The Silver Lining in our Democracy

UTKARSH MISHRA

We are always told of the greatness and potential of India. I believe that we are a nation with tremendous potential and have the ability of world significance latent in us. Save for the misplaced hierarchies and priorities of our politics, we have the ability to turn a lot many things in our favor and to our advantage. We, at this stage, are poised between the directions of being a great power which is peaceful and has an economy that can sustain all and a nation that's bowed down by the weight of communal strife, identity politics and economic imparity. It's the steps that we take now and the attitude that we adopt that'll be decisive in the formation of tomorrow's India.

But the current political atmosphere, as it is, does nothing but inspire disappointment and does for a lack of hope and confidence in the present conventions of politics. The what-about(ism) and blame game added to an approach of self-gratification that has become inherent to the politicians and self-proclaimed "PUBLIC SERVANTS" of India, serves for the evasion of the real and significant issues that affect India in real time and keeps the benefit exclusively reserved for a particular class.

So where's the source of hope? Where's the silver lining? It's in us. We are the source of hope. Our attitude can prove to be the silver lining.

It's the people who decide the fate of a democracy by their approach and convictions. Unless we rise and start to bring a sense of accountability in the government by us questioning them, politicians and leaders will always fall for the natural, though condemnable, desires of greed, lust and selfishness and bring misfortune to the nation. Politicians and politics is just a product of our own society and its norms. Misdeeds in politics represent only the subtle shortcomings of the society as a whole. And it can only be mended by mending the society.

Part of the strategic and tactful measures of letting an ineffectual, nugatory and blighting politics keep it self-adhered and affixed to the very roots of Indian conventions is a very deliberate attempt to quash and suppress our habit and instinct of questioning conceptions and things. Considering an inquisitive nature as being an unhealthy personality type, and accepting things without questioning as being a symbol of moral correctness and respect, is but steps in this process. Tagging those who question the government as "anti-national" and calling for their deportation shows the fragility and the inability of the government let its policies go through a test.

We, as citizens and as members of society, have always been taught to accept legislative orders and social norms with tender resignation. A year of monarchy, where a total surrender in front of the ruler was necessary, is the fountainhead of this attitude. But in a democracy, where making the premiere and the government accountable to the people is vital, it only debilitates the progress of the nation and enfeebles the basic principles of democracy. To question things, to not adopt anything without due inquiry, should be our basic instinct. Only then will we be able to save ourselves from forceful impositions and "Tughlaqi Farmans".

Besides questioning laws and policies of the government, we should also continually question our own beliefs and political standings to understand if it’s based on rational analysis or on certain biases. Do they satisfy logical reasoning or are merely based on indulgence of our easily exploitable emotions? Is it the policy that you support or you subconsciously support an agenda propagated by the party holding up which, you keep on supporting policies which you otherwise might have denounced holding this up along with understanding and prioritizing them.

With this vision, supplemented by facts and truth and a strong urge to bring about a change, we should start changing our basic attitude and exercise, in its fullest sense, the powers that democracy gives to every individual. Let’s reclaim them, for the success of a democracy is determined much more by the outlook and the attitude of its people rather than by organizations and their machinery

Editor’s Note: “Every cloud has a silver lining”, is a popular phrase. So here, our democracy is the cloud the silver lining is its people. That being said, it’s in our hands and in our attitude to change the society.

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