Barunjha’s Blog

Second round of Lok Sabha Polls are already over, with two more rounds to go May 16^th is not too far. On this very day we will come to know what we have chosen in this decisive election. As a spectator of this saga I really need to ask a few questions.

Do a convict has a place under democratic framework to contest elections? Can law breakers be made law makers? How justified is the provisions of Indian constitution which allows differential treatment on this issue under any of its clause? Do we need a change for better India, a better future? Present situations demand each one of us to ask these very questions to ourselves before we go for this vote. The Honorable Supreme Court has set right example by denying one of the Bollywood actors with political ambitions permission to contest Lok Sabha Elections – 2009.Indian politics is flooded with such cases and will set the right precedence for many cases to come.

This is an opportunity for people of this country to send a message bold and clear, to the entire breed of greedy politicians who have criminal records and criminals who keep political ambitions, that enough is enough. We want criminals, convicts behind bars, we want accused brought to justice, we don’t want them in our parliament representing us and making mockery of our democracy. The propagators of hate in the name of religion, region, and caste have got no place and any attempt of theirs will be given a death blow. The only issue in these elections will be that of development. And only those will be given a chance who thinks and acts for the welfare and prosperity of people.

No act of terrorism is it in the name of religion, caste, region or any other social framework has a place. That any politician with these ambition be it icon from any Indian family will not be tolerated. People who want to take advantage of this situation will face reality. And the reality is that we as citizen of this country are fed up with these craps. They say”talkers are not good doers”. Let the talkers feel that, only an internal realization of human concerns will bring them to reality. False promises and get going attitude will lead them nowhere.

Even being the largest democracy, with right to choose your representation, it had been a dream too distant to have your concerns addressed. Leave greater issues of Education and healthcare for the masses apart, even basic needs of food, shelter…are yet to be addressed and still an illusion to the eyes of poor people.

We have parties, which project one of its leaders as prime ministerial candidate. Their manifesto talks of removing English and computer from our education system on the justification that these are eating into the employment of the masses. Bitter truth is that parties like these have no issues left, since they have done nothing sort of development, they fear talking development. They want people with ambition to grow, progress, prosper… to shed their intention. They want them to be poor, illiterate, dumb, unaware of their rights, so they will not be questioned.

Let’s see this time who decides what. Whether these manifestoes will decide our future or our vote will decide the future of these parties.

The success of Earth Hour was followed by successful Earth Day on 22nd of April 2009.But a question still remains to be addressed; do we need a specific day or a week to show our concern towards environment? Is it so that we take up these events to feel relieved of our responsibilities?

In India we are having General Elections. These elections will very much determine the fate of nation in the time to come. Even though there is a huge cry world over regarding various environmental issues, no political parties here bother to take up environmental issues as election issues. Or are our environmental concerns different from the others. Sunita Narain in her editorial Elections 2009: Where is the green party in Down to Earth describes the existence of Green Parties in politics and political parties with green issues world over. India being developing, has seen massive investment in all sorts of development projects, in each of these project the sustainability of existing state of environment is at stake. Yet in this country, leave addressing no political parties bother to even raise it.