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Elections, a battleground of morality

Elections, being the flavor of the month, I thought of writing something completely different from what is being discussed in media, political parties and amongst the masses. So let’s first try and understand what does elections mean in the true sense. It is a process of selecting an authority (person or organization) by voting on parameters of performance and character. There are certain rules to be followed in this game like in any other game. Unfortunately, all the warriors in the battleground play the game with single objective of winning and of course it does sound absolutely correct, right? In sports too, we have been taught to keep focus single mindedly on winning. What does winning mean? It could be number one ranking in sports or in exams or it could also means beating the opponents to emerge victorious. Really, if that definition was true, there would be lot many losers surviving amongst us than winners. See the statistics, only one in a class of 40 students tops the class, only 1500 students get admission in IIMs from lakhs of students who sit for the examination, only one team out of 8 IPL teams will be eligible for the winner’s trophy. Out of 7 national parties, 36 state recognized parties, 329 regional parties and many registered unrecognized parties, only one party will win the elections for Lok Sabha. Which means less than 1% gets a chance to win the top seat. Does that make 99% losers, well tried better next time! If we were to believe this concept, there would be depressed souls running around like headless chickens. Each one of us play such games, participate in contests, exams, etc. etc. in our lives, if we are not selected, we recover from our losses, try again and again. What is it that keeps us going? A bit of introspection on our approach, our attitude, our strategy. Yes, winning is not only achieving the top position, it’s an entire approach and attitude you carry throughout the journey towards your goal. Some reach the goal but still are not true winners and some are left out and still emerge as winners. Winning is a mental state of affairs where how you arrive at yourself, your growth with respect to your own past self. If you have been following the path of right thinking, right behavior and right action, you will no doubt, emerge as a winner irrespective of what position you get because then not just you would have learnt a lot, but also there is a newer you who is prepared to take on the challenges for future. With your behavior with people, you will always be respected and loved which will be a very strong support for you to feel like a winner. Sadly, political party leaders play a dirty game of maligning each other by murdering the opponent’s character without realizing the scar it leaves on their shirts too. Such leaders, even if wins the political game will be losers in the long run. They will definitely one day get the realization of their own self and how ruthlessly they could murder their own values to achieve a shirt sighted goal. Maybe then they would understand the true meaning of winning. The leader of the country is a raja who is dutifully responsible for the welfare of the praja. In addition to welfare, it’s extremely critical for the leaders to show the right behavior at all times because we, as citizens of the country are going to look up to you. The leader becomes an inspiration for the rest of the country and hence, the entire nation can go down in moral values if there is no one to look upto of a higher standard. Each one of you is an inspiration for someone, your children, your employees, your family and hence, beware! keep a watch on yourself all the time!