A good example.

The largest democracy in the world recently held its elections. It was a grand affair. The outcome of the Indian election, in my view, was nothing less than surprising. Most political analysts and magazines had predicted a hung parliament.

Although it was obvious that the Bhartiya Janta Party would have clear advantage over the Indian National Congress and even the so called Mahagathbandhan, but to have expected such a clean sweep would have been unrealistic. Especially if failed policy decisions like demonetisation and the multi tiered GST and the great emphasis on possible corruption and crony capitalism like Rafael deal would be taken into account. Rising unemployment was also meant to make a difference in the vote share of BJP.

But the most unpredictable thing of all is the human minds perhaps. And democracy by all means depends on that very human thought process.

Now isn’t the time to point fingers and to have the debate of whether bringing back BJP was a correct decision or not. Because if that debate is held the first question I would ask would be, “Why BJP again?”

In my view, all BJP delivered to India in terms of “facts and figures’ ‘ is a truly historic charismatic leader. But is charisma all you need to be suitable and good? I don’t think so. Hitler was both a leader and no less charismatic, but was he what Germany needed? I don’t think so. But then WHY? The answer to that cannot be given simply. But with an example it might become easier and make more sense. This shall explain the mindset and thought process of any voter in any democracy around the world.

A social experiment was held in which a third grader was taken to a restaurant. He was told to order a meal. But it could only be either a cake or a salad. The child, very predictably and undoubtedly, picked out the cake. But why? Salad is healthier and is definitely required for a growing child. Despite the benefits of the salad the taste of the cake always seems to win the game, even for adults.

In my view, this is exactly what happened even during the elections. The Indian voters picked out what looked and sounded good, compared to what they much more needed to become a better nation. And no, not just talks about how India is already a better nation by bias media but actually a better nation from within, with supporting unbiased facts and figures.

It is extremely hard to change the mentality of choosing the healthier over the tastier, and choosing the more suitable over the more charismatic.

But there is another thing common between picking out tasty but unhealthy food and choosing a charismatic yet not suitable leader. That thing is that in both the cases, the person himself has to suffer the consequences. Be it the unhealthy person or the voter.

To change this consequence only one thing is required: make the salad tastier. Hopefully that’ll serve the purpose and the opposition will be adamant on not only making themselves more suitable but also more charismatic for the upcoming state polls and the future national elections.