Another Scam, and the choice we have

I will not be surprised to know how much sick the citizens of India must be feeling in their stomachs just thinking about their sick, dishonest and immoral policy makers and leaders of their country. Because I am feeling the same too. And yet, there is this huge sense of hopelessness in everyone's hearts. Everyone must be thinking, why is this happening to this country ? What is happening ? Why are scams happening one after another ? Olympic scam, chopper scam, 2G scam, cash for votes and the list goes on.

The most frustrating thing is that the government just sits mum and refuses to respond. Nothing can be more depressing than not getting any response. What a legacy our great prime minister will be leaving. 

We feel so helpless that people have to choose between one hopelessness and the other. Congress comes and we get a set of scams. BJP comes and we get another set of scams. In the great democracy, we don't even have the choice to recall a candidate. We do not even have a choice to choose none of the candidates standing for elections. We are practically without any choices literally when it comes to choosing our policy makers. This needs to change. And the government and the parties who have already developed their muscles will fight tooth and nail in bringing about any change that may give a hint of hurting their turfs. Classic example is the case of Lokpal struggle. 

During these moments, we the people are left with no option but to try new things or otherwise rot in our status-quo. These new choices may or may not turn out to be correct choices but we are left with no other option but to try alternatives. 

We need to just ask, are we going to just choose between one of the corrupt parties for ever? Are we going to just ignore everything and keep cribbing ? 

Or are we going to say, we will do something? It need not be earth shattering. But it can be as small as within our capacity. 

I think it is high time, that we need to try alternatives. One such alternative that is evolving is Aam Admi Party. I do not know whether it will succeed or not. I do not know whether it will stay clean or not. I do not know whether it will be able to bring in even small changes or not. But I do know that I have to try new things. We send a clear message to the establishment that the citizenry of India is nimble and optimistic enough to give a chance to new options. We need to stop being cynical. 

We need to put our weights behind the new party. We can help in several ways. We can be actively participating. If not, we can just attend rallies when possible. We can donate very small amounts of money so that they can sustain their campaign. We need to motivate our friends to consider newer alternative options. We need to inspire them to try out alternatives and not sit doing nothing. Just do something. No action is small. 

In the recent elections in United States, the whole big corporate donors and millionaires with their big amounts of money were lined up to vote out Barack Obama. What sustained Obama's campaign was huge grassroots support where common people were super inspired to support and where individual donors donating very small amounts just stood up like huge pillar against these corporate and other lobbies.  

We need such a grassroot support for the Aam Aadmi Party for it to stand up against the other parties who are heavily financed by huge lobbies. Without the grassroot support, Aam Aadmi Party cannot succeed and we as Indian citizens will continue to be choiceless, frustrated, and without any pride in our democracy. 

I am an optimist and I would like to try new options and I would give a chance to Aam Admi Party. I would support them in every small way I can. And so do I recommend every optimistic Indian who wants to be proud of his nation, not just because he/she was born here but because he/she has every reason to be. 

We are a democracy ? We are secular ?

At the drop of a hat, we keep beating the drums of being the vibrant democracy, 21st century's superpower and with all the decorative phrases. And when people like Arvind Kejriwal question it, folks like Javed Akhtar cite an example of how much better we are as compared to Pakistan (I am referring to Aaj Tak conclave in december).
 So we are a great democracy ? If we want to fool ourselves like a rabbit putting its head in a hole in the earth and thinking no one is seeing it, then sure we can continue to fool ourselves.

We can fool ourselves while young girls get arrested for exercising their freedom of speech and expression on Facebook.

We can fool ourselves while the political jokers of the country can hold the country to ransom by banning movies because they seem to hurt the sentiments of people or they show a community in poor light. Shame on such an administration that cannot even uphold the constitution and ensure the constitutional rights of its citizenry.

The whole circus around Vishwaroopam is so sad and shameful. I am pretty sure that most people would understand a movie and are not childishly emotional to be hurt by anything and everything. Its those so called representatives who need to be really marginalized and ignored because they are the biggest morons holding the whole communities to ransom with their idiotic behavior. What a shame that the world's largest democracy doesn't even have the stability or maturity to sustain or adopt different views. A movie can take a country to ransom ? And we call ourselves a vibrant democracy ?

Its high time we are honest to ourselves and call a spade, spade. That unfortunately we are not a democracy. We are not a democracy where a common man has sound to his/her voice. We are just a liquid taking the shape of whatever is thrust upon us.

We might be doing great if all we can do is compare ourselves with Pakistan or Bangladesh.

But then, is that our benchmark ? We need to ask that. Until then, professors will be arrested for sharing cartoons, young girls will be arrested for posting on facebook and many Kamal Hassans will be harassed because their movies hurt someone's sentiments.

In the world's largest democracy, everyone seems to get offended too soon . Sigh!!