DemoCRAZY?

Yet another defamatory cartoon. Yet another arrest.

It hasn’t been even 24 hours since my last post and I get yet another instance of another kind of vicious cycle.

Corruption has been our problem since a long, long time. It is neither an old concept nor one that is specific to India. It has been, and is, there in every country. From time immemorial.

What has changed is the awareness of the people. People were earlier carefree. “It is none of my concern. As long as nothing happens to ME and MY property, why should I care?” This attitude has let the situation grow from bad to worse. And now, my generation and my future generations are in a situation of uncertainty, deceit, and anger pouring from all sides and corruption right from the hunt for a class monitor to the seat of the President.

Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was arrested for making a ‘seditious’ cartoon, depicting the national emblem as three wolves, and the words “Bhrashtameva Jayate” (Corruption alone triumphs) inscribed below.

Is that too extreme, you think? Or is his arrest too extreme?

Let me state my views.

The government thinks it can get away with hard earned taxpayers money washed away by the dirty, grimy waters of corruption, while we stand and watch silently, letting them take it all away? How long did the politicians expect to get away with it? Certainly they did not believe that it was going to last forever? That is over confidence, and under estimation of the power of the voice of your people, isn’t it now?

You expect people to stand up and salute to a parliament which is filled with crooks and criminals, when we know that we sweat and bled to earn the very money that is spent in the maintenance of these politicians and the plethora of scams? It doesn’t help that the people at the most important posts are silently watching the tamasha and doing nothing, not even trying to convince us properly with a justification.

So the people revolt. But there is a method even in madness. There is a way in which you emphasise your views.

Firstly, one mustn’t push it.

Let me give you a simple illustration of ‘pushing it’:

We have 6 classes of 50 minutes each. By the end of the day, all of us are tired, and in no mood for any more lectures. As soon as the lecturer of the last class enters the class, certain students, maybe in the ridiculous belief that it is good for the class, start immediately demanding for a free class. On some days when we actually needed a free class, it was justified. Then it went out of hand. Now, regardless of whether we need a free class or not, these students invariably yell and demand one.

When you harp the same old tune, however melodious it is, after some point of time, it gets annoying, irritating and downright infuriating. When you use the same technique over and over again, its value decreases.

This has what has happened with our ‘movement against corruption’.

Secondly, do not take advantage of the leniency of the other side. Going back to my ‘free-class’ example, the said teacher granted a couple of free classes owing to an exam, and a project submission due on that date. She was considerate. Just because she did that, does not give you the right to demand for a free class every single day.

Similarly, the government has given you freedom of speech and expression. Do you really want to misuse it so much and force them to take that away from you? It goes back to my previous post about self fulfilling prophecies (http://ashrisingphoenix.blogspot.in/2012/09/we-are-problem.html). Media is not helping either. Harsh words and atrociously defamatory and inciting headlines splash across the pages and flash across the TV screens all over the country. Again, I pray, let’s not push it, forcing the government to take steps that essentially take away our freedom to revolt, freedom that let us voice our opinions in the first place.

Thirdly, aren’t they the ones WE voted for? If you have to audacity to make a satirical cartoon of our National Emblem, then you could use that courage and guts to enter into the ‘rat race’ and replace those politicians. But let’s face it, that is not entirely practical. That is another murky field which we need an alternative method to clean up. Like making people aware of their voting rights. No, I do not mean go and tell them “X is a crook, do not vote for him.” That is for the voter to decide, not you. Your job, concerned citizen, is to make the voter aware of the consequences of his voting. Show him, at a personal level, how the system actually works. Let him know how, if he votes for the bad guys, it’s his own grave he is digging. Help him make an informed decision, do not put words into his mouth.

It is again, a vicious cycle. The government is giving us more and more reasons to get infuriated and act in a way democratic people aren’t expected to. And we, the citizens who are voicing are opinions, are stepping out of line.

So the solution to this problem has to come from both sides. The age old solution of stopping corrupt practices, as always, still stands. But along with that, we need to find mild ways to get the message across. Lets not get carried away by the power in our hands, the power to uproot the government. Remember, the phrase “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” applies to both sides.