Divide and Ruin.

The last phase of the  general elections  to elect 543 members to the Lower House of the Indian parliament is nearing. The 12th May will see the Final phase and the results will be out on the 16th. The bitter quarrels seen on the media space have to come down and 'good governance' is expected from all of them.

But the thing I noticed prominently and very subtly is that the educated-urban-ites  and the elite only were talking of the social and the communal divisions. The rural folk  were very sincere and felt as usual the 'voting'  not as a constitutional obligation but a  holy one. In villages, even today husbands /wives  won't reveal the party/candidate they voted to each other. Such is the secrecy they maintain and whenever hot discussions on candidates or parties developed the elders would remind them of  the realities and the quarreling folk would leave the spot calmly.

In any constituency, normally political parties  distribute tickets to the candidates of a caste/ community block  having at least 20% of the population. This is an unwritten rule practised. But the remaining 80% are not of just four more castes alone. Literally hundreds of caste groups and communities do vote. They brood no ill will to any of them. Though the Gandhian influence is fading and faded, still humanism is alive. Even after the elections now in Tamilnadu, majority of the people don't know the caste of the candidate they have voted for.

But the media led by the electronic media and strictly followed by the print media tried their level best to divide the society in imaginable and un- imaginable  proportions. The holiest of them all getting published from the South India led this divisive politics in full swing. I didn't come across the 'most trusted'  and the oldest using the 'voters' ever.  Each day it listed out every caste or community involved in the election process. Today  the patriotic one revealed to the people that one of the the election commissioners belong to one ethnic group.

How education, power and money have changed these men!

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