Tuesday, Nov 4, 2008 might not be remembered for long but right now it seems the most historic day in my life. The United States of America is on the verge of making a very important decision; a decision which will affect all of us, from Iran to China, Iraq to India. It has been the longest election campaign in the history of the United States. Having followed the election from within the country, for the first time, and having access to the local news, I find it hard to study for my midterm tomorrow while the nation chooses its 44th President. As America continues to struggle for its dominance in this global world, its crucially important that we (they) make the right choice.
George Walker Bush, is arguably the most unpopular president till date failing in many of his strategies but he has successfully conveyed an important message...that a president should be chosen very wisely. No wonder that the media is speculating the biggest turn out ever. Nearly 15 million people have already cast their votes. In many states, the early/absentee voting is already comparable to the turn-out in 2004 Bush-Kerry election. One thing that I don't understand though: why is such an important election on a Tuesday, a working day?. Working people are expected to cast their votes either before or after work. No wonder that a turn-out of 63% in such an educated nation is being called historic!
Talking about the candidates, Senator Barack Obama from Illinois and Senator John McCain from Arizona have put up a commendable campaign... a fierce fight that will be remembered for a long time. John McCain, a Vietnam War Hero, having spent 5 years as P.O.W. has showed, at the age of 72!, an unimaginable determination and will.... Barack Obama on the other hand is one of the most exceptional human being of recent times. Think of this: A black person with "Hussein" as his middle name is contending for the White House...the "white" house.
In the opinion of many, including me, Obama is just one day away from writing history. The country where liberalism is more preached than practiced will, probably, show tomorrow that the United States of America is indeed a great country, certainly greater than mine. Being an Indian, I know for sure that his story was not possible in India where we fight our own people from different states...A person from Uttar Pradesh or Bihar is tagged as a "North Indian" and in a country so fond of castes and creeds, is treated with worst of racism. The pledge "All Indians are my brothers and sisters" seems just a meaningless phrase, today more than ever. Despite her heroic efforts in bringing the congress party together and winning a surprise election, Sonia Gandhi was denied the Prime Minister position. Reason, she had foreign roots!. Barack Obama's father was a Kenyan. Period.
The greatness of this country lies in the very fact that it embraces with all its hearts, people from all over the world. In my country, talent alone doesn't matter. What also matters is your caste, language and demographic location. As a very witty dialog from one of my favorite bollywood movie Swades: "jati us cheez ka naam hai jo kabhi nahin jaati", (Caste is a tag that never leaves you). In the US, we believe that all men are created equal. (This is not a sexist remark, the same being true for women!)
Leadership is a term we hear often about in our daily lives. A tag given to anyone who does anything from false talking to social work. Barack Obama raised 300 million$..roughly 1$ per resident for his election campaign. Mind you that this money was not raised forcefully like its done in many states in Bihar (India)...where people are forcefully asked to give money for Lalu's rally....give and Live peacefully. Here, old and young, male and female, black and white, wrote 5$, 10$ checks, out of their own will to ensure that the campaign was not short of money. Because they firmly believe that this money for his campaign was an investment, an investment that will reap benefits indirectly. In India, we follow Mamta Banarjee and Raj Thackrey. One can never make up for the huge loss that the West Bengal will have to endure because of Mamta. A campaign that had solely political motives and will have repercussions for decades. Tell me honestly, as an industrialist, will you be willing to open a plant in West Bengal in the current scenario? Look at Narendra Modi on the other hand, the very next day the TATA's declared they were moving out of Bengal, he grabbed the opportunity. Such should be the vision of a leader. Industry means occupation and attracts more industries thereby sparking a chain of development, education and social upliftment. In Mumbai, Bhojpuri Industry is considering moving out of Mumbai. Its a 200-crore rs. (40 million$) industry goddammit! Think of how many jobs it brings to the city and the state!
I have not lost all hope in my country though neither am I a young kid simply amazed by the glitter of the western world. The midnight of August 15, 1947 gave birth to two nations, namely, India and Pakistan. And in the same sixty years of independence, while India is starting to be recognized as an emerging global power; the mere existence of our neighbor is in question. We are for sure the largest democracy in the world and contrary to everyone's expectations, we have survived. I am proud of my nation, no doubt. But I do believe that we have the potential to be better. We still have a lot of 'home'-work to do.
Ofcourse, I have no right to criticize the leaders of my country when I have left it to its shatters and for the time being, on its own. Criticizing something is easy, what is difficult is to search for the root cause of the problems and strive for its cure. My friends and family always ask me if I will ever return to India. My answer to them is this: I, hopefully, will...but not before I have learnt my lessons from this great country which has shared with me an opportunity to make India great as well.
-Mayank
Disclaimer: The views in this article are solely of the author. His motive is not to hurt anyone's sentiment but to freely express his views, to exercie his fundamental right.
PS: The author is thankful to Shrey Shahi for healthy discussions and as a motivator to read newspapers daily.
13 comments:
Hi Mayank.Good Article.It had a good flow about it.But, I do not agree with some statements. I cannot accept your comparison of Sonia Gandhi and Barrack Hussein Obama.
We can discuss those later though.Have an exam to study for. :P.
US elections are always held on the first Tuesday of November. This has been the case since 1845 and http://www.infoplease.com/spot/electionday1.html explains why. Regarding tomorrow's election, even though fivethirtyeight.com and other polls give Obama > 90% chance of winning, the Bradley effect can draw the election much closer than the pundits predict. Being an Obama supporter, I sincerely hope the American public choose substance over racial prejudice.
About the regional issues ravaging India, I'm dismayed by the laxity of the Maharashtra govt and the central govt in weeding out Raj Thackerey. Simply put, the suckers don't have the balls to do it. Instead of the govt creating an example out of him by whipping his ass, he is creating example for other political perverts across the country!
Anyway, nice job with your first blog entry!
@ teja : thanks for the link explaining tuesday election. Though clinging on to tradition when weekend election would certainly increase turnout doesnt make sense ... considering the fact we don't need days of travel to cast the vote.
A latest stanford study shows obama may loose 6% of votes due to his race , which would be really unfortunate.
May hope triumph over fear.
I can see a very good flow in the article and will rate it as a very well thought-through and organized article. Much ahead of a normal blog. Though, I will disagree at the sweeping comparisons and contrast made with India. A point that has been entirely missed that it is the people who make Democracy and not the leaders. Leaders are what people make out of some common men. So the blame of being bad is on Indians (and that includes the author of the blog as well as the comment) and not the few leaders.
Welcome to the blogosphere. I don't have much to add. Though I should say, I hope American election's wouldn't effect China or India in coming future. I liked your blog title though. :)
@shrikant and rohitj: you are missing the point. I never compared the leadership of Sonia Gandhi to the likes of Obama. I simply wanted to highlight the difference between the cultures. India didn't accept Sonia while US accepted Obama.
@baapu(cmt): aapka comment aaya yahi bahut hai mere liye :) Ofcourse, it is not completely fair to compare the cultures between two countries situated across the globe. For sure, there are many parallel arguments/facts that are relevant but not all can be included in one article. I wanted to convey a strong message and it seemed necessary to write a harsh article.
reasons for rejection would have been different. Completely non-sense example.
Nice Blog ..Amzing start to blogging .. Nice to know point of views.. But i beg to differ. Give India the consideration that its only been 60 years now since it has been free compared to over 200 years of US Independence .
Though Obama won , but still many people were against him due to the fact that he was Afro American ,
Compared in India Sonia Gandhi refused the seat and wasnt denied. Moreover "Sonia Gandhi" was born and brough up in Italy and it was as late as in 1983 after 14 years of her marriage she actually acuired Indian citizenship still she is in the mainframe politics and the most powerful person in the Country (arguably)...
I think i have diverted from the topic but the thing is Indians are more considerate and the only reason why you see the North Indian South Indian types of divide is because of difference in languages and because most people always were located in the locations where they were born and raised rather than changing cities which can be associated to a thousand of reasons .
But what i wanna say that is at this age , with common language being English and the way India is progressing that divide will also cease sooner than US .. :)
Proud Indian and hate to hear anything averse.. :) :D
@rohitj: Every argument has a basis. If you simply say 'completely nonsense argument', there is nothing one can do about it.
@Mahajan: OK, I am ready to give time to India. How much time do you think our country needs to be ready to elect, say, a Muslim Prime Minister?
Mayank that was a great article and if it was your first ever blog then hats off to you.
@teja : Thanks for the Tuesday story
@mayank
We already had a muslim 'President' and everyone accepted him with open arms.
@other comments and the blog
I agree with CMT that its the people who make democracy and not the leaders. At present I don't see any intiative on the people side to actually make a difference. How many parents would actually tell their children to go and become a politician, make a difference. Zero. As a matter of fact it sounds funny just saying it. How many people actually think of becoming Obama of India? None. We don't contribute and expect things to improve magically on its own. The only thing the Indian junta does is crib, crib and a bit more cribbing. It's the indian mindset which actually makes the difference, looking at an organized west and making sweeping statements about the place we live in as being worse off without even trying to understand why is it so.
On an another note, I am a strong supporter of regionalism :-) I believe this is what makes India what it is. If you move from North and South without any change in the culture, language, food it makes the whole experience very bland. Though I agree the goals and intentions of the different regions shouldn't conflict as was the case in thackeray. Take the regionalism out of India and you would have nothing. There are good things about West which we should adopt and then there are so many things that we shouldn't. We often tend to ignore the negatives of west as we do with the good in India.
ps: Using 'we' for both Americans and Indians indicates a case of 'identity crisis'? :-) long comment, eh?
Never thought you'd start blogging dude. I guess Stanford and the US had their effect on you :).
It was a great article with lots of new insights for me, did not know this was the longest ever campaign there.
Adding a bit to the Sonia-Obama debate, I personally felt that Ms. Gandhi made a huge impression on the Indians by refusing the post of the Prime Minister. Had she not done that, the Left (and probably the rest of UPA too) would have been forever at her throat. Not only did she choose a very able PM (making sure both Chidambaram and Singh held major posts, which has proved to be very important in these recessionary times), but she made sure she had the respect of everyone involved.
As for the US presidents, it is explicitly stated in the US Constitution that only natural born US citizens can run for President. The fact that Sonia (born and brought up in Italy) got a shot at becoming PM says everything about the liberalism of the Indian polity.
Mayank, my point was not about the leadership abilities.I was talking about her being born and brought up in Italy, Her long delay before applying for Indian citizenship, and the Ottavio Quottorochi (Hope I got the spelling right) thing.
Post a Comment