HOW PROPAGANDA MADE US BELIEVE WE MADE THIS MESS!

Everyone’s concerned about the pollution stats (or at least It seems so). The Indian govt started a nationwide popular campaign called ‘swachh bharat Abhigyan(mission)’ for the period 2014-19 that grabbed the attention of the world as millions of people came to the streets and shores to pick up the litter(not a new idea). Major MNCs jumping in along with ferocious environmental activists shouting ‘change’ at various international forums is a common sight too. It’s impossible to find anyone against it. So here’s the million dollar question : WHO IS ACTUALLY FUCKING UP THE PLANET?

The answer is definitely not the consumer or the common people who are usually called out on their conscience to clean up and blame their fellow consumers for this mess. While millions get out of their homes to sort out the waste disposal problems we face, there are giant factories churning out two kinds of waste (the regular waste and the packaging that will turn into a waste after use) in monstrous amounts and the governments all over the world are busy thinking of ways to make things easy for them. The math simply doesn’t add up. 

For starters, indisposable packaging was never a consumer demand. It simply brings down the cost product of the goods. There were guidelines in various countries limiting the waste of various packaged goods producing companies. But they we’re changed overnight. A little reference to this can be found on the web. As mad as it sounds, this is what several ‘genuine’ activists did dig into this and here are some facts about the world’s most polluting company Coca Cola.

Coke began a shift to plastic bottles in the 1950s. As the waste piled up, the public began to push the company to take responsibility for it. Coke pushed back hard with a double-edged strategy attacking efforts to make the industry deal with its waste while pushing forward the message that consumers were instead to blame for the problem. Both were accomplished largely through generic-sounding organizations that worked on behalf of Coke and other soda and bottle companies while keeping their brand names out of the public eye.

Coke’s strategy of using other organizations to convey its messages proved useful. In 1968, when state and federal legislation was proposed that would have made deposits on nonreturnable containers mandatory, Coke didn’t lobby against it, at least not publicly. Instead, it was the National Soft Drink Association, funded by Coke, that did the work to defeat the bill. At the same time, Keep America Beautiful was letting people know that “keeping America beautiful is your job.” Those who failed at that job were “litterbugs,” or, as the nonprofit organization made disturbingly clear in a video that year, pigs.

Coca-Cola now makes 117 billion plastic bottlesa year, according to its own estimates, untold billions of which end up being burned or dumped in landfills and nature. Coke was responsible for more waste than any other company in a 2018 global plastic cleanupconducted by the advocacy group Break Free From Plastic, with Coke-branded plastic found along the coasts and in the parks and streets of 40 out of 42 participating countries.

Though Coca Cola has made huge monetary donations along with the ‘world Without Waste’ goal i.e. to recycle every bottle they produce by the year 2030, it’s a lofty goal (simply unrealistic as they failed even to bring down the non-biodegradable content in their bottle as they promised). 

With Coke taking the lead and creating a precedent, it was just a default way of functioning for major waste producing giants all over the world. THEY ARE SIMPLY SHIFTING THE BLAME FROM THEMSELVES TO THE PEOPLE! And making a few noticeable donations (which is minuscule compared to what it would cost them if they had to take care of it).

Adding to this are nuclear landfills (radioactive wastes), unregulated discharge into reservoirs and seas and a ton of other categories. And with everyone hell bent on blaming themselves for fucking up the planet, it’s Christmas all year long for them.

SOCRATES AND DEMOCRACY

What we have gotten to believe most religiously, are the ideological realities that we tend to live in and not being able to identify what went wrong when we unanimously decided to limit our thoughts to a particular spectrum and never once look beyond that spectrum for solutions. It’s common sense that it’s not always proper to choose something that everyone supports but it is common belief that it should happen. Is it just to avoid commotion? What is to be noted, Is that it is just because we all assume that every chooser has given the problem a thorough thought and since a majority of them arrived at that conclusion, it’s supposed to be the right one indeed. 

But that’s not the case. Socrates gave an excellent analogy for this. Let’s suppose a hundred people are on a ship and they need to choose a captain. Is it that the people who have never before been out in the sea get the same say in the matter as the sailors amongst them? It is not. Just because the consequences of a decision affect them, it does not make them eligible to have a say in the matter. It’s not a case of opinion deprivation but just mere sensibility.

Same goes for an electoral process in a democracy. The very essence of democracy is choosing. But choosing from what and by who? From everybody and by everybody and for everybody? It’s just a case where the ship is much bigger. This is the reason for everything that is supposed to be right in a theoretical democracy but is not right in an actual democracy. Where electoral rights are supreme but the electoral duties and responsibilities of the masses find no mention of. 

WHAT DID THE 17th GENERAL ELECTION BRING?

The narendra modi government is all set to take charge of the country once again after the people showered the bharatiya janata party with an even greater majority than it got in 2014. The congress yet again had to face defeat and could not even bag 54 seats so as to loosing claim to be the leader of opposition. With this vast mandate, the bharatiya janata party believes it to be an affectionate nudge for them to carry on owing to their developmental schemes and reforms in the past five years. 

Congress president Rahul Gandhi offered to quit as the party president but that was unanimously declined by the congress workers committee. Owing to the bharatiya janata party’s impressive performance in West Bengal, chief minister mamata banerjee also offered to quit as the chief minister but her party refused. 

All seven seats in Delhi were painted saffron with the aam admi party’s candidates coming a distant third in about three seats. Delhi chief minister Arvind kejriwal has gone silent and has not yet addressed the media though he congratulated narendra modi and the aam admi party’s sole lok sabha member Bhagwant Mann and that too from Punjab. 

In uttarpradesh,  the alliance between the samajwadi party and the bahujan samaj party bagged a total of 15 seats with mayawati taking 10 of her candidates to parliament. Akhilesh yadav grabbed the attention by summoning all party spokesmen to Lucknow and having no interaction with the media whatsoever. 

The congress party in karnataka and madhyapradesh are believed to be vulnerable with the congress winning a single seat each out of the 53 lok sabha seats. The state of Karnataka also witnessed prominent congressmen speaking out against the leadership and this further complicates matters for the congress party. 

Odisha drew peculiar colours on its map as it was quite a contest for the biju janata dal in the parliamentary election but it sailed through the assembly election with a jubilant majority all set to see a 5th term for the chief minister Naveen pattnaik. Kerala and Punjab were the only states where congress bagged double digits as opposed to a number of states where it couldn’t even open it’s count. 

With a number of state elections lined up starting from the next year, it’s a challenge for all regional and the congress party to put up a fight. With amit shah winning his first lok sabha seat it will be an exciting anticipation to who will be the party president to bear the lotus standard in all these coming elections.

THE GREAT INDIAN ELECTION.

As much as being in love with Indian politics, there are always a few complaints. With outspoken people taking over the broadcasts and making it a point to win elections even without contesting (or so it seems), it's always a sore sight looking at what the elections have achieved and what is left to achieve.

That's what happened in the US presidential elections. People on television claiming to have a right to speak for all people and dignifying themselves with a sense of public representation at the end, making a fool of themselves. With the average American clear in his head of what he believes would be best for him, we can't help but wonder how would have India fared under those circumstances?

India being a country of enthusiastic and views entitled youth, which makes just a small part of the voting population has still a lot to get right. The middle class gets close to no response in campaigns and even after more than 72 years of Independence and all being democratic governments, the people have no shame witnessing election campaigns all shouting ‘poor’! Because this ‘poor’ is of a big chunk of votes and is maybe the most gullible of all. Social security, way of life, foreign policies, educational reforms being a million years ahead in the future, India gears up for the 2019 general elections.

The world has come a long way from being a blank blackboard with chalks lying at it's bottom for someone to pick up a few and start claiming their views to be facts which are accepted because there are no other blackboards in sight (Not a great analogy?). Presently, people have started making their own opinions and with adequate amount of sense to be open to views too. They have access to information and entitled to hold their views to themselves and not caring about the trend however, within a boundary of logic and sense. While there's literally no compulsion in choosing a particular set of wants, the Indian voter has got his expectations lower than ever. With people not caring about who forms the government to making a mockery of all politicians alike are some of the most witnessed sights in the country. There's a contrast to be drawn. While politics in India has always maintained a grace, presenting the country with some of the most excellent statesmen from time to time, it's the voter who has always been quite fickle with his mind. Giving in to sensationalism and intimidation, it's the average voter that takes himself for granted more than anyone else.

                            

                       

Though India has been taking baby steps towards breaking this particular tradition, there's​ still a lot that can be achieved. It's high time we show progress in campaigns and question about policies that affect all groups of people in the country. That will bring a true sense of entitlement and a cause to celebrate elections. When the largest democracy will beam with opportunities and satisfaction, will then the world see what an independent India has actually become.