Political Excellence

Election time is coming to India and that means there is a lot of excitement and a lot to be wary of. Individuals who have received a seat in any particular party have begun to campaign to hopefully be elected and officially join their respective party. They need to have intense financial backing, just like in the states to get any ideas to the actual people, but instead of signage in a front yard or a bumper sticker on a car in India it means visiting individual villages, to many to count, and giving bribes in terms of jewelry, rupees, rice or other rations. People may vote for you because you truly have good ideas, but they are used to getting something from the politicians in exchange for their vote. Especially in rural places the desire for stuff is becoming increasingly important. The grass is greener on the other side is how they are being trained to think because of the effects of the media and capitalism. If my neighbor buys a DVD player for his government given television surely I need to buy a DVD player and a computer. So if one politician is giving gold earrings and the other is giving promise for the future the lack of education and desperation based on socio-economic factory, that family will probably take the earrings and place a vote with the more corrupt candidate. Typically the village people decide who will win in the election because there are so many more people living rurally than as city dwellers. Of course the candidates know this and take full advantage. This is also the reason why more violence is happening in the villages. Capturing of polling stations, illegal balloting, false votes etc. I have met people who have told me how they changed the votes of entire villages and it has resulted in a favorable outcome in the election for those people participating in the corruption. As exciting as election time is, it is also a time to be aware of the random danger that may erupt in local towns and cities. A political demonstration could turn violent. People are commonly burning themselves in support of Tamils in Sri Lanka and they may well do the same to support their political party. The television commericals with current pop songs and animated political figures transformed into symbolic leaves, sunsets, or Rubik's cubes are catchy and fun, yet they are hiding the danger and corruption seemingly joined with politics in India.