ना प्राच्य की हुई, ना ही पाश्चात्य मे रम पाई...............

मै अवंतिका(एक मिडिल क्लास लड़की जिसने आभाव शायद ही देखें), उच्च-शिक्षा प्राप्त प्रोफेसनल माता-पिता (जो ८० के दशक की उस संतती की नुमाइंदगी करते है जिन्होंने शिक्षा तो इंडिया मे ली किन्तु धन, संपदा और ऐश्वर्य के निमित पश्चिम को अग्रसर हुएं) की संतान हूँ. मैंने बचपन से पश्चिम को देखा किन्तु जाने क्यूँ माँ ने पूरब का व्योम(आज तय-शुदा तौर पर यह कहने से गुरेज नही करूंगी कि यह एक खोखली मानसिकता है) हमेशा ही जेहन मे डालने की कोशिश की(*शायद सफल भी रहीं). विगत एक वर्ष से मै भारत मे हूँ, और कही से भी खुश नही, क्यूँ-कि यथार्थ से परे भारतीय सभ्यता और उसके अपरिमित सीमांकन के चिन्ह लुप्त-प्राय है.
शायद मै अपनी प्रासंगिकता भी तय नही कर पाई............
अपने उपरोक्त निष्कर्ष पर मै यूं ही नही पहूची.
मैंने २ माह पहले एक स्वयं-सेवी संस्था को ज्वाइन किया, इसके निमित मुझे कई बार देर रात तक काम के सिलसिले मे बाहर रहना पड़ता है. पिता ने ५८ वर्ष के एक बुजुर्ग(वर्मा जी, मुझे हमेशा अपनी पुत्री समान, यूं कहें पुत्री से बढ़कर माना और प्यार दिया) को मेरा ड्राईवर(हलाकि बहुधा मै स्वयं ड्राइव करती हूँ) बना दिया. आज ये पूर्णतः सपष्ट है की इसके पीछे अपनी बेटी की सुरक्षा भावना ज्यादा बलवती थी.
स्नेहा मेरी दोस्त है, मेरे साथ ही पटना विश्व-विद्यालय से पी.एच.डी. कर रही है. वह बताती है कि आज भी घर से निकलते हुए माँ उसे सलवार-कमीज के साथ तरतीब से दुपट्टा लेने की हिदायत देती है. आखिर वो क्यूँ सशंकित है?
ठगनी, हाँ यही प्रचलित नाम है उसका, बच्चे पगली भी कहते है. जाने कब, कैसे, कहाँ से आई कोई नही जानता? बहुत गन्दी दिखती है, ऐसा लगता है महीनो से नही नहाई. आज जब खाने के लिए रोटी मांगने आई तो मैने कहा, साफ़-सुथरी रहा करो. बरबस उसने निगाहें उठाई और कहा, 'फिर साफ़ रहने का मौका कौन देगा?"
ओह! ये पगली भी मुझसे ज्यादा समझदार निकली. यथार्थ के ज्यादा करीब............
तीन अलग-अलग लड़किया बिल्कुल भिन्न माहौल मे एक सी समस्या से ग्रस्त है, फिर कैसा सभ्य प्राच्य?????????
तभी कह रही हूँ, "मै अपनी प्रासंगिकता तय नही कर पाई.............."

Problems of Indian Democracy and its ultimate solution, A Vision....

“Democracy: a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives”

Today we are facing challenges that are bigger than us: the climate crisis, the financial crisis, terrorism etc-etc. Our governments are mainly unable to cope with these new challenges. For the majority of them, they are stuck with short term decisions. They spend tax payers’ money to save failed institution.
We need to rethink our democracies

Our Occidental democracies are based on paper. Political parties are sending their program on paper. Citizens vote on paper. But paper is expensive. Paper takes time to be printed and more importantly paper are essentially a one-way communication channels.

As a result, citizens can only vote every 5 years or so. In the time in between, they have little interaction with their representatives. As our memories used to be short, they can basically do whatever except during the last 6 months before an election.

In current democracies, there are almost no interaction with citizens and with expert. Collaboration is limited.

Voting paper can’t be personalized
On top of that, paper cannot be personalized. Every single citizen, whether he is a worker or a non-worker, a youngster or an old person, get the same paper. They all have to answer the same questions. They all have to vote for the same people. And as every human, these people are good for some subjects but can’t be good for solving all the different issues we are facing as a society.

I would love that our governments ask us much more our thinking. But they can’t do it on paper. It is too expensive and they would need to spend too much time to educate the whole population to make sure they can take a good decision (look at all the debates about the European Constitution in France!).

What I want is a clever democracy. I don’t wanna be asked about what to do regarding agriculture policies (I’m not a farmer), I don’t wanna be asked about what to do to foster entrepreneurship, But, I do wanna be asked about what to do regarding education at this time, about what to do make our educational institutions more efficient(As I m a student). For the rest, I trust my fellow citizens who are more directly impacted or have time to dig into the subject.

You can’t ask to everybody their thinking about everything. But this remains unthinkable in our current democracies.

It’s not about left and right wing anymore, it’s about communities

People used to gather behind this simple paradigm: you are whether a socialist (left wing) or a liberal (right wing). But this leads to useless competition and decisions based on the politic party you support instead of your real skills to fit the job as a leader.

This means that our leaders don’t have to collaborate with the best people out there to make our society work better. They have to compete, they have to be winners and make the other lose next elections.

In a Democracy 2.0, Citizens could participate in chosen topics

From parliament members to community managers
What we need is leaders that will collaborate with people expert in their field. We need leaders who won’t pretend to be able to give answers to all subjects of our society. Tomorrow’s new leaders need be closer of their communities. They need to foster the debates, be more transparent, in one word; they need to be “Community managers”.

In a Democracy 2.0, parliament members should ask as Community Managers

Democracy 1.0 relies on paper, Democracy 2.0 will use the Internet as the new paper

Today we have a new technology at hand: The Internet. For the first time in human history, we can put together a majority of citizens through a two-way communication channel. Why not using this to build a new paradigm of democracy?

It is cheap and it allows personalisation. Citizens would be able to choose in which subjects they are mostly interested. They will not be bothered with unfamiliar topics. But they will have a lot of things to say to things which would impact them directly.

Hope, I am clear wid ma vision but still waiting a valuable comments of u all friends....

Regards,

(Awantika Sen)