Who said the Indian voter has no brains? Who said that the Indian voter can be easily bought by illicit liquor and money? Who said the Indian voter is predictable? Yes, the sephologists and media had run down all the voters and the Indian mandate.
We did see faces of the poor, malnourished Indians who seemed to have attended many a rally. Those who were paid to mark their presence for ‘crowd’ factor when big wig political leaders came to talk down to them. Huh! Few leaders took that effort to go the extra mile to walk and plead for votes. Most have now got detached. Fewer still like Sonia Gandhi and her children Priyanka or Rahul break the cordon and walk to greet the ordinary people. Most simply step out of their air conditioned cars and wave.
The voter has seen them all. Come, promise, not deliver, come again, promise again and simply disappear. This time the stalwarts came, folded hands and said, “vote.” The voter by now has been used to been taken for a ride. As if this is not enough, the political leaders took advantage of the November 26 carnage and militancy attack on Mumbai city. Some political parties like the Bharatiya Janta Party, Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena tried to emotionally black mail the voters. They actually said go out and vote to prevent militant attacks!
Now I have never heard this before, that if I voted, then elections would protect me any possible terror death in future. Such was the joke of the politicians in these elections. Then us, the media, that nearly put the Congress down. The infilteration of the chaddiwallas or the right wing thought people in our media immense. Right from bottom to the top most level the chaddiwallas have taken over news rooms. So, we had pre-polls predictions saying that the BJP alliance is surely winning.
The voter was quiet. There were new trends in this city of Mumbai. The MNS and its leaders who were fielded. They proved to be fatal to the BJP-Sena combine, they also dug their own graves in some places. Because in their fight they simply lost out on crucial seats.
Yes, I personally would like Maywati to win some day. Only because she is a Dalit. That should not be criteria. I agree, she now needs to do a lot of introspection. She needs better strategy. But the fact is she can be formidable and we do need alternate thought.
Like the right wing extremist thought there exists for donkeys years a left wing etrmist thought, ideological party, Communist Party of India. They need to realise that they cannot hold a government to ransom. One man, Prakash Karat, who is not even an elected candidate heads a party and over the nuclear deal holds the nation and government to ransom, he thought he could get away with it.
The Congress too had to resort to dirty tactics, of horse trading, of bribing, paying to keep the government. Well, better late than never. Finally they woke up to a harsh reality, they needed to change with the modern times. It had to shed a lot.
They woke up a bit late but better they did. They began to give the power mantle to the next gen. So we see more like Rahul Gandhi, Sachin Pilot, types who are new faces, brining in new hope.
The old right and left wing candidates began mud slinging match. They called names to stalwarts of other parties. They picked on women –Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka, other women candidates by calling them names. Whatever it is, the Indian voter has heard and seen it. The emotional cords make a difference in this country. For years the male leaders have tried to get away calling names to women in this country. There is a time for change.
The likes of Narendra Modi who now harp on ‘development’ have forgotten vital factor –HUMAN RIGHTS. He was the conduit and abettor for crimes and murder in his state the Gujarat. The so-called Gujarat model was being promoted even in Maharashtra. I agree once my state Maharashtra was a power-excess state. We could have sold the excess power to toher states and made some money, plus initiated projects to add to the existing megawatts. We did NOTHING. We were arrogant with ‘power!’
Today we have to listen to a abettor of murders tell us that he will teach us a lesson. He claims to be the prime minister candidate? All these events and developments made some ‘intelligent’ extra politically wise and enlightened people say that the American model can only work in India. They claimed overnight that India is a shit place to be in, our politics sucks, why? Because the next gen America had voted for Obama dude!
Dude, one needs to understand to this country and its set up. We voters choose a council of ministers who elect one man as Prime minister. But we choose people who are able or at least considered. They and an even more able administration are supposed to draft pro- people policies and ensure the mandate benefits. That many have failed to fulfil this basic right or principle is another matter. That doesn’t make a system redundant. The people elected were wrong or not worth it. Some in fact are the ones who now claim of given a chance they could have made a difference, made a better govt. All have been given a chance. For the sake of petty politics they have sacrificed the whole good. They sacrificed people’s power for their own power – like the BJP and CPI (M).
The people have realised this all petty politics doesn’t work. This time for the first time in years people have reposed faith in the Congress, the old able party. This time the youth came out to vote, the rural and urban voter though alike. We want change. We want the country to go forward, develop and we want policies for ourselves. This clear majority of Congress is definitely a way the Indian voter has rubbished misplaced claims by the elite intelligentsia (who has no bloody clue of people’s pulse), media and regressive right, left wing people that the Indian voter does not understand. We do and we surely know that the issues of the national level are different from local and state.