Emotions and Political Atyachaar!!

In a nation battered with lost pride due to 1,000 year of invasions and loot, being emotional is normal. However, emotions shall not camouflage logic and reality in a manner that distorts vision. Emotional Indians who perceived Congress to be largely responsible for the freedom movement, gave thumping victories to the party till 1990. However, our country suffered a great deal due to 55 years of Congress rule. Only after significant miseries, our electorate realised about Congress misdeeds.

Unfortunately, political narrative even today is dependent on emotions instead of governance & performance. Citizens are mere tools for electoral victories as they can be triggered with sentiments. This may be ideal for politicians, however, it doesn’t augur well for our nation. 

Politicians love to dramatize situations and tragedies. Exploiting mass feelings for personal benefits is a common phenomenon. In the face of negative public sentiment, unfortunate incidents become an opportunity for building a positive sentiment. Every crisis or tragedy is an image building exercise, while planning, detailing, objectives and strategies take a backseat. Rhetoric takes precedence over ground realities because winning elections is the only motive.

Elections have their own festival feeling for politicians. Grand rallies in small towns, Large hoardings across cities, Full page advertisements in print media, along with tall promises, 24/7 mud-slinging on TV channels and fallacious predictions of psephologists. People attend large rallies to listen and watch the sheer oratory and theatrics of politicians, hoping and wishing it to be true. Hope pushes people to vote and elect leaders. Hope is an antidote to real problems of citizens and in this sense, it has become a mirage. In reality, people don’t elect leaders, they elect HOPE.

Citizens have developed sharp differences resulting in strong likes and dislikes over crucial matters, which are perceived from a political lens. This results in heated debates, endless discussions and disinformation campaigns on different media platforms. Truth and reasoning has no place among citizens divided by sentiments. As a result, seeking accountability to build pressure and improve performance doesn’t seem to be a concern.

Social media platforms have also played a role in aggravating the sentiments of common citizens. Although SM platforms started out well for raising awareness among citizens, they now seem to be losing neutrality. Censoring and shadow banning of fact based hard-hitting content have become routine matters. On the contrary, these platforms have struggled to put a check on propaganda and fake news which dominate the mind-space of SM users. Increased propensity of users to accept information/news at face value has subdued reality. 

A mature electorate, which doesn’t get swayed by emotions while being focused on facts and performance, will usher a brighter future for the country, else, it will always be 'Emotions and Political Atyachaar'.