The Horse of Democracy

Elections should ideally be Celebrations of Democracy. Thats the time when the electorate gets to decide whether it is happy with the performance of the government or not.

Today we see gloominess on account of limited choice of parties and sense of pessimism and fear about who is going to be at the helm of nation's affairs . The country needs ablest people at the top when we are finding ourselves in the midst of explosive neighbours, deep global economic turmoil, poverty getting manifested through violence in the name of Naxalism, dismal state of farmers in some part of the country, antiquated policies on education, health etc.

Will we get the right persons in the most important positions to take the country ahead or are we going to find the most incompetent pachyderms.

Instead of being the elephant which is required to lumber on carrying the weight of dynastic politics, black money, divisiveness, narrow sectarian agenda, rotten and stinking mix of religion and politics, corrupt bureaucracy, I aspire for the democracy that is represented by the horse above.

As times change, the society should be required to validate its notions, its beliefs, its errors and make the right changes. These aspirations should match the times and also the need of the nation as a whole in the context of the global forces. The electorate needs to rise beyond self centered agendas; they need to understand what national leaders should be focussing on; people need to know what MPs are required to do; on top of it all they should be willing to understand their own role in making democracy a success.

Only when the electorate in general matches the pace of changing times and gives up its traditional clinging to its own fears, jingoism, communal mind sets, corrupt and greedy nature, will it be able to set a pace to give the political class a run for its money.

The electorate should be like that horse whose aspirations are forward looking, symbolize energy, youthfulness of ideas, strength, inner steely character and Extreme longing for Freedom from both the soft and hard atrocities of the State.

And as this horse runs its course with complete Freedom, the party most suited would be the one which understands the mood of this horse and is able to saddle it to take charge of it for the next five years and lead it to greater heights.

Thus, not the political party but the horse is central to the success of this nation.