“The Royal Wedding vs The Karnataka Assembly Floor Test” – which one to follow? It was a tough call to make.
Well, I decided to go with the latter option. One doesn’t get to see this kind of “Great Indian political Tamasha” that often, How can I miss all the excitement? Yes, in India, even democracy is entertaining.
To be honest, I did not support any side in this nasty fight. I was ready for any sort of result.
My only curiosity was to reaffirm whether all the childhood stories we hear about MLA poaching and horse-trading after a hung assembly is true. I wanted to know if the nasty cheap tricks which are shown in movies are close to reality or just fiction?
First time ever I had the chance to see and judge the naked truth of Indian politics and the conclusion I arrived after closely following all the turn of events is this…
“No one is a Holy Cow in politics but the voters are definitely the Bakra”
From the moment Congress announced it will give “Unconditional Support” to JDS in forming the government – the unveiling of political hypocrisy started. How can two parties which are archenemies come together so fast to be allies just to defeat BJP? It’s just plain opportunistic.
Congress was just living up to their existing bad reputation.
Well, the BJP wasted no time in proving that they too are not any different.
Governor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala’s invite to B. S. Yeddyurappa to form the government started unmaking their dishonesty too. They went against the very way they formed governments in Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya, they preached that the single largest party should be allowed to form the government. Isn’t this clear double standards on display?
And then things only got nastier. Yeddyurappa’s swearing-in as Chief Minister, the involvement of the Supreme Court in reducing the timeframe to prove majority from 15 days to just 1 day, the huddle of Karnataka legislators to Hyderabad and then immediately back to Bangalore, and the curious case of two missing Congress MLAs. So much was happening.
I was thinking to myself that these things are common in Indian politics, Nothing to worry much. But then on the day of the judgment things took a drastic turn.
Multiple audio tapes were released by Congress, exposing the “win at any cost” strategy of BJP. One tape claiming to be the voice of Janardhana Reddy, In another, allegedly the Chief Minister Yeddyurappa himself was involved. They were openly bribing the Congres/JDS MLAs with unlimited Money and Ministerial positions. All this to persuade them for a jump to the other side.
This is the most shocking event for me.
Is this what Ram Madhav meant when he said: “Don’t worry, we have Amit Shah”
My immediate reaction was –
What happened to “Na khaoonga, na khane doonga”?
What happened to “Mujhe Chowkidar Bana do”?
BJP, which came into power by proclaiming themselves free from any corruption by blasting Congress on multiple scams is now publicly trying to purchase MLAs to gain the majority. It’s not just ironic but also a betrayal of people’s trust. So far, most of the BJP supporters are proud of their clean image, but now these revealings are contradictory to their assumptions and expectations.
Is winning more important than keeping your promises of clean politics? How does this make you any different from parties like Congress? How can you talk about fighting corruption?
These questions are very tough to answer for the BJP now.
The only logical way to understand this situation is to tell yourself that “birds of a feather, flock together”
At the end of the day, all politicians and parties are the same. We don’t have the liberty to choose the best among the available options but we have to see who is a little bit less bad.
Will this cycle ever end, or is this the permanent fate of Indian politics? We have seen the rise and fall of Jayaprakash Narayan Andolan, and the leaders emerged from that movement turned out to be corrupt. We have seen the likes of Anna and Kejriwal raise the expectations and then unable to live up to them, Now the same cycle seems to be repeating with BJP too.
With this brief trailer of ‘Karnataka Political Nataka’, I am not sure what all we will get to see in the coming national elections in 2019. Are things are going to get only murkier or will there be any silver lining?