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?