Introspection has caught me. Week after week, I criticise our leaders. Is this right? After all, they are in power because they have the support of a majority of citizens. If I dislike them, it means I am in a minority. In the democracy that is India, the minority must yield to the majority. That is, I must swallow my minority view and submit to the majority view.
But minority opinions also must have their place in the sun. That is why I feel good about Anandavalli, a sweeper who became president of the block panchayat in Pathanapuram, Kerala. Her official designation was “casual sweeper”. When a casual sweeper became president, local bureaucrats had difficulty accepting her. It didn’t take them long to realise that their stand was untenable and that Sweeper Anandavalli becoming President Anandavalli was a fact of life they simply had to accept.