Wayfarerz

Country First vs Career Change

Mavericks vs Eloquence

Of course the heard-it-all sum ups for the Presidential Election '08 in the US of A. With the country taking to polls on this historic election day, just thought a spectator (read no voting rights, but all rights to evaluate, scrutinize and comment) and his musings maybe worth a click.

As the pundits say, this surely is an election with each vote carrying 'far reaching consequences', glittering with 'Hope' for change and direction (to the country and 'few' abroad), and above all abound with promises to revolutionize people's lives, dreams and future.

While candidates continue to hammer away on last minute campaign rallies, I'm awed at things looking from the spectator's viewfinder. The caucuses, the primaries, the conventions (impressive Greek columns btw), acceptance speeches, the debated 'debates', the campaign-defining wall street tumble, the distinguished endorsements, the on-your-face ads and of course the million dollar primetime campaign - all brought forth to this day of Nov 4th 2008 has been refreshing, informative, amusing and moreover thought-provoking for spectators like me. And hats off to Larry King, Letterman and SNL Pres. Bash for added effort and perspectives at this moment.

My musings (and wishful thinking) at this hour is not (maybe not surprisingly) on whether the 'Mavericks' would take over Washington or if the 'Change' would be ushered in. My heart and thoughts just go out to another great democratic & politically charged (even savvy maybe) country, my homeland India.

It was in early days of Fall '07 that my uncle who is a Lawyer cum Politician happened to ask me about the potential president-elects and the popular trends. It may have been surely surprising to him that the real election was to be more than a year later, esp since looking at the frenzied media reports from abroad the picture one gets if of an at-the-front-door kind. The long run up to the Presidential Election is what has amused me the most in this election. I was new to this democratic process of gaining the political party's nomination through a very democratic process and then saving the best for the main race. The long and detailed scrutiny that each candidate is subjected to, deserve a lot of spectator cheer. Many a time I found myself looking back at the campaigns back home in India and at the under-the-lens scrutiny (or lack of) that politicians seldom revel in. 

The debates and the official candidate websites were exhaustive in most aspects and I found myself wishing that more politicians across the world should exhaustively explain themselves and debate on open forums on policies in their election manifesto and not just restrict public opinion forming to news flashes and Meet-the-Candidate programs (maybe rarely found in few places). The long and detailed process to make every single voter make an informed and prejudice-free choice (if I may say so) make strong pillars for a nation.

Be it the business-school inspired campaign organization, the back and forth scrutiny on the candidate's past statements/ senate votes tallied against current proposals/ ideologies or the insightful debates, each aspect of the run up to Nov 4, has lessons for many like us to learn from. The prospect of being a well-informed, 'Evaluative' citizen is what more and more people in India crave for than being forever in the 'News Happy' citizen class. To illustrate, in the latter group people may tend to forget the perspectives from a succintly informative newsblog like Rajdeep Sardesai's on Raj Thackerey before the next Mumbai Municipal elections, while the people in the former class is forever alert in evaluation.

Another area in this campaign that has been lauded is the way regular professionals formed the campaign base which is not seen much in elections in India where party workers form the grass roots infantry. Educated professionals form the sideline critics who contribute very little to see deserving candidates get on board. Like the recent heat that the  Dog's Own Country blog has attracted, more professionals in India seem content criticizing the ones who attempt to evaluate the polity of which one is a part of. When the buzzword today in US is 'Youth Vote' , it stands to note that an inspired-initiative (even an effort to evaluate political ideologies, leave alone political activism) among the net-savvy, educated and all-else opinionated youth of our country can spark change like none before.

Transparent fund raising is another aspect that would be much appreciated across the globe. Scrutiny might help to some extent reduce the influence of vested interests in policy making or government decisions.

At this hour when different Indian newschannels and websites are replete with questions and blogs on 'Whether Obama or McCain is better for India and Indo-US relations', it might be much more worthwhile to reflect on what we Indians can learn from this election and the different democratc aspects (if not all) of US politics.

The true knights in this election (from the spectator gallery) seem to be the omniversal media. The TV networks, Radio broadcasts, Print media, Blogs, Facebook networks, Twitter feeds, campaign videos on Youtube have all defined this election like none before. Still remember the days when Prannoy Roy's team used to attempt at exhaustive election coverage (with innovation) through the last decade. Like the youth involvement + mobilization that has been pivotal in this campaign, it makes me wonder on the potential that could be unleashed if India's vibrant young (and middle-aged) population who are highly educated, professionally competent and individually opinionated, and with their/our days revolving around e-papers, facebook/orkut updates, twitter feeds, personal blogs, chat platforms and the like, were to embrace the right to informed opinion and politically involved citizenship.

Activism I believe needn't always take the form of slogans/ signs/ public disruption. Self-awareness, excercising one's franchise after much deliberation, rooting for the omniversal media which strives to help voters make informed choice and similar taken-for-granted attitudes and perspectives all form activism for betterment, justice and harmony. Along with renewed individual interest and commitment in national events and politics, it becomes all the more necessary on the part of political candidates to be open to scrutiny (not just releasing educational and tax details), exhibit willingness to participate on debates (on local, state and national platforms), put in effort and time to explain themselves and their election manifestos on official websites or blogs,  and to motivate the non-party worker to join the campaign base if he/she's impressed by the candidate/ ideology/policy recommendations/ just the opportunity to contribute to bring forth change.

History is being written in the US as I click away these spectator musings. And more so by informed, motivated and politically charged citizens.To all of us who are tuned to happenings at home and elsewhere, and are open to new learning, let us wish for and work towards a renewed democratic process in which unbiased information, the right to have that, the willingness and motivation among people to involve in nation building, ethical and sensitive political campaigning,  and transparent elections, to take us into a better tomorrow!

PS. Btw my heart goes out to McCain the person and the vibrant ideology of Obama. Let the worthy lead!

Image courtesy: Sylvia Wright UCDavis Magazine