Dr Roman Sarmah
The valleys of the Brahmaputra and the Barak are resonating with sounds of trumpets, drums, songs, and foul language too, in this hour of the democratic festival – the elections. The craze to grab the seat of power has assumed a madding proportion and the means of varied nature have been adopted by the players in the field to woo the voters to their fold.
New political formations have sprung up by taking up various issues with a view to forming a government with proclaimed object of addressing the nagging problems faced by the people. In the process of driving home the agenda of the political configurations, they have been witnessed to have resorted to mud-slinging, character assassination, etc., to achieve the cherished goal by hook or by crook. Nevertheless, the older political players have also not sat tight. They have also cast the worst kind of aspersions on the nascent ones.
Regional sentiments are being tried to be projected to woo the common voters. There is no denying of the fact that in every province of the country, the governance system must endow utmost attention to the problems of the particular area in order to keep the people happy, which, however appears to be a Herculean task in the face of the presence of various political forces at work engaged in efforts to get a slice of the pie.
In the political arenas, party decisions rather than individual objectives are seen to have the ultimate say. This, however, is not meant to state that the views of the party is impossible to be moulded to address the Issues of the State. Nevertheless, to achieve this, individual conviction of the local government head is of prime necessity. The leaders of the States must be possessed of such strength as to be able to direct the movement of the train to arrive at the desired destination for delivering the goods to the people of that particular place. These people must also possess the courage even to sacrifice their position for the greater interest of the people. There is a dearth of such courageous people in the present times in the political field.
The ruling faction of the political field has doled out benefits to various sections of people to garner votes. Likewise, others have also held out promises galore of extending many beneficial measures to attract voters to be on their sides. There seems to be no harm done by resorting to such acts and there is no fault on the part of the beneficiaries to receive the benefit doled out as these are some parts of the money parted with by the people by way of various taxes, etc. Such benefits are deemed to be able to give some succour to the people in times of constraints faced by them.
Having said this, it is also felt that in reality, concrete measures for addressing many problems facing the State are required to be adopted to bring about a lasting solution to the nagging sufferings of the people.
While all the political parties have become hell-bent to prove or establish their proximity to the people at large, it is incumbent on the populace to sieve out the right grain for use. Let the political players indulge in their designs and let the people reap the benefits doled out to them, but at the same time let them be guided by their own choice.
The call of the hour is that the people must regurgitate their prudence to see through the maze or smog created by the political players to act in accordance with the diktats of their own free will. The people must make themselves enabled to distinguish between real sense of conviction and mere pronouncement of voluble words. Logomachies do not carry along true patriotic feelings. Patriotism must be evinced through deeds. Just forming a party and pronouncing itself to be the vanguard of regional interests do not prove anything. Even people in the national-level political parties may prove to be possessed of conviction for addressing regional or local interests. To achieve this, however, a strong will even to sacrifice power must be germinated within oneself. Therefore, it is not the label of the political parties that matters; what holds water is the true spirit and consequential actions one evinces.
Sound and fury are bound to enter the ears of the people from all around. The air has now become ranted with high pronouncements making the one’s minds filled with numerous thoughts and confusions. The voters must consider the various situations in a very pragmatic way to steer themselves out from all kinds of confusions and luring efforts to act in accordance with the diktat of their inner beings.
It is the proclaimed notion of democracy to be an institution of the people, by the people, for the people. In this backdrop it becomes imperative for the people to be extremely cautious in performing their duties unto themselves lest damage is caused by their actions.
Without becoming blindfolded by lucre or hypnotized by various chants, the voters are called upon to regurgitate their prudence and exercise it with maximal meticulousness. That will mark the win of democracy.
