For the first time in my life I voted yesterday.Contrary to what I had expected, it was totally painless and took less than ten minutes Since this is the first election in which I am participating, I have been watching the process with keen interest. The results are expected in mid-May.
Since late last year we have all been inundated with news, advertisements , emails sms, about the various parties and candidates. There have been accusations, charges, innuendos, scandals galore.All parties are making different pitches to differentiate themselves.
The grand old party as Congress is often referred to, appears to be a cross road. To paraphrase a line from Twelve Night , the reluctant heir having " greatness thrust upon him " is manfully rolling up his sleeves and making a go at it. You get the feeling that he would rather be partying at the night clubs at Ibiza where they are supposed to be playing Bollywood music. For the viewer listening to his speeches, it is confusing to hear him saying that "we have to start empowering women, we have to start cleaning up corruption" etc. While we realize that he might be living in a bubble, is he in a time wrap ? Congress has been ruling for ten years. As we saw from the Lokpal Bill incident, all he had to do was to come out publicly in support and like Moses parted the opposing members in his party and the bill presented to the Parliament within days.The sycophants who had earlier opposed the bill, changed their colors faster than a chameleon. So why did he not do the same for corruption and women empowerment earlier on ?
The Congress party talks about cleaning up corruption, but due to political expediency does not hesitate to nominate candidates with spotty records. It talks about communalism and their leader has acknowledged that there were Congress party members participated in the killing of the Sikhs in Delhi and these people are still regarded as senior leaders and given important assignments in the party.
Based on their priorities and public actions of of senior Congress leaders, their game plan appears to be to open the money taps in the form of subsidies, and promise jobs by reserving quota's.In the process reputable established institutions are being destroyed by the induction of candidates who are not qualified but who are selected based on their religion or caste.They continue to wave the secularization flag as if only the Congress has the patent rights to it.
In anticipation of being able to garner the votes of the party pushing for the creation of the Telegana state, the government pushed through the bifurcation of the state of Andhra Pradesh. Unfortunately the Telegana party turned out to be an Indian giver ( pun intended ) by taking back its commitment.Most of its alliance partners have started walking away from them, except for those who have no choice as they are not large enough to be effective or who cannot find other partners.
Across the street, the main opposition party BJP is going through a churn . It is being usurped by the Gujarat Chief Minister. Its advertisements do not talk about the Bharatiya Janata Partty government, but the Modi government. The candidate says you are voting for me as if he is the personal candidate from all the constituencies across India.
Unfortunately BJP and the candidate himself cannot seem to get rid
of the impression that it is communal and does not regard all
communities to be equal. While there some in the Muslim community who
are willing to give Modi a chance, a large segment still holds him
personally responsible for the Gujarat riots during which a large number of Muslims were killed.
Similar to Rahul Gandhi who is trying to remake the Congress , Modi is in the process of shaking up the BJP, but more effectively and with a iron fist . As is often reported in the media, he is shaking up the Delhi club if not destroying it. The so called Delhi club consists of Delhi based politicians a lot of whom come from a certain class.There are certain unofficial rules such as you will not go after the children or other family members. While on television and the newspaper they vociferously criticize each other, in the evenings they socialize together and exchange gossip and favours. They all know where the bodies are buried in the opposition camp, but follow the protocol unless it is totally out of line.
Na Mo as Narendra Modi is often referred to, is changing this. He is not running the campaign out of the Delhi .He is not hesitant about mocking Rahul Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi. The latter on the other hand gives as good as she gets, accusing Modi of sowing seeds of communal unrest, but using a deadly term by referring to it as the sowing of poisonous seeds. Na Mo is in the process of sidelining the old guard of the BJP who in spite of being their late seventies and eighties refuse to go gracefully. At present the force (and Rashtirya Swayamsevak Sangh) are with Modi and the old timers are stepping or being pushed aside.As in the case of Congress the BJP talks about getting rid of corruption as one of their top priorities , yet do not hesitate to partner with regional parties with tainted reputations.
Corporate India appears to be solidly behind Modi. They believe that he will remove the obstacles and get the economy moving.The general consensus appears to be that based on its track record, the Modi government (rather than the BJP government) will focus on the infrastructure ( roads, power,ports, rails etc), remove roadblocks in terms of approvals and put the economy back on the fast track. Congress however questions the actual growth and economic development to which Modi lays claim.
Modi's ability to operate will be dependent on the number of seats the BJP wins under its own banner rather the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) - a grouping of the smaller regional parties. If their numbers are strong, the concern is that Modi will steam roll and be it will be my way or the high way.
The other party which burst on to the political scene like a firecracker, the Aam Admi Party ( AAP) initially caught everyone's imagination. Its focus on austerity, good governance and removing corruption resonated with the working and the middle class. They effectively decimated the Congress in the Delhi state elections.
After swearing on his children's heads that he would not team up with any other party, he accepted "outside"support from the Congress. However after forty nine days with one incident after another, he resigned. While he argued that it was a matter of principle, it is widely perceived that it was an admission that he was not able to govern. While he initially had a huge amount of goodwill among the working class and the middle class he appears to have dissipated a lot of it, at least among the middle class.
Unlike Congress and the BJP, not having a large campaign war chest for advertising, he kept lobbying political hand grenades and running a guerrilla campaign by making charges and claims against prominent business figures or politicians, which got him the attention in the media without paying for it. However of late,because of his insistence of not wanting personal security, he has had his face blackened, eggs thrown at him and slapped a few times. This certainly gets him the media attention but probably not the kind he had been hoping for.
Then you have the others - the Third, Fourth or Five Front .A grouping of the regional parties from various states such as Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Odisha, where individually and combined they control a large number of seats.In the case of either BJP or Congress not getting a majority,emerge as king makers. However most of them have made no secret of their desire to become Prime Minister. So for the sake of the country one hopes that one of the above two makes a strong showing. According to the pollsters and bookies it is likely to be a Modi government, however two elections previously when India was supposedly shining under the BJP government, the people surprised them and voted in the Congress.
No matter what the results are , it will be interesting to speculate as to what will happen to the major players.
If Congress does not make a strong showing, what will happen to Rahul Gandhi since this is supposed to be his campaign ? Probably nothing , although clamor has started for his sister Priyanka to play a more prominent role. The main issue for the Congress is that it is the Gandhi family is the glue which holds the party together. Without them the party will disintegrate. There is no other central figure. So expect to see a Gandhi at the helm of the party for the foreseeable future.
If BJP does not get a significant number of seats to be able to form a government ( with a little help from their friends),will that be the end of Modi's political career ? Difficult to say. He has come a long way and now has a strong grip over the party. However if he does not deliver, there will attempts to dislodge him.
If Kejriwal's party is unable to get more then five to ten seats, Aam Admi will be considered a shooting star which flamed out, which will be a shame. The masses had great expectation but as it happens so often Kejriwal overdosed on the power aphrodisiac. He should have heeded the words of the American Archbishop Fulton J.Sheen
"Patience is power.
Patience is not an absence of action;
rather it is "timing"
it waits on the right time to act,
for the right principles
and in the right way"
If he had the patience he could have changed the political land scape of the country. What a pity that he was in too much of a hurry.
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India never ceases to amaze, while most of the time it is on the negative side there are times when you shake your head and say, if we can do this why is the country not doing better ?
The Election Commission has a gigantic task of organizing the election across the length and breath of the nation. It needs to have the infrastructure in place to enable the eligible 814 million to vote.Apparently the Elections Commission has to ensure that no voter has to walk more than 1.5 kilometers from his door step to vote.This places a huge burden on the logistics especially areas where there are no proper roads.
Speaking of my own experience everything worked like a well-oiled machine. About two years ago people came to our residential complex to register those who had not done so ( my wife and myself ). Starting a few months ago, you could log on their website , punch in your voting card number to determine the location of your polling both. The website is well designed and unlike other Government websites we had no problem at all trying to locate the necessary information. A few months ago the representatives from the Commission visited the complex again and you could ensure that you were registered and all the information details were correct. About two weeks, we received our elections slips which showed the location of the booths where we had to go.
In our enthusiasm we showed up at around 8:30 am . The voting slips were checked, we were required to sign a register, our left forefinger was marked with a indelible ink. We cast our vote and were out of the polling station in less than ten minutes from the time we arrived.
Like the Kumbh mela we organize these most complex logistical problems, and yet we cannot maintain our roads, keep our drains clean , improve our traffic flow. The only conclusion you have to come to is that the individuals ( bureaucrats, politicians ) driven by corruption ensure that things do not work smoothly to line their pockets.
I hope and pray that the new government ( regardless whether it is BJP, Congress, AAP or the Third Front ) surprises us and ensures that things work. I look forward to that day.
