It is poll time once more in our State. The electorates are perplexed by the choices before them. To whom they have to cast their votes? There is the same set of politicians to whom fingers of accusation were raised for their poor record in governance and a string of corruption cases against their name.

Our society is still illiterate, politically. The reason for putting this statement is because people of our state seem to forget everything at the time of election. Our electors are not suave, sharp and wise enough to choose the right man for the moment. At the time of election it will be must to engage the candidates in a debate on wide range of issues, mainly to assess the candidate's understanding of his own roles and responsibilities as a representative of the people. But we do not have such populace at present. So election time is nothing short of festival. People will vote in the election for 1000 or 500 rupee note and not for repeal of AFSPA or integrity or good governance or any other important issues. The result will be the same again. Out of the 60 elected representative at least 31 will be grouped to form the Government and their decision will be the decision of the people based on majority vote.

History tells us that it is not the vast majority of the people living in forest and remote areas but the small group of people living in cities of some particular countries and states who attained a high degree of civilization. Men with reason and knowledge were fewer and surrounded by uncivilized barbarians. Though these small groups of people attained a high degree of civilization the majority barbarians swelled their civilization. So any right decision and action taken by these small groups of wise and knowledgeable people were scattered to the winds. Over and over again in history, civilized people living in civilized society cannot flourish because there were barbarians in majority.

Even in this 21st century, which we call 'Space Age' or 'Computer Age' the majority of our race is not wise enough to make the right decision of their own. Today, still, the world is full of knaves and fools. At the same time the wise and honest are still rare, shinning and in demand. So the experiment, observation and inference of many wise men often lead to their graves. The right and good decision of wise and honest become a cry in the wilderness.

Galileo whom the present generation calls 'Father of Astronomy' had seen with his own telescope the real of solar system and made his observation that the sun is fixed and round it the planets including our earth are revolving in a fixed orbit. What had happened at that time. The church, the priest of his country revolted against his new scientific invention because it offended and contradicted their belief and their thinking. It hurt the thinking of the majority of the people blinded by superstition.

So, the priests, who were in majority insisted the king to force Galileo to withdraw his statement about solar system lest he would be put to the guillotine. Unwillingly for his life, Galileo had to withdraw his statement and declared that all that he had seen and said were wrong and the sun really revolves round the earth. As late as the last decade of the 20 century, the church and the pope had to apologize and bow down to Galileo and had to admit that what Galileo had seen in the 15th century was right and the church was wrong.

In the governance of a State, in a democratic system, it is often criticised that democracy is not always the best form of Government specially in the multi-party system. This is due to the fact that a candidate can win an election from a constituency with the help of minority votes while the majority votes against him are scattered among other candidates. Parliamentary democracy therefore has its drawbacks. An MLA or MP is elected but is not a representative of his people. What he says in the Assembly or Parliament are mostly his own views aimed at serving his own interest.

To these blase politicians the two supreme abominations are either to get or to loose votes in his favour in his constituency. It follows therefore, that the interest of the rulers very often run contrary to people's wishes, needs and aspiration. Such set of people or such elected representatives if it forms a majority and rules the country, then their decision will not be a right decision. So all we can say is that majority is not always right. Democracy if it is to survive, must produce the uncommon man who understands and serves the common man.