In a democratic system, there always has to be an opposition party and a leader of opposition wherein the members of the opposition keep a vigilant eye on the policies and day-to-day functioning of the government and try to find out shortcomings, discrepancies or defects in the policies and performance of the ministers or the departments under them. In a way it is the duty of the opposition to find faults and criticise the ruling regime by all possible means. This is why Democracy is generally lauded for these functions of the Opposition as these are considered as its plus points. But, not many of us realise a fact that however good these democratic values of eternal vigilance, criticism, and readiness to put hands on the levers of power might be, one hardly needs to emphasise that these have their roots in the dark traits of rivalry, group-selfishness, lust-for power and fault-finding. So, even if the fruits of vigilance, criticism and constant chase of the rival look attractive at first, the habit of finding the shortcomings of others and speaking always negative of them in one's public speeches and writings, leads to the devaluation of the person who practises these negative values as a state-of-the art. Further, the media which articulates and, in the process, accentuates these, knowingly or unknowingly creates an environment of rivalry, non-co-operation, narrow mindedness, group-interests, unfriendly criticism, etc. among members of the civil society, as a result of which, the whole social and economic climate becomes negative.
Recently at the launch of an international project called Global Co-operation for a Better World various leaders from all over the world were invited for a healthy debate on the subject. During debate most of the leaders extended their full support and co-operation for the project in their respective countries. Towards the end when the moderator proposed the following that - “In keeping with the spirit of this world-wide project of co-operation in which more than a hundred countries are participating, We wish to propose it to all concerned countries that, an ‘Opposition Leader', hence onwards, be called a 'Co-operation Leader.” After hearing this proposal there was laughter everywhere. Because, most of the country heads said that if this proposal is accepted by our country, then ‘We will all lose our Job’s’. This clearly shows that the system of governance everywhere will continue to have these negative values and would, therefore, have the negative results, which these values give birth to. But let us hope that a really brave and wise leader would come up on the scene one day and will catalyse a change in these values and in the system based on these.
The writer is a spiritual educator and popular columnist for publications across India, Nepal and the UK, and has written more than 8,000 columns. He can be contacted at nikunjji@gmail.com / www.brahmakumaris.com
