As I look across the political spectrum while writing this article, an ideal politician in the Indian context seems to be as good and clean air in Delhi of December 2019. It is quite a common scene for me to see most of my peers shying away from talking on this topic as they lack the required intellect to deliberate on politics but we all should understand why politics is inherent to us, the citizens of India or the chauvinist’s Bharat. Therefore it becomes extremely important for me to raise political consciousness and highlight some of its aspects.
While people (18 or above) may claim themselves to be apolitical they all are associated with one of the political ideology when they go to cast their votes and those below 18, should understand that lack of political awareness can have serious repercussions not only on the country’s future but their own future as we know that even Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were democratically elected and what consequences they brought forward to the world.
Highlighting a bit in the context of Indian politics, we have degenerated the entire political system where babus are the new eurocrats and crorepatis and gondaaism is prevalent among our so-called MPs and MLAs.
Therefore I can hear the Indian economy’s soul quoting Shakespeare, In sooth I know not why I’m so depressed, the businessmen say it wearies them while the economists and intellectuals say it wearies them. It doesn’t come as a surprise when the government blames Ola-Uber for a slowdown in the automobile sector. Our charismatic PM leaves us in awe by his oratory skills and it is a common result after every election to see the public mandate sway in the favor of his party as nationalistic hysteria grips youths, traders, women and the all other classes and they get diverted from real issues while choosing their representatives.
Another popular question during the general election of 2019 was that “If not Modi, then who?” Though I agree that our precedents where responsible for some vital damages and the opposition doesn’t have a face who has enough calibre to lead the nation we should also remember that we’re a nation of 132 crore people and we doubt our collective capacity while making such statements.
Today the fourth pillar of our democracy,i.e., the media has simply reduced to a puppet of the majoritarian government. Therefore, the first step towards developing political consciousness is understanding the difference between facts and opinions. Today a lot of bustle around us comprises opinions being sold as facts.
These lead to the second step towards developing this consciousness is choosing the information we feed to our brains and determining the credibility of the information. We should be very aware while determining the source and try to choose the most neutral option and eliminate all those sources propagating the agenda of a particular group. The third step is critically evaluating the speeches, actions and ideology of our leaders and understanding what their real agenda is and not falling for the wolf in the disguise of sheep. Therefore, keen interests in politics should be vital to preventing jeopardizing our country’s future.
As Charles de Gaulle aptly said, “I have come to the conclusion that politics is far too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.”
