Now for the first time since I started to vote, I am eagerly looking forward to the general elections to be held this year. So why this sudden enlightenment? Because I am at that stage of my life where I myself have to finance my day-day existence and other social compulsions. So I can't afford to not care about the Indian economy. Also India is ranked as low as 136 in the Human Development Index (HDI) released by the United Nations. In this era of rapid globalization if we need to hurtle a billion (and counting) people up this ranking, we need to formulate well thought out and creative domestic and foreign policies. And the commander-in-chief of these policies is none other than the Prime Minister. Thats why these elections are so crucial. Also what makes these elections very interesting is the contrasting personalities of the men vying for this all important post.
The most familiar of the candidates is someone who rose from very humble origins (tea boy ?) to become the chief minister of the state marketed as the 'most developed' in India. Any guesses? He is planning to build the tallest statue in the world at the cost of 2500 crores which he hopes will magically unite the people of India! Now it should be as clear as daylight that I am talking about Mr.Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat. But in my opinion he would make a great marketing professional rather than a Prime Minister, for creating the myth that Gujarat is the most developed state in India. There is no denying that Modi has been able to sustain the development produced by previous regimes and has also created an industry friendly environment in Gujarat (though at the cost of tribal livelihood). But that doesn't justify the high decibel levels with which he is blowing his trumpet. Because in reality Gujarat is ranked only 8th in the HDI rankings for Indian states and is one among the less developed states in a list released by a panel headed by RBI governor Raghuram Ranjan. And how can we talk about Modi without mentioning Gujarat riots in the same sentence. Though he has been given a clean chit by the Special Investigation team (SIT), the communal stain hasn't been removed completely as there are a large number of people who still believe he was to some extent complicit in the massacre. And on top of it he is self-obsessed bordering narcissism which is evident in the excessive brand building he has accomplished by manipulating the social and electronic media. So if I start a company in the future I would have him in the marketing division but not as the commander-in-chief of my country.
If Modi is the most noisy then candidate #2 would be the most discreet. Infact discreet enough that we don't even know the identity of the candidate. That is because the Congress party is yet to figure out their man who can offset the huge negativity about the incumbent UPA government owing to their massive corruption. But history suggests that it will be only one of the Gandhi namesakes - Sonia, Rahul or Priyanka. Since the assassination of Indira Gandhi, women from this family have restricted themselves to running puppet governments rather than indulging in direct governance. So that leaves us with only one choice, Mr.Rahul Gandhi. From the beginning Rahul Gandhi has portrayed himself as an outsider to politics who is bent on fighting the corrupt practices of the political establishment. But apart from occasionally moonlighting as a crusader who makes guerrilla attacks on his own partymen in full public, he hasn't done much worthy of a prime ministership candidate. Sensing this the Congress party of late has been portraying RG as the driving force behind all key decisions taken by the party. And just when it seemed some people might buy this gimmick, he opened himself up in an interview with Arnab Goswami which made him look both stupid and irritating - something that his interviewer is famous for! I don't think even the 172 crores that the party is spending on the Bharat Nirman campaign (which is eerily similar to the ill-fated 'India Shining' campaign) is going to do any good now.
Just when Indians were confused about whom to chose between the belligerent king and the meek prince, there arrived the knight carrying a broom, riding the Delhi metro and wearing a muffler around his head. From an anti-corruption campaigner to chief minister within a span of one year, Mr.Arvind Kejriwal and team have been at the center of the biggest political revolution seen by our country in recent times. Over the past few years people's confidence in the political establishment has hit rock bottom. Corruption has grown exponentially threatening to even blow up the the numeral system. Crimes against women have become so despicable that animals in the wild seem more evolved. If you wanted any proof of the obscene nature of these crimes, then look no beyond the Anna Hazare movement and the anti-rape protests that rocked the country. Because it isn't very easy to wake up the Indian public which is generally sedative about social causes. And one of the by-products of these movements is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convened by Kejriwal. This party has shunned the VIP culture, displayed transparency and tries to connect with the common man - everything that is an antithesis to our political establishment. Its like a live political experiment unfolding in front of us. But the one small concern I have with them is, in their search for perfection they sometimes sidestep pragmatism for idealism. Also some of their members engage in frequent verbal accusation of other politicians, which even if true is unnecessary as they have a lot of work in front of them. As it stands I would love to see the AAP win this elections. But this is a very tall ask given the lack of time for them to consolidate at the national level. So I hope they atleast dent the vote bank of the two main national parties which will send a clear message to politicians that they need to buckle up or their doomsday is around the corner.
No comments:
Post a Comment