Why is it that we Indians find it so easy to criticize everything but find it absolutely so tiresome to make the tiniest of efforts to do our bit? It could be something as simple as cribbing about a dirty Mumbai but not wanting to walk over to a dustbin to throw the garbage. Or it could be about the pollution in the city but our insistence of taking the car to a meeting few blocks down the road!
My favorite is the following – most educated Indians crib about politicians, but never step out to vote. They always have a ready excuse and the most frequently used is – one vote will not make a difference! I would urge us to start keeping a tab of how many of us say this and see if the numbers actually make a difference. Add the number of willing non resident Indian (NRI) voters to it who are discouraged because of our system and the numbers will look even more different. And then add the number of non-willing NRI voters and I bet that the difference will be glaring.
Only 45% people voted in the recent elections in Delhi, a dismal turnout. Anyone to do the stats of how many eligible student voters did their bit? Can someone provide the answer to how many doctors and engineers or businessmen actually walked to the polling booths to have their voice heard? If even one amongst you reading this failed to go to the polling booth, in my view you have do not have a right to question the government. It is not your voice that is being represented as you did not deem it necessary. So when you chose not to put forward someone who would fight for you, how can you question someone who is probably representing the rights of someone else; someone with needs and priorities different from yours?
We live in the world’s most populated democracy and love to scream about our rights as a citizen from the roof tops. Have we, however, ever given even the minutest of thoughts to our duties as a citizen? It is like John F Kennedy said – “Ask not what the country can do for you, ask what you can do for the country.” In fact taking his words further in this hour of a national calamity – let us not ask what the nation will do for us, but what together we can do for the freedom of man!
My favorite is the following – most educated Indians crib about politicians, but never step out to vote. They always have a ready excuse and the most frequently used is – one vote will not make a difference! I would urge us to start keeping a tab of how many of us say this and see if the numbers actually make a difference. Add the number of willing non resident Indian (NRI) voters to it who are discouraged because of our system and the numbers will look even more different. And then add the number of non-willing NRI voters and I bet that the difference will be glaring.
Only 45% people voted in the recent elections in Delhi, a dismal turnout. Anyone to do the stats of how many eligible student voters did their bit? Can someone provide the answer to how many doctors and engineers or businessmen actually walked to the polling booths to have their voice heard? If even one amongst you reading this failed to go to the polling booth, in my view you have do not have a right to question the government. It is not your voice that is being represented as you did not deem it necessary. So when you chose not to put forward someone who would fight for you, how can you question someone who is probably representing the rights of someone else; someone with needs and priorities different from yours?
We live in the world’s most populated democracy and love to scream about our rights as a citizen from the roof tops. Have we, however, ever given even the minutest of thoughts to our duties as a citizen? It is like John F Kennedy said – “Ask not what the country can do for you, ask what you can do for the country.” In fact taking his words further in this hour of a national calamity – let us not ask what the nation will do for us, but what together we can do for the freedom of man!
[JFK’s speech, a must read for every self righteous citizen – can be found on this site]
1 comment:
I completely agree with you. Most of us do not spare a single opportunity to critisize our own nation.Government is only a reflection of country's citizens.Each Indian shares equal resposibility for anything that happens in this country.
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