With elections around the corner, it is interesting how the political quandaries make headline news while the actual news worthy items that could inspire others, get lost. Last Sunday, the Doctors and staff of Hospicio Hospital, Margao, including the superintendent Dr. Ira Almeida and senior surgeon, Dr. Deepa Correia Afonso, took to the garden walls of Hospicio, stripped it of the old white wash and moss and began painting the garden wall of their work space. For me, an initiative such as this should gain media credits and be publicized.
For one, the doctors and staff took it upon themselves to make their work environment more attractive. To show what it literally means when we talk about dignity of labor. They had no qualms regarding the nature of job that they were undertaking. They are government employees, but that did not stop them. It was not mandatory, but that did not keep them away.
For me, personally, such examples are important and need to be encouraged. It is about a changing India, challenging various mental sets on protocol and hierarchy. Doctors and other medical staff with paint brushes and scrubbing walls is symbol of freedom. The freedom of breaking away from stale old traditions that perpetuates hierarchy and power. It’s a symbol of equality and the values we want to impart.
None of them were trying to prove a point. All they wanted was to have a clean and welcoming compound, which makes it even more appealing. It gives me the sense that the whole hierarchy that we create is to make life comfortable for only those in power.
Unfortunately, politicians and socialites have become the role models of the day. All one reads on the papers these days are which party is extending their support and to whom, which party has alliances together, who has been betrayed, and which party has been having seat adjustments. Names of tentative aspiring candidates keep changing, splitting out from party keep happening and mud is being slung against every cheek. The list is endless.
If you have some time at hand and actually take a pen and draw out the equations in the form of a smart art chart you realize that it is very difficult to even imagine what the equations imply. It is a completely unpredictable game of politics being played out.
What is even more compelling is the fact that nobody knows what the hidden agenda is and which party is reliable.
Politics is like a chess game I am told, where the move called the check mate is something that guises the true intentions of the visual fight that gets maximum attention on headlines in media.
An innocent reader, the one that votes, is completely baffled about how a good aspiring candidate gets no party to back them up in the name of coalition. The manifesto of the party on which basis the candidates gets elected is of no relevance. The question arising who should we vote for. The candidate or the party?
In school we teach our children about their civic responsibility. We teach them about elections and the functionaries of our elected leaders and the parliament. We teach them who can vote and who can stand for elections. We teach them that social work means genuine response towards social causes and not as a stepping stones towards garnering votes.
But then these are all words in print. So for those who are naïve and end up with bitter discussions about politics and politicians here is some advice. Please don’t end up being bitter with your friends because today's enemies in politics are tomorrow’s buddies.
What I understood so far from all the news is the following: When a party tries to portray that they are non-corrupt means that there is much corruption. When they say fielding many Catholic candidates it means that they are in fact using the technique of reverse discrimination to show that they are secular but in fact are totally fanatic and far from that. (Companies often use this technique where they employ women executives not because they are truly gender equal but because they want to portray their company as such. In such companies women would never be their leader, neither will they have policies drafted in favoring them.) Those are just a few representatives to help them with the image.
Politics is thus complicated. The quandary for me is whom should I vote for, the devil or the deep blue sea. Firstly I want a secular, non-fanatic governance. For me as a minority citizen, I rest my confidence of India being a democratic nation. Secondly I want a non-corrupt government and finally I want one that is matured and has experience which will not jeopardize the nation with its whims and fancies. Given this, I truly hope that the government this time has a strong opposition and is a hung government.
