Locals Vs Outsiders

The other day we were having some conversation over drinks. And Yes, you guessed it right, when there is conversation on some topic over drinks, it is bound to become passionate. The topic was about that if you are an outsider, you ought to give more chances to the locales irrespective of their service. I was kind of taken aback by it. I am proud product of Kendriya Vidyalaya and we in K.V. are always taught that we are Indian first and we have to treat all fellow Indians equally, irrespective of their cast creed or locality. Me being one the so-called outsider was dissapointed at the thought that how can any educated man have a biased thinking. If people from outside come to Pune, off course Pune gave them opportunity, but the people from outside also give something back. It is not one-sided it is always mutual.

My friend's argument was when you made the decision to come to Pune, was it for yourself or was it for giving something to back to Pune. I agreed that it was solely for me that I made the decision irrespective of thinking about how the people in Pune will treat me. He said when Pune gives you some opportunity to earn a living, you ought to pay back to Pune, by providing them the opportunity to earn from you. And you should always be biased to give more opportunities to people who are local and belong to Pune. I could not understand that. For me being an Indian always comes first rather than being a local or Marathi. I told him that when I have to choose the vendor for any of my requirements, I could never choose based on cast, creed, locality or language. All humans for me are same, and selection will be purely based on the quality of the service and money I would be spending for the service. It has to be value for money for me to make a choice of any vendor. For a person like me, I could never say I belong to a particular locality. I was born in Madhya Pradesh, brought up in Gujarat and spent my professional life first in Gujarat and then in Maharashtra. So, when someone asks me where do I belong from, I always reply, I am from India. And I am proud to be an Indian.

My point is how can we be biased and not give someone who is deserving an opportunity just because he is an outsider. The argument was about the Marwari community and other business vendors who would eat up all earning opportunities for the locals. To a certain extent I agree that it is a case, those people who come from outside may be giving opportunity to only their people and then even though they are earning from Pune, they are not hiring people from Pune for their shops and jobs they create. It could be true, but I bet that if someone is capable enough it won’t take long, before someone would give them an opportunity purely based on their talent and hard work. After all we the so-called outsiders were chosen for working in our company only because the interviewer found the right kind of skills that he was looking for. Being an educated person how can I be biased. That just does not sound right.

To me it is just like reservation. Reservation in education and govt jobs gives opportunities based on caste to those who quite often do not deserve it. If we all feel that reservation is unfair to the people deserving it, then how can we be the one who follows the same principle. Professionals who come from outside of Pune do pay taxes which goes to the central govt. But, ultimately the state budget is allocated from the central govt to the state and tax paying people do play a part in helping build the nation overall. I concluded with the argument that we all are Indians and being an Indian we can't discriminate between fellow Indians. If everywhere in India we will have people thinking that only locals should get the opportunity, we can't become a country of unity in diversity. The local people will have to show the required skills for a job and should get a job for their skills, quality and hard work and not because they belong to the locality. If this closed-minded attitude will not change, it would be very difficult for India to make a progress on the global scene. We all are Indians, and everyone should always realize that all Indians are equal come what may, and there should not be a biased attitude towards a specific locality or community.

Effectiveness of Voting

Effectiveness of Voting

Voting-A fundamental right of every citizen. All the fundamentals of democracy rests on the unique keyword, Voting. Every citizen of a country understands that as soon as he becomes an adult (Legal age 18 in India, may vary in other countries), he/she will get the right to vote and they are so excited about voting. How many people are really excited about voting in terms of choosing the right candidate? Not sure of the number, and even most people do not understand the seriousness of voting. The point I am trying to make here that even though it's a democratic and fundamental right of every citizen, it is not really effective in terms of choosing the right candidate. The fact there is no difference between a totally uneducated person and a highly intellectual individual when it comes to voting makes it totally ineffective specially in a country where percentage of literacy is 74, and mind you by literacy they mean only read and write. Literacy by no means, means education. Literacy is actually the very beginning of education.

So, this such a strong opinion that Voting is not a very effective instrument in terms of choosing the right candidate. We all know how much it takes to get a simple Job in a private company. The candidate has to go through various aptitude tests, then a series of interviews and post that HR rounds and what not. It takes so much for someone to crack a govt Job interview (unless he has the caste certificate of a reserved category off course). In every profession be it Medicine, Engineering, Civil services, etc., it takes a hell lot out of you to get the desired education and get the Job. When a person clears the IAS interviews, he//she has to serve under a Minister who was elected just by the voting of individuals, and that too, those, who are unaware of what voting really means or whether they are choosing the right candidate. People hardly know and those who even know they hardly care about it.

I am not saying that it’s a piece of cake to get elected in an election, No, that is not true. But, to me getting elected is all about doing the right marketing. It's about how to brainwash the voters. It's about how much money per vote, or how much liquor per vote. The person who can do all the above would finally get elected and then when in power, they will make all the attempts to recover the money they spent to reach there, and would try to accumulate as much as they can. I would like to compare voting with an analogy of the various competitions that are held in colleges and offices for fun. The result of all such competitions are based on the number of likes or comments that person got. Do you know what those participants do? They start the marketing and networking and ask people, friends and friends of friends to give them a like so that they can win the competition. How ridiculous is that? People who don't know or understand the meaning of the competition will be liking your entry just because you asked them to do so. Will this ever be able to find the deserving winner? I am sure you all would agree that it won't. Elections are exactly like that, albeit on a much larger and grander scale. The candidate who is elected, is not because he is deserving, he is only elected because he could afford to market himself better than others.

So, voting is really not effective to choose the right candidate. This is not just in India, even in America where everyone is educated, not all people feel that the deserving candidate always wins the presidential election. I would say voting should be there, but, decision of electing or selecting a candidate should not depend entirely on voting. And to me for getting the fundamental right to vote there should be some eligibility and even some basic examination needs to be taken to decide whether the individual is capable enough to make the right decision when he is voting. It still needs a lot of research to understand and implement a better strategy to elect someone, but mere voting by pressing of a button is not going to get you the right person for the position.

Having said that, I am not concluding that voting should be avoided. In fact, voting for an educated and intellectual person is that much more necessary because when they choose someone they at least think about the reasons before choosing the right candidate. If even an educated and intellectual person decides not to vote or votes blindly without thinking, then he is doing more harm than good to the society. So, every individual should definitely vote, but, please think before you vote. If everyone thinks before giving the precious vote, I am hoping that I will live to see a world when I would change my opinion that Voting is not so effective in choosing the right candidate.