Can we agree to disagree?

We ensure 100% of children are enrolled for primary and secondary education in Kerala. As per the ASER 2020 report, all children up to 14 years are enrolled in schools. What are we teaching them? How can they be politically motivated to kill others? Why are they not able to disagree and still agree to coexist?

Political killings are not new in Kerala. Haven’t our society progressed or developed enough to keep our children away from political violence?

Let us look at our political leaders. The Association of Democratic Reforms published criminal, financial and educational details of candidates in the recent Kerala Assembly Elections 2021.

• It finds that 355 of the 928 candidates have criminal cases against them. A 10% increase from 2016!

• 167 candidates (18%) have serious criminal cases (murder, dacoity, sexual assault etc) pending against them. The same number in 2016 was 138 candidates (12%). A 21% increase! 22 candidates face murder or attempt to murder cases!

• 54% of Congress candidates, 36% of BJP candidates and 26% of CPI (M) candidates face serious criminal cases against them.

Criminal cases seem to be a requirement to become an election candidate. 29% of our Members of Parliament (Lok Sabha) have serious criminal cases against them.

Considering the way our politics, police, courts and institutions work, many of these cases could be baseless and motivated. But that cannot be an excuse. We shall not encourage a society where we have criminals as our leaders. Legislators with criminal records would not bring any legislation that restricts their candidature. They will only breed more criminals into politics. We can probably reject them during elections.

But how do we prepare a society that can agree to disagree, at the least, not to kill another with a different religion or politics? That has to start from our homes.

Knowingly or unknowingly, we tend to pass our politics to our children. It is not just politics, also our views on other castes and religions. This would then get ingrained in our children.

We raise our children not as a human with independent thoughts but as someone who is in alignment with our own world view.

People of X religion are terrorists.

People of Y caste are inferior/superior to us.

People of Z religion eat non-veg.

People of X religion are intelligent.

ABC religion is the only right religion in the world.

Y political party is corrupt.

Z party is for X religion.

It goes on and on…

Most of the time, we find schools with similar thinking for our children. The school hardens these notions. Children would then tend to look at the world around them from our beliefs.

Primarily, it is the responsibility of a parent to raise a child who can accept a difference of opinion. We should guide them to explore the world. We should be careful not to pass our beliefs blindly to them. We should be able to let our children know our beliefs as just beliefs, not the ultimate truth.

The religion that we follow is our own belief, not necessarily our own choice.

The politics that we follow are our own belief, not necessarily the best choice.

There are many people in the world who follow other religions and politics. They are not bad just because their beliefs are in conflict with ours. Our children should engage them to know the world better.

We can start from there. What do you think?