I thought its worthwhile to try to dispel a common myth that is also a huge challenge for a budding new party. Hence this post.
The myth:
The people at the bottom of our society need to be educated and change. Till people change, clean politics cannot happen.
This myth is only a reflection of the rich poor divide that is being well exploited by the traditional parties in our country. Every traditional party claims to be the savior of the poor and offers them money/liqour/freebies to win elections. The better off section of our society automatically thinks that the poor are totally un-understanding and that only when they are educated will things improve in this country. But what is not understood is that a majority of the poor know that they are just being exploited, but in a scenario of total hopelessness, the only logical response poor can offer is to take money/freebies or whatever that comes their way. But while voting, like the well off, they too do not have a choice and vote for someone whom they perceive to be less corrupt of the two or on caste and religion basis. So, the myth is perpetuating only due to the total disconnect between the two worlds - the rich and the poor. This is nothing but a new version of the divide and conquer policy of the British. Due to this myth, even well-off people with good intentions are keep away from politics and the traditional parties continue to take turns in doing the misrule.
If you say that one needs to be first educated to understand that education is important, I cannot disagree more. For people to be educated first politics should change and not the other way around. I go to a nearby slum and I still find too many school dropouts. Poor will remain poor until they are given quality education and healthcare, for which policies should change first. We(Loksatta) are doing politics not hoping that educated will vote but to give hope to the uneducated. In our opinion there is no clean politics being played in TN and many other states in India. We are filling the huge gap left for us. If you still doubt watch this video, where a poor woman says that she will forego freebies for prohibition. In another survey, the poorest of the people said that they will forego freebies for education and healthcare. Nobody asked for freebies, two bad parties in TN promise this and there is nobody else in the scene who is making the right promises, so the better(ADMK) is chosen.
The gap is huge.... come join us and help fill the gap faster!
