“Sir, why don’t you cast your vote ?” asked Kushabhau.
“What is the use of it, it goes to dogs”, Herambh responded.
“You mean elected representatives are dogs ?” Kushabhau.
“What else are they ? they fight for power to rule like dogs fight for piece of bread”, said Herambh with angry overtone.
“Sir, without elected representatives we cannot have a government”, Kushabhau’s simple point of view.
“Kushabhau, look at the past records of candidates contesting elections, either they are corrupt or criminals”, Herambh.
“I fully agree with you. Out of 540 members of the Parliament, a few of them may have criminal or corrupt records but that does not mean you boycott voting. I firmly believe and you would also agree with me, keeping in view the recent trend in our country that tainted politician gets exposed over a period of time automatically through public protest, print and electronic media and finally judicial system even if he is or was the Prime Minister of this country,” said Kushabhau.
“Okay Kushabhau, I accept your view about individuals but the way the political parties conduct themselves is quite disgusting. They scramble for power. Most of the time they resort to unethical practices of horse-trading, defections, blackmailing, coalitions of political convenience or anything which is beyond the imagination of you and me just to grab the power”.
“Sir, you are right the political parties fight to grab the power to rule this country. But they still believe in ‘democratic elections’ to acquire that power unlike Maoist or Naxalities or militant groups operating in some countries. So we are fortunate enough to have ‘government’ elected by the people for the people and of the people. Further, what else can you expect in this country with ‘diversity’ in electorate in terms of caste, creed, colour, so many states, haves and have-nots, rich and poor, literate and illiterate. Plus so called leaders are mushrooming in every layer of society trying to create their own vote banks. Still we manage to hold elections and get the government since our independence in 1947, three cheers to the Election Commission and Indian democracy ! In recent times this diversity is growing by leaps and bounds. No one gets clear majority. Majority is being hacked by regional parties with regional interest. Thus decision to caste vote to a particular candidate or political party is being influenced by diverse considerations. But unlike you they at least exercise their franchise to vote, whoever may be the candidate, or political party, whatever may be the record of the candidate or party. That’s the essence of democracy. You get the ‘government’ may be of coalition of political parties fighting to grab the power as you said. Sir, think of the country without ‘government’. We will be like Palestine, ‘a state without government’ and struggling for its existence. You know their leader Yassar Arafat was called ‘a statesman without state’. We are fortunate enough to have a government elected by the people. You should say thanks to those electorate who cast their vote and give you and me a government to protect and maintain the sovereignty of this country in the world, though it may not be of your choice.”
