The elections

Born into a malayalee family it's no surprise that I am opinionated and political. Most of us are so from the time I turned eighteen my father made sure I exercised my right to vote and I have done so ever since . Being Christian ,married to a Hindu,with a fair number of Muslim friends,I grew up not having to know anyone's religion to be friends with them so it's scary and disturbing when the Indian elections throw up such hatred and below the belt jibes which lowers the discussion on serious issues and leaves me wondering why after being a decent country,we have suddenly become such bigots. The social media which is fairly new to most of us,is a real offender. All over it people are getting worked up (me included) and friendships (not the real strong ones) are being destroyed simply because some ruthless power hungry politicians have made us take sides. Do I blame the politicians ...well not really,their have always wanted power and will go to any lengths to get it,that is what they do. What disturbs me is not their shrill rhetoric but the gullibility of educated people who can fall for ad campaigns,social media vitriol and myths . Somewhere in the back of my mind I have always held a thory that education (the academic kind and not the broadening of the mind) has made us more narrow minded and more selfish. The average poor Indian will take the bribes and handouts given to them but will make a decision based in a completely different set of rules. We the educated instead,will rant and rave on social media and then sit and home and watch TV and get more worked up and come Election Day some of us will realise rather late in the day that our names are not on the list or we will discover a party which we simply can't attend or we will proudly announce that we use the none of the above option so no one wins....well the whole idea is to get someone to govern . Imagine if all of us (thank god we are a small minority of urban educated elite or so we are branded) opted for the none of the above option....we will be left with a country with no government. How foolish is that. This election for my city is just a day away and then I will have to vote for the ones I think will be better than the ones existing but it still leaves me disturbed