The political circus is unending…now it is the turn of the pollsters. The NDTV poll in collaboration with The Indian Express was conducted before the Congress had tied up with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and well before most parties had released their list of candidates. Strange premise and timing for a poll! What was it intended to do? What message was it intended to send out? It is all quite amusing particularly if you are watching these shenanigans from the sidelines.
The BJP continues to go for the kill…they appear confident and gung ho with a clear strategy for all to see. Top leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani are all over the place electioneering. Vasundhara Raje is combing the state of Rajasthan. Likewise, other leaders are doing their prachaar. Mayawati too is moving about from Maharashtra to Jammu as are the leaders from all parties. Nationwide, the Congress seems to be represented by one person, Sonia Gandhi. She is carrying on relentlessly and the other leaders do not seem to want to venture out. Why are they not seen and heard along with their leader? Why are they not being proactive? Why are they not going for the kill?
The common perception is that the Congress party has accepted its past position of being the second largest single party and has no fighting spirit that is visible which could make it a strong contender for the first place as a single party. If this is in fact the reality, it will find itself in a sorry situation in May. Constituents want to see the entire cohesive team, out there in the field, all committed to fighting for their space and place. What is coming across the footlights is a party content with being in the opposition, where colleagues are backbiting each other. This is not the time for that kind of politics. It is time for consolidation motivated and inspired by belief, ideology and commitment, not in fighting.
And, once again, it is a Gandhi out there grabbing the space for the Congress and speaking what needs to be heard and reiterated. Rahul has thrown himself in with a new language and idiom devoid of the hesitant frills. Fresh faces, different rhetoric, and hopefully, a contemporary ideology that will appeal to the new generation seems to be taking root. It?s such a relief to find no retaliation from the young incumbents to the irrelevant onslaught of those who oppose the Congress. Clearly, they believe in the more important issues that face India and their generation of Indians.
Pre-poll alliances ? what a double edged sword. In Bihar, the Congress had begun to rebuild and had made some headway…but with their alliance they are now stuck with four seats. This angers those who work for the party and it is a sure way of driving out the dedicated karyakartas who see no future for themselves in the party. This exodus could kill whatever remains on the ground. Dangerous. Likewise everywhere. By the time this country rejects coalition politics, the oldest party will have been decimated on the ground, as all the other regional parties grow and overwhelm it. Why give up the space? Better to go it alone and concentrate on rebuilding over the next few years. Post-poll coming together makes far more sense and could create the checks and balances for good governance.
It was most absurd to find a sports victory on the cricket field being affixed to good governance. Would a defeat be akin to bad governance? To have reduced political discourse to this level is embarrassing. It is sad to see a soundbite culture envelop the political arena that, in turn, has begun to feed the country with a string of inanities. This is one way of luring the potentially volatile middle class into a deep lethargy, thereby creating an intellectual vacuum. Most dictatorial regimes that do not encourage dissent of view or belief did this successfully till the horror came home to roost. Then, inevitably, the people revolted and went through their trial by fire. Thereafter came the change, the move into a new ethos.
The IIMs continue their struggle for autonomy. Thank the Lord for that because we need to keep all our institutions free from political and governmental interference. It is quite amusing to have a babu sit and pontificate on a board of a design or fashion institute! Juxtapose national and international private initiatives in the area of conservation with the Archaeological Survey and the picture becomes clear. Wherever you look, the government has its paws entrenched, embedded. They are the ?patrons? of ?culture?, an area that needs to be taken over by the private sector! The tentacles of this overpowering octopus have to be detached from us to allow us to take off.