The Drama has finally begun. This Thriller has emotion, action, comedy, suspense, manipulation, murder, conspiracy and a lot of thrill. This blockbuster sequence is back with all its drills! And it is once again time for everyone to stand witness to the circus we call Parliamentary election! The Debates, the issues, the charges and counter charges, the comical speeches and political analysis – they all form a heavy mix for everyone in the country to be hooked on to.
This election is however devoid of any major issue till now. The opposition is struggling to find issues to bombard the Government of the day and the Government has nothing much to show for progress made in their last 5 years of rule. Well, the party or bunch of parties that are governing the country today did have their share of achievements (as would any government governing for more than 4 years) – but I sincerely feel most of them can only be understood by elite and knowledgeable. Frankly, common man does not understand inflation, GDP, Interest Rate Management, Foreign Policy achievements, Nuclear Deal related issues etc. These and other financial management aspects were perhaps the highlight of the incumbent government. The ones who actually go and vote do not care about these issues – since they cannot appreciate how it affects their world. At least majority of them don’t, especially the ones who come to a ground to hear their leaders in scorching sun. These are the ones who form the majority of the people who vote. The only other achievement of this Government has been to diplomatically maul Pakistan
There however is one major difference between elections this time and the other elections of past. Everyone – The Toms, Dicks and Harrys and also Meenas and Teenas aspire to become Prime Minister. This definitely is one of the new aspects of this election. The last two elections were about Atal Behari Vajpayee Vs Sonia. Prior to that, the fight was between Atal Vs all the other parties. But this time – the Advanis, The Mayawatis, the Pawars, The Jayalalithas, The Laloos’, The Modis’, The Rahuls’, the incumbent PM, The Nitish Kumars’, The Karats’ etc – everyone wants to be the PM. Problem is, majority of them (except the ones of Congress and BJP) will end up winning only 10-40 seats out of a total 540 odd Parliament seats. But you ask anyone of the above and majority of them would say “…we will see what happens in post election scenario”. Shameless people really. The fractured polity in current times is such that everyone who is anyone thinks he/she can run the country. What has this country come to? Except for Mr. Advani – a declared PM candidate of NDA, and Dr Manmohan Singh, a declared Congress Candidate, no one else seems actually in a position to be anywhere near a position to claim the PM chair. But they are not ruling themselves out. No Sir – they aren’t. Rahul Gandhi to his credit has always denied any claim to the top position. But left to congress – they would kick out Dr Manmohan in favor of Rahul. Sycophancy is trademark of Congress and we would not be surprised if they indeed do it against all better sense. BJP on its part has started the talk Mr. Narendra Modi as Prime Minister in 2014. They somehow want us to believe that if Advani does become PM this time – he will either be asked to retire in next 4-5 years or they are hoping that he would die by the time 2014 comes. I am sorry – but that is the message I get out of this hulla about Mr. Modi being 2014 PM. There is no denying the fact that Mr. Modi is a powerful Orator, a successful administrator, a hard task master, a man with high level of clarity of thought (irrespective of the fact that many like us consider that line of thought to be filled with lot of blood). All good – but he carries with him a scary, dark personality hidden for the time being. Remove that aspect and you have a perfect man to lead the country. But as I keep saying – even Hitler was perceived to be a nationalist and a strong administrator. Once voted to power – he sacrificed many a lives and had to die for Germany to be free. He too was voted to power by the people of Germany – as I have detailed in one of my previous articles. Whether Mr. Modi does become a Prime Minister and whether he is able to curb his dark side in that tenure, only time shall tell. But should we take the risk? I am not sure.
But we shall deal with the above question when the time comes. Let’s look at some of the current aspirants in the fray. Ms Mayawati “Behenji”, Mr. Sharad Pawar, Ms J Jayalalitha “Amma”, Mr. Laloo Yadav, Mr. Prakash Karat. Though Mr Karat has not thrown his hat in the middle – it is no secret that Communists are ruing the missed opportunity they had in 1996-98 when Jyoti Basu was a strong contender for the coveted post. Jyoti Basu refused the offer. And so went one of the best chances of communists to be at the head of central government. That “historic blunder”, as it is known in Communist circles, still troubles many comrades. So, though Mr. Karat has not been open about his ambitions – I am sure he (being the architect of 3rd Front) – would be hoping that someone proposes his name.
But apart from him – look at the other aspirants. “Su-Shri” Mayawati, the “global” Behenji for her cadres, has thrown her hat openly in the ring. Mayawati is a strong lady, a strong administrator, a big time manipulator, a lady driven by one line of thought – i.e. to break all the social structures and bring in a new order of society – a society that she propagates. She sees herself as savior of the downtrodden and messiah of Dalits. She is bold and she is open about her dislike for other communities in the country. Though she has collaborated with Brahmins for the time being – she is fooling nobody as for her visible dislike of the community. Anyone who has seen and gone through her initial campaign a few years back knows that she can never be trusted as far as well being of other communities and castes (other than Dalits, I mean) is concerned. Her venomous style of working and her visible aversion to anyone who is against her makes her a dangerous proposition. She is playing to the galleries at present – but let no one be in any doubt about her evil model of seeking retribution against her opponents when she gets a chance. Such a person can lead a community or a state perhaps for sometime. But to consider her for an important post like Prime Minister would be bringing down the stature of the position itself. I have absolutely no doubt in that. And add to that – the numerous corruption charges she has against her. I mean – she would like us to believe that they are all political. But I wonder how many of us are fooled by this. I wonder why there are no cases of corruption against Dr Manmohan Singh, LK Advani etc. They have been in politics for long and have at one or the other time been at the helm of important affairs of the country. They still have no corruption cases against them. There are many other leaders who have been prominent like Narendra Modi (As far as corruption charges are concerned), P Chidambaram, Arun Shourie, Budhadeb Bhattacharjee, PA Sangma, Praful Patel, Dayanidhi Maran, Yashwant Sinha, AK Antony, Arun Jaitley etc. I am not sure why such corruption cases exist only for people like Ms Mayawati, Mr. Mulayam Singh, Mr. Kumaraswamy, Mr. Amarinder Singh and Mr. Shibu Soren etc. And it is not as if Ms Mayawati has been leading a Gandhian life anyways. She is one of the richest persons in UP and has huge property across Delhi/NCR region (at least what I know of). She is a bloody millionaire. And when she started in early 1990s she was just a newly qualified lawyer. She was picked up by Late Mr. Kanshiram and they then formed a partnership which broke new grounds in corruption. I am not sure how she amassed such huge properties and money without corrupt ways. She claims all these to be gifts from her party workers. I mean, if her community is so rich – so as to gift such huge amount of property and cash to her – they are by no means downtrodden or poor – now are they? So who is she fighting for as she claims? And to call all accusation as political vendetta is going too far and demeaning the constituents of this country like us. And leaders like Mr. Karat and some others in Third front like Deve Gawda etc want her to be the Prime Minister of the country. Well – we had the British not long back to loot us – we will now have Ms Mayawati to repeat the act again if she indeed were to become PM. Huh.
Take another curious aspirant – Ms J Jayalalitha. I mean corruption cases against her have been on for so many years now. She is very much like Ms Mayawati, though she comes out to be a bit more sophisticated. She, without doubt, is much more presentable than Ms Mayawati. She is also a strong lady, has dedicated set of followers, she is strong willed and has proven to be a strong administrator in her own right. She demands disciple like following from her party members (elected to public life or not) and she tolerates no arguments against her thought process both within and outside her party. Can she be a Prime Minister? Thank you very much – but I would rather have one Mr. Deve Gawda or Late Mr. IK Gujral back from grave, if it comes to that. Ms Jayalalitha was no poor lady when she took over the reins of ADMK. She was a known actress in Tamil Film Industry and thanks to MG Ramachandran and his love for her – she was well known in political circles before she took a plunge in active politics (post MGR’s death). She has since then broken new grounds in corruption. She is too obsessed with her own self and though she is articulate and comes out as a cultured negotiator – she is a very dangerous proposition. Nothing could be more unfortunate than to see her don the mantle of National politics. A selfish leader is the worst of the breed if I may say so.
That brings us to Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav. He has not directly thrown his hat in the ring for this term’s Prime Minister’s post, well… not yet. Going by the expected results – I am not sure if he will be averse to the idea – especially since his own political existence would be in line of danger. He is a known aspirant and has been very vocal about his ambitions to be a Prime Minister one day. He possesses deep understanding of National Politics. He is astute and has seen poverty, extreme popularity and huge amount of prosperity in his life. He has gone through the drill and even though has failed as Bihar’s Chief Minister – he has proven to be one of the best Railway Ministers of modern era. He has been instrumental in bringing back Indian Railways from red lines and the bottom line of his tenure as Railway Minister show’ lot of positives. He has a unique way of connecting with people and unlike Ms Mayawati and Ms Jayalalitha has taken “politically” correct steps most of the times in his career. He too, however, is limited to 2 states of Bihar and Jharkhand. He has huge corruption cases filed/pending against him. He has been forced to resign as CM of Bihar once due to these charges. Though he comes out to be a funny guy – he is known to have some of the biggest criminal elements in his entourage. He has relied far too many years of his public life in the philosophy of keeping most of the masses poor and uneducated. This is so that they continue to be negligent of the world around them (due to lack of knowledge) and continue to see him as their savior. He did somehow successfully manage this model for 10 years in Bihar – but thankfully – was finally thrown out (even if by a whisker). It is well known that Bihar has some of the richest people in the country along with a huge population of poor communities and tribes. Corruption and Naxalism thus has prospered in this state. Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav for all his antics cannot run away from taking majority of responsibility. He may want us to believe that he is honest and has great administrative skills – but I hope we the citizens of this country are smarter. He, unfortunately for him, cannot even term corruption charges against him as Political Vendetta as he was in power when these charges were slapped on him, and were also proven true in the lower courts. That he still continues to enjoy popular support amongst some communities in Bihar (and in major political circles) is thanks to the corrupt society that we have helped build in this country. In summary, given his utter disregard for the upliftment of the society as a whole and given his dubious background – he is ridiculously unfit to lead even a state – forget about country. He will bite the dust in this election for sure – thanks to Congress cutting his vote share (as it is fighting as a separate unit) and Nitish Kumar’s good work in the last few years. It will be interesting to see how he plans out his future along with that other corrupt person – Ram Vilas Paswan.
So then, perhaps the most qualified of all the “other” aspirants vying for the post of Prime Minister is Mr Sharad Pawar. He is a seasoned politician, has loads of experience as minister for Agriculture, Defense etc in his career, has been one of the most successful Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, has hold over many splinter groups within each party, is considered a national figure (irrespective of the fact that his party today is limited to Maharashtra and Goa), has had more or less unblemished record till date, has an acceptance quotient much higher than any of the current aspirants, has negotiating skills which are admired both within and outside his party boundaries. He has undoubtedly benefited from his long service in Congress Party and even today his party is considered (by many) as another “branch” of Congress Party w.r.t. policies and style of working. He would definitely have been a strong contender of Prime Minister’s post in 2004, had he not left the party a few years back. The drawbacks I see in this aspirant is the final number of seats he wins in the current elections – which could be anywhere in the region of 20-25 seats at the maximum. Such numbers would potentially hamper his chances – unless of course the Third Front does remarkably well and is in a position to make a government with his support. In that case he perhaps will be the most accepted figure to lead the government. That and that alone can bring him closer to his life time ambition. He is ambitious not doubt and his moves, in the last couple of months, are seen to be cleverly thought of. If things go as per plan – we may see a man who is perhaps not as presentable as some of the others – but a man with astute mind and a man with deep administrative knowledge, taking the mantle of the top post in the country. Having said that, and though his record remains visibly unblemished – “one” Mr Telgi had a few chinks to disclose. No one has forgotten the serious charges that Telgi had made against Mr Pawar and his party colleague Mr Chaggan Bhujbal. But given a choice between all the “Other” devils – I would go with him perhaps, though with my eyes closed.
Given the above choices – I am not sure I am motivated enough to vote in these elections. No one wonders and bothers when the voting percentages are abysmally low – as low as 45-50%. Given the above leaders leading important parties and given their “wonderful” history – I am not sure if I am surprised. Election Commission would have us believe that people like me who has not voted ever in life and who does not intend to vote till he dies – are all Pappus (with all due respect to everyone who have been given this name by their Parents. Come to think of it – all the people with names as “Pappu” should file a defamation case against EC for demeaning their stature and ridiculing their Parents for having given them this name. Ah… but that can be discussed in some other forum). Anyways, given the trend of the first two phases of election, I think by the time this election is over – there will be more than 50% eligible Pappus in this country. That would mean a society of Pappus in majority. So should the majority be blamed? I thought democracy was a model which propagated rule by majority? Or was that definition itself wrong? Why blame the Pappus’ of the society when political class and EC themselves cannot set their house in order. Why not ask the Parties to just kick out leaders with dubious/criminal/corrupt records and nominate good/clean candidates for various constituencies? It is easy to blame the public and call them names. I mean since they are all part of the same corrupt group – they find it convenient to blame the public. As if it is the people to blame. Oh how ashamed do I feel… Bullshit. Such utter arrogance from these elitist classes of politicians and governing bodies is what pisses me off and makes me even more determined to be in the Pappu’s group. And for Mr. Advani to state that voting should be made compulsory is too much of a moralistic view to take from someone who himself has blood on him. He, who has not had the courage to accept that he was the principal architect of the Babri Masjid demolition, should not preach us about our basic duties and fundamental rights. Just because I am at that topic – Mr. Advani should remember that there are people like us who are from UP and who know how the Masjid was felled. To take the higher ground, i.e. he not being aware or responsible for the felling of Babri Masjid and the other crap, will cut no grounds with us. We remember your beaming face, Mr. Advani, when the news had broken about fate of Babri Masjid, we remember the Rath-yatra you had so pompously taken out, we remember how you instigated the crowd at ground zero that day and what elaborate plans you, Mr Murali Manohar Joshi, Ms Uma Bharti, Mr. Kalyan Singh and the entire bandwagon of VHP etc had made to demolish the structure and build a temple. I have friends in villages through which your party people had gone through in hordes (avoiding Highways – to bypass the elaborate security arrangements), I have people in and around my village who have been party to that movement and who very proudly take your name (along with others) as the ones who motivated them to commit the dastardly act. And you keep telling everyone that you were not aware of the plan? You are a coward Mr Advani – that is what you are. Kandahar episode proved that once again. You would want us to believe that the entire cabinet of Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee took the decision to release the terrorists (and that Foreign Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, would take them to Kandahar), and you, the Home Minister and Deputy PM, was not party to the decision? C’mon – what do you take us for Sir? You have grown old and so your memory is not as sharp perhaps. But we have not forgotten. So just shut up and own up the bloody responsibility. Stop fooling the country – the country is far smarter than you give it credit for.
Ah, apologies for the above – but I cannot take such cowardice and notion of we being fools.
Anyways, irrespective of what old Mr. Advani feels (and I give two hoots to that thought) – Constitution has mandated voting as a right – not as compulsion – and people who chose not to vote should be respected as much as people who vote. People who vote are not necessarily brighter than the perceived Pappus of the electoral franchise, are they? EC may come up with many other slogans in the coming elections too – but till they enforce our will on the parties – they cannot expect their will to be enforced on us. And try as hard as we Pappus may – leaders like Mayawati, Jayalalitha, Shibu Soren, Laloo, Paswan, Mulayam, Deve Gawda, Bal Thakrey, Raj Thakrey, Modi, CS Chandrashekhar, Ramodass, Karunanidhi, Mamta Banerjee, Chautala will not go away. Public – the non-Pappus i.e. will keep voting for them and they will continue to call all wrongs against them as “political conspiracy”. And except for 2 or 3 cases – not many important political figures have had a quick death too. This means, they will remain till eternity to rule over us. In summary – they are like God. If that is not scary – I am not sure what is.
So yes, given the confused state of the polity in the country and given that there is no change expected in future – this Pappu won’t vote – neither today – nor in future.
You have to decide for yourself now.
Its Montoo..
28th April – 1st May 2009’
