The new drama series “INDIAN ELECTION CIRCUS 2014” which is now playing on streets across India, on various FM channels, new stories being published every day in newspapers, internet and told by word of mouth, is back again to play upon the minds of the Indian electorate and, more importantly, to generate a revenue of Rs.30,000 crores until the day of announcement of the next government. After a mixed period of ups and downs of the present UPA government, with a significant part being the downs, India now awaits a new bunch of jokers who will entertain them over the next five year period. The elections also offer a seemingly ray of hope in terms of the activists who want to change the system. What remains to be seen is that whether Indians have attained political maturity or will they be allowed to be fooled yet again on the lines of religion and manipulative politics?
Arvind Kejriwal and #AAP will be the only interesting episode in the drama series. Interesting in terms of knowing how cruel and unified a well entrenched corrupt system can get, to throw out someone who promises change. The system will make him commit acts, which will then be presented and viewed as an antithesis of what the AAP stands for. It is well known that Kejriwal is a political baby; someone who preaches principles to the core, but forgets that to fight elections on a national level, as different from a city-state of Delhi, principles are the last thing that would help him win elections.
Another important fact also would be that the team which Kejriwal carries with him has no credentials, forget proven credentials, to run a country of the size and complexities as India. Although there are many from the educated middle class who seem to be very pro-Kejriwal, the larger chunk of those who vote are the lower middle class and the poor, who can easily be influence to vote for a party or an alliance which has been in the system for long.
It is probably known to all that Kejriwal is not going to get a chance to rule the country; its a foregone conclusion. But what is important, as I mentioned earlier, is to see whether the political class lets him survive in the political space. For AAP, being able to get sufficient seats in Parliament is perhaps the need of the time so that five years down the line, they could claim some legitimacy to present themselves as an alternative for the future.
With Congress’s political fortune surely on the downslide, with a number of old warriors opting out of electoral politics, and with a leader who has got no vision and no maturity, the field is now wide open for the Bhartiya Janata Party to take the position long occupied by Congress. If the man, notorious for the acts which propelled him to national stage, proves a man who can do business with the diverse population comprising India, then the party stands a chance for a long innings at governance. The man may perhaps need to do away with his ideological mentors, otherwise, the days of wishful thought of trying to repeat acts done decades ago are long gone. It would be foolish for anybody or any religious fanatic on either side to think that they can rule the roost by indulging in vendetta on religious grounds.
The Congress party deserves to be sent into oblivion. It was given to long a rope to play divisive politics right from the time when Rajiv Gandhi brought the Babri masjid into focus. The Congress I believe, is the only party responsible for the growth of fanatic divide of India. The Preamble of the Constitution needed to be implemented in letter and spirit, but the Congress led Indians on path to divisive growth and thus today we stand at a point in time, where even after sixty seven years of Independence, we have never been able to shake off the bogey of communal and caste disturbances. For progressive growth of any country, a political establishment which sees the merits of utilising potential of the population as a whole in contributing to the development is required. Sadly, India today also cannot claim that level of maturity, despite being known in the world as a money generating force.
Let us now concentrate on enjoying the drama series and also the best of time on various interesting news channels on television.
Nawaz Haindaday's Blog 