Delhi Election 2015: What can we learn as Responsible Human Beings?

• By Dr. Shweta Verma, CEO, Ginny’s Planet | First Published on 10 Feb 2015

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In Feb 2015, we saw the sweeping mandate for AAP in the Delhi Election 2015: 67 out of 70 seats were won by AAP candidates. While there are concerns about -how would democracy function without a functional or strong opposition, there are some lessons that this election result teaches us.

1. Focus on positives works much better than focusing on negatives: You may continue to point out mistakes, and launch personal attacks on others. But that will not necessarily make you or portray you as a better person. Only your own actions/deeds make you a better person as compared to others. Hence, focus on the positives that you can create/do yourself. If you are not able to do this, then just focusing on the negatives in others will anyway not help you.
2. At times, it is okay to experiment and have faith in a new team. You may not be 100% sure of exact outcomes from a person or a team that may be comparatively new to your field. But this does not mean that they will always fail. Give them an opportunity- a clear one where they believe that they can work with a sense of control and choices in their work.
3. You cannot change the world without working on the ground: You may be able to design excellent programs and write excellent notes. But only this may not be enough to change the world or what the world thinks of you. You will have to work consistently, connect with people, and do your bit on the ground as well.
4. Silence has to be broken, especially on issues that concern the rights of people: When there is abuse and exploitation, you will need to take sides. When someone says or does something that violates the rights of various groups in our society, you cannot always be silent. Such silence could mean your acceptance and support for violence, abuse, exploitation, and discrimination. This becomes much more important when riots happen in Delhi and other states when someone starts to comment on who should get married to whom and reproduce how many children when someone starts to impose views on who should follow which religion and how, when people target and launch personal attacks on the basis of their faith/religion when attacks on the church are not prevented when some people start believing that just because Pakistan was created for Muslims- therefore India must have been created only for Hindus. When you don’t make your stand public and if that stand is not pro-rights, then people are unlikely to support you or your team.
5. When you make mistakes, learn to apologize as well: Much has happened in our country and our society. Much has been considered collateral damage. But how can all this happen without someone being accountable or even minutely responsible? People, parties, and teams- have to learn to accept their mistakes and apologize. Ultimately they are accountable for what they do and what they do not do.

I hope some of us have learned these lessons. Some of us probably knew all of the above already. All we needed again was a reminder!

This post was first published by Dr. Shweta Verma on February 10, 2015