It was heartening that the people of India gave a desisive verdict this time round. I was preparing myself for life under a BJP government of Mr Advani who would start construction of the Rama Temple at ayodhya, re-introduce POTA and enable Mr Modi to act like the heir apparent.in the worst case scenario we would have Mayawati as the PM leading a motley crew of Mulayams and Lalus and Paswans each trying to out do the other is making an as of himself/herself. Prakash Karat tried too late to prop up a non-Cong, non-BJP front. the man had started goofing up from the time that the Cpm started giving ultimatums to the Manmohan singh Govt regarding the nuclear deal. The left still uses the rhetoric of an imperialist conspiracy which was in vogue in the 19th century- even russia and China have given up such fears and have shown more faith in their sovereignty than our CPM. Only the other day the routine meeting of the Obama envoy with political leaders was said to be a part of the 'conspiracy' of imperialism to hijack our democracy and under mine our sovereignty....and when you see earnest fellows like Sitaram Yechury mouthing such bull shit then you start thinking whether the CPM will ever bury Marx's ghost and move on...Thereafter, like a spoilt child, reacting after its constant alarmist pleas to drop the deal with the US, it withdrew its support from the govt and vindictively expelled Somnath Chatterji who refused to step down showing more loyalty to the country's parliament than to this Party. Then again Karat's last ditch effort to lead a third front...did not stop him from contacting Ms 'silver throne' Jayalalitha who could not decide whether she was for or against the LTTE. The failure of the left to topple the UPA govt should have sown the seeds of doubt in their minds regarding their performance in these elections coupled with that the failure of the WB govt to deal with the Nandigram and Nano factory problem sealed their fate. Frankly, I feel for the left...I think the socialist ideology has an element of fairness in it. in essence it is humanist and looks to the welfare of the greatest number. However, rigidity in any ideology marks its inevitable down fall.
I can understand Rahul's appeal, he appears to be sincere in spite of his political naivete, far removed from the thrashing, bashing, power hungry melee.However I do detest the sycophants in the Cong party..." Of course Rahulbaba should be PM right now", " Rahul Baba will surely become PM one day", "rahul baba will decide when he will be PM", " The win was solely due to Rahul baba's strategy of ditching Mulayam in UP", "Rahul baba inspired the youth to vote for the Cong" only the "baba" was missing clearly the loyalists had started licking feet! However they forgot another not so young man ( Well Rahul will also be 40 next year...is that young?) Mr singh who showed tremendous amount of quiet fortitude, under attack from the Advani brigade he addressed all problems with a silent calm and resolve. I think this vote was also in favour of Manmohan Singh, if the cong had not stood firm in projecting him as PM, they would not have made a clean sweep. seriously, would you have voted for Cong if Rahul was projected as next PM?
Ah well, all's well that ends well. However my one regret is that out of all states Karnataka had to be swept by the BJP. Yeddy must have done something right! But here's a warning for Yedds...beware Sir, if you give free reign to the Rama Senes and the church desicraters then you too might be shown the door.don't ever forget that one cannot survive on culture which in any case is an ever changing notion the people still want what this country has still, after 60 years been unable to provide for them, roti, kapda aur makaan!
5 comments:
Manmohan was one of the most ineffective PMs we had. He spent five years in office more or less doing nothing. If anything was achieved, it was because of the circumstances around the rather than anything that the government actually did. I was hoping for some change. I'm not too convinced about Advani, but I also didn't see why Manmohan should be given another chance.
Don't get me wrong, Manmohan is honest and smart, and I respect him greatly. But he simply does not have the political weight to be the leader that India needs.
Here's how I see Yeddy's rule. For the last 5 years, I've lived in Konankunte. All the MLAs who campaigned promised us tar roads. We only got it after Yeddy became CM. I'm told by some friends in the know that the Congress did its best to sabotage Yeddy's govt. Some power which Karnataka was supposed to buy from Orissa was diverted to Andhra. I also didn't like it when Rahul Gandhi came to B'lore and said "We've given your government the money, but they're not using it." Who is we? You're not even a goddamn minister, so what right do you have to say "we gave the money." This presumption of importance is very annoying. So, I'm somewhat happy that the BJP did well in Karnataka, because the alternatives are the Gowdas or Dharam Singh and co. Both of whom are MUCH worse. If Krishna were in the running, I'd vote for him. But they've shunted him out and marginalized his supporters.
About Modi, I think he'd make a good PM. See, I know Modi did some bad things during the riots. I don't think he actively supported them, that sounds like pseudo-secularist propaganda to me. But he probably did not actively discourage it. At the time the Godhra incident happened I was in college. The day after Godhra, when the train burning was in the newspapers but the riots were not in full swing yet, I went to college. A (Hindu) Gujarati friend of mine to me, "You see what will happen now. We'll teach them a lesson." I was naive and thought he was bluffing, but I was wrong. I've now come to realize that this sort of sentiment is all too prevalent in Gujarat.
See, the riots killed a few thousand people and destroyed maybe twenty thousand lives. This is wrong, there is no justifying it. But at the same time bad governance destroys millions of lives every year. And these lives are destroyed in an insidious manner. For instance, continuous electricity for 8 hours a day in a village vs. 1 hour a day (which is the situation in several states today) could be the difference between 200 hundred children going to school or working in the fields with their parents. If add up a lot of little things like this, the number of people who never get a chance to live a decent life is staggering. So if you ask me to choose between Modi, whose is definitely no secular, but a very good administrator and somebody else who is not a very good administrator but is secular, I know both are bad choices. But if I have to vote, I have to the least worst and that happens to be Modi. The biggest problem the English language media and people like us who live in relative comfort is that we take for granted so many things that simply aren't available to the vast majority of Indians. As a result, we overestimate the importance of certain problems and underestimate the importance of others.
Sorry for the long winded reply. Please don't take any personal offence, none is implied. :-)
I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that the people of India have voted so wisely by giving one party such a clear majority. A stable govt is what is needed at such a time of financial turmoil around the globe. And they chose the best for the biggest democracy! Congratulations Indians !
I agree with what you have written Diya and the Anon commentor made me see Modi in a new light !
As always, a well written post.
Dear Anonymous, thank you for making many things clear to me, specially about Karnataka.You are welcome to your opinion, but I do not think that Manmohan Singh has been 'doing nothing' for the past 5 years. Rahul Gandhi's asinine statements irks me too, his party men are responsible for putting him high up in the pedestal, which is wrong. But excuse me for saying this but I think BJP's ideology is unconstitutional- they might build roads and ensure 24 hour electric supply (as Modi has done in the papers today)but stratch a little then their hardcore rigid Hindu rashtra theme comes forth and that is frightening. India essential fabric is multi-cultural we might have beautiful roads, electricity food...but there can still be injustice. A leader of the stature of Advani (who everyone says is secular at heart) had to defend another Gandhi who is too big for his boots for a speech filled with hatred- this is what the wrong ideology does to a person who might otherwise be good- his judgement if what is fair and unfair disappears.In one of the TV debates a BJP spokesman in a heated moment was asking the Cong person in a challenging tone "Do you or do you not want a Ram Temple at Ayodhya?!?" Now, it would probably be suicidal for the Cong lady to say 'no' but she kept quiet...but I can say it here in my space - NO NO NO we do not want a temple can you please invest the extra money you have for the temple in the dismal dalit basti on the other side of thew railway tracks from the disputed site?? My teachers at Miranda House had been to Ayodhya after the demolition of the Babri masjid and found some sweepers clearing the debri...one of these sweeper women in a moment of rebellion said " so many of you have come here now to see the place but no one will visit our basti to see our condition" ( or something to that effect), my teachers were moved and the real problem of the BJP is revealed...the attention of the people is diverted from the roti kapda makan issue to that of religious glory...
Every MP gets no less than Rs 2 crore per year as MP fund for the development of his/her constituency and another shocker is that they almost NEVER use it! Did you know that in the Parliament canteen the MP's getheavily subsidised food for as little as Rs 1 or 2 while the people in their constituencies starve? When Vasundhara Raje was minister lunch was bought from a five star hotel every day at public expence? The railway minister CK Jafar Sharief had a helicopter which Mamta Banerjee sold and raised money for her ministry?
In Delhi our house is located next to a slum like locality Chirag Delhi, now the MP of our area built a wall around our colony allegedly for security reasons which the cows and goats of Chirag Delhi crossed with alacrity and the MP had his name inscribed on the wall incase we wanted to know who had constructed this redundant boundary wall for us. Screaming for attention on the hand was the Chirag Delhi naala- a gruesome water body that ran between our colony and the congested Chirag Delhi village. The chirag Delhi residents had to suffer the stench and the palls of flies like thick smoke that engulfed the area, moreover the naala flows into the yamuna and that was a shame. Finally the Cong MP has turned his attention towards the naala and is filling it up. If work is not done in our constituency then we have only ourselves to blame...we should demand that the MP fund be spent on the works which are urgent. we should have protested when the wall was built and should have demanded that something be done about the naala...instead we just waited 5years and changed the MP!
Have you seen the naala that runs through adugodi-the foul smelling despicable stream with noxious fumes-I have traced it till theverekere and there is another one near HSR layout and yet another near the national games village- now we know where the mosquito related diseases are coming from in Bangalore...so have I got in touch with the authorities, have I registered my protest! No sir, I just watch the streams getting dirtier..if i as a citizen do something then and only then will the politicians pay heed. I also repeat that if the Yeddy govt goofs up in the culture front he will go...never mind how many roads he built. The Cong too will face an acid test and if Rahul tries to do a mid term coup to become PM as many say he will he might be in for a shock in the next elections!
Hey 2b's mom-I have given my view in such detail to Anonymous that I missed answering your comment! Yeah, I too am proud of the Indian people. Everyone was predicting a hung parliament, but it appears that the Indian voters know what they want.
Everyone is relieved to see the clear verdict - at least we are spared an elaborate post-election drama of who aligns with whom.
Enjoyed the detailed interaction between you and anon.
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