Democracy is a fun place.
May 19, 2009
by mydh
In the past 8 months I have witnessed two countries going through their election processes. Participated in one and been an observer in the other. Its interesting for me to see how people responded to elections at both these places (US and India)
I was in the US on a business trip in October when the US citizens were going through a historical election. I was in San Francisco and (therefore?) the issue of prop 8 was a popular topic of discussion. I indulged in conversations with my Indian friends as well as US colleagues about prop 8 and who they supported. 'My polls' suggested that Obama was surely going to be the President. McCain, apparently was not doing a lot of things right. Basically, whoever I spoke to had a good grasp of what was going on and they knew exactly why they were going to vote someone their president. II, of course, spoke to a very limited set of people (not making up for a good sample size, that is) my colleagues, cab drivers and an 80 year old lady on a plane but each of these people knew what they were talking about. In fact, on the day of results, I was trying to see the news on my mobile(walmarts somehow don't have TVs) and there were these two girls in the same isle who just got to know the results and one of them said to the other "michelle, we won!" they celebrated a little and moved on. The next day at work a lot of my office folk too were celebrating a success or nursing a failure. That is when I realized that Americans took their elections very personally. Meaning, their choosing one political party over the other was a very conscious choice.
Fast forward to India, I see a detachment between emotions and the election process. As a kid, I saw my parents vote. However, they never really celebrated the results. The reason was that they had always found themselves voting for the lesser evil. This seems like an obvious reason for the emotional detachment. The other reason, of late, has been the sly alliances that have left the voters feel powerless. It doesn't really matter who we vote, they are going to chose their friends and enemies and therefore they, as opposed to us, are the king makers. Surprisingly however, even this level of maturity in thought process is hard to find. And its a very varied, this set of forward thinkers (who are at all levels of socio, economic and literate population).
The reasons for the detachment for the rest of the population with the election process could be found in some of the quotes below (heard directly and indirectly):
"I won't vote because I am not interested in politics"
"నా చేతిలో వెయ్యి రూపాయలు, ఒక సార బాటిల్ ఎవరు పెడతారో వాళ్ళకే నా వోటు" - Whoever'll give me 1000 rupees and a bottle of alcohol, they'll get my vote.
"what for. it's not like my one vote is going to make a difference"
Call it learned helplessness or classical conditioning this is a very real problem that India is facing. Only when we can learn to keep our differences of caste, creed, gender and religion aside and see credibility and potential of the candidate we are voting for - meaning, only when we can take our election process personally can we do something about the nation.
I have chosen this man
to be my leader. Not because he was lesser of the evils but because he has an ideology that makes sense.
Its an ideology that the rest of the political parties are afraid of taking up and an ideology that is hard for most Indians to imagine. Their excuse being its "too ideal" #learnedhelplessness.
On the day of election results, I sat in front of the tv waiting patiently for them to announce the results for my constituency. Once they did, I celebrated. I felt the high that democracy gives you. I hope every Indian can feel that someday - that ecstatic feeling of being involved. Take your elections personally, your right to vote seriously. And may be, you will :)
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