Utopian Dreams

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Elections are coming again and we will start hearing promise of a great place with benefits for all and uplifting of the poor and everything for everyone.  It is not just in India but all over the world the election time promises of Utopian life for everyone, and the best promises typically gets the majority of votes.  The just completed elections in France saw a change in leadership, the about to come USA elections are gaining momentum.  There is no stopping the election cycle in India, with continues mid-term or by-elections and the soon to come general elections.

The title includes dreams along with Utopia, so there is no promise of delivering Utopia as a dream, but simple promises which brings the moon to the hearing public, but not very sure even the person who is making promises believes in what is spoken.  The promises are so farfetched that they are unrealistic to implement and impossible to sustain.  They sound melodramatic and so filmy when promising everything to people, and villainous when criticizing the opposition, and sometimes the people of one’s own party.

The days of canvassing for votes with promise of good governance and planned development are long gone, and in a democratic society they are hard to find.  People are hearing so many things that have to bearing to reality or truth, but they are delivered with frequency that is alarming and with such force that the person delivering lies with so much conviction.  Every state is in a state of turmoil and none of the politicians seem to want to give up power, even when they get voted out.  They continue to plot to dethrone whosoever is in power, and simply want to get back into power.  Even democratically elected leaders continue to face dissidence while in power, and in most cases from the first they take elected office they face grave digging.

No one even the president or the prime minister is devoid of the abuse meted out daily by their own party men or opposition.  The language is beyond just foul, it is outrageous in addressing the leaders, by men and women in politics.

There is constant opposition to better governance and there is constant abuse of the office when in power.  When in opposition the daily barrage of criticism is aimed at everything under the moon, and it is never ending.  With so many TV channels and Internet and communications available, it is a daily soap opera of accusations and abuse.  None is spared in the barrage of foul language that transcends from our leaders, and it only continues to get more and more imaginative in negative connotations.  There is also a great deal of truth with the idiotic behavior of elected and wannabe politicians.  There are endless corruption allegations and personal infidelity of leaders, and most of them are getting caught because of the cameras and telephones following them wherever they go and whatever they do.  The irony is the guys who get caught and the guys who do it and don’t get caught are all getting caught on camera or on telephone, and their deeds being recorded for the wild ride the public are being taken for.

We are being fed with scams and escapades, rather than public programs and policy.  The communications channels constantly barge into our life with one more and more scintillating scandal or impropriators, and it is never ending.  The scandal only gets bigger and bigger and scams get larger and larger.  No amount of policing or investigation seem to bother the thick skinned politicians, and they keep thinking of more and more ways of siphoning the public resources for private gains.  They ought to loot enough while in power as the cost of elections keep getting bigger and bigger.  There is no way of stopping this, and my utopian dreams will just be that, dreams.