My life has been no different from others coming from a
middle class background. Being an educated person we are well aware of the
shortcomings in our socio-political system. We love to read the newspaper over
a cup of tea in the morning and scoff at the unscrupulous bureaucrats and politicians who are ruining our Country.
We would pass expert comments on what should or should not be done for
improving our Society. However , we dread to take any initiative to change the
system fearing for our lives and our dear ones. So we continue to remain in our
comfort zones and let the vested interests of our Society rule the roost. Years
and decades pass by as we continue to wait for the Messiah who would liberate
us and transform our System.
However , our conscience does not let us rest in peace.
“What can I alone do to transform the system and fight against the formidable
system? or where do I have the time ?” Is our excuse to our conscience. We
never garner courage enough to become the change agent for improving the
Society. So this is the unfortunate story of most middle class persons like me
. The result is that in due course either we become indifferent and continue to
go about our own ways turning a blind eye to the nefarious activities by the
vested interests or we pack our bags and
baggage and settle down in some or the other advanced countries of the world from
where we continue to scoff at the Indian socio-political system.
I would have continued in my state of inertia had it not
been for that fateful day which transformed my perception towards myself. I
came across my old school teacher Shri Dev Dutt who had been an inspiration for
us in our younger days . Dev Duttji was now in his late Seventies. When I met
him he could not recognize me . However ,when I helped him remember the year
when we were his students he could recall. Dev Duttji was an ardent Gandhian.
He had played an active role in the Freedom Movement and gone to jail number of
times for his active role against the British Government. He used to tell us
Gandhism is a way of life. Either you follow it entirely or you don’t. When he
asked me about my activities all these years I felt embarrassed to tell him as
I had nothing to be proud off when I looked back. That night I could not sleep.
I kept on thinking that if every great leader wouldn’t have thought and worked
beyond themselves and their families the world would never have been a better
place.
The elections to the local municipal council were before us
. As usual every contestant would make tall promises before the elections which
would never get executed when they came to power. I resolved to change the
situation this time . Any initiative taken alone would have been futile as the
candidates and their cronies wouldn’t have allowed any move which could
jeopardise their chances of winning the elections. So I went from door to door
and could convince atleast one hundred families to cast their votes consciously
after they are sanguine that their candidate has a plan of action for
fulfilling the promises he or she makes in their manifesto. We decided
discretely that henceforth whenever any candidate would hold an election rally
we would as a group ask them to indicate in clear terms how they proposed to
fulfil their election manifesto . The grilling strategy worked. There were
threatening gestures from the cronies but when they saw such mass action they
could not do much to silence us. We could easily make out whether a candidate
had any clear and concrete plan of action for fulfilling the election manifesto. This
move saved us from voting for the wrong candidate. Our strategy soon spread by
word of mouth and through social media to others. The result was we could get
in place Councillors who were sincere
and could deliver.
Finally I had taken a bold initiative which helped to
improve our system and I could sleep in peace.
Always #StartANewLife if required!
This post is a part of housing.com/in
No comments:
Post a Comment