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New Delhi, Oct 24 (IANS) As Bihar heads towards elections, philosopher and writer Acharya Prashant has urged citizens to treat voting as an opportunity for awareness rather than a routine.
He said, “The quality of any government is never higher than the quality of the people who elect it.” “When people vote unconsciously out of habit, caste or anger, elections become nothing but a ritual. A sleeping mind elects a snoring system.”
Acharya Prashant said that the tragedy of Bihar is not just economic but also spiritual. “The tragedy of Bihar is not that it is poor; it is that it refuses to wake up. Poverty of money can be cured, but not poverty of clarity.”
He linked the state’s continuing challenges, such as migration, unemployment, weak governance and poor education, to an internal lack of awareness among voters. He commented, “Every number in every report is a mirror of our collective mind. Bihar’s wounds are not just of governance; they are wounds of vision.”
Citing official figures, he said Bihar’s per capita income, at about Rs 54,000 a year, is the lowest in India, while more than 25 lakh people migrate annually in search of work. The literacy rate is about 71 percent (female literacy is about 61 percent), and the female labor-force participation rate is barely 25 percent.
He said, “The land that once gave Buddha to the world is now struggling to give even a good class to its children.” “To reconstruct Bihar is to reconstruct class. The greatest injustice to a human being is to keep him uneducated, because then he cannot even know that he is in chains.”
He said that neglect in one area infects all others. “Neglect of education gives rise to unemployment; unemployment gives rise to anarchy; anarchy ultimately kills aspiration. When the electorate remains intrinsically unaware, every region reflects the same chaos in a different guise.”
He highlighted the ongoing challenges in law and order, infrastructure and healthcare. Bihar still has one of the highest number of pending court cases in India, and per capita electricity consumption is barely a third of the national average. “Progress that does not reach the final destination is mere decoration,” he said. “Without internal order, even external infrastructure turns into abuse.”
On uncontrolled population growth, Acharya Prashant warned that no economy can outgrow the womb forever. Bihar’s population density is more than 1,200 persons per square km, three times the national average. He said, “When the population multiplies without proportionate education, employment or health care, every reform becomes meaningless.” “Women’s education and family planning are not charity; they are survival.”
He emphasized that the status of women remains the most accurate test of social maturity. “Women’s freedom is not a social issue; it is the measure of the core of civilization. In the same house where gods and goddesses are worshipped, daughters are imprisoned for safety.”
Turning to electoral behaviour, Acharya Prashant said that the most serious corruption in Bihar is not in offices but in the minds. “Caste, freebies, anger and emotions still guide the hand in voting. The mind votes every day for comfort instead of clarity, for greed instead of gratitude; EVMs are only the final function of that internal disorder.”
He urged voters not to separate but to discriminate. “If no candidate appears qualified, the right approach is not to seek the best, but to eliminate the worst, as in an examination. Eliminate the obviously inept, the corrupt, the violent, the divisive. From what remains, choose the least harmful, still capable of prudence.”
He also warned against flattery. “Don’t vote for those who tell you only what you want to hear. The leader who dares to speak inconvenient truths, even at the cost of votes, is the one who really deserves them. The one who flatters you is ready to exploit you.”
Reflecting on the cultural heritage of Bihar, Acharya Prashant said that heritage should be lived, not worshipped.
“The heritage of Bihar is luminous: Buddha, Mahavira, Nalanda. But luminous memory is not meant to be lived by understanding. Knowledge survives only when it cuts through the lies inside us. The moment it turns into a legacy, a slogan, a custom or a cultural tradition, it stops liberating and starts protecting our weaknesses.”
A living legacy, he said, must show itself in conduct, honesty in public life, safety for women, schools that teach genuine inquiry and courts that deliver justice. “Otherwise, what we call heritage is merely an excuse,” he remarked.
Acharya Prashant concluded that the transformation of Bihar must start from within. “Every external change begins with internal change. If you do not first reform the voters within, the system outside will continue to repeat its old patterns.”
He called upon the citizens to view the upcoming elections as a responsibility of awareness. “Bihar will rise the day its citizens stop voting to be happy and start voting to be informed. The real election is not between parties; it is between clarity and confusion, between light and darkness, between awakening and indifference.”
–IANS
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