Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You

I am so disappointed in myself. I couldn't get my documents together in time to vote for this year's elections in April.

(Source)

I'm usually not involved in Indian politics. I'm not surprised by corruption mostly because I expect it. I didn't  drink the Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal kool aid because I didn't believe them for one minute. I'm usually a little aware of what's happening, but I'm not well read enough to comment on anything so I usually refrain from it.

But, this time, when I found out that NaMo was contesting the election and could be the next Prime Minister of our country, it started to bother me. Because I believe the riots in Gujarat in 2002 was a state-sponsored genocide. And, while NaMo may not have been actively involved in it, he was definitely complicit, I think.

For the first time, I actually wanted to vote. I feel like this election is a deciding election like the 2008 Presidential elections in the United States.; when all the Americans I spoke to wanted Obama to win and all of them were determined to vote because they thought their vote would make a difference. I never really cared about any of the previous elections and always consoled myself by the fact that I was enrolled somewhere else and couldn't vote. But, I really wanted to vote for this election. Not because I thought my vote would make a difference but because I could not in any good conscience let this person become the Prime Minister without at least trying to vote against him.

I had a discussion with my friends about it once. And, I remember telling them that as a minority, I didn't feel comfortable with the idea of this person succeeding. And, they tried to console me, saying, well Christians don't have to worry because I was in the right minority.

Here's the thing though, I shouldn't have to worry about whether I'm in the right minority or the wrong minority. The fact that any minority should feel threatened because this party will come into power is wrong. The entire narrative of the Indian state has long been marked as a Hindu narrative in movies, television, text books, fiction books, and while I've come to accept that as the norm. I cannot accept a norm where any minority living in this country is not welcome. Whoever they may be.