THIS ABOVE ALL
Equality check
Khushwant Singh

More than half of the voters are illiterate. Should we not have a minimum educational qualification for them as well as for the candidates?

NOW that we have the results of the elections in Haryana, Bihar and Jharkhand, I begin to doubt whether our electoral system does in fact reflect what the people think is best for their country, state or themselves.

One must bear in mind that more than half of those who actually go to the polling booths to cast their votes are illiterate and can neither read election manifestos issued by different parties nor read newspapers. Whatever information they got comes from the electronic media, radio and TV, or what their elders tell them.

They also do not pay taxes of any kind and therefore have no personal involvement in the administration of the country. They have strong religious, clan, caste and family loyalties, which candidates exploit to the full. They are swayed by the charisma and oratory of those who ask them for their votes. They succumb to bullying by hired goondas, their votes are often purchasable; so they often vote for the corrupt as well as those charged with crimes.

Since neither the successive governments nor the political parties have succeeded in keeping away tainted elements from becoming MLAs and MPs, it is for electors to banish them from politics. Our electorate has miserably failed to do so. In short, it is more conscious about its rights than it is of its responsibilities.

It is time we had a closer look at our electoral system. Let us ask ourselves two questions: Should we not make some sort of minimum educational qualification obligatory for voters as well as for candidates before we extend franchise to them? Should we continue to extend voting rights to those who do not contribute to the running of the administration by paying taxes of some kind or the other?

If you agree with me, write to your MLA and MPs and ask him or her to propose an amendment of the Constitution restricting voting rights to people who understand what governance of the country is all about. Otherwise, we will continue to spend hundreds of crores of rupees every five years or oftener in futile exercises of open-to-all franchise.

A few years ago my neighbour Reeta Devi Verma of Cooch Behar took me to an orphanage run by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity. It had around 70 children picked up from garbage dumps where they were left on the day they were born. They ranged from tiny babies a few months old lying in rows of cradles to boys and girls around 5-6 years old. The nuns were their mothers; they were unaware of their fathers’ existence. As I went round the wards, I noticed every baby lying in its cradle extended its arms wanting to be picked up and cuddled.

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I specially recall a pretty four-year-old blind girl with curly brown hair groping her way round the verandah. When I put my hand on her head, she clasped my legs in her arms and would not let me go as if pleading with her sightless eyes, "You are my father; take me home." I was overcome with emotion. A nun released me from her embrace. She then clung to the nun’s legs. I realised how important the feeling of being touched was. You can see that among animals and birds. How frequently they rub against each other.

The desire to touch conveys more feelings than words. Take for example our manner of greeting each other. Shaking another by the hand conveys more warmth than bowing at each other as the Japanese do. We hold the palm of one’s hands and say from a distance Jai Ram Ji Kee, Pranam, Namaskar, Namaste, Sat Sri Akal or raise a hand and say Assalaam-u-Valackum. Clasping both hands of the other is warmer than shaking just one hand. Taking the other is one’s embrace goes a step further in expressing affection. The ultimate in embrace is the Punjabi japphi — hugging each other with perhaps a kiss or two on the necks without any sexual suggestion. Touch with a feeling of desire for closer relationship comes with sexual maturity. It starts with holding hands and goes on to kissing on the cheeks, lips and rest of the body. It has been rightly described love’s great artillery; or as the poet Robert Herrick asked: "What is a kiss?"And replied: "Why this as some approve: the sure sweet cement, glue and lime of love." A kiss can and should be more than a lip-to-lip contact for a second or so.

Joseph Lilienthal had it right:

The need to touch and be touched continues till the very end of one’s life. When a person is sick, you put your hand on his or her head. You hold them by the hand while taking to them. All this thought process was triggered off by the image of a four-year-old blind girl with curly brown hair clinging to my legs for fatherly comfort.

Teacher asked a student: "Beta kab say school aa rahe ho?" (since when have you been coming to school?

"Madam : Paida honey say pahle (Before I was born)", replied the boy.

"How can that be?" asked the teacher.

"Madam, my mother is a school teacher."

Dr Chopra, a renowned psychotherapist, ordered a signboard giving his name and profession to put at the entrance of his clinic. The signboard painter worded it as follows:

"Doctor Chopra psycho the rapist"

(Contributed by Vipin Buckshey, Delhi)