What does the upcoming general elections in 2014 mean for India as a nation and for Indians as nationals? Sadly, there is no short answer to this because of a multitude of aspirations of different parts of the society. However, there is one section of the Indian community for which the answer is predictable: the political class. Those out of power, want to come into power and those in the seat of power want to hold on to that seat of power. Among the common people, some are jingoists of a political clan, some are religious fundamentalists, some are optimists of a radical change and many don’t care. There can be more detailed classification of the society but I am not interested in knowing every line of difference in the society but rather focus on the dangerous undercurrent which can plague every dream of every section of society: What are the changes we need? I will focus on only two things here, politics and Indian culture.

I would like to ask the population who want to see Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister: Say, BJP wins the elections and he does become the PM, what are you going to do after that? This question has extreme relevance to the development of India as a nation. For one small reason, Modi is developing into a brand (apparels, mobile phones, mobile apps etc.) and in the long run, brands make people blinds. So it is imperative to realize that letting BJP and Modi run the show isn’t enough. The population of India which is aching to see a change must not wait on the changes to come to surface; they should seek it. It must remember that when it votes for BJP, they are looking for development and they should seek it instead of being doled out to them. With RTIs and protests, the movement must continue to make the political class more and more accountable and their election manifestos rigorously evaluated by the public. To many, voting for Modi is their contribution to the nation. I think we cannot call it anything other than a start. How many of us have that fervor to participate in the development of Republic of India under Modi? On the other hand, if BJP isn’t able to form a government at the center, what do we do then?

The point that I want to highlight is simple, are we really looking forward to participate in democracy to contribute in nation building? Or we think that Narendra Modi and BJP are magic wands to change the fortunes of the nation and society? Or is the word circulating in media “the anti-incumbency effect” going to be a factor in our minds when we vote? The voting is a right and choice of an individual. But it must be done for the right reasons and after thorough analysis of the ground reality. It is the first step to building a healthy democracy. If the mindset stops at voting BJP or Congress into power, we have only chosen a possible benefactor with no benefits guaranteed.

That was my first observation. Out of no disrespect to the Muslim community, I have a direct question to them: how does the Muslim community allow these media assholes and politicians to label them as votes? Even though I was born in a Hindu family, but I don’t give a fuck about that, I find this phrase “Muslim votes” derogatory. In fact I find the connotations of Yadav votes, Hindu votes, Sikh votes and many such created currencies a spit on the customs and traditions with which we identify a community. In my eyes, such labels reduce sentinel human beings to a herd of senile animals which can be manipulated with ease every 5 years. Isn’t that is what Lalu did for his entire period of rule? Isn’t it the same what Congress has been doing for more than 40 years after the slogan “Garibi Hatao” was launched? Isn’t it what BJP did when it led a mindless Mandir Nirman initiative?

People have lost their lives, livings and loved ones. How did we get so blinded by religious affiliations that we cannot see shit for shit? When did the culture and faith and practices that made us a community became hard lines of segregation which have cauterized our human connection with each other? Did it happen when we rioted? Or when we stopped trusting on our neighbours just because they had different ways of dressing? Or was it when in 1909, the Britishers coined the appeasement policies in Morley Minto reforms to communalise the electoral representation? If a person of a certain caste or religion sits in the legislature, it doesn’t mean that the entire community is represented. Nor does it mean that the aspirations are represented, and the culture and traditions guarded. It needs to be guarded by us. Otherwise we are actually an unguarded bank, waiting to be betrayed every 5 years and then robbed over the course of next 5 years. Politicians have used our culture as a weapon to betray the populace at multiple times. And their selective actions have instilled hatred in us for other cultures. Our country is a multicolored and thus there is just too much discontent among people. Were we wrong to stick to our cultures? Or our culture sucks that it didn’t teach us a way to protect us from manipulations?

Our culture isn’t inherently a system which sucks. It sucks on many fronts today because we have held on to the wrong things. Sticking to the love of a particular God made us animals to kill each other. If we had stuck ourselves to what those Gods said about brotherhood and humanity, our culture wouldn’t have become a base for manipulation of individuals. We wouldn’t have required to ask for equal rights for women or need Satyamev Jayates to highlight the plights of the lower sections of society. Our culture gave us the colorful festivals of joy and celebrations and they would have given us an evolving understanding of each other as well. But we stuck to a God and tried to be God by assuming power. But Gods have a major side-effect that he/she inspires lust for power and lordship in corruptible species called human beings. It is only natural that we are in such a situation where distrust among us is rampant: Where you cannot shave your head fully as that is a practice of a different religion; where you wonder, quoting from A Wednesday, what the name of a shop should be. The questions in the in the last lines of the last paragraph have an easy answer: Accepting that love towards mankind is a greater ideal than its enforcement director, the God.

The politics of a our country is inspired and divided by the religious and social divides. It should rather be united and forward thinking in the wake of the problems of the society and not its divisions. We neither have an administration which can promote the development of a civilized society nor we have a culture where we allow dignity to everyone. The upcoming general elections is just a point in time, these changes have been necessary since a very long time. When we look at 2014 as a new hope, how broad is our horizon?