Positivity in Indian Politics!

21st century has seen a drastic change in the Indian political scenario. Call it the rise of youth or influence of social media, we cannot deny that most voters now are clear about why he/she wants to vote for a particular party. There are many things that contributes to giving a positive outlook to a country and I will focus on social media and people’s involvement that I think makes me optimistic about the future of our nation.

Democracy is ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’ (which is also called ‘off the people, buy the people and for four people’) but did we really care. I can give my own example. I voted for the first time in 2009 general elections and frankly saying I voted for a party because my uncle was a volunteer for that party and my entire family supported it. I had no clue of what I was voting for or whom I was voting for. And when the government was formed, I didn’t care as to what they are doing. It might be my lack of interest or because the whole process lacked transparency. 

Then came social media. When I was in school, the major topic of debate was whether TV was a boon or bane (every single year) and now the topic has shifted to is Social Media boon or bane. Social media opened up the world for all of us. We no longer had to rely on news or print media and we had a choice of doing our research before we believed anything. Of course we only look for things that asserts our belief but having a technology that enables us to see the other side of the story is what makes it the biggest boon. With social media started the virtual wars.

Every mistake or achievement of the government started to be highlighted. Everyone is allowed to have an opinion and everyone could now voice their opinion (of course there are bans too but then that is an entire blogpost all together). This becomes a mass movement and eventually creates pressure on the government to perform. The elections in the last 15months have shown that just having a well drafted manifesto does not win elections but the practicality and will to fulfil it does. “Do or die”, “perform or perish” is now the observed trend. 

Politics is termed dirty but unless there is dirt, people do not appreciate the cleanliness. They say politics is selecting the best amongst the worst but now we have people with no political history contesting the elections, so they have a choice of what they want to become. There is bad in every party, it is easy to point fingers but it is easier to use that finger to vote and contribute to the change. (But yes just voting does not bring in a change)  

The well-established parties are crumbling, a party that hardly had presence in the country is winning, the common man can now boast of having a party that represents his beliefs and aspirations. The voters of the elections to come will now vote for what they believe in and not what someone told them. The parties contesting the elections to come will consider the sentiments of people before taking any decision and this in itself gives us a lot of positivity. This would be one of the reasons why we can look up and hope for a better India.

This post was written for the "Look Up" campaign by Housing.