The dust has settled. The General elections, India's biggest soap opera with TRP ratings higher than the dramatic IPL matches have ended with some noteworthy surprises. Many who were expected to smile are left crying. And some who were apprehensive of whether they would get to smile are now baring all their teeth and smiling. Stability seemed to be the buzzword among the Indian voters as they gave congress a favourable verdict. We don't have to be witness to that great thamasha of hung parliaments and dirty coalitions all over again. We also don't have to see local parties with 5 seats demanding 5 ministerial positions in return for their crucial support. Thus, Congress has five worry less years ahead of them.
For me, the most heartening news from the elections was the massive victory of Shashi tharoor in Trivandrum. The left's negative campaigning and shameless mudslinging went in vain as the young educated voters favoured someone with a wider outlook on the affairs of the world. And, he started with that thoughtful and symbolic gesutre of removing all his campaign posters from the city walls. He also started his work yesterday itself by getting in touch with members of independent organisations like Trivandrum development forum(TDF). Hope he delivers everything that he promised.
The other good news ofcourse is the complete destruction of left in Kerala as well as its stronghold West Bengal. Pinarayi Vijayan and his followers should've realised that teaming up with a terrorist is not going to get you any support from the common people or even from the party's staunch supporters. Added to that are the latest ventures of Kerala commies like amusement park, which will put even hardcore capitalists to shame. In the end, VS Achudananthan was the lone man smiling with Pinarayi and his friends hiding in some undisclosed location and wiping the shit off their face. The story in West Bengal is even more pathetic. They wouldn't have quite foreseen this scenario in a state where they tried everything to change their face from the anti-development commies to that of the nano technology commies. Mamata Bannerjee played the role of the old left by being pro poor and anti-industrialisation. But, never think that with these 2 big defeats communism is dead. As Kamal Haasan says in 'Anbe Sivam', 'Communism is a feeling and it doesn't die with the disintegration of USSR'. There will be a handful of comrades living in some non descript locations, the so called root level workers who never rise up to the top. Communism will live through them but at the same time it will die a million more deaths at the hands of the ones at the top.
Hey, I even forgot mentioning the BJP until now. Well, that perhaps reflects the disconnect that they've managed to attain from the urban voters. You can milk a cow only till it reaches a certain age. If you still keep on milking after that, you are just reducing the strength of your hands rather than get some pure milk. This is exactly what happened with BJP on the mandir issue. You can win maybe one election with that. But thinking that you can win elections with the same issue even in 2050 is utter stupidity. Also, going around and inciting communcal violence in volatile districts may win you those districts but at the same time you are alienating a whole nation. Then there was mama's boy Varun positioning himself as the apostle of ultra violence. BJP committed another mistake there by persisting with him. He won in Pilibhit but made BJP lose in atleast ten constituencies. I was a bit surprised by the result in Karnataka where I expected BJP to suffer a lot owing to their high handed moral policing approach. Here, the low voter turnout did play a part. The educated urban voters stayed away from the polling booth instead of marking their protest through votes. Emboldened by this result, we can expect the state government to come up with more rules like shutting down everything by 10 O Clock, closing down pubs, banning international concerts etc. Am also saddened by the losses suffered by worthy candidates like Capt. Gopinath.
Oops, where's Mayawati, Jayalalitha, Sharad pawar and the long list of PM hopefuls? Mayawati won the last assembly elections by wooing almost every other community. But during the last 2 years she concentrated more on satisfying her own narcissistic inclinations by erecting her statues, spending thousands of crores. She did little in the name of development. And, after losing yesterday, she was at her dirty best in blaming the muslims for her loss. The story in Maharashtra is similar to one of 3 lovers trying to win a girl. While the 2 lovers, Siva Sena and MNS were at each other's throat and killing each other, the 3rd one, Congress, quietly walked away with the girl. The Maratha-pride parties should learn that regionalism doesn't capture the imagination of voters anymore. In Bihar, Nitish Kumar poured some development water on to Laloo's burning railway lantern. Nitish's all round work in Bhar, coupled with Laloo's arrogance made it easy for him. Navin Patnaik's double whammy in Orissa is also another heartening development.
So, in the end it comes to Congress with a sweep which they themselves didn't imagine. The media and the Congress leadership is going overboard in attributing it all to Rahul Gandhi's record breaking trip all over UP, where they came up as the 2nd biggest party. Yes, some part of it can be attributed to him but there are a lot many other factors. The whole Indian rural belt voted for Congress because of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and the farmer's lone waiver scheme. These two were absolute masterstrokes and has changed the face of rural India. The other factor that made people favour congress is because they see no hope in BJP. The average Indian voter didn't want a party which has divisive politics as its main agenda in times when home-bred terrorism is a big issue. The hardliners in BJP with their widespread violence didn't exactly endear themselves to the masses. So, the voters ended up selecting the lesser evil, the Congress. Also, the young brigade of the Congress with promising and sincere men like Navin Jindal and Sachin Pilot struck a chord with the youth of India. Then, there's Manmohan Singh whose speeches are better called 'mumbles' but whose actions speak for themselves. Though am not a big fan of Manmohan, Sonia or Rahul, I've to admit that these three more or less shaped the Congress victory.
Now, Congress has five years in which they don't have to satisfy such ichy useless allies as the Left. They have a free hand to decide the future of this country. Lets hope they won't misuse that free hand and pass such important bills as the Nuclear deal without the approval of the parliament. They should also improve a lot in fighting terrorism and sprucing up national security. As a starter, they should make sure that the trial of Kasab ends fast and he alongwith Afzal Guru, is hung to a horrible death on a nearest date possible. Work also need to be done on shedding the 'soft on terror' image that India carries as of now. Pakistan needs to be put in a place that it deserves and at the same time we shouldn't bow to the bullying tactics of US. We shouldn't give any more opportunities for the Hillarys to boast in the house on how they controlled India from reacting against Pakistan after Mumbai attacks. The new Government should also come up with more schemes like the NREGS to uplift rural India. Also, they have a task at hand in reacting properly to the economic meltdown. Let the repair job begin. The voters have trusted you, now its your turn to prove that the trust was worth it.
pic courtesy-topnews.in
your crusader Praveen
For me, the most heartening news from the elections was the massive victory of Shashi tharoor in Trivandrum. The left's negative campaigning and shameless mudslinging went in vain as the young educated voters favoured someone with a wider outlook on the affairs of the world. And, he started with that thoughtful and symbolic gesutre of removing all his campaign posters from the city walls. He also started his work yesterday itself by getting in touch with members of independent organisations like Trivandrum development forum(TDF). Hope he delivers everything that he promised.
The other good news ofcourse is the complete destruction of left in Kerala as well as its stronghold West Bengal. Pinarayi Vijayan and his followers should've realised that teaming up with a terrorist is not going to get you any support from the common people or even from the party's staunch supporters. Added to that are the latest ventures of Kerala commies like amusement park, which will put even hardcore capitalists to shame. In the end, VS Achudananthan was the lone man smiling with Pinarayi and his friends hiding in some undisclosed location and wiping the shit off their face. The story in West Bengal is even more pathetic. They wouldn't have quite foreseen this scenario in a state where they tried everything to change their face from the anti-development commies to that of the nano technology commies. Mamata Bannerjee played the role of the old left by being pro poor and anti-industrialisation. But, never think that with these 2 big defeats communism is dead. As Kamal Haasan says in 'Anbe Sivam', 'Communism is a feeling and it doesn't die with the disintegration of USSR'. There will be a handful of comrades living in some non descript locations, the so called root level workers who never rise up to the top. Communism will live through them but at the same time it will die a million more deaths at the hands of the ones at the top.
Hey, I even forgot mentioning the BJP until now. Well, that perhaps reflects the disconnect that they've managed to attain from the urban voters. You can milk a cow only till it reaches a certain age. If you still keep on milking after that, you are just reducing the strength of your hands rather than get some pure milk. This is exactly what happened with BJP on the mandir issue. You can win maybe one election with that. But thinking that you can win elections with the same issue even in 2050 is utter stupidity. Also, going around and inciting communcal violence in volatile districts may win you those districts but at the same time you are alienating a whole nation. Then there was mama's boy Varun positioning himself as the apostle of ultra violence. BJP committed another mistake there by persisting with him. He won in Pilibhit but made BJP lose in atleast ten constituencies. I was a bit surprised by the result in Karnataka where I expected BJP to suffer a lot owing to their high handed moral policing approach. Here, the low voter turnout did play a part. The educated urban voters stayed away from the polling booth instead of marking their protest through votes. Emboldened by this result, we can expect the state government to come up with more rules like shutting down everything by 10 O Clock, closing down pubs, banning international concerts etc. Am also saddened by the losses suffered by worthy candidates like Capt. Gopinath.
Oops, where's Mayawati, Jayalalitha, Sharad pawar and the long list of PM hopefuls? Mayawati won the last assembly elections by wooing almost every other community. But during the last 2 years she concentrated more on satisfying her own narcissistic inclinations by erecting her statues, spending thousands of crores. She did little in the name of development. And, after losing yesterday, she was at her dirty best in blaming the muslims for her loss. The story in Maharashtra is similar to one of 3 lovers trying to win a girl. While the 2 lovers, Siva Sena and MNS were at each other's throat and killing each other, the 3rd one, Congress, quietly walked away with the girl. The Maratha-pride parties should learn that regionalism doesn't capture the imagination of voters anymore. In Bihar, Nitish Kumar poured some development water on to Laloo's burning railway lantern. Nitish's all round work in Bhar, coupled with Laloo's arrogance made it easy for him. Navin Patnaik's double whammy in Orissa is also another heartening development.
So, in the end it comes to Congress with a sweep which they themselves didn't imagine. The media and the Congress leadership is going overboard in attributing it all to Rahul Gandhi's record breaking trip all over UP, where they came up as the 2nd biggest party. Yes, some part of it can be attributed to him but there are a lot many other factors. The whole Indian rural belt voted for Congress because of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and the farmer's lone waiver scheme. These two were absolute masterstrokes and has changed the face of rural India. The other factor that made people favour congress is because they see no hope in BJP. The average Indian voter didn't want a party which has divisive politics as its main agenda in times when home-bred terrorism is a big issue. The hardliners in BJP with their widespread violence didn't exactly endear themselves to the masses. So, the voters ended up selecting the lesser evil, the Congress. Also, the young brigade of the Congress with promising and sincere men like Navin Jindal and Sachin Pilot struck a chord with the youth of India. Then, there's Manmohan Singh whose speeches are better called 'mumbles' but whose actions speak for themselves. Though am not a big fan of Manmohan, Sonia or Rahul, I've to admit that these three more or less shaped the Congress victory.
Now, Congress has five years in which they don't have to satisfy such ichy useless allies as the Left. They have a free hand to decide the future of this country. Lets hope they won't misuse that free hand and pass such important bills as the Nuclear deal without the approval of the parliament. They should also improve a lot in fighting terrorism and sprucing up national security. As a starter, they should make sure that the trial of Kasab ends fast and he alongwith Afzal Guru, is hung to a horrible death on a nearest date possible. Work also need to be done on shedding the 'soft on terror' image that India carries as of now. Pakistan needs to be put in a place that it deserves and at the same time we shouldn't bow to the bullying tactics of US. We shouldn't give any more opportunities for the Hillarys to boast in the house on how they controlled India from reacting against Pakistan after Mumbai attacks. The new Government should also come up with more schemes like the NREGS to uplift rural India. Also, they have a task at hand in reacting properly to the economic meltdown. Let the repair job begin. The voters have trusted you, now its your turn to prove that the trust was worth it.
pic courtesy-topnews.in
your crusader Praveen
