In India, people had been given the right to vote, and they lined up and did just that, when they were asked to. Did it make any difference? People were told democracy meant they ruled, and they were very happy about it. But they thought that was all there was to it. That being in a democracy just meant lining up and voting. That citizens of a democracy had rights, duties and responsibilities, that being in a democracy meant more than just voting in elections, was not something most people thought of.

Ghosh had realised, after travelling around the country, that people had a different idea about what a ‘majority’ was. In elections, people voted for whoever was from their caste, or religion, or even language. People thought a majority, in a democracy, was a group based on who they were born as, not what ideas they believed in, or what work the candidate could do. And Ghosh had also realised that people thought voting in elections was the end of their responsibilities as citizens. Actually, that was where a citizen’s responsibilities started.

But Ghosh had read about the people who had written the Constitution, and he knew they had been thinking of something completely different. A vote was supposed to stand for some ideas, or principles that the voter agreed to. But in India, it had come to stand for the identity of a person based on who the person was born to, or what gods he was supposed to believe in.

For Ghosh, this was wonderful. It meant an election would not result in the best person, or the smartest person, or the more qualified person coming to power. It only meant whoever ate exactly what most of the people in his area ate, or a person with the same surname as most other people in the area, would win. So it meant the companies who paid Ghosh so much money only had to be friends with whoever was in power, and the people who were usually elected were not the right kind of people. For the country, that is. They were very suitable for the companies, and people like Ghosh. Very useful. And it was so easy to be in power …

‘Anyway, this only pushes things back a little, you know,’ said Ghosh.

Patnaik looked at Ghosh, and as always, wasn’t sure if he was expected to reply or the strange bearded fellow was just talking to himself. Patnaik still wasn’t sure if he should be calling Ghosh ‘sir’. With all that power, he thought he should be. But Ghosh wasn’t in the government, and Patnaik just couldn’t call anybody ‘sir’, unless it was a politician. And yet this Ghosh was clearly more cunning than twenty politicians from Bhubaneshwar.