So what happens after they win an election??

I'm not even going to bother with apologies - I'm a lazy retard and that's just the way it is. So anyways, I was watching Yuva again tonight, and it got me thinking - what happens after these so called educated do-gooders win an election?? Does that automatically mean things work out from there on out?

I mean, looking at the stats, one would see that we already do have a whole bunch of educationally well qualified individuals in the Lok Sabha (while GovCheck does not show educational data - yet - it will, soon) so there ain't a deficit of degrees in the Lower House (far as I've seen, a lot of them seem to have law degrees). This fact leads me to think that an education is not the panacea here. 

It's often said that the problem with India's laggard growth is not it's politicians but it's bureaucracy. If we take that statement at face value (which I do, to a large extent) then the problem is not having uneducated or criminal lawmakers (though that definitely does not help, in-fact it probably does hurt - just not as much as people might say) but having a bureaucratic process that is so void of accountability that even if we do get politicians who want to do something, there isn't much they can.

This is what disturbs me - it's not easy to get rid of this apathy people seem to have towards their government. Laws can only go so far - this needs a change of mind-set. And that is where I feel politicians and social workers can help - start asking the people to hold their government accountable. It'll be a slow process, but I definitely feel that is what's needed to fix the quagmire we're in as a nation.

Now what do I mean when I say "hold them accountable"? Well, for starters, make more positions in the government electable - posts such as mayor, district attorney etc. Also, allow people working for the government to be fired. As I understand it - presently it's so hard to fire people off the government payroll that they can pretty much go about doing anything with fearing the consequences. Finally, we need to have more investigative journalists (and not the kind of idiots who setup "sting operations") - not only at the national level - but at the local level too. The kind who will sift through city records, looking for dirt on that city council member, or the state representative. But none of these changes will happen unless the people actually ask for them (save maybe the last one) - which is why I say we need a change in the mind-set of people.

Indulge me now, if you will - this is the main reason why I started GovCheck. It's not something that was put up because there was an impending election in India. In-fact this is one of the things that piss me off about people - the ones pretentious enough to think they know why I started the website - because there's an election coming up. I couldn't care less about the elections - especially in a place like India - it's just a time for people to go around making promises and in some cases, pointing to the disgraces, they passed as law, as proof that they're better for the people. I don't care what they say during an election - a good lawmaker is one who's active off the campaign trail - and that's what I'm trying to bring to light with GovCheck.

So there we go - that is my answer to India's problems - not only better elected representatives, but a better and more aware electorate. That is the panacea for most of the diseases that plague our land - and I hope I can play a small part in curing it.