- Posts tagged Politics
- Explore Politics on posterous
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.
There is no "I" in Teamwork...
It's an observation I picked up from Twitter - that teamwork doesn't have an "i". And while that's simple to understand, it means the making or breaking of a country. Sounds monumental? It is. Let's start with what triggered this thought. Actor Imran Khan's column in HT today (see excerpt below) on teamwork in movies and my catching Raajneeti on TV last night.
Imran Khan talks about how movies are made by teams, even if they are temporary, they are loyal:"I wanted to talk about how we all come together for a few months, work till we fall down from exhaustion and then go our separate ways. You see, most people never realise just how much teamwork plays a part in what we do. An actor could be giving the performance of a lifetime, but if the cameraman doesn’t capture it correctly, nobody will ever see it. Each and every shot depends upon each and every person from each and every department doing exactly the right thing at exactly the right moment. It’s stressful and demanding… but it also creates a kind of bond that few other things can. For example, as I sit and write this, there is a game of cricket underway. The actors, director, ADs and light boys are all taking turns batting and bowling, and there is no hierarchy. Or, when we’ve been shooting for hours and it’s past lunch time, no one complains, because we’re all in it together. Nobody starts eating until everyone has broken for lunch.The fate of a film can never be predicted; it may do well, it may disappear without a trace. I’ve seen both happen. But that can’t change the way we approach our work. We still have to give it everything we have, and we still have to come together and work as a team. And that’s reflected in the term for an entire cast and crew of a film; it’s called a unit." (Full column here.)
On the other hand, there is politics, where there are teams and more teams and even more teams that spend their time bickering, playing games, manipulating and buying each other out. While some people thought Raajneeti was a bit extreme, I find it quite a relevant movie of the time - where politics today is not what the Greeks intended it to be when they coined the term.
Ref: Wikipedia: "Politics (from Greek πολιτικος, [politikós]: «citizen», «civilian»), is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in other group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. It consists of 'social relations involving authority or power' and refers to the regulation of a political unit, and to the methods and tactics used to formulate and apply policy."
What is the problem with our country, or many other countries today? Is it really what we learnt in civics and political science and sociology, the things we rattle off, the terms that NRIs sit back in their la-z-boys and shake their heads over while munching betel nuts? Corruption, over-population, illiteracy...these are the buzz words. Yes, these problem exist, and yes, there are important issues that need to be solved for our country to move forward. But is this the real problem at the very foundation of our issues? I think not, I think it is a genuine lack of team spirit. We don't think like one nation, one people. Whether it is because of religion, caste, money, social structure or an age-old belief in hierarchy...or even just survival of the fittest (because we've had to survive to make it here - fight to get anywhere), it has made us individualistic. At the very most, we may include our family in our concerns, but that is also getting few and far between and we find ourselves largely driven by selfish concerns. Some of our wealthiest people do not contribute to charity, rather build towering monuments to denote their status. Recently, while visiting the Jai Vakeel school for the mentally challenged, I learned that the government hasn't paid salaries there in four months. So even when something good is being done, they can't simply cough up the change to keep it going, but they can pocket the change from CWG and other big projects. While lining one's pockets, can't one at the very least ensure that some good comes of some of the tax payers' money?
Another quote popularised on Twitter, "Indians are privately smart and publicly dumb" - is exactly the same thing, we don't believe in treating our country like our own. The streets are not ours, we can trash them. The public loos are not in our house, we can leave them filthy. The movie theatre isn't our own, we can mess it up with food and drink. Publicly, we notoriously behave like pigs in a pigsty, and yet, we follow stringent hygiene and cleaning rules in our homes - remove your shoes before coming in, they will track germs from the outside in! Is it that we believe that someone else will take care of our mess? Is it simply because we don't care enough about anyone else that it doesn't matter?
The reason we admire sports so much is that as humans we crave bonding and togetherness - and there are very few places that show mutual respect and warmth for other humans than in teams that come together for a common cause. I admire the film industry - despite their bickering and issues and camps, a group of people come together and work hard to make a film - even if they never see each other again once it's complete, they gave it their unselfish best when required. In fact, the movie Chak De is a metaphor for Indian society - we are too mentally segregated to think like one, and when we do, we can possibly reach heights we have never considered possible.
Why can't we as social citizens do that? Why must we treat other people as "others" and not a part of our own team, own country, own race? Why can't we think like "we" rather than "I"? If we were to, everything would be very different. A simple shift in perspective would make a huge difference in thought and a huge difference in where we are as a race or nation.
Short-sightedness - where we can't see beyond our own noses and houses, is what makes us an ultimately selfish race. And this is the root of the trouble - global warming, social evils, unhappiness all boils down to being able to think as a bigger identity than oneself. Can we be bigger than we think we want to be?
Political Balance Sheets and Media Glory
When we consider how ineffectual our political system and our elected representatives are, we often wonder what we can do to make them accountable or care. Obviously, seeing the recent barrage of films and reportage, we believe that the media is responsible to a very large extent in the lack of accountability. In much the manner that in a democratic set-up we elect representatives, we also 'elect' our media to play an important role in defining our thoughts, opinions and in ensuring that we remain protected and taken care of at all times. The easiest way for the media to do this is through responsible journalism - by not distorting the news, not grabbing eyeballs just for TRPs, not sensationalising but simply stating facts and pointing out areas that have gone awry. So, very simply, if the political dailies were to - every week or fortnight or month - run an impartial page on a political 'balance sheet' - a report on what promises were made at the time of contesting an election, and what the current standing is for all our elected reps., where the problems have occured and what is expected now.... This can't be an occasional expose that happens in India Today or TOI etc, but rather, a regular accountability system that keeps the people abreast and the reps on their toes. So, you can't fake it, you gotta do it and then find yourself written about and held accountable. This would keep the political media busy enough that they don't need to create drama and fanfare over trivial issues, and political debates that lead nowhere, but rather an administrative system of checks that we can refer to at the time of elections.
