Ashwin Upadhyaya’s Blog

Today, I was at a public meeting for protecting 137 trees from being cut: http://www.sapgreen.com/2009/137-trees-saved-in-mysore

Some things I learnt from the proceedings:

• Loudness works only to a particular level. People who are loud also tend to lose their patience pretty  soon. Slowly, they lose attention and interest. The ones who wait with patience and the ones with real issues to talk always get a hearing in a democratic system.
• You can’t make an illogical man understand your point with reasoning. However, the same man will agree with you provided he doesn’t have enough people to back him.
• On the other hand, if a logical man has a particular point and he knows that he is right, he becomes stronger if he faces more opposition.
• Politicians typically try to please an audience. One of them who was present at the meeting today was initially of the view that trees should be cut. Later she understood that she didn’t have support  and immediately switched sides. We should know to make use of this behaviour of politicians.
• Democracy has its flaws. People with vested interests make use of goons to fake citizen representation so that their agenda succeeds. The only way to counter this is by more citizen representation. Concerned citizens always outnumber those with vested interests. If more such citizens participate in public issues, democracy succeeds.

I know, I have not been able to convey everything that I experienced there. I think it cannot be conveyed by writing. You should attend one of these public meetings to know how it feels.