Nearly nine hundred million adults, past the age of 18 years in the country, being called upon to exercise their right to vote as a duty, even sacred duty, go to the polling booths in order to choose their representatives in the different law-making bodies and also to govern the country. The duty of fulfilling these functions with due decorum is no less sacred. The spectacle across the country which is there for all to read about in the dailies doesn’t seem to conform to the notion of duty, not to talk of the sacred aspect of their duty, apart from the trust vested in them by the diaspora. We are being unabashedly treated to the unedifying spectacle of the vote-mongers at large fighting like children openly, first by verbal exchange with no holds barred and subsequently indulging in fisticuffs. Their conduct, unbridled in an open display of distasteful profile, may be cause for delight for some sections of society, but the rest have no option except to grin and bear it. Similar to the unseen Moon’s other side, the conduct of law-makers, barring exceptions, is the other side of Indian democracy which poses no problem in visualising the same.
While the word Vidya in the lines Vidya Dadati Vinayam, Vinaya Dadati Paatrataam... drawn from the land’s ancient texts, doesn’t exactly translate to education as commonly understood, the message in the lines is that education gives humility which in turn gives character, from character one gets wealth, from wealth one gets righteous life and finally happiness. However, the chain has got broken in the country’s current scenario of public life.
