India is the largest democracy in the world. It had marked the historic victory of non-violence over the Britishers by the setup of the democratic machinery. Many countries were inspired by India’s independence struggle and it’s obsession with democracy.
After independence, the freedom fighters decided to run the business of the country through a well comprehensive Constitution based on the spirit of democratic principles. One of the democratic principles were the elections, which they had decided to hold just after the Constitution came into effect on January 26, 1950.
One of the nationalist parties i.e. the Indian National Congress directly indulged in the freedom struggle and came in the limelight in the first general elections of 1952 and won it with an absolute majority by defeating other regional parties. With the passage of some years, INC lost some of its confidence amongst the citizens and paved the way for parties like the Communist Party of India, Socialist Party and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. These parties won major state assembly elections subsequently.
According to a report in the Times of India in August 2015, the Election Commission said that there were 1866 registered political parties in India.
In this era, people now see Indian politics as their profession. and every third person wants to join political parties with the dream of a beaming career. In Indian politics, when any supporter or leader serves his party, he makes sure he himself gains some position within the party in return for his service. When the elections draw near, he dreams of getting a ticket from his party in order to cement his allegiance and service for the party.
And now with the coming state assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Uttrakhand, Goa and Himachal Pradesh in 2017, former Member of Parliament from Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency, Navjot Singh Sidhu defected from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the Indian National Congress (INC) in order to get the ticket for the state assembly elections and there are also speculations that he would also be made the deputy chief minister if INC wins the elections.
In Uttar Pradesh also, a top leader of Bahujan Samaj Party, Swami Prasad Maurya changed his party from the BSP to BJP and also got the assembly ticket from the latter and is going to contest from the Padrauna seat. Even he was considered amongst the loyalist leaders of BSP Supremo Mayawati. INC also had a defector from their ranks. One of their top leaders Rita Bahuguna. She joined the BJP by resigning from all the posts of the INC and got a ticket from the Lucknow cantonment in the forthcoming elections.
Rashtriya Lok Dal cannot be left out from these rifts. The RLD legislator also left his party and joined the BJP in the elections and also secured his seat from the Barauli from the BJP.
Many top leaders of the political parties changed alliances. For the sake of their own future, they make a fool of the general voters to ultimately gain power in the elections. They don’t even show their fidelity to their own party. Yesterday, they raged against one party, and tomorrow they joined the same one. Navjot Singh Sidhu before joining the INC said, “I am a born congressman, this is my ghar wapsi.” Swami Prasad Maurya said that he felt suffocated in BSP and Mayawati auctioned tickets for the polls.
They want to sneak off from one party to another. I mean the general voter can’t make a distinction either between the political parties or their political leaders. A political leader doesn’t bother about the serious issue of the citizens.
Political leaders are supposed to be the representatives of the public. The voters cast their vote within the assurance that politicians will eradicate their problems. He will sort out the general issues among the communities, he will take the initiative for the betterment of their lives, he would help raise their standard of living. But when a common voter sees this kind of a mess, he loses his hopes in democracy. He thinks that in this lifetime he wouldn’t enjoy that life which he dreamt of. He thinks democracy is the curse on him. He is tired of the political instability.
So, before casting our votes for them, we should first sort out the basic queries from them. Why do they do all this? Why are they not serious about the issues of those people who have placed them on that prestigious position? Why don’t they perform what is expected of them? Why do they think only about themselves?
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