I was watching the speech delivered by Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention the other day and it fascinated me so much that I thought about writing this piece in my blog. The speech was so wonderfully woven to perfection. The charismatic leader had all the ingredients in his speech befitting the occasion, right from social issues like employment, healthcare, education to the economic issues like trade deficit, inflation, taxes and the foreign policy issues like nuclear proliferation, 'war against terrorism' etc. It was a very comprehensive coverage of the Democratic agenda for the forthcoming elections. It was one of the most inspiring and motivating speech I've ever heard in my life. The most amazing thing which struck me was the enormous support which Obama got from the audience which thronged the arena beyond capacity. Intermittently, he had to calm the public down so that he could articulate on his agenda.
As I finished through the entire show of a great political speech, I realized that there is a great deal of difference in the politics of America and the politics of India. Don't worry, I am not going to bore you with the fundamental differences between the parliamentary and presidential forms of government. I think we had enough of that in our Civics books while we were in school. So just read on to notice some differences which I have come across. Firstly, people in America truly love their leaders. When I say love, I literally mean the term. I could see a plethora of emotions on the faces of the audience whenever the camera captured the large gathering closely. In India we just support a leader or more appropriately, a political party. Here, we don't identify ourselves with what the leader has to say. We just support them for the purpose of voting and nothing more. I had never ever seen such an awe-inspiring support for any leader in India with the crowd going crazy chanting the names of the political leader, wavering their national flag with all the energy they can muster and projecting banners so enthusiastically.
Secondly, in America, people judge a leader based on his qualities and the 'changes' he proposes to make and as far as my knowledge is concerned, people in India succumb to many biases while electing a leader . The most common bias includes electing a party based on its 'affinity' for a particular religion, caste or social setting(BSP for dalits, DMK for hardcore Tamilians and many more such examples exist). The whole secularism thing seems like a sham in Indian politics when the parties themselves lure and favour people of a particular religion or caste. People tend to blindly follow a particular party no matter what the party has done in the past or what it intends to do in the future. No wonder the left parties like CPI(M) are surviving due to such reasons. I sometimes wonder, whether the LEFT parties can ever be RIGHT??? Part of the problem lies due to the low literacy among the prospective voters who are easily fooled or programmed to vote for a particular party for which they have been voting forever. These people dont seem to analyze the election agenda against their concerns and needs. On the other hand, the educated group of people living in India has a very low voting percentage which makes the matter worse.
Thirdly, in America, the whole election process runs very formally and smoothly. There is a well defined schedule of events during the entire course of elections right from nomination, campaigning, convention and the election. There are debates on important issues between the nominees so that the people can weigh and compare the proposed solutions to the critical problems which the country is facing. The election process in India is more haphazard in nature and the face to face debates do not exist in India.
As I finished through the entire show of a great political speech, I realized that there is a great deal of difference in the politics of America and the politics of India. Don't worry, I am not going to bore you with the fundamental differences between the parliamentary and presidential forms of government. I think we had enough of that in our Civics books while we were in school. So just read on to notice some differences which I have come across. Firstly, people in America truly love their leaders. When I say love, I literally mean the term. I could see a plethora of emotions on the faces of the audience whenever the camera captured the large gathering closely. In India we just support a leader or more appropriately, a political party. Here, we don't identify ourselves with what the leader has to say. We just support them for the purpose of voting and nothing more. I had never ever seen such an awe-inspiring support for any leader in India with the crowd going crazy chanting the names of the political leader, wavering their national flag with all the energy they can muster and projecting banners so enthusiastically.
Secondly, in America, people judge a leader based on his qualities and the 'changes' he proposes to make and as far as my knowledge is concerned, people in India succumb to many biases while electing a leader . The most common bias includes electing a party based on its 'affinity' for a particular religion, caste or social setting(BSP for dalits, DMK for hardcore Tamilians and many more such examples exist). The whole secularism thing seems like a sham in Indian politics when the parties themselves lure and favour people of a particular religion or caste. People tend to blindly follow a particular party no matter what the party has done in the past or what it intends to do in the future. No wonder the left parties like CPI(M) are surviving due to such reasons. I sometimes wonder, whether the LEFT parties can ever be RIGHT??? Part of the problem lies due to the low literacy among the prospective voters who are easily fooled or programmed to vote for a particular party for which they have been voting forever. These people dont seem to analyze the election agenda against their concerns and needs. On the other hand, the educated group of people living in India has a very low voting percentage which makes the matter worse.
Thirdly, in America, the whole election process runs very formally and smoothly. There is a well defined schedule of events during the entire course of elections right from nomination, campaigning, convention and the election. There are debates on important issues between the nominees so that the people can weigh and compare the proposed solutions to the critical problems which the country is facing. The election process in India is more haphazard in nature and the face to face debates do not exist in India.
Fourthly, the attacks made by the leaders in America on each other are more inclined towards criticizing the policies of the leader whereas in India we even see the dirtiest of personal attacks from the leader. American leaders respect the other party leaders as human beings not challenging their character, dignity and patriotism though we saw some personal attacks made by Republican leader John McCain towards Barack Obama as an exception. Attacks through TV advertisements are quite common in America whereas in India, be ready to be questioned about the source of funding if you ever show a TV advertisement publicizing your party achievements(Remember the BJP India Shining Campaign)!!
Lastly, the presidential election in America starts with around 20 people running for the president(around 8-10 people from each party and some independents). These people are some of the greatest politicians of their country with an impeccable record and some profound accomplishments. The bitter battle to clinch the nomination from their respective parties starts the process of eliminating the president hopefuls. It works similar to a filtering process where only the best of the best survive in the end. And it's so difficult to find even 2 such leaders in our country who are worthy of becoming the Prime Minister!! Aren't we facing a dearth of some good leaders? Even Mayawati is up for the challenge now!! Oh gosh!!
People say that "politics is a dirty game". I agree that it is and it has to be, whether it is America or India or any other democracy. But in American Politics, there is some flavour of motivation, achievement and true leadership which attracts you to the glitz of this 'dirty' business. Unfortunately, I fail to find even one such motivating factor which can inspire the youth of India to take on this job of leading the country wading through the heaps of pure mud.
Disclaimer: The thoughts presented are entirely personal and are not meant to discourage any young blood from entering the world of politics. I will be more than happy if you do so. Thanks and leave any comment if you feel like.
Lastly, the presidential election in America starts with around 20 people running for the president(around 8-10 people from each party and some independents). These people are some of the greatest politicians of their country with an impeccable record and some profound accomplishments. The bitter battle to clinch the nomination from their respective parties starts the process of eliminating the president hopefuls. It works similar to a filtering process where only the best of the best survive in the end. And it's so difficult to find even 2 such leaders in our country who are worthy of becoming the Prime Minister!! Aren't we facing a dearth of some good leaders? Even Mayawati is up for the challenge now!! Oh gosh!!
People say that "politics is a dirty game". I agree that it is and it has to be, whether it is America or India or any other democracy. But in American Politics, there is some flavour of motivation, achievement and true leadership which attracts you to the glitz of this 'dirty' business. Unfortunately, I fail to find even one such motivating factor which can inspire the youth of India to take on this job of leading the country wading through the heaps of pure mud.
Disclaimer: The thoughts presented are entirely personal and are not meant to discourage any young blood from entering the world of politics. I will be more than happy if you do so. Thanks and leave any comment if you feel like.
7 comments:
If you argument on agenda holds true then how come People like Bush got elected twice beating likes of Al Gore?
The battle between Al Gore and Bush was a very close one.There was some goof up in Florida and ultimately Bush won in 2001. Even today that is considered to be a controversial issue.
Now, US was attacked in the same year when Bush assumed office(i.e 2001). Bush initiated the so called 'War on Terror' and worked towards stronger national security measures. In 2004-05(i.e. the next term), people considered national security as the most important agenda and Bush was perceived to be a better candidate for that and also Republican party is generally considered to be better at national security/foreign policy issues. This in my opinion explains his re-election. Also during this 2nd term campaigning, economy was not a major election issue as economy was not shattered like the way it is now.
Anonymous writers, i would appreciate if you post the comment with your name. Thnx
I head the key note address by Barrack Obama during the last election and knew at that time that this guy is going to do great. I had my friends in US who use to tell that he will be the first Black president of America and that day is going to come sooner than later. Well, thankfully even after following dynasty politics there is enough room for the good people to play around and enter into the system unlike Indian political system. Hopefully this guy after coming into power will change some of his anti Indian policies.
Nice start for a blog. I actually wanted some IFMRian to continue blogging. Good that you have started. I remember you had one earlier also which had only few posts. Now don't break the tempo this time. Keep writing atleast once or twice a week.
See you soon..
Good blog but in US also the politics is run by big industrialists. There the politics is very much influenced by big corporates. India is biggest democratic country in World but the election commission of India is very much transparent. We start getting the result of election on the same day. now it is only us to decide whom we want to vote because we are sure that in India no goof up can be done. The best example was Bihar Election.
Palin will conquer White House.Period.
hi Mr. anonymous..palin is not running for the president so she wont be conquering the white house in any case..Palin is the running mate of McCain...
btw this article is not about who is gonna clinch the white house seat..
sorry boss, the battle is between palin and obama.
biden and mcain are puppets
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