Padhey likhey jaahil

With the election fever catching up in the world's largest democracy I cant help thinking are we really the world's largest democracy or something else?

We hear about craziest of the crazy ways the political parties use to garner votes. Most interesting one I read was about few parties in Andhra Pradesh trying to buy the votes of the younger guys bribing them with cricket kits. I wonder how would anybody confirm if the guy who took the cricket gear actually voted to the party he took it from. The campaign has been reduced to a platform for mudslinging. We hear our leaders bash others personalities rather than reach out to the masses. All I can say is we are so much used to the present system, that any corruption looks like an everyday event.

We can always find an excuse for our backwardness in lack of education among the masses or orthodoxy controling them. But I believe it is just one of many causes that has kept us where we are. The most important factor in my opinion that can make a system/country strong is accountability. Whatever you call it, accountability to the system, God or conscience. Unfortunately, the accountability factor is almost absent as far as I have seen in India. And I have seen more of it in many of the foreigners I have worked with. I wonder whats the reason. I dont think they are perfect. They have their own mistakes but when it comes to being accountable for their actions they are miles ahead of us.

Another factor I feel is we always like blaming the other for any failure we might face. Biggest example is India/Pakistan blaming eachother for their problems. Mostly we see the arab world blames the Zionist's or the west for all its problems. Nobody ever likes to stand up and take the responsibility to clean up themselves and their society. Destiny is one truth but unless we take up the responsibility our condition will never improve.

Education goes a long way in making us aware of the world around us and understanding the system we are a part of. What we learn and how we put it to practice goes a long way in shaping our destinies. But sole objective of earning degree's today is to amass wealth? We have many Varun Gandhi's, Mayavati's and Ramlinga Raju's amongst us. All best examples to the phrase "padhe likhe jaahil". All of us have a streak of this educated beast within us. I dont know if we can get rid of it altogether but acknowledging its existance is the first step in solving the problem.

Need of the hour seams to be a value based education system. Especially, the education that begins from home. How and What we all need to introspect. Guess if things dont change in time we could call our progress as uncivilization. And our world would be full of "Padey likhey jaahil". Who would know all the management theories and technologies but oblivious to "huququllah huququl ibaad"(Rights of God and mankind).

PS: Guess, this sums up some thoughts going through my mind when I watch the news channel's or read the paper. Perhaps, my next blog entry will be more interesting :)