Democracy flourishing in India

Bhubaneswar, July 22 (Ajoy Kumar Misra) India may be a young democratic country. But in the past 75 years it has proved to be one in the real sense. Here a chaiwala can become a prime minister and an autorickshaw driver a Chief Minister and a lower division clerk the President. This needs to trigger an alarm in the parties controlled by families for decades. The attitude of the electorate in the country is changing and the freebies offered by such parties or their leaders may not now prove effective.

When Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014, he did not flinch to admit that he sold tea in the railway station to earn a living and support his family. He did not hesitate to admit that his mother worked as domestic help. A section in the political circles in the country ridiculed his past but the fact is that the attitude of the people, especially the young and first time voters, has changed. They are now in a situation where they want leaders to deliver and not indulge in vague talks.

But Modi did not rise to the post just like that. He was committed in his mission. He knew the pulse of the people and what they wanted. Hence, in 2014 when the country went to polls he emerged as the choice of the people and his party numero one.

Recently, Maharashtra got a Chief Minister in Eknath Shinde. Shinde once plied an autorickshaw to make a living. But it is his dedication and commitment that has catapulted him to the post in the State edging past the scion of the Thackray family and son of Balasaheb Thackray—Uddhav Thackray. How come? It is before the people now to gauge the strength of the commitment of Shinde.

Similarly, the President-elect Droupadi Murmu once served as a lower division clerk in Odisha government. She subsequently became a councilor after joining politics, was elected to the State Assembly twice and became a Minister, became the Governor of Jharkhand and now set to adorn the Rashtrapati Bhawan on the Raisina Hills in New Delhi. All these featS not without dedication or sacrifice. She has emerged as a warrior combating all personal adversities and trauma in life.

Now, the people in the country has been exposed to the real strength of independence and democracy that we attained after nearly 90 years of struggle to wriggle from the yoke of foreign rule.