It is indeed unfortunate that we vote for a political party and a Prime Minister because there is no alternative or the TINA factor as it’s popularly called. A lot of people voted for Narendra Modi because they felt he’s the best candidate for the job, that’s how it should be. But then they were a lot amongst us who voted for him because there was no viable alternative besides him. That’s the irony, from a population of approximately 130 crores of Indians we have to choose a particular person as PM because of lack of choice!
1. A Popular politician and a Prime Ministerial Candidate, may not be the same person, they could be two separate individuals. Both need different skill sets, except for Leadership, a popular leader, and a good Prime Minister needs no other common quality trait. While no one denies that a single individual can possess both the skill sets, more often than not, a good administrative brain may not necessarily be a charismatic leader. Sonia Gandhi and Dr. Manmohan Singh were recent examples of Popular leaders and effective Administrators. UPA1 worked wonderfully, 2 was a disaster, not because the model didn’t work, but because of personal ambitions, greed, and priorities that superseded National interest.
2. A team is important not the manifesto. A party’s election manifesto is only as good as the team that executes it, else it’s just a book of lame promises. Ask for the names of ministerial candidates before the manifesto from a Political party seeking your votes. Their proposed FInance, Home, Health, External Affair, Agriculture Minister…etc.
3. Give preference to educated young men and women. In the last two decades, Corporates that appointed young educated talents as their leaders did phenomenally well. Modern CEOs now are anywhere between 27-35 years of age, they manage their business super successfully. Why can’t the same be true for our country, let’s promote, encourage youngsters for the top job. There’s nothing that experience can achieve which innovation, will, and intelligence can’t.
4. Interest in Politics, Parliamentary Affairs, Constitution, Law, etc… An aware citizen is a discerning citizen. We seem to have more awareness about Karina Kapoor’s family life or Virat’s centuries than the bills passed in the assembly, or the government’s new fiscal policies. One wonders, which of these concerns our lives and livelihood more? Haven’t we misplaced our priorities?
5. Stop voting for the Political party, Prime Minister/ Chief Minister. Vote for your MP / MLA instead. As per our Constitution, a citizen votes for his local representative and the local representative (MP/MLA) votes for the leader of the house (PM/CM), and that’s exactly how it should be. We disregard the education, capabilities, efficiency, dependability of our representative and vote for him/her purely because he/she represents a particular party and/or a person. Let’s send 545 able representatives to our Parliament and we will have 545 able alternatives as our Prime Minister.
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