look immovable and implacable but with the slightest of pushes in the right direction it can be TIPPED towards positive change.

                 So what is the change that we are looking for? Lets start at the grassroot level. Voting is the primary right of the people of this country. We have been seeing huge campaigns be it the Jaagore intiative by the TATA tea or the Lead India campaign or the other initiatives which are trying to motivate us to vote. Their expectation is to lead the country to a stage of ubquitous voting and then proper selection of candidates and proper voicing of our opinion will change the system. Now for huge changes to occur you require a lot of things in place. First of all there should be people who know a lot of different kinds of people from different backgrounds for this belief to spread unbounded by communities. That is something that can be done by national level entities currently being done by TATA tea or the Lead India campaign or the other initiatives and the connecting medium is television, internet and newspapers. Now the next thing is that the people who really matter, the ones whom the people in their group or community be targeted. They are the ones who are to be convinced about the idea of how voting would benifit them and once they are it can be expected that people in their groups will vote. Now to figure out who those people are is a complex problem and requires lots of mavens i.e. people with knowledge about these permissions givers or to say grassroot salesman of the idea to the people. But the most important thing that is required is the message or the idea. Are the lines ‘Is desh ka kuch ho sakta hai ... aur yeh aapke haath mein hai’ and ‘Agar aap vote nahi de rahe ho to aap so rahe ho’ sticky enough ?  In my opinion they are but what is now important in whether they are contagious enough. Do people go out to vote in this election is what will be a measure of its contagiousness. That do the people do listen to the message or are they actually affected by it and they change their view towards elections.         

                           Whether it works or it doesnt to reach that state of ‘voting by all’ the journey is long. With half the people not voting in the country it clearly shows the disrespect in the minds of the people towards the system because of the state in which the system is now. So masses won’t bother to vote till they see some positive change in the system and the system is difficult to change till everybody is involved. Hence there is some amount of change that is required in the system to reach a transition point after which people will start having faith in the system. So how do we being about the change in the system? The answer is simple change yourself then change the people around you and hence forth. Candidates and even elected leaders do resort to things like communal division and other forms of vote-bank politics almost everytime nowadays. Would they do it if this doesnt work? But you cant blame groups of people for reacting to the calls made by them. This is the biggest mistake others do to add to the domain. The particular person or group of people might be facing problems and their leader tries to attribute the problems to communal differences or other bias and the people react emotionally. But to make any good out of the system this has to be changed! People need to understand that these sort of reactions only help politicians. One of the ways of making people understand is to change the leadership that exists now. The recently launched party Bharatiya Punarnirman Dal (BPD) by the Alumni association of the IITs and the IIMs is a very good step taken forward towards that change. May be the number of seats is just 40 but once this turns out to be a success and an example is set, the base for the change in the system will be laid. It is always a small change that is required for huge epidemics to follow.

                         Now how do we tackle the issue of internal terrorism? The direct approach which is counter terrorism clearly wont work and the correct solution to this would be community policying. These things grow because a section of the community is in favour and it is necessary to first develop an opinion against such act and in first place deal with the oppression which a particular community is revolting against. Once an opinion is successfully setup counter terrorist operations wont be required anymore. Similarly when we talk about corruption we have to first change ourselves and here the importance of the virtual permission givers in the society, the leaders not only political but the ones whom people follow. Once they set examples the things will change and once people change the government  and the political system will follow.

                          The task looks hurricanous but once the people get back their faith in the democracy the dream of ubiquitous voting can be achieved but what is required is a tipping point and the society now seems to be in full flow to progress that point after which every Indian would believe that yes this system does work!