Why I Voted for NOTA

I have gone and voted for NOTA (None of the Above). Why, you may ask. I am guided by political philosophy.

Political philosophy had its beginnings with Plato. In his book The Republic, Plato laid out an almost utopian ideal of how a society should be and function. Above all, he saw the end goal as Justice. Who can disagree with that? Every liberal and conservative wants justice to prevail, only their conceptions of justice differ.

The ideal polis (the Greek city) he called Kallipolis (Beautiful City), in which he said the population could be divided into three classes – the guardians, auxiliaries, and producers – based on what characteristic was dominant in them.

This classification is based on Plato’s conception of the human soul (psyche, if you will) as being tripartite – Reason, Spirit, and Appetite. Reason tracks truth and is the source of all nobler desires. In the just man, the soul is ruled by reason.  Spirit is the source of our desires for honour and victory. In a just soul, the spirit sees to it that the appetites adhere to the commands of reason. Appetite is the seat of our desires for food, drink, sex, and other pleasures. It contains necessary, unnecessary, and unlawful desires. Plato dubbed appetite as “money-loving,” since money is essential for satisfying most of the desires. In a just man, the appetite is strictly regulated by reason and spirit.

Reason was dominant in the guardians, spirit in auxiliaries, and appetite in producers. Hence, the guardians are responsible for ruling the city. The auxiliaries are the warriors against external threats and peacekeepers ensuring that the producers obey the rulers’ commands. The producing class is the largest class that includes all professions other than warriors and rulers.

One, especially we Indians, may smell a caste system of sorts in this classification or stratification, which is no doubt hierarchical, but people were to get sorted into these classes based on merit in education and character, and not through the arbitrary lottery of birth.

Now, it becomes clear as to why guardians are rulers in the first place because it stands to reason that reason should be lord over honour and appetites for a harmonious and peaceful existence. In fact, even in the producers, appetites are not to be given unbridled license but are to be governed by reason. Thus, when reason is in charge at the individual and societal level, justice prevails.

Hence, Plato held that only when kings are philosophers and philosophers are kings will the state be in safe hands, hence his advocacy for philosopher-kings. Only in philosophers is reason predominant. Of course, in the modern sense, we could say those in whom reason is predominant are those highly educated or otherwise morally upright with a fine sensibility for what is right and wrong. By education, I do not mean merely the technical and professional kind, but more one conforming to the liberal arts or any other discipline that develops one’s thinking and social and political imagination, whereby one can be sure of reason becoming predominant in oneself.

Let us see what ails the Indian polity now. Our politicians are not philosophers because almost all of them are not educated in the right manner, nor is their moral conscience awakened by other means, so reason is not the predominant virtue in them and so they do not pursue Dharma in the discharge of their duties as politicians. Not only do they not pursue Dharma by being guided by reason, but they are also excessively enamoured of Artha and Kama, which proves to be disastrous for the Indian polity because they resort to their acquisition and enjoyment by any means necessary, Dharma be damned.

Being uneducated, morally depraved, bordering on the criminal and often being criminal, and hence being pursuing Artha and Kama through adharmic means, both so-called liberals and conservatives can neither understand the philosophies of liberalism and conservatism correctly nor can they put them into practice faithfully. So, until our politicians are philosophers and philosophers are willing to take up the profession of politics, the mess we are in today will continue indefinitely into the future.

To compound matters, given the state of elections in India, which has been the case almost since the beginning of Independence, where money and muscle speak, no “philosopher” will be inclined to enter the field of politics, and those that do, end up not rising up in the party hierarchy, let alone win the elections, given their lack of command over money and muscle.

In such a scenario, what does it matter whether you are a liberal or conservative in politics or professional and personal lives? Both liberals and conservatives are now devoid of reason, are not philosophers, and so let us learn to look beyond the dichotomy of liberals and conservatives to bring about a resurgent India.

Hence, I voted for NOTA because I do not approve of any current political parties nor the candidates they have put up. Why we have to choose the lesser of the two evils? Why not we have the choice to vote for the best of the good? At the same time, I blame the voters not the politicians. If we were not corrupt, then the political parties will be forced to be honest in their manifestos and the candidates they put up.

If NOTA had the majority on all ballots, I am sure it would make the whole country and the political parties rethink their strategies. Agreed that even if NOTA is the majority, the next candidate with highest votes, will win, and so you may ask how will things change then?

When NOTA gets the majority in all the constituencies, it would get debated across the country as to why NOTA got the majority, which means there will be an opportunity for a new political party to fill that vacuum with a radically different manifesto. Will my one vote or that of a handful of individuals for NOTA make any difference? Well, it will be a beginning and the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.