Anupam- The Dreamer

In earlier times, when there was an era of monarchy, the people (actually ‘subjects’) were dependent on the king or the queen for their basic needs like food, water, education, security etc. They had virtually no say in the governance of the kingdom. If the monarch was a generous, wise and judicious person, the people were happy, otherwise they had no other choice than to criticize their ruler silently and suffer the consequences of ill-fated decisions of the foolish king/queen.

The wave of democratic revolution changed this scenario to some extent. The people now had the power to choose their leader, who was in charge of the governance. But, it was not a true democracy, as the people held the leaders accountable only once in 5 years, and that too over very limited issues. Often the electorate had limited choices in terms of whom to elect. And often the choice is not between whom to elect and whom not, rather it is between the more evil and lesser evil. And after the lesser evil is elected, the people again start behaving like the subjects in a monarchy, wherein they again look upto the political leader with a “katora” in their hands and “hope” in their eyes.

Everything good and bad that happens is attributed to the leader. Some people are even more wonderful, who attribute the bad to their fate or the God. My concern is not this. My concern is that in this whole scenario, one thing is lacking on the part of the people. It is nothing other than their own responsibility and accountability towards themselves and to their society!

We are brought up in a way that we learn to be dependent on the others for virtually everything. And the worst part is that we don’t want to do anything to get the benefits. When a person is a child, then its fine. But, even after we grow up, there is a tendency to demand benefits from the government unilaterally without wanting to do anything about our situation. If the roads are bad, blame the government. If there are electricity cuts, blame the government. If there is traffic jam, blame the government. If there are no jobs, blame the government. If there are floods, blame the government. We have become just “passive cynics” whose only job is to blame the government!

But, what we don’t want to understand is that the governance in a democracy is NOT a ONE WAY STREET! It is often said that the “quality of governance in a society depends on the quality of its people”. This can’t be more true in today’s scenario. We must understand and appreciate that till the time, people become active citizens and participants in the everyday governance process, the state of affairs is not going to change remarkably to our liking. If we consider that our only duty is to elect the government once in 5 years, and then sleep for the next 5 years believing that we would suddenly wake up in a developed India, then we are living in a fool’s errand!

Now, the time of being passive citizenry is over! Now, it is the time for participative democracy in every aspect of life. Till the time, the people own up their own responsibility and accountability, the situation is not going to change drastically. Our job is not just to cast our votes once in 5 years and then sit back and relax in our comfort zones, expecting the government to do good for us. Our duty is to participate at every step in the governance process, according to our capability and skills. If the water is scarce, are we reducing wastage at our own level? Are we raising community awareness about this issue? Are we mobilizing people to take care of the local water resources and not to pollute them? Are we taking some steps for rainwater harvesting? Are we holding our local representatives/leaders accountable while doing all this? Are we doing all that is possible in our hands to solve this problem? There are numerous examples in our country where people have taken such positive steps and it has bore amazing results for them in solving the water crisis.

The government is just one stakeholder in the society. It can’t be expected to provide all things to the people. This is not to say that the government has no responsibility, rather the people must be active participants in fixing the responsibility of their elected leaders on regular basis. The people can’t just sit back and say in a cynical tone “ab sarkar kuch nahi kar rahi to hum kya kare?” If it is not the duty of everyone to hold government accountable, then who will hold them accountable? If people don’t care about themselves on daily basis, then why will the political leaders and public servants sitting in the government offices be concerned about the people. And then there are some people who conveniently say “I am not interested in politics or governance, it is all dirty business”. It is not the choice anymore to be interested in politics and governance or not. It is imperative that every citizen has to become an “active citizen” who is concerned about what is happening around him/her. No one can afford to be an ostrich to bury their heads in the sand to say that why should we be concerned about all this, because every decision that the government takes, whether at central, state or local level, impacts us in some or the other way.

The culture of participative democracy and active citizen participation is essential to solve the multiple problems facing the society. Every stakeholder, be it the citizen, society, private sector, NGOs, government etc. has to play a substantial role if we have to build a better future for the humanity. We can be reticent at our own peril. We actually have no choice between being passive cynics and being an active citizen. The world needs more active participation from the people to elevate their living standards. And by the way, no one likes a pessimist and a cynic! The right place for the cynics is in the dustbin and we need to steer clear of the dustbins 🙂