Options and The Choice

India is on the eve of another parliamentary election. This time is crucial for any democratic country as it is the time when the electorate is supposed to evaluate the incumbent government from various angles and to form a decision regarding entrustment of their destiny to a government for the succeeding term.

The common man normally thinks beyond politics. He has an urge to place the country above everything else. But when he has many options to choose from, he sometimes gets confused. It is seen that to make a sound judgement, the enlightened electorate generally adopt a few criteria. When they have two or more options, i.e. parties/alliances, before them, they go by a few criteria and look at each of the options from the angle of these criteria.

1. The ability to provide a matured leadership.
2. A clear vision about the nation’s progress.
3. The ability to provide stability in governance.
4. Absence of many conflicting ideologies within the prospective Government
5. Political ideology which keeps common man’s welfare above everything else.
6. Ability to build a feeling of security and confidence among the people.
7. Orientation towards an egalitarian society. 
8. The will to keep corruption at bay.
9. Respect for dignity and civil liberties of citizens.
10. Respect towards the established legal system.
11. Non-interference in the free functioning of the fourth estate, i.e. the media.
12. Prospects of formation of a delivering government.

When the choice is made with the support of criteria of the above sort, that would facilitate a reasonably prudent judgement out of the hustings and the nation would get a delivering government. Above all, it is the paramount responsibility of an enlightened electorate to become instrumental in seeing the election resulting in such a government. Progress of the country and welfare of the people should be the guiding factors and should get precedence over politics and everything else.