WOMEN wrestlers of India, sit in silent protest against sexual molestations and advances of their coaches and even alleged sexual harassment from their federation chief! This is the second time they are protesting in Delhi!
In January, the same wrestlers and their male colleagues did the same, but very firmly made it clear that politicians were not welcome. Today they have said that politicians are welcome! Why, this change in attitude towards politicians?
Just over two weeks ago, the Christian community in Mumbai, sad and angry with atrocities being committed against them, decided to have a morcha, but when politicians from the opposition parties came for the meetings, they were firmly told, “You are not needed!”
At the end of the Mumbai morcha, the participants were disappointed and saddened that no leader from the ruling dispensation, state or centre came to meet them, or even acknowledged them.
Intriguing isn’t it? Nobody wants politicians around, hoping their protesting voices will be heard without them, and then find that these same people are the only ones who are listened to and are actually a necessity!
In the first place, why don’t we want them around? Simple: Politics has become a dirty word! We believe a politician has only one interest; not the upliftment of people, but crane lifting of themselves! That they are corrupt, can be bought and have no principles worth talking about…And yet, the wrestlers in Jantar Mantar reached out to these same people in hindsight!
What we have to realise is in a democracy we cannot do without politicians, and what politicians need is to change their methods of functioning so as to remove suspicion about their motives. Let’s look at Lincoln, a politician who managed to change the thinking of his country. Before Abraham Lincoln became the president of the United States, men and women from pulpits and secular platforms thundered the ills of slavery. But he as a politician spoke to Americans about why their forefathers left England, for equality which they painstakingly imprinted in their Constitution. He told them that if they did not allow that same equality to be given to every human being in the US, then one day, that same right could be taken away from them. He spoke in the Houses of Congress, voiced his feelings in the Senate, convinced the lawmakers and then with the might of the Union fought against the Confederates and won a victory, not for the Union or for the abolishing of slavery but for Justice and Equality. Politicians need to learn from Lincoln, to have the ability to convince through debate, not through outshouting. Not to instigate, but to listen to people, not to lift themselves but serve. And when we see those skills, then will we go to them and ask for help, because like Honest Abe Lincoln, they are doing their job..!
—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com
