The Verdict

That's the title on CNN IBN by the way. Its all exit poll time, bookie time and speculation time. The world's largest elections are just over for the world's largest democracy. The elections that took a month to finish. Millions of people participated. Hats off to Election Commission for the fantastic hard work. Hats off to Police for their hard work in maintaining law and order.

As I kept on following the elections, I kept wondering if we are getting more and more divided. May be I am wrong. And I want to be wrong. But am I wrong? All discussions were very much based on divisions. All questions were centered around divisions. I could hear loud and clear, the following noises :

• Who are the Patels going to Vote for? Congress or Narendra Modi?
  
• How are the Dalits going to vote for Mayawati?
  
• How are muslim votes going to be shaped? For Congress? For Mulayam Singh?
• How is Congress doing among SC and STs?
  
• Who is more genuine in their Eelam support? Jayalalitha? Karunanidhi? Vaiko?
  
• Who will give Chandrasekhar Rao his separate state of Telangana?
  
• Who will help them in North Bengal to get a separate Gorkha Land?
  
• How will Chiranjeevi fair amongst Kapu community?
  

I shudder at the above questions. It makes me sad. It makes me nervous? Is this new? Or is it what that has defined India for centuries? Is it what the people want? What is more important for people? If the religion, caste, class is more important for people, then being a democracy, that is how the elections are going to be shaped.

I wish one party comes up and says "Thats it. Our agenda is united India where there is no division based on religion, class, caste. Our only agenda is clean society, honest society, equal opportunity for all". It is going to be a very difficult agenda. And I want to see people's responses.

I dream of the day where the agenda is only one thing : India and uplifting the masses of this country.

My dream is to see a political party that says : "I will support whoever comes to power if it helps stabilize the country".

Till then, the struggle continues. The horse trading continues. Several fronts will be formed. Several non-entities will be given unnecessary importance. The jokers in politicians will continue to amuse the people of this country. The people will cry within themselves while they externally laugh at the jokers.

But how can a change come if the people who complain give all kinds of excuses for not voting? Well, in a democracy, you have to take a stand.

And remember ! In a democracy, you get what you deserve. Unfortunate? But true.
You have the option to speak, fight, stand up, struggle, being ridiculed for wasting time and so on.

Atleast you can say : I tried.