08 May 2014, 03:05 PM IST
Sadly, there is one party that is never up for election — it's called the System.
Another long discussion on the elections at a dinner. Corruption must go, good governance is key, people are fed up, and so on. The talk was of addressing everything from corruption to jobs to education to foreign relations with these elections. And, of course, all the ire was directed at the political parties (regional and central) and their leaders.
This must be how it is in young democracies across the world. Still, it seems strange that when people vote so seriously and dedicatedly for good, how come every election reveals the same exasperation with the last government and the same hopes from the next? How come, when we invest so much thought and energy in exercising political choice, we are not getting much in return? Are politicians really so immoral as to be immune to the lofty aspirations and appeals of their people?
We can say that there is an unacceptable degree of corruption, complacency or ineptitude in the profession. Yet, we must also accept that there must be many who are honest, brilliant or dedicated. In other words, the political arena will be quite reflective of the world outside it. In daily life we know good people, but we can with certainty say most of us have run into shopkeepers who fleece you, policemen who are not honest, empty desks or uncooperative staff in offices, sewage drains overflowing for weeks, roads with potholes days after being newly open, racism and so on and so forth.
Now can all of this be attributed to the politician? The common citizen suffers the consequences of poor decisions by political governments and politicians do often deserve the notoriety they suffer, but we might need to cast our glance a little wider. The people also suffer at the hands of unscrupulous employers, insensitive and inefficient public institutions and callous insincere private sector workers. Besides, is it the politician who tells us to cut the red light, drive the wrong way, jump the queue, urinate anywhere, pay a bribe for building licenses or getting a passport, take commissions, favour friends and family at work and so on? Political leaders can be blamed for perpetuating (in some states more than others) such behavior but the reality is that these ills exist with the complicity of the institutions of governance, the private sector and civil society.
There are failings in politics but also serious weaknesses in the other institutions of governance. There is much that is undesirable in the conduct of big business, but there is much to improve in how the rest of us do business. Finally, there is so much to find fault with and blame, but what about the impact of our own willingness to go along when it benefits us?
This way of thinking and living has become a way of life. It is an accepted system. In so many young democracies, this faceless system is the true problem, not the faces on campaign billboards.
So coming to Elections 2014, no matter how the present or future elections are portrayed, if we ignore our own institutional, professional and individual daily transgressions, then we will only be electing another group of politicians to be the punching bag for all the ills of the nation for five years. Little with change.
Great change is more likely to come when society and politics change together – when institutions and individuals subject themselves to the same scrutiny and criticism they impose on politicians. So the next time you are about to overtake on the wrong side, underpay your domestic help, take the easy way out on a tough decision at work, use connections or blame the politicians, remember Gandhiji said something to the effect of "Be the change you want to see ..."
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