A Country of Cynics

There are so many things Indians love to do for entertainment. Cricket, Dance, Gossip, Music, Bollywood and the one that tops them all, criticizing our politicians and elected government. We are all cynics who believe that no politician is clean or selfless and that everyone has a personal agenda. We are not ready to accept the fact that someone really can give an honest government, for we are all corrupt ourselves. The entire nation supported Anna Hazare and his movement against corruption but who is this corruption that we revolted against! Is it just the Congress led UPA Government that is corrupt! What about the one who undervalues his property to pay less taxes, the person who uses his links to move ahead in a temple queue or while seeking a driving license, the one who is ready to pay a hundred bucks to a traffic cop for violating lane rules rather than paying the legal fine of Rs 500 in court or the employee who travels business class in company expenditure but prefers economy class when it’s his own money!

Let’s get this clear, we are all corrupt. It’s just the magnitude that varies.

I wanted to write this blog after the various criticisms that my friends had posted on social media about the alleged failure of the AAP government and the escapism of Kejriwal. These were the same people who supported the India against corruption movement and the surge of the AAP Government in Delhi but today they think otherwise.  I was one person who was against the Anna movement for the simple fact that they were trying to blackmail an elected government in to doing the things they wanted. This to me is Anarchism. But when Kejriwal decided to take the constitutional route and be a part of the system that he wanted to change, I derived great respect for him. When someone accuses politics to be dirty, the immediate response is why not clean it and get your hands dirtied. But it is a fact that we are the very same people who are ready with a handful of dirt to heap on the ones who try.

Here again we are a cynical society, for we don’t want anyone to win. We are a society of losers. We always want something to crib about and someone to lay allegations on.

When AAP came to power with Congress support, we asked why did you align with the party you accused of being the principal corrupt, it was a staged drama to save the Congress and that AAP is Congress’ B Team and today when Kejriwal resigns over not being able to keep up his core promise of passing the Jan Lokpal Bill, we ask AAP why are you shunning responsibility and running away from governance. What are they running away from! They are going to fight the re-elections with the same promises. And as it looks now, they will get majority this time.  Is that what one calls running away from responsibility! I thought accepting defeat and giving up on participating in elections is what one calls running away.

Look at the amount of judgements people have to heave on a minority government which had kept up most of its promises at least in parts in the past 48 days of power but no one seems to care what the BJP Governments in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan which won landslide victories around the same time, do for the people. This is because we want to strengthen our belief that no person or party in this country can be honest and serve selflessly, as we ourselves won’t do that – be honest and selfless.

When my friend asked me who would you vote for in the coming general elections a month back, I replied saying that I will vote for Jayalalitha’s AIADMK as my vote won’t make any difference if I vote for AAP in my constituency in Tamil Nadu as they are bound to lose. But today I tell with conviction, let my vote go waste but I would cast it for AAP even if they may lose deposit for I want my very own to win. I don’t mean to say that they will stay non-corrupt but at least let us give them a chance, a real chance that is, not like the one in Delhi which was a minority government. HOPE.