The Delhi blasts

Someone>>It is the government’s fault. All politicians should die.

Me>>The government doesn't have a magic wand. I agree they don't do even what they can do. Our intelligence sucks. On the bigger picture, it is we who are idiots. All of us. The human kind. The inhuman and the unkind. Why do we do this to ourselves? For what joy? And now we have begun to accept it as normal as long as it doesn't directly affect us.

Someone>> Don't be impractical and bring your lofty philosophy into this. Don't support them. Would they have been as passive if it had been one of the politicians who died? See the Americans.

I'm not defending our politicians. They are idiots. But weren't they chosen by us? Won't we choose them again? Was what the US did really fine? And Israel? It is pathetic. We'll kill each other. Let us just do that shall we? I'd really like that. At least for philosophical reasons!!! What do you think the government would do if it were Sonia Gandhi or Manmohan? What did they do after Rajiv Gandhi? Nothing has changed. We just talk. We as a nation and culture are so stoic, it seems like we are almost habituated to the distress around. We only react if it happens to people we know.

Politicians plain don't do anything because of inertia. They would probably think rival parties would create problems anyway. So why do anything useful? We are better off fighting for and against the Amarnath yatra and Amitabh. We fight for just what we think would bring us the votes. Our people have poor memories and a high tolerance for terrorism. And if twenty families die, it is only that many votes that we lose.

It is of course vote bank politics that politicians across all geographies play. So what is so special about our politicians? I should actually ask, what is special about us, the people? We have been tolerant of exploitation for decades? Centuries now. We think it is a virtue to take rubbish and show our other cheek. But it is an irony that this is not really because we are a nation of peace lovers. It is just that we are a . We are an electorate that is still struggling to make ends meet. We need jobs to get us our daily bread and a god when that doesn't happen. Matters of importance to us are religion and reservations, which is why these are the only issues that politicians deem important and actively do things about. Their actions have so much of an impact that we now think this is all that directly affects our lives. It becomes a vicious cycle of dependency created by and imposed on us.

Occasionally we see vague semblances of the capitalist versus communist debates seen elsewhere in world politics. The Tata Singur project. The nuclear deal. This at least seems like a healthy debate to me, even if it might seem to some like it is just opposition for the sake of it. While to even others, it might be entirely pointless to care at all about. Do those issues really make any difference to us?

While I understand our stands and choices make sense to each of us, that we are wise individuals who know what is important to us, and this is exactly what a healthy democracy would promote, we must also take the bitter pill and understand that the fruits of democracy take their own sweet time to bear and then ripen. Under favourable circumstances. Who knows, in a few decades we might even get to taste them.

Meanwhile, the electorate is waiting for a better option. Or is it?