Yes, We Can

My ex-schoolmate Kishore is part of a club called "Toastmasters" in Infosys, where members give short speeches on various topics. Below is a speech given by him related to voting. And this has definitely come from the heart.

Yes, We can - By Kishore Kaluri.

So, What am I going to talk about ? I am not trying to be a Mr. Obama here. So, I am not going to take up “Yes, we can”. So, remove the YES. What is left ? “We can”. No no no, juggle the words a bit. “Can we ?”

Few days back, I read an article about India. There is an interesting line in the article – “In India, there are no citizens. There are only people living in India”. Unfortunately, maybe it is true to a large extent.

There are a lot of responsibilities a citizen of India has. But, I am not going to touch upon all of them. In the current context of time, there is one of the most important responsibilities for a citizen of India. Can anybody guess what that is ? Hmm, it is to “Vote”. Good evening toastmaster of the day, fellow toastmasters and dear guests. For the next 5 minutes , I am going to talk about – “Can we Vote ?”

To vote is one of the biggest responsibilities any citizen has. How sad, not even 50% of the educated mass is voting.

There is a saying – “When cowards run the State, the nation bleeds.” I am not talking about any one political party here. But, we do know that there are good and bad politicians across all the political parties. We all want good politicians. Do we want to put an end to the bad politics ? Yes, we all want to.

But, wait a minute. Let us ask ourselves if we want to change ourselves to achieve this ? Hmm, I see people don’t want to say – “Yes , We can”. We just want to hear Mr. Obama say that and want to clap our hands in appreciation. But when it comes to us and our own country, not many people are ready to say “YES, WE CAN”.

Let us try to find out what is the problem in India. Why is India, after so many years of Independence, is still a developing nation, and to be honest, is too far away from being called a developed nation. Bad politicians ? Yes, maybe, may not be. Let us say we will be a developed nation if we get good politicians. But, are we ready to select our own politicians ? Are we ready to abide by any stringent rule/law that a good politician will make? Are we ready to pay taxes diligently and to stop bribing? Are we ready to dispose the notion that in India, “People don’t cast their vote, they vote their caste” ? First of all, are we ready to even go to the polling both, once in every five years, and cast our vote ?

"You don't get anything clean, without getting something else dirty"

I hear a lot of people asking “Why should I vote ? All politicians are same. Okay, anybody has seen the movie “Shawshank Redmption” ? There is a beautiful dialogue in the movie – “People can take your money. People can take away your position. They can take everything from you. They can destroy everything you have. But, there is one thing which no one can take from you, till you die. It is deep within you, no one snatch it away from you."Hope" is the most beautiful thing one has.”

We should never lose hope.

And moreover, a person can resign to defeat only when he has tried his heart out for a victory.And we haven’t even exercised our votes… Friends, let us just go and vote for the best of the lot available. The best, according to your rationale thinking, the best according to you without any caste barriers. If there are 4 candidates, only one of them will be the best of those four. Let us vote for that person.

Folks, I am not saying that voting is the biggest weapon and it will destroy all the corrupt politics in India. What I am saying is – Voting is the only weapon we have against corrupt politics, and, we are not using it.

The notable Winston Churchill said on the eve of Indian Independence – “ Power will go to the hands of ignorant freebooters. All Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw.”

Sixty years later, it is in our hands to prove him wrong.