Why must I vote for Change?

Agree or not, but ten years is a very long time for any political party to hold the country’s leash at a stretch. And when we are a ‘mother of democracy’ as we boast, urgency of change becomes akin to a therapeutic beam of light to shine on the murky corridors of power… or a good broom to sweep away the accumulated muck and stink from the Augean stables. For, power is a vicious fiend, a hydra-headed monster. If not reined in in time, its ever-growing, menacing tentacles begin not only to sting and bite but also undermine the very pillars on which a supposedly benevolent and people-friendly – but inherently shaky edifice of democratic order – stands. We have already seen how power breeds corruption, fosters coteries and insidious nexuses when a political party – any political party – has a long, uninterrupted run. It assumes more serious dimensions when we know that 42 per cent of our sitting lawmakers have serious criminal charges against them. Power’s blinding daze turns the ‘ruler’ apathetic, insensitive and callous … even Hitlerian: this Hitlerian aspect may not become at once visible hidden under veils and cloaks of clever rhetoric, assumed piety and with overzealous Goebbels working overtime to create a false narrative, but the discerning and the alert can always see the real face through. Power’s intoxicating fumes obscure vision and cloud rational thought. Ennui creeps in. Arrogance gains upper hand and usurps the ruler’s heart and soul. That’s why many a ‘Sonam Wangchuk’ fighting for peoples’ constitutional rights, liberty and, above all, climate change issues by means of ‘Gentle Resistance’, go unheeded despite promises and assurances made and given. Nothing illustrates this unholy nexus of power and corruption better than the recent revelations about the electoral bonds. Since there is already so much to see and read in the social media - where, among many, Dhruv Rathee’s succinct, well-reasoned and evidence-backed videos are doing rounds – I need not dwell more on it. Of course, there are many other questions and forebodings in addition, that trouble me as a voter and as a common citizen of India as historic, watershed moment of ‘Elections ‘24’ draws nigh. The bizarre, no-holds-barred drama of unabashed horse trading; needle of doubts on the EVMs; level-playing field for the Opposition compounded by arrests of important leaders and freezing of party funds; several watchdogs of democracy behaving more like lapdogs; the ‘Manipur silence’, Chinese incursions, Pegasus … the list is long. On a broader canvas, there are also concerns about India stagnating or slipping on many International human development indices: the happiness index, freedom of speech, civil liberties, poverty, hunger, unemployment, etc.  These and many more crucial questions are vying and begging for honest, straightforward answers. But it seems unlikely, much though we wish, that our forebodings and fears on these counts would be addressed any time soon. Instead, all we can expect is a steamy, sizzling cocktail of lies and jumlas served hot on a glittering platter of religion … religion, once our pathway to spiritual bliss, now a zealous, armed, red-eyed custodian of Faith.  

Our only hope lies in Change. Change it is that might not only force answers but also help the nation rediscover its melody and rhythm, its ennobling pulse and beat, its ethos and idiom that have helped it hold its head high and without fear through its turbulent history of freedom.

Hence my vote is for Change: a reason enough for me that renders it an open and shut case as to why I shall vote for it in ‘Elections ‘24’. And so, milords, here I rest my case…

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