I Want To Be The PM Of India

I’m very fond of enriching my vocabulary. I love learning new words and their spellings. I never faced any difficulty learning spellings of words till 1st June 1996. The news of that day announced the new PM of our country - Honorable Shri H.D. Devegowda. Now, I was struggling to learn his name’s spelling. But there were many other intriguing things that I came to know about, later on. It was the government which was formed by the party of a person with a strength less than 10% of the total seats in parliament. I took some time to understand the concept of coalition governments and politics in India, in general.

Few days back, EC announced the dates of general elections in India. Attention world!! The great Indian “Tamasha” will commence in April. The world will watch this “Tamasha” with its eyes wide open - wondering (and applauding) the magnitude of this whole political drama. Many foreigners want to come and witness this grand event when second most populous and the largest democracy on the planet will choose its next government. 

Gone are the days when general elections were considered to be a one or two party shows. Coalition politics is the order of the day where many parties (having weird abbreviations!!) will contest the elections and eventually choose the person who will be at the helm of country’s affairs - The Prime Minister. And no, we are not in the era where the PM’s post is the prerogative of a famous surname. Its not the prerogative of the leader of the largest party in the parliament either. Today, anyone can be the PM. The names which are cropping up till now are - Manmohan singh, L.K. Advani, Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Mayawati and the list goes on. I just want to add one more name to the list - Amit Kumar Sharma. I thought when everyone is joining the race of “me too - me too”, why should I stop myself from saying “ME TOO”.

This is not an impulsive decision. A long thought process is behind this decision. I started with identifying the qualities required to be the PM. First one which crossed my mind was the education. And no, I’m not talking about the degrees one can accumulate from (possibly fraud) universities of our country. I’m talking about the education of our country’s people, culture, problems etc. These are very much required for anyone who aspires to be the PM.

Second one is the vision. A person should be very clear about where he/she wants to take our country from here. And no, I’m not talking about the list of grandiose lies which every political party comes up with. I’m talking about the realistic vision. The vision should be to take our country to the next levels by tapping all the talents and resources available. The vision should be to attain growth that should be inclusive in nature. We don’t want a PM to make rich richer and poor poorer.

Third is the outlook. The outlook towards all the communities of our country. The outlook towards communalism, regionalism, ethnicity, linguistic issues etc. We cannot afford a person who is capable of poisoning the social fabric of our country. The person should not be biased towards any community - positively or negatively.

Last one is the Honesty. I’m talking about the honesty in intentions. The person should have the honest intentions of serving the country and its people. Politics is and should remain a thankless job. It is not for those who are seeking power and money.

Now, you’ll wonder whether I possess these qualities or not. Maybe I do or maybe I don’t. Maybe the urgent thrust to complete my education and to earn a fat salary is the biggest hurdle, not only for me but for many young people who dream to have the politicians having above mentioned qualities. We all have been brought in the environment  where every person thinks of having a Bhagat Singh who will sacrifice his life for the country, but he should take birth not at our home but at neighbor’s home. We all have other big plans for ourselves.  Good qualification, good job, big house, cars, beautiful and smart spouse and many other things are our targets. And when we’ll grow old, we’ll tell our spouse while sitting in the garden - “Darling, the level of politics has gone so down that no one can save this country”.

I may not become the PM of our country and I may not be able to choose the PM but I’ll make sure that the MP for whom I’m going to vote have the above mentioned qualities. People who don’t vote forfeit the right to criticize the politicians and politics. Actually they deserve what they are getting in terms of leaders. But I’ve made a resolution. I’m not going to be a silent spectator. I’m going to get my voice heard. And I’m going to make a start by making sure that I vote on 23rd April (date of vote in my city).  By the way, when is the voting in your city?

India and Slumdog Millionaire

I was 6 or 7 years old when my class teacher asked us to listen to english news everyday. It was her way of reminding us that we were studying in a convent school. And for once in my whole student life, I obliged my teacher. That was the time when english news was telecasted on DD, daily at 10:00 in the evening. I somehow managed to remain awake till the news. I followed the news very enthusiastically. I mean how many times in your student life you get a sense of finishing homework by watching TV? So, I obediently finished my homework. But, I was stuck at one phrase - Third world country. I asked my mom what is the meaning of that and whether India falls under that category or not. No prizes for guessing what answer I got from my mom.

I'd just been introduced to another India. I mean most of us, the one who's writing this blog and the ones who will read this blog, belong to that strata of society where mentioning a wish is equivalent to getting your wish fulfilled. Since then, that "third world country" tag attached to my country has pinched me. But I'm now used to this tag and I've made a compromise with my mind. But that compromise seems to be severely affected by recent events, particularly the movie - Slumdog Millionaire.

SM is a movie made by a foreigner, for the audience which is foreigner and has won the awards organized by foreigners. No, I'm not taking any credit away from the director. I give my heartiest congratulations to all the people who won the awards but what pinches me is the whole fuss created around and the whole "self-congratulatory" atmosphere. Why do we, as Indians, are more conscious about the western recognition? Its good to get recognition from the world for your talent but this unnecessary beating of drums from roof tops seems to be childish. The film depicted the slums, hindu-muslim riots, underworld and all those things that has already been shown in many Indian movies and believe me, in a much better way (Watch Satya, Company, Bombay if you doubt me!!). And I can say for sure as an ardent Rahman fan that he has given much better songs than Jai Ho!!

It would be unfair to talk about only SM. Certain Sunita Williams, who has never put a foot in India, goes to space and India erupts in joy!! Certain Bobby Jindal, who thought it was necessary to change your religion to succeed in US, wins the election of a governor, and Indian media never gets tired of the headlines and editorials about him. Fine. These are the "individuals" who have been very successful in their respective careers but do we, as a nation, need to congratulate ourselves for these accomplishments which are truly individualistic in nature? What is the contribution of India in their successes? Or, other way round, what these people are going to contribute for India?

My whole point is that we need to stop being silly. We are a third world country and there is no doubt about it. But if some foreigner shows it on the canvas to the foreigners and bags some awards, do we need to enjoy it? I would better enjoy Rahman's and Resul's awards because they are really been given for personal excellence and talent. 

One of my professors recently said that we don’t have pride as a nation. This statement never seemed truer before!! We need to understand the psyche of the so called “first world” countries that they are never going to do anything for us. I would love to see the headline " India has decided to do this to Pak" instead of "US acknowledges cross-border terrorism". They just love to see the streets with cows, snake charmers and beggars. And face it. They are the most biased and selfish people you can ever think of. We’ve to fight with all our miseries ourselves. I know its better said than done but at least we can start thinking about doing something for our country. We need to remind ourselves that we can really teach others many great things (I don’t want to mention those things because of paucity of space) which we’ve inherited by the virtue of the fact that we are INDIANS.