Elections: The Grouse of the Disappointed Urban Elite
Columns, Over A Cup of Evening Tea

Elections: The Grouse of the Disappointed Urban Elite

May 11, 2018

By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

Ever since I wrote my last Friday’s piece urging more and more townsfolk to shed their apathy to our elections and come out of their comfort zone to cast their votes, I have found myself at the receiving end of their angst. My inbox is full of letters, just a few praising my point of view but most telling me how unfair our polls and politicians are to the so-called ‘elite’ of our country. Friends who call me up or whom I meet on the street tell me that I have written very well but that I have focussed on only one side of the story and have thus been insensitive to how most of the non-voters feel.

So here I am now writing the other side of the story which is what bugs them most but I have very little hope that someone on the other side of the fence will even notice what I write, let alone act upon it. And, let me admit very honestly that on many counts if not all, I find myself completely agreeing with their point of view although I have never missed voting at any of our elections, major or minor, ever since I became eligible to vote.

Today most urban people feel that our elections instead of being an exercise to provide good and effective governance for our country are just a drama, stage managed by our politicians to please the masses where a majority of the votes lie, and garner power and money for themselves. It is also an open secret that except perhaps for a handful of the few honest ones among them, scattered unnoticeably across the length and breadth of our vast country, all our elected representatives of all parties end up making massive fortunes out of their political careers however brief. There is simply nothing like a less honest party or a more honest party.

For all those who start with nothing on hand, it is a ‘rags to riches’ story and for all those who start off already rich, it is a ‘riches to more riches’ story. Every sweat-browed and hoarse-voiced man on the street who walks barefoot in the hot sun canvassing for them, holding aloft their party flags, knows this fundamental truth but continues to do it election after election just because he harbours the fond hope that his own fortune lies around the next corner!

READ ALSO  MP urges EC to monitor political activities at religious places

The justification that our urban people give for not bothering to cast their votes, let alone taking an interest in our elections is that the outcomes do not make the slightest difference to their own lives. And, they are not very wrong too. They very rightly feel that none of the manifestos of any of our political parties talk of anything that aims at giving them a decent and comfortable life or even the justice and security that they expect as honest tax-payers. Most importantly, irrespective of whether they are ruling us or aspiring to rule us, their policies do not promote hard work and honest toil which help in making our people hard-working and productive.

Through full-page advertisements, those in power only tell us how many free schemes they have introduced while all those who are hoping to come to power tell us how they plan to outdo them with more freebies without realising that they are only killing honest toil. They simply do not talk of what they have in plan to make the lives of honest, hard-working tax-payers better. In this vital area all that we find is a deafening silence…, a complete vacuum.  As things stand now, tax-payers have to fend for themselves and go about their lives with almost no help from the government.

While most people respect those who respect the law, we find that more than half of our politicians have criminal backgrounds and are still able to continue contesting elections just because our lax laws, conveniently  framed by them, allow them to do it as long as they are not actually convicted.  When this is the grim scenario, is it any surprise that many people shun our elections and prefer not to vote. Every one of our political parties only talk of heaping more and more free sops at the doorsteps of their supporters in a ‘you scratch my back and I will scratch your back’ policy. And they do all this only with the honest tax-payers’ money while doing almost nothing for the tax-payers themselves.

READ ALSO  GTD waits for auspicious time to file papers, CM visits 3 temples

Our poor no doubt lead difficult lives and they deserve to be helped to survive and sustain themselves but the way our successive governments have been doling out their various welfare schemes while promising them more if elected to power again, is actually a very counter-productive exercise. Most people who work hard to lead reasonably good lives and who pay their taxes reasonably honestly wonder why anyone in his or her senses would like to go out and work when everything including food grains, cooking oil, gas, electricity and education for their children with all its accompaniments like books, bicycles, laptops, uniforms and mid-day meals come to their doorsteps free of cost?

Are we not promoting a ‘no-need-to-work-anymore’ culture and an over-indolent lifestyle with our over-indulgent largesse?

Very recently while sipping some tea at a village tea shop, where I had stopped, I asked the owner how his business was. He smiled and said that while it was good enough to give him a decent life it was nothing like the roaring business that the liquor shop across the road was doing. When I asked him the reason for this disparity he said that with the government giving everything free, these days most people had no use for the money they earned than to spend it on liquor every evening.

He said that even people who never used to drink so far had now become habituated to liquor just because they had lesser need now to provide for their families. He seemed to have a made a very valid point because when I turned and looked at the shop he pointed to, there was a crowd of people with currency notes in their outstretched hands jostling over each other to draw the attention of the solitary shop-keeper to their desperate daily need !

e-mail: [email protected]

4 COMMENTS ON THIS POST To “Elections: The Grouse of the Disappointed Urban Elite”

  1. Zaheer says:

    I love the ending – “..their desperate daily need”!

  2. Ironically elections are fast becoming a farce with our self centred politicians calling the shots to usurp power manipulating and exploiting the support from the poorer sections who are more often needlessly pampered. But the sorry state of affairs do not justify civic apathy for voting in the Bengaluru urban district which has recorded only 57 per cent voting against the State average of over 70 per cent.It is high time the citizens of Karnataka State capital give up their cynicism and play a pro active role in treating body politics for it’s shortcomings. In this regard the venerable centenarian seer of the Siddhaganga mutt Dr.Shivakumara Swamiji and businessman Kirankumar Upadhyaya who has come to Sirsi from Bahrain for voting are inspiring for all Indian citizens to inculcate the much needed public spirit.

  3. Questo says:

    True, why can’t those poor be like robots void of any humane urges and desires, right? Those bastards easily give in to their urges of living a luxurious life by spending those five, ten-rupee notes on country liquor and on those delicious week old kebabs refried with brown oil-ish thick fluid. On top of that, once a month, those spendthrifts even take thier kids to those posh tents which project the movies! And then, even buy those unhealthy candies for their little brats.

    Also, why should India spend whopping ~10% * of its budget for all those social welfare schemes? We can productively use that money for-

    1) Adding a few more non-management quota engg/medical/… seats (fyi, including GM seats) that is paid with govt money, which mostly benefits us, the oppressed middle class.
    2) Increasing the subsidies on petrol, diesel, LPG, electricity, medicines, railways,… which are largely utilized by us downtrodden middle class.
    3) Increasing the bailouts (which have crossed trillion now) by another 0.01% * for our highly competent banks, npa’s…
    4) To funnel more black money to those bankrupt Carribean banks.

    *A simple google + some 10 minutes might fetch more accurate numbers.

    On a non-sarcastic note, if this is the view that the intellectual class in Indian generally hold about the poor and downtrodden, no wonder there has not been any significant scientific or any other kind of intellectual progress so far. We need better thinkers, not the ones with such puerile understanding of even the simplest of the gravest issues that are bugging India. If the diagnosis itself is so wrong, how can one hope to find a cure?

  4. Basav Anna says:

    ದುಷ್ಟ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೇಸ್ (ಐ) ಎನ್ಡಿಎ / ಬಿಜೆಪಿಯನ್ನು 24 ಆರ್ಎಸ್ಎಸ್ / ಬಿಜೆಪಿ ಕಾರ್ಯಕರ್ತರನ್ನು ಕೊಲ್ಲುವ ಮೂಲಕ ಮತ್ತು ಅಂಬೇಡ್ಕರ್ ಪ್ರತಿಮೆಗಳನ್ನು ಎನ್.
    ದಯವಿಟ್ಟು ಖಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ (ಐ) ತ್ಯಜಿಸಿ!
    ಪ್ರಜಾಪ್ರಭುತ್ವದ ಭವಿಷ್ಯವನ್ನು ನಿರ್ಧರಿಸಲು ಚುನಾಯಿತ ಶಾಸಕರೊಂದಿಗೆ ಚರ್ಚೆ ನಡೆಸಿ.

ABOUT

Mysuru’s favorite and largest circulated English evening daily has kept the citizens of Mysuru informed and entertained since 1978. Over the past 45 years, Star of Mysore has been the newspaper that Mysureans reach for every evening to know about the happenings in Mysuru city. The newspaper has feature rich articles and dedicated pages targeted at readers across the demographic spectrum of Mysuru city. With a readership of over 2,50,000 Star of Mysore has been the best connection between it’s readers and their leaders; between advertisers and customers; between Mysuru and Mysureans.

CONTACT

Academy News Papers Private Limited, Publishers, Star of Mysore & Mysuru Mithra, 15-C, Industrial ‘A’ Layout, Bannimantap, Mysuru-570015. Phone no. – 0821 249 6520

To advertise on Star of Mysore, email us at

Online Edition: [email protected]
Print Editon: [email protected]
For News/Press Release: [email protected]