The Indian Parliamentary and state elections for the majority of the states are just around the corner. Santa Claus has come early in the garb of the political parties. They are all trying to out do themselves in terms of offering freebies whether it is in the form of subsidized cooking gas or waiver of outstanding dues or free lap tops or the I Pad copy cats.
As mentioned in my last blog, the BJP fired the opening salvo in gunning for the Congress party by accusing the Chief Minister of being corrupt. Rahul Gandhi in the meantime is going around the non-Congress states accusing their administration of siphoning funds allocated by the Center for welfare programmes. The enfant terrible of Indian politics the Aam Admi Party in its desire to outdo the establishment and to prove that it is serious about rooting out corruption, filed a First Information Report ( charge ) at the local police station in Delhi accusing the Oil Minister, some of the bureaucrats from the oil ministry and to top it all against one of the most prominent business tycoon Mukesh Ambani the Chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd.
The English twenty four hour news channels in the meantime breathlessly report " breaking news" every hour and starting around 7 pm, all have panel discussions. The panels consisting of representatives from the various political parties plus others are harangued by the moderators who act as the prosecutor, the judge and the jury in making charges and trying to get the parties on the defensive. While accusations are hurled at all the parties, most of the time it is the Congress party representative who is put on the defensive trying to defend the comments made by Rahul Gandhi or one of the party leaders or why its own party members are trying to stop the Parliament from functioning. While some of the members try to brazen out by totally side stepping the issues, the others take on a self righteousness or condescending tone or being obnoxiously rude as was the case of the one of the former Congress minister. Invariably it all ends up in a shouting match with every body trying to out shout the other and brings the discussion to an end.
The two major pan-Indian political coalition parties are the ruling United Progressive Alliance dominated by the Congress party and the Bharitiya Janata Pary led National Democratic Alliance. The Aam Admi has ambitions and is planning to be nominate candidates from most major states. This will differentiate them from the regional or state parties such as the Akali Dal, or the Samajawadi parties. Whether they succeed in doing so will be seen in a few months time.
Since this is being seen as a Rahul Gandhi led Congress campaign this time, it will be interesting to see what happens within the party if it does not perform well.This is increasingly becoming a personal election between Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi and the new kid on the block - Arvind Kejriwal nipping at their heels lobbying grenades or perhaps more appropriately stink bombs at the others and shouting if he does not get his way . From appearances it Congress after being in the saddle is increasingly running a defensive campaign with its main target being Narendra Modi personally rather than the BJP. Aam Admi's Kejriwal appears to be a firm believer in the maxim "there is no such thing as bad publicity" is in the news daily with some outrageous charge or accusation or complaint against the Central government. Narendra Modi in the meantime appears to be running a well organized juggernaut criss-crossing the countries hurling accusation against the Gandhi family , the Congress and the regional parties. The Aam Admi Party is not worthy of his attention and is totally disregarded.
The Greatest Show on Earth as the Indian elections are often referred to is going to be on for the next few months. The fun, action and drama has just started. Stay glued to your seats.
As mentioned in my last blog, the BJP fired the opening salvo in gunning for the Congress party by accusing the Chief Minister of being corrupt. Rahul Gandhi in the meantime is going around the non-Congress states accusing their administration of siphoning funds allocated by the Center for welfare programmes. The enfant terrible of Indian politics the Aam Admi Party in its desire to outdo the establishment and to prove that it is serious about rooting out corruption, filed a First Information Report ( charge ) at the local police station in Delhi accusing the Oil Minister, some of the bureaucrats from the oil ministry and to top it all against one of the most prominent business tycoon Mukesh Ambani the Chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd.
The English twenty four hour news channels in the meantime breathlessly report " breaking news" every hour and starting around 7 pm, all have panel discussions. The panels consisting of representatives from the various political parties plus others are harangued by the moderators who act as the prosecutor, the judge and the jury in making charges and trying to get the parties on the defensive. While accusations are hurled at all the parties, most of the time it is the Congress party representative who is put on the defensive trying to defend the comments made by Rahul Gandhi or one of the party leaders or why its own party members are trying to stop the Parliament from functioning. While some of the members try to brazen out by totally side stepping the issues, the others take on a self righteousness or condescending tone or being obnoxiously rude as was the case of the one of the former Congress minister. Invariably it all ends up in a shouting match with every body trying to out shout the other and brings the discussion to an end.
The two major pan-Indian political coalition parties are the ruling United Progressive Alliance dominated by the Congress party and the Bharitiya Janata Pary led National Democratic Alliance. The Aam Admi has ambitions and is planning to be nominate candidates from most major states. This will differentiate them from the regional or state parties such as the Akali Dal, or the Samajawadi parties. Whether they succeed in doing so will be seen in a few months time.
Since this is being seen as a Rahul Gandhi led Congress campaign this time, it will be interesting to see what happens within the party if it does not perform well.This is increasingly becoming a personal election between Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi and the new kid on the block - Arvind Kejriwal nipping at their heels lobbying grenades or perhaps more appropriately stink bombs at the others and shouting if he does not get his way . From appearances it Congress after being in the saddle is increasingly running a defensive campaign with its main target being Narendra Modi personally rather than the BJP. Aam Admi's Kejriwal appears to be a firm believer in the maxim "there is no such thing as bad publicity" is in the news daily with some outrageous charge or accusation or complaint against the Central government. Narendra Modi in the meantime appears to be running a well organized juggernaut criss-crossing the countries hurling accusation against the Gandhi family , the Congress and the regional parties. The Aam Admi Party is not worthy of his attention and is totally disregarded.
The Greatest Show on Earth as the Indian elections are often referred to is going to be on for the next few months. The fun, action and drama has just started. Stay glued to your seats.
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