Albert Einstein =Beggar off the Streets

Dear Friends,

For quite some time a singular question has been troubling me. "Why is it that our electoral system is unable to produce quality leaders?" A bit like Kekule, who, in a dream, saw a snake curling up and taking its tail in its mouth and, based on this dream, deduced the structure of Benzene; yesterday the answer to this question struck me in a flash of revelation. And the answer was in the form of a frightfully simple equation:

Albert Einstein=Beggar off the Streets

This simple equation neatly defines the basic problems of our democracy. In order to understand this equation and its importance we only have to look around us. This is the mango season. If you go to the market to buy some mangoes, what do you see ? You see mangoes stacked up neatly on 'thelas' . Now suppose you go to one thela and demand mangoes worth Rs. 50/- what will the vendor do ? Will he simply allow you to count the mangoes and take them home ? Obviously not ! He will, in fact, ask you take a Kg of mangoes of a specific quality. So, in nature everything has a weight. Even two mangoes from the same tree are not alike. The one with greater weight fetches a higher price. However, in the kind of democracy that we have, people have only a number and no weight ! In our democracy, each adult is given the number one. That is, each adult in our democracy, is equal to every other adult regardless of his/her education, stature and contribution to the development of the nation. So from this absurd situation, arises the equation which embodies all the ills plaguing our democracy ...Albert Einstein=Beggar off the Streets !

In our democracy, Albert Einstein has the same electoral weight as that of a beggar. Now, to my mind nothing could be more absurd. I think that we all would be in agreement that Albert Einstein (if he were alive and a citizen of India) would contribute immensely to the development of the nation. I think that we would also agree unanimously that a person begging on the streets has zero role to play in national development. In-fact, his role is actually to introduce drag in the effort of the nation to move forward.  However, the number if  votes (weight) allotted to both the great scientist and the beggar are one each ! Effectively this means that the opinion of the beggar with regard to who should be governing the country is as important as that of the great scientist ! To my mind, this defeats logic. How can a beggar have the same vision, the same lucidity and the same logic that a scientist like Albert Einstein would have. And if we all unanimously accept that Albert Einstein is indeed superior to a beggar both in his ideas and his contribution to national development, then shouldn't he be given more weight in the electoral process ? How much extra weight (votes) will we give to Albert Einstein is a matter of debate. We could say that the vote of one Einstein is equal to the vote of ten beggars, or hundred beggars or one thousand ! but we cannot but accept that the existing equation (Einstein=Beggar) is wrong. I propose that the new equation should be:

Albert Einstein = 1000 Beggars 

It is because of the existing flawed equation which effectively equates apples with potatoes that we have the kind of (non)leaders that we have today. Look at it from the point of view of a politician. He has no incentive to try and win over an educated, contributing member of the society to his side. A politician knows that if he has to win the vote of Albert Einstein, he will have to spend a considerable time and effort in trying to convince the great scientist. He knows that he will have to show some vision and intellect for this purpose. However, in order to convince a beggar he needs only money and inducement. It is this flaw in the equation that has allowed the politician to steer conveniently clear of the intelligentsia of the nation and concentrate on the uneducated hordes instead. It is precisely for this reason that election after election, you, me and others like us who have a vision and are making a contribution in the development of the nation find ourselves marginalized. We find to our distress that our 'leaders' care two hoots for our concerns and aspirations because they are able to get all the winning votes they need by manipulating the uneducated masses of the country by a mix of  money, caste and religion. Now suppose the system was such that each graduate of the country carried a weight of ten (i.e vote of one graduate=vote of ten uneducated people), each professional carried a weight of 100 and so on; you would suddenly find the situation changing. Once the politician sees that if he is able to win over one educated, contributing voter, he stands to gain from 10 to 1000 votes (depending upon the stature of the voter), he will be inclined to spend his time and effort in listening to the intelligentsia of the nation.
Giving weights to the members of the intelligentsia (in voting) would also, to some extent, correct the the demographic imbalance created by family planning. It is a well known fact that the well-to-do and contributing members of our society are producing two children per couple on an average, while the non-contributing-uneducated masses are breeding like flies with five to six children per couple being the norm. The result is a demographic divide in this country where the people whose opinion should matter have become a minority which is even more conveniently ignored by politicians.
Thus, in sum and substance; if we want the democracy in India to improve and good leaders to be elected, we will have to change the equation from Albert Einstein=Beggar off the Streets to Albert Einstein = 1000 Beggars !!