I am an artist and I know nothing about politics. As far as my understanding of things goes, democracy by definition is of the people; it is about the voices of the masses. Truth be told, these voices are not being heard by the government of this country. Most people running our country are corrupt and have their own ulterior motives in joining politics. It won’t be incorrect to say, after seeing the number of scams that have happened in the past few years, that the common man has lost respect for politicians and has become confused about the future of the country. Everything is money-driven; ethics and values are mere words. When I think about the one particular sector that has shown progress in the past year, I can only think of ‘Money’ (to sum it up in one word). Commerce hasn’t suffered too much from the vagaries of fortune. On a completely different note, I thought Anna Hazare—before he went haywire—did show some spark and promise. We are a nation of billions, and we need to focus on all sectors equally, be they healthcare, education, law or the arts. But most important of them all is education, which is rooted to our country and its ethos. The second important area of focus should be conservation of nature and water. All this is achievable only if we have leaders who are honest, clean, committed and concerned about the people. When I think about the millions of scams this country has been witnessing I feel let down as a citizen. There was another personal tragedy where the artist in me felt let down. On the 1st of March, 2012, my steel sculpture was broken down in Bhilai, Chattisgarh, without my consent. Such an act is unacceptable. But if there were dark days, there were also celebratory moments. I felt really proud and happy when our sportspeople won medals in the London Olympics. Those were perhaps the best moments of the year.