Politicians and Us: Can the "us" and "them" disappear?

The last few days have been quite unprecedented in the manner in which people from across the country have raised their voices in frustration and anger towards the breed of politicians who represent our democracy. There are questions raised about responsibility and accountability of the political class; answers sought for their negligence and disconnect with the communities they are supposed to serve; convictions tabled about their inefficiency, corrupt practices, insensitivity and complete lack of concern for their people. All these demands are rightful and just, even if a bit late in the day. I agree with every question that is being raised today. However, I also feel that like always these questions will either be ignored or get the same rhetoric answers they have always got – empty words and empty promises. My worry lies elsewhere. While I see the seething anger I also know that only 60%of this country even votes to choose its representatives. The other 40% couldn’t care less. Even from among the 60% that does vote - how many of us really believe in the people we are voting for? Most often we vote through a routine of picking the best of the worst and that’s scary. Why do we need to pick that way? It’s because our ‘political class’ mostly consists of seventy year old veteran politicians who have mastered the art of partisan politics, horse trading and filling their own coffers over the real vocation of serving a country and its people. Idealism is so dead that even their election slogans and manifestos don’t ring a bell and seem like copies of each other. Are we saying there is no new blood in this system? Of course there is - the sons and daughters, wives and in-laws – dynasties that have made this country their own fiefdom and its systems and processes a way of wielding power and wealth. They may be young and smart, well attired and intelligent, Harvard educated and articulate - but at the core of their being there is the same lust for power. I am tired of emails and sms s, news reports and voice of the people criticizing politicians for their incompetence, inefficiency, ignorance and insensitivity. Not because they are not true but because none of this criticism makes any difference to them. We actually know the answer – why are they politicizing even this great a tragedy for their own vote banks? Because that’s what they most care about – attaining and retaining the levers of power that run this nation. No matter what we say and how we say it, over lit candles at the martyr’s grave or at heated Barkha Dutt shows - nothing’s really is going to change. Unless. Unless a large part of our citizens, men and women who wake up in the morning, go to work, make a living and come back home can actually take a step and join active politics or atleast participate in the political process of the country. We have remained in the safe distance of the apolitical ivory tower for too long. And just one of two Lead India Campaigns will not do it. It will require many, many of us to enter the system so that we can flush it from inside and flush it real well. Men and women who believe that this country needs change and the system needs to be reconstructed need to enter politics. Window dressing can be on demand but real change can only happen from the inside. Only when the people running a system change will the system itself change. And if the people running it now cant change, we will have to change the people. While we will always need the civil society and media to keep a strong vigil, question and critique, unless there is a good crop of politicians who are willing to engage with them nothing will make any difference. But before this can happen, many other things will need to change. I refer here to changes that must be brought in the way we think and live, in the manner in which we inculcate value systems and priorities. Today very few young people grow up wanting to make a difference to more than their own lives. That will have to change. Instead of only dreaming for high paid corporate jobs our children will need to dream of being useful to the larger community. But that will mean parents and teachers will have to change as well, to be able to inspire our kids to do so. Even when a young person chooses to make herself useful to the larger community, she either joins the non profit sector or probably takes on a vocation that can help the community like teaching or medicine. But no one thinks that joining politics is actually a way of serving the country. I know we have been set very bad examples but wont we need to change that too? Wont we need to change our apathy to issues of public debate, things that we think wont touch us because of our social safety networks? Will heads only roll if the blasts are by terrorists shooting down well dressed people at heritage building and not when the Kosi river dam bursting causes 2000 lives? Is tat any less an act of terror? We will need to change our attitude of blasé bliss, our constant attempt to distance ourselves to our havens of security. But imagine if we really inspired our children to educate and train themselves to become servants of the nation. Imagine if MBAs and poets, philosophers and teachers, scientists and writers joined the political system. Imagine if only we had the option of voting for someone new and young, someone with fresh ideas and idealism, someone who is not ‘working the system’ but breaking it to create anew and finally someone who believes that change can and will happen. I think I would then really get my vote to work.I can already sense the can of worms I have opened. There are many questions that appear in front of me. Will a few of these ‘new breed’ be able to change things that have been set in stone for years? Will they be able to work their way past the nexus of power and wealth? Will they remain idealist over the years? Will their idealism actually hamper their efficiency? Will the system not engulf them, co-opt them, change them into the same garbage it has been dealing with for so long? Will they really survive it all? Well, we won’t know till we try, will we? I feel that while all this anger and emotion is a good sign, a sign that people want to take things on, it needs to be channelised or else it will reduce itself into demanding carpet bombing of Pakistan. One of the strongest ways to channelise this energy is to actually become an active part of the system we want to change through powerful political will and action. Only then will we find our true voice.