What can we do...

Life ... how does one describe life? And how does one define normalcy? I so want normalcy to be restored into our lives, at the same time I dont want it to. The same old normalcy where we forget about everything and go back to our regular lives? My life, my family, my work...no. What can we do then? What can we do to restore peace and security once and for all?

Do we cure the visible symptoms or heal the cause? War is not a solution. Top officials resign. The govt makes strong statements, declares that we will not surrender. The parties go about hurling accusations at one another, what one did, what one did not. Promises will be made. Vote banks will be swayed and secured. Elections will come. Some of us will go vote. Vote for whom? Same old politicians, same old talk, same old deeds, same old kachda. Do we want to go through the whole tamasha once again?

We say politics is like that - dirty, as if that explains everything and will solve everything. Good people wont survive in politics, we tell ourselves, and so we stay away. The story continues. We let politicians divide us on basis of caste, religion, region. We trust the next government would do something, keep the promises and solve our problems. And when they dont and we know they dont, we stay away from elections and dont participate in voting.

What choices do we have? Political reform. How do we go about achieving that? Not by voting the current govt out of power because the opposition parties are no good either. How do we get the message across to these parties that we are sick and tired of them all and none of them deserve our votes unless they clean up their act? How do we get them to clean up their respective parties? How do we enforce that people with criminal records do not stand for elections? How do we ensure accountability at every level? How can we introduce feedback mechanisms into the system and ways to bring down the government if they are not following the promised agenda - instead of waiting for 4 full years? How can we ensure that that the politicians are not eating money and the people are getting what is due to them? How do we ensure transparency? How can we ensure that the differences between the rich and poor are minimized with very focussed development programs? How can we engage the youth in the country so that they dont get carried away by so called lofty goals? How can each one of us participate in the govt actively with commitment and values and bring out the needed reforms?

Reform is a must now ... at all levels and every single one of us needs to cooperate and participate.