Politics
Why Do People Hate Politics?
The article covers mainly why we common people hate contemporary politics. We also counter them with respect to basic justifications given
Most of you might feel that the title is quite vague or not so focussed, but the reality is that people have a narrowed perspective about Politics. Writing this article and publishing it on the weekend of Maharastra Political drama makes it more relevant or interesting. Also at a particular time when onion prices so high that restaurants serve salads with carrot and cucumbers substituting onions.
Read on How politics controls your access to the internet and its contents:-
As a political enthusiast and having written posts and articles mostly on politics and related topics, the first question I get is How can you be so interested in it? and later How do you remember such a lot of things? How do you get so much time for this?
I get some idea of why such questions are being thrown at me. The main reason being that most of my friends are engineering students and my relatives are working professionals. For them, Politics is an untouchable box. For those who are interested in it, they don’t know much about its base but have a surface knowledge of it and start beating on the bush on the same.
Today, knowing about Politics is turning out to be everyone’s necessity. Gone are those days when the land was ruled a king from a faraway city and you didn’t have any connection to do with what was happening on the ground. Now, we live a democratic space where you have the power to decide on what will happen in your neighbourhood. If you don’t take the initiative to influence, then someone else will.
Politics is not about holding a party flag, doing strikes, burning effigies, and doing publicity stunts. The word Politics is derived from the word Polity which refers to “A form or a process of formation of civil government”. The word Politics thus refers to working towards a Polity. In simpler terms, establishing what Polity means.
Political Theory is what you call different terminologies which are associated with Politics. Take eg of What is Secularism? — This is clearly defined in Political Theory. It is a collection of Theoretical Concepts of Politics. Whereas Political Science is learning Political Theory, Applying them on the ground as well as researching on different scenarios as well. A person who is a PhD in Political Science is known as a Political Scientist. He learns and gives different predictions of future situations and challenges.
Coming back to our agenda, on why Politics is so much hated amongst a section of people; The main reason I hear is that people don’t feel any effects of a political change or they feel politics doesn’t affect them. While another set of people totally decide to ignore what is happening around them. This case applies mainly to the student/youth community to ignore it as they have totally different problems to tackle. They don’t feel connected to it.
The entire situation reminds of a crisis, where a person decides to ignore what all happens around him by sitting at home. He closes the doors and windows of his house. After a few minutes, the power goes. The situation around us is so volatile, that we may ignore it but not run away from it. It affects every part of our life.
Petrol Price, Cooking Gas charge, Electricity supply, Sports, Technology adoption, Education, Jobs, Bussiness Growth etc are all connected to each other and controlled by a single entity- the Government of the country. So how can we assume that you’re not affected by politics?
Obviously, you’re affected but despite that, you choose to unsee what is around you…but why? why are we hesitant to vote? why don’t we read the newspaper or online news? why don’t we appreciate the good work but highlight only the negative? These questions need to be answered.
Let us look at a few cases and later elaborate them as we proceed.
Politics is so dirty- It means that people may find the system a bit like a competition and the contestants will go ahead up to any extent to win the game. If Politics is a dirty competition, then so is every field of life. The education system and the Corporate Sector is not pure at all. But we come to an understanding that we can’t live without a degree and a job, so we also take part in the slugfest and blame politics as we don’t have any choice.
It’s filled with corruption, Politics is only for the rich- Every field, at least in India is dominated by money. Corruption is the lubricant. No field is corruption-free. No one absolutely cares, what happens to the fees we pay.
I can’t remember everything- You don’t have to remember everything. Internet connection has made it easy that you can just google the information. You just need to be aware of what affects you and some basics. You don’t have to know what happened in the US, without actually knowing what laws your MPs and MLAs enact in the parliament. You also have good online news sources in India like Dailyhunt, Inshorts, MSN, Google News, Lallantop etc.
Political Favouritism- I hate to say, but this is a reality. We find that many political parties of south Asia work on this principle. One party supports the majority community and use it as a vote bank while the other uses minority. This obviously makes people tired of the system because of this favouritism. The status of minorities across the globe is not up to the mark of that or the majority. While the Majority is more concerned about why its money is spent on the minority. This is a deadlock. Right-wing states/parties tend to be pro majority while Left-wing parties tend to be pro-minority. Just like in the west, we have to strive to remove favouritism.
Political Ideology- This is similar to what I mentioned above. But here, when a certain voter gets fed up with a certain party may shift automatically to another or else he may eventually quit voting. The political spectrum has turned narrower and much of the parties go up to the extent to get popular votes. So they compromise their ideology losing their voters. This phenomenon happened to Communism at the end of the 90s. Taking the present example, you will find that BJP or Congress, Labour or Tories, Republican or Democrat doesn't make a difference. They follow quite amount of same policies. The alternative which they presented in the past century doesn’t exactly exist today.
Religion and Caste in Politics- The most familiar figure which comes to our mind will be Indian Politics, where a certain party expects votes from a certain sect of the society. So, when parties are in power, they try to care for this particular sect more. This is referred to as appeasement. This is a global phenomenon but predominantly happens in India. We know what Trump intends by attacking the immigrants of a certain place or when the Saudi gives money grants to another, or let even be how Indian parties struggled to take the credit of Kartharpur Corridor inauguration. India is a conservative country, the majority of the population still immersed in religion and caste. Politicians just give us back what we demand. When we are ready to vote on caste, they just prop up such candidates.
Pro-rich politics- Rather than using the word pro-rich, it is meant basically how important it is to be rich enough to support your seat. The big parties or leaders we have are ultra-rich. The donation they receive every year for elections is humongous. Just take an example of how BJP contests each election in Kerala without even winning a single seat. Here money is not an issue for BJP, or for that matter to any party. Just by having a surname like Thackrey or Pawar or Yadav can bring wonders to your career. For you to be aware of what’s happening and or for you to vote, you don’t need money. This is indeed a silly argument.
Lack of choice- We don't have any other option than two main parties in the majority of world democracy. In India being the BJP vs Congress, In the US being the Democrats vs Republicans, In Pakistan being PTI vs PML, In the UK being the Labour vs Conservative. Tell me the difference between two parties which seriously makes a difference- They follow the same economic policies, they are pro-rich, they receive billions of funds giving them a monopoly over smaller parties. There is no third party or a relevant force which can topple the two biggest parties, left for us making our choice binary like either A or B, B or A.
Communal Politics- I’m linking it with caste or religion one, but communal politics isn’t just about it. Communal politics is where a certain party focuses on using an emotional weapon say like religion or caste or a problem to change the election equation towards its benefit. Take the example of Ayodhya issue, or Sabrimala issue or Rohingya issue. The parties are ready for any extent to go on for getting a few volatile emotional votes. For that parties may engage in violence, street fights, or even try on direct manipulation. This is communal politics. The dominance of Marathas in Maharashtra and Jats in Haryana is a true example. The Jat riots and Maratha reservation issue is just a few more examples. We need a politics-free of religion and caste. Just see how in UK, France and the US, where the prominent parties are to give a TV debate on their various stances.
Political Killings- The killing fields of Kannur was a popularly used term to highlight the violent politics between CPIM and BJP. This has been on for years. Another example is the Maoist vs Others. In all these cases, the parties use their muscle and money power to kill their opponents for local dominance. This is also popular in Turkey and Russia, where the opposition has been silenced. (I’m not justifying the killings)…So what is the solution? We can obviously demand a stricter law and strict implementation. For that, we need representatives who are ready to listen to you. So you will have to vote first.
The death of Democracy or rather I call it like Loss of faith in the system- Due to any of the above reasons, we tend to lose the faith in the system. Just take the Maharastra and Karnataka example. The government is formed by exchanging elected MLAs and changing their parties just to keep themselves in power. The judiciary has failed, so has the EC to check into such aspect. As a voter, you feel cheated. If the person whom you vote and gets the vote doesn't sit in the power, then what is the point in voting? Indeed a valid question. It is better that I will leave this question unanswered for you to answer.
Silence is not the answer, but silence is obviously better than a bad choice. The silence of ‘good’ is indeed more dangerous and that is not what we want. The youth need to rise up.
I am not saying that the moment you end up reading this post, you should get up and shout the slogans of a political party or start a political rally. Obviously the first thing will be that you should make up your mind that you will be voting next time for sure. Read the manifesto and portfolio of the candidate and if possible his/her previous experience as MLA/MP. Then only you must check the party. After voting, you must track what your MLA or MP has been doing. Question him, file RTI, track his MLA and MP allocation funds etc.
The rise of the Internet has made people confused or rather misled, the online hate is at its peak, hate crimes, hate speeches, fake news, offensive posts, political violence etc are rising. The overall situation now is a pro-right wing, where people vote based on emotions rather than on what are the best techniques or practical solutions. Even then, we must have the ability to say ‘no’ to what disgusting thing the internet has brought us into the field of politics and fake news. Let us not be just the ‘hashtag’ activist, work on the ground. (Internet indeed is a great invention, let us not forget its bad sides also or rather don’t misuse it)
Try to be like an Intellectual who question the government. Don’t blindly follow any person or party. Keep questioning, no candidate or party is perfect. If you decide to support a party, then you’re required to justify it too.
Read the article of my friend Aryan on Why should we know about politics.
Last but not least, Be an Informed and Aware citizen than a political Andh Bhakt. Use the rights you have to bring the change around you. If you don’t look after your own backyard, someone else will.
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