By Mayank Jain:
What sets the upcoming election apart from the previous ones we have had? Hope. Of better governance, of better decision making, of more equality and of better times than what we have seen in the past. What sets apart the parties fighting for the top post in the elections? Nothing!
We might have grown with volatile rates between 6-8% every year as a country, but the politics has only suffered one blow after the other and with due credit to our ‘leaders’, innovation in fooling people is forever on the rise.
We have not yet recovered from the aftermath of voting AAP to power, tasting its bittersweet result and we have another decision to make. This time, it is about choosing the party in power at the Center. The game is bigger and the stakes are higher, one vote to the wrong party/candidate and we can expect a hellhole of another 5 years of misery. The time is crucial more than ever before because the growth in the economy has just started to come up and the faith in democracy right now, is more than ever before.
With such backdrop, there comes the fandom and pomp and show of Gujrat’s ‘hero’Â – Narendra Modi. The front-runner for the prime ministerial post from the major opposition party has left no stone unturned to further widen the difference in potential votes between the two parties, and his PR machinery has worked commendably well to make sure his image of rioting minister is turned into that of an able administrator and development crazy workaholic who can turn everything he touches into gold.
Mr. Modi is the master of oration and never discriminates between fact and fiction in his public speeches, and he went a step further to ask for 60 months’ time for his party from the electorate so that he could change the face of India. The argument of giving 60 years to everyone and hence entitling BJP to 60 months is nothing more than great wordplay. The promise of bringing about ‘white revolution’ in UP if elected to power was just another in the long list he has already filled with promises for each state, country and constituency.
The problem lies in the fact that there are just promises flowing from one end and some more alms and populist aids from the other. What about the plans to achieve these promises? What about the way he will make white revolution happen or how he plans to change the country? Harping about Gujarat’s development model is something anyone can do but Narendra Modi can’t afford to make hollow claims and promises.
Coming to the question of giving BJP 60 months in power to protest against the UPA’s wrongdoings is out of question because it is the same party that vehemently opposes homosexuality. It is the party which welcomed criminalization of section 377. It is the party which opposes the idea of global integration of the country with the world and seeks to turn India into the next China. This is the same party which could not ensure proper MCD governance ever in Delhi and holds aspirations to lead the country. Even ban on alcohol in Gujarat is characteristically regressive and amplifies the party’s image of regressive Hindutva fanaticism.
The whole point of a democracy is to rule as per public sentiments and common desires, but BJP is a party that is too obsessed with its ideals of “Bharat” and the India we look forward to living in is nowhere in the visible periphery of the country that BJP has sought to build, overlooking what they have been promising.
After AAPs debut, we now know that promises mean nothing when it comes to politics but this is in no way a glorification of Congress either. We all know that the party is corrupt beyond measure but this is no redemption of BJP because its own negatives far outweigh its positives and instead of shifting the blame on UPA, it should work to become an honorable organization which deserves the claps that Narendra Modi’s oratory fetches them.
The road to elections is tough and it is more difficult to us, as voters to select the one which we perceive to be the lesser evil but the least we can do is go beyond chanting RaGa, NaMo or Kejri and look at the representative from these parties in our respective constituencies and vote for them because of their credentials and not the party’s. This way, only the better one will come to the power and we won’t regret much.
No matter what, the state of politics is bad in the country and all the three parties should do work rather than making promises and accusations. We all are entitled to seeing one election that’s not between three bad parties, where we can choose the good party, aren’t we?