sitanshi talati-parikh

Posted

iManage iNDIA

Our democracy has given us the ability to make so many choices - a few decades ago, we chose to leave for better opportunities elsewhere, recently we choose to return because of plum prospects in India. But whenever we have to choose to be alert citizens, we choose the easy road - the road of oblivion, escapism and feigned ignorance. Even worse - something I am guilty of, too - cynicism and haplessness.

When an elderly man decides to fast, we tweet. When scams are exposed, we update our status in horror. When our status quo is breached we respond with anger, criticism even shock, but no solutions.

We, the urban intelligentsia, have found no way out, and have preferred to let the zoo animals that are our bureaucrats and politicians rule roost while we hatch eggs - shaking our intellectual manes over the evils at fine soirées.

We may #tweetforwickets in a strong show of national spirit, we may cry in emotional joy at national wins, but we make no move to change what's wrong.

It's true, the answers are often not with us, there needs to be a collective consciousness that decides to take no more sh*t. Everytime there is someone who inspires us, or something that appalls us, we make a stir, think about a rising, and then, in one collective motion, sit our asses right back into our plush la-z-boy recliners.

It's unfortunate that we have the option to leave, or the money to ignore the crap that goes on in our backyard, or the cynicism to empty every full glass - because the moment we run out of our options, we may be fasting like good man Anna Hazare for our future, as our men steal every morsel from our homes.

Gandhi fasted for independence, its a shame that 60+ years hence, a man has to fast merely to get a bill noticed in parliament. Elle Woods would be charmed. Tsunamis may be hitting the Pacific, but it is the wasteland of Indian inaction that requires attention.

Tagged Anna Hazare Bureaucracy Corruption Democracy India Politics Thoughts

Posted

when a system doesn't exist

Everyone's been encouraged to vote. keeping aside the fact that we don't even have the right candidates to vote for, we don't even have the right system in place to actually vote. mismanaged centers, long lines, incorrect and not updated electoral rolls, inefficient staff and voting machines that don't work... the list is endless. Today, there were regular voters 60+ years of age, whose names were mixed up on the electoral rolls. The wrong picture was against the wrong name, with a third voting number. many regular voters had suddenly been bumped off the electoral roll. there was no methodical system in place. the people checking looked lost and didnt know how to handle the problems. the machines appeared like they were registering the vote, but one could never be sure.

And yet, I feel amazed and happy to see the elderly - people over 80+ years of age find their way to the polling stations to vote. The young, the old, the sick the healthy, the rich the poor, were all there. can't something change to live up to their expectations?

60+ years of democracy, of voting, of advancement, of IT professionals, of outsourcing and this is what we have? Zero systems. I read an India Today survey that listed the fortunes of most politicians to be in the hundreds of crores. I don't mean to sound skeptical, but really, they never possessed that kind of money when they started out. When will it stop? Should we outsource our 'democracy' to a dictatorship so that our peace of mind is once again held hostage? How does one change a system so rotten to the core that it infects anyone who comes near it? Politics is a disease in this country and we are all plagued by our own choices.

Tagged Democracy India Thoughts Voting