The Common Man, democracy's fav punching bag

"Common man" has come out to be the biggest loser from this whole Sena-SRK episode. It just goes on to show one can take liberties with the common man, use him for vested interests, and leave him stranded when he is in danger.

Shiv Sena doesn't give two hoots about the betterment of the common man across Maharashtra - atleast it's actions don't suggest so - but when it comes to gaining publicity, it doesn't blink twice in beating up powerless north indians or tearing up a movie's posters to showcase its fake 'holier than thou' attitude. But the common man is stupid enough to not see through the trick and he still votes for such parties in the elections. (stats: 43% of the votes in the last assembly elections went to Sena and MNS. Had they been a single party, they would have been in power). Logic says the common man is not making the right choices but then such are the ways of democracy.

SRK doesn't give two hoots about talking on issues of national importance but when it comes to the release of his movies, he suddenly feels like speaking on everything and thinks Pakistani players could have been treated in a better way in IPL auction. That, when his franchise itself didn't choose a single Pakistani player (the official reason given is they didn't have a slot.. but that's bull..they picked Shane Bond recently). He sure has a right to have an opinion, and his differing opinion shouldn't make anyone violent towards his movie. But at the core, he is a businessman - rather, salesman - which is fair enough..everyone has a right to sell his products/services if his livelihood depends on that. But his timing of this thoughts on issues of national importance is quite impeccable. Again, the common man is at the target of his salesmanship. But I don't really blame him for that because he is not answerable to the citizens of the country (unlike a political party)..but people need to realize that he is just selling his product..and his (and other celebrities') "love you all" jargon is as fake as Sena's "Marathi Manoos" rhyme.

Congress government won't give a shit about protecting powerless and faceless UPites and Bihari taxi drivers when they are thrashed by the goons, but when it comes to putting up a gimmick to show how safe Mumbai is, they will channel 40% of the police force to safeguard a movie. Again, the aim is to show the common man how efficient the government is. Logic again says that tokenism isn't going to change the ground-reality but such are the games one needs to play in democracy to win votes.

And finally, the omnipotent media uses and, by giving undue hype, creates all this drama in the form of a non-stop 24x7 breaking news updates to the common man.

Bottomline, everyone uses the common man to extract his pound of flesh..and the common man acts as a mere punching bag. When it comes to catastrophe like terrorist attacks, it's the powerless common man who dies. This is what, at times, makes me skeptical of democracy. I know democracy is the optimum, if not the ideal, solution. But the root cause of all the above problems is the process of electing people who govern us. Someone who is deaf/blind/dumb by birth has as much say in the process as a Nobel Laureate in Economics (say). Would a Nobel Laureate or a logically rational person ever elect the likes of Sena/MNS to  a constituency?