Finally it impacts all

Politics has been derided in many ways, and people sometimes buy these derisive remarks as a conclusive judgment on politics. We have heard it a million times that politics is the last refuge of all scoundrels. We have also seen a plethora of reports, a huge number of books, documentaries and films, on how crime and politics are dovetailed into each other. We also know how the connection between corporate business and politics is a fact of our world.

Beyond this, the ugly connections between mafia and politics are also an established thing. All this is true, but that doesn’t mean that politics – political parties, elections, democratic institutions – have lost their function. In fact, given the situation of a grand power contest at a global level, and the emergence of Artificiality, the role of political parties, political leadership and all political institutions has become enormous. In our small space it is the time of heightened political activities.

The second phase of the elections to the J&K Assembly is over and the third and conclusive phase is now underway. People, through the instrument of vote, can emerge as change makers. This time around the participation of people in voting has been good compared to many such occasions in the past decades.

The point here is that at a societal level we need to grasp the importance of voting and the responsibility it places at an individual level. A wholesale condemnation of politics is an ideal way to stop an organic growth of politics. While the criticism of political parties, of political ideologies, and political decisions can continue, and it is a hallmark of a living society, people as political creatures cannot escape the responsibility to act as conscious and informed individuals while responding to political ideas, and political opportunities like elections.

In any democratic set up, if people don’t respond positively to political responsibilities it can only result in a distorted relation between a society and the politics that engenders from it.