Skip to main content

I surrender my voting right




The first time I voted in a political election was when I was 43. It was for the Delhi assembly election. I had migrated to Delhi just two years prior that election. Before that I lived in Shillong for 15 long years without ever getting an opportunity to vote since I was a dkhar (outsider) there. [Read more about all that in my memoir: Autumn Shadows.]


I have been a responsible voter ever since Delhi gave me the citizen’s right. However, my voting right makes no sense to me now. So I’m seriously considering giving up that right. Do I live in a democracy at all?


Indian democracy today is not unlike the scenario of two wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for dinner. You know who the two wolves are. You may be yet to realise that you are the sheep.


Two citizens, just two, decide what 1340 million people want or should want. That’s present India. The 1340 million are just one sheep. The wolves tell us that they have been given the mandate to impose their will on the nation by a vast majority of the sheep. That’s democracy, of course. Do I want to belong to such a democracy? Do I belong there, in the first place? When the majority of the sheep decide that they are white and people like me are black sheep, that’s democracy too, and I should meekly extend my neck to be slit.


“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter,” said Winston Churchill. I have much longer conversation with India’s average voters. You find them all over, on the social media especially. They are not even average, I think having listened to all the balderdash they speak and write in the name of absurd concepts like nationalism, patriotism, revanchism, and you name it.


The great sci-fi writer, Isaac Asimov, was of the view that most of our political and cultural life is nurtured by the false notion (upon which democracy essentially relies) that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge’. India is now passing through a never-before-seen phase of anti-intellectualism. Intellectuals are urban Naxalites or antinational or plain traitors. They are intimidated in various ways. Some are even killed with impunity. Ignorance reigns. Stupidity dominates.


People shouldn’t be afraid of their government in a democracy. It should be just the other way: the government should be afraid of the people. When you live in an inverted democracy, where the majority of sheep vote for the wolves assuming that the wolves will satisfy their appetite eating up the minority, there’s little hope for the country. It may look bright now for the majority. But history teaches us that any system that feeds on a section of its own community will eventually eat into just anyone. Anyone can be labelled as antinational or urban Naxalite or anything for the sake of just two wolves.


We have reached a stage, anyway, when voting doesn’t matter at all. A stage when just two wolves decide everything for all of us. And they possess the eloquence to sway our convictions, our hearts and our passions. Soon they won’t need our votes at all. If our votes do make any difference, they won’t let us do it, as Mark Twain said.






Comments

  1. None to be knownAugust 11, 2019 at 10:27 AM

    French revolution is the greatest lie that is told in contemporary democratic politics. French Revolution did not end anything, but it gave birth to modern day politicians who are just some puppets. 'By the people' and 'For the people' are not the pillars of democracy. Every form of order has chaos in it. A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members. In that case there is no nation that is fit to be on earth. It is all just hoax. French revolution ensured the transition of power from wealthy to leaders pf society, who in turned returned these power to the wealthy. It is all going to happen again. People will rise again injustice in the latest hour with in the meanest response. It is not the end, nor the beginning

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 11, 2019 at 10:59 AM

      Most revolutions replaced one dictatorship with another. India has handed over power to a dictator in a silent but obnoxious revolution. Like every revolution, this too is beneficial to a group of people. Farcically, the group is not much different from the one that reaped benefits under the previous dispensation. Like in the end of Orwell's Farm, the pig and the men have begun to look alike.

      Delete
  2. Jyotirmoy SarkarAugust 12, 2019 at 6:34 PM

    Agree with some of your views, specially "democracy"...now a days i find it very much funny.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 12, 2019 at 6:45 PM

      It's funny for those who are not affected adversely yet.

      Delete
  3. Rajeev MoothedathAugust 13, 2019 at 11:34 AM

    "India is now passing through a never-before-seen phase of anti-intellectualism. Intellectuals are urban Naxalites or antinational or plain traitors. They are intimidated in various ways. Some are even killed with impunity. Ignorance reigns. Stupidity dominates."-

    - Powerful lines and a matter of grave concern.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 13, 2019 at 11:36 AM

      The gravest tragedy, arguably, is the sell-out of the mainstream media.

      Delete
    2. Rajesh KumarSeptember 12, 2019 at 11:09 AM

      More and more Indian are now aware of sold media houses. These media houses will die their natural death soon.

      Delete
  4. HEALTH CAREDecember 4, 2019 at 9:54 PM

    We are in need of Male or Female who wants to sell a k1dneys A , B , O with the sum of $500,000.00 and lives a healthy life. Email: healthc976@ gmailcom
    whatsapp +91 9945317569

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
16 comments
Read more

Liberated

Fiction - parable Vijay was familiar enough with soil and the stones it turns up to realise that he had struck something rare.   It was a tiny stone, a pitch black speck not larger than the tip of his little finger. It turned up from the intestine of the earth while Vijay was digging a pit for the biogas plant. Anand, the scientist from the village, got the stone analysed in his lab and assured, “It is a rare object.   A compound of carbonic acid and magnesium.” Anand and his fellow scientists believed that it must be a fragment of a meteoroid that hit the earth millions of years ago.   “Very rare indeed,” concluded the scientist. Now, it’s plain commonsense that something that’s very rare indeed must be very valuable too. All the more so if it came from the heavens. So Vijay got the village goldsmith to set it on a gold ring.   Vijay wore the ring proudly on his ring finger. Nobody, in the village, however bothered to pay any homage to Vijay’s...
47 comments
Read more

The Call of Islamic State

A year ago, the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT) reported that about 4000 people from the West left their homes and countries to join the Islamic State (IS).  Many of them are women.  The reporters had made a special study of the women who joined the terrorist outfit and found that it was difficult to categorise which type of women were particularly drawn to IS. “While most of the girls are young, some as young as fifteen,” says the report,  “there are also mothers with young children who make the trip. Some of the girls have difficulties in school and are said to have an IQ below average,  but there are also women who are highly educated. It also appears that even though a relatively large portion of the girls had (or still have) a troubled childhood, there are some who come from families with no known problems with the authorities. Most of the girls come from religiously moderate Muslim families,  yet some converted to Islam a...
33 comments
Read more

AAP and I

Who defeated Arvind Kejriwal?  Himself or us? His party ruled for just 49 days.  They were momentous days.  He implemented his promise on setting up a number for reporting corruption; in two weeks instead of the promised two days.  He met people to discuss corruption issues, though the crowd was beyond his control.  He did what he could.  He would have done more if he could.  He put an end to the VVIP culture in politics.  The politician became aam aadmi.  Ministers started travelling in vehicles without the screaming red lights and horrifying screeches.  But the police had to go out of their way to provide protection to the chief minister.  Who defeated the chief minister’s vision that political leaders need no such protection from their own people? He revolutionised the admission procedures in schools.  Schools which charged hefty amounts from parents illegally stood to lose.  The aam aadmi would have g...
25 comments
Read more

The Plague

When the world today is struggling with the pandemic of Covid-19, Albert Camus’s novel The Plague can offer some stimulating lessons. When a plague breaks out in the city of Oran, initially the political authorities fail to deal with it as a serious problem. The ordinary people also don’t view it as an epidemic that requires public action rather than as individual annoyances. The people of Oran are obsessed with their personal sufferings and inconveniences. Finally the authorities are forced to put Oran in quarantine. Father Paneloux, a Jesuit priest, delivers a sermon declaring the epidemic as God’s punishment for Oran’s sins. Months of suffering make people rise above their selfish notions and obsessions and join anti-plague efforts being carried out by people like Dr Rieux. Dr Rieux is an atheist but committed to service of humanity. He questions Father Paneloux’s religious views when a small boy is killed by the epidemic. The priest delivers another sermon on the necess...
28 comments
Read more