I love it. I love all the changing of sides indulged in by all those who have crossed the retirement age! It all smacks of a deep desperation to prove themselves to their very own selves…a laughable reality for most young people who are witnessing this game of charades that is unfortunately dominating the media and, therefore, our lives. Had it been ?dumb charades?, it may have left something to the imagination. It may have been amusing. Lost out and left out, old and rejected, this lot is suddenly spouting a rhetoric that gives their intentions away.
Today, a majority of Indians are truly young. There has been a generational change, but this large raring-to-go, youthful constituency is faced with doddering choices with wrinkled brains from which emanate the same old boring statements, dull political rhetoric and the same mismanagement of governance. Energetic new and fresh approaches, attitudes and methodology have no real place in the battle this time round. All the parties have the same tired leadership at the helm uttering the same old predictable platitudes.
The fact that development has become the political slogan proves the paucity of vision. Development is what all governments are meant to be doing day upon day. What is so special about that? The tragedy for India is that all the parties and leaders who talk to the milling masses, seem to be barren in the ?idea? area ? a desertification of the mind. No one party has attempted to break the 50-year paradigm.
Actually, the last week has been a bit of a political joke. Serious positions have been replaced by silly and banal comments by many professionals who have joined various parties. Some of the things said make one squirm with embarrassment. However, as a spectator of these shenanigans, one is fast coming to the conclusion that my breed has become endangered and will soon be extinct.
The present mantra embodies a new ethos and a completely different set of values. It is important, for that reason alone, that the old self-acclaimed ?experienced? politician step away and let go. But the manner in which they are hanging on for dear life, at all cost, makes a mockery of the political play at the moment. Obviously they know that their days are numbered and they have very little time to prepare for the infirmity.
It was sad to see Arif M Khan defending himself and his shift to a party he has despised for decades. So demeaning. So saddening to see old leaders being humiliated while they believe they are being celebrated! Self-delusion of the worst kind…of the belittling kind. One wonders why these men and women cannot stay behind the screens, available for ?advice? when required. They will fast comprehend their irrelevance. Maybe then they will step away with dignity. If only this breed of people would realise that they are the true and definitive minority on the margins! Old political have-beens defecting to give their failures a lease of life…akin to a candle where the flame becomes large just before it dies.
I felt sorry for DP Yadav. Welcomed into the BJP fold with such fanfare where important leaders said he was ?not guilty? till proven and suchlike. Then unceremoniously rejected after there was a barrage of strong criticism against a party that professes to stand apart from the rest. The top leadership reacted with speed to salvage the damage. This is un-thought through, undignified politics. I hope Arif is not ditched if he is greeted with black flags in his constituency! Where will he go? We are all looking forward to the continuation of this farcical serial…whose next? Well, it?s Poonam Dhillon!
Page three politics, that is what it has been reduced to and it has nothing to do with the polity, or governance or development or any ?burning? issue. It has to do with opportunism laced with a desire to be ?remembered?. No professional doing well and on top of his or her career indulges
in this strange game. Newspapers too seem to have run out of stories of consequence, applying themselves to the lowest common denominator.