Saffron chariot hits a hump

The election results for the five states which went to polls are out finally after a long-drawn and boring process, which these elections have become nowadays. The current scores of these results are as interesting as it gets during a T20 cricket match.

Rahul Gandhi alias "Pappu" has won on points while Narendra Damodardas Modi alias "Feku" has lost ground to the party that he seeks to "eliminate" (Congress-mukth) from Indian politics! The common thread in these results indicate that voters in these states want a change in the existing govt. and hence in four states (excepting Telengana) the incumbent govt's are most likely to abdicate the throne.

If anything is to be learnt from these elections, it is that there are limitations to how far ideology-driven parties can go in pushing their core agendas or beliefs. People are only interested in them as long as they are able to aid the upward mobility of general population, economically and socially, in that order of preference. The throw-back to centrist politics is inevitable when the "core agenda of voters" is not met. "Roti, kapada aur makan" may just be a slogan today, but for the voter, it is foremost in their minds albeit in upgraded forms of lifestyle that they aspire to. Which is why "jobs" is a hot topic and of primary concern in most countries. Moreover, there is a fundamental flaw (or call it a contradiction) in the design of a multi-party democracy and the way it is administered, which makes it seemingly volatile and unstable most of the times. But more on that later.

So for the BJP, the lesson is to move away from "Pappugiri" politics and "supari" slogans of eliminating its rivals, to a more inclusive agenda. For the Congress, now also known as the GOP (grand old party) of India (silly Americanisms), there is hope on the horizon. But it cannot package old wine in new bottle and expect people to swallow it. The information age is upon us and social ramifications of living in a hyper-media and Internet-enabled environment is highly unpredictable, especially for politics and politicians. (Photo © India Today)

Bagal me churi, mu me Ram!

Come elections and a battery of interesting personalities emerge from the woodwork of politics to claim the stage. It so happens that there is a "Chandrashekar Azad" in UP who runs an outfit called "Bhim Sena" (Bhim's Army)! Strangely enough, Azad goes by a self-imposed nickname "Ravan". As the name of the organization implies, it mobilizes Dalits and claims to propagate the vision of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. It has 33 objectives listed on its website including eradication of caste system and social emancipation of SC,ST and OBCs. Of course another national organization which has similar goals is Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). While Ravan maintains that he has the greatest respect and affection for Mayawati and BSP, madam Mayawati has no love lost for him. Her contention is that he is an agent of the BJP and the RSS and seeks to confuse, confound and mislead her support base. She may have a point.

Coincidentally, Bhim's Army is headquartered in Nagpur which as we know, is also the HQ of another interesting organization - the right-wing RSS. While there is no apparent open connection between these two interesting organizations, Bhim's army is nowadays busy strumming up support for building the Ram temple in Ayodhya among Dalits. This leaves me scratching my head as to how and where it fits in with Ambedkar's vision; a man who walked out of the caste-ridden "Hindu" fold and asked his followers to also do so by adopting Buddhism!

What is funny is that while Ravan is up to his antics (miles away from Lanka), he has run into a practical problem with the Ayodhya issue. People are asking how come Ravan is campaigning for a temple to be constructed for Ram! "Kya dal me kuch kaala hai?" Or is it "bagal me churi, mu me Ram?" And before this becomes a burning issue, dude Azad has now decided to ditch "Ravan". He says he may want to be called "Chulbul Pandey" from tomorrow, it is his choice, what say you to it huh?

Let's play "Statue Statue!"

Ever played the "Statue" game when you were kids? It is a fairly simple game as we played it. All you have to do is call out "Statue" by pointing your index and middle finger with the thumb folded (similar to that of a gun), at your opponent any time of the day or night. The idea is to catch him or her unawares. The opponent has to remain static in the position for as long as you don't call out statue again.

Nowadays politicians in India have taken to the game very seriously. Their version of the game is "my statue is bigger than yours" (Seems like a guy thing?) In this game, you physically construct a statue of some historical icon from your state. The idea is to construct as big a statue as your imagination can hold. Some years ago Mayawati of Bahujan Samaj Party went on a statue spree in UP, when she was the Chief Minister of that state. Her goal was to create 1000 elephants which represents her party's symbol besides the statues of Dr. Ambedkar, her own and her mentor Kanshi Ram's. There was a hue and cry from all quarters about this project and especially the BJP. Nevertheless, she did construct her statues which are ensconced in a park in Lucknow today called the Ambedkar Memorial Park ('Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Prateek Sthal' for those who freak out on local lingo!) Of course the number of elephants was scaled down, probably when they realised that there is a cost to imagination running wild!

Today the same BJP people who screamed hoarse about Mayawati's statues are singing paeans to their own statues. While many are still cooking their "khayali Pulaos" (Pulao of imagination), the one that has been recently served up is the Sardar Vallabhai Patel statue in Gujarat. This one had been cooking since 2010, the master chef being Prime Minister Modi, who was the CM of Gujarat then. This one has been named "The Statue of Unity". Of course it is a little funny that just before the launch of the statue by Modi, some people of the state decided on demonstrating their sense of the word unity by unleashing violence on the people of UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh living in Gujarat, driving them out by the hordes. And all these states ironically are ruled by the BJP so the "unity" was even more poignant!

The other part of the story is that many have jumped on the statue game band wagon. Soon after Patel, came the announcement by UP CM Adityanath Yogi that they will be constructing an equally big if not a bigger statue of Ram on the Ganges! Of course chelas are expected to take a leaf out of the book of their gurus. So "tu Patel tho mai Ram!" On the Western front, Phadnavis' Maharashtra govt. has almost finalized the design of a "world's tallest" Shivaji statue in the Arabian Sea! This one's also been cooking for a while and the chef minister Phadnavis may actually make some headway.

A politicians' job is to also keep a tab on the pulse of the people besides his own pocket, and so surely enough, Karnataka which is ruled by the "Opposition" announced they would like to construct a "statue of mother Cauvery". Now that may be a good idea because at least the younger generation in future will know there was something like the Cauvery which they are killing little by little every day!

And there is more to the statue saga. Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu announced today that they will be constructing the "tallest tallest" tower as part of their new Assembly complex in Amravati, the new capital of the "left-over" state. This he assures us would be the taller than Patel by a good margin. I hope Chandrababu can put his mentor NTR on top of the tower so there is like more punch to the story!

2019 election season is fast approaching

The 17th Lok Sabha election is expected in April or May of 2019. It is time to start taking a look at all that is happening and expected to happen around this mega event... funny and interestingly otherwise. In fact a "mini mega" election is going on right now in the country(When is it not?). These are the assembly polls to Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telengana. These states are voting on Nov. 12, 20, 28 and Dec. 7. Despite the polls being the last ones scheduled before the Lok Sabha elections next year, the temperature of the campaign has been strangely muted. Other than a few sparks here and there, the interest in these elections has been less than normal for India. Maybe there is a sense of fatigue in the people to political news or is it that not many expect much to change anyway. Whatever it is, the major theme for 2019 elections is expected to be whether Modi can deliver a second innings for the BJP and NDA. Right now pollsters and punters alike are expecting an encore from Modi albeit on a sticky wicket of mixed performance. However, it is too early to predict anything as a floundering and divided opposition is still picking up its sticks. It seems like a good time to revive this blog which has been in hibernation for a long time.

Vote for 'change' and 'jadoo ki jhappi'

When it comes to voting most people think they are ushering in some change. However it's never evident what is the change that they seek other than a change in the person ruling them. Along with Indian vote which has become a long-drawn affair, the South Africans are also voting today. This time it is reported that there is a younger lot of voters who have not been part of the anti-apartheid struggle there. So this lot have ideas of their own and look at things differently. Most of these young voters when asked about the vote they said they want change. Ditto the young Indian voter who also wants change. It's probably the 'in thing'... the catch word.

In India another set of voting will take place tomorrow. The only comic relief was provided by Sanju baba who is still continuing with his Munnabhai role. He was in trouble with the EC for expressing his desire at a rally to give a "jadoo ki jhappi and pappi" (magic hug and kiss) to Mayawati. When served with a notice for the comment, he clarified that he considered the UP "behenji" (sister) as his behen and the comment was just brother-sister banter. Hope the EC agrees with this interpretation, else Sanju baba may have to give them the "jadoo ki jhappi" to convince them.

Caught between the devil and deep sea?

There is a sense of fatigue among people with these elections. Won't be surprised if the voting percentages reflect that. The last elections was a watershed in Indian history since it showed that people can vote with a purpose. However, the nation today is highly fragmented on issues, and people are generally fed-up with politicians. Not many really trust or expect their representatives to do much for them or for the country.

They are generally looked upon as greedy, manipulative,shameless and with no real committment to the nation or people they represent. This is evident in the ruckus seen outside party offices during ticket distributions which resemble scenes from "Gold Rush". Each candidate will have his own bandwagon of supporters, who are basically minor aspirants and expect to benefit if their leader "makes it."

Many aspirants are also "career politicians" - those who pursue politics like a career looking for promotions at the first opportunity and then seeking to climb the ladder by hook or by crook. Sixty years after Independence, the whole system stinks. For the poor, the election means another TV or food rations which will keep them alive till the next elections. The middle-class are status quoists who wouldn't want to rock the boat too much. The rich are too busy with parties of the other kind and the super rich are busy calculating how much they will stand to lose or gain by backing a particular candidate. The youth doesn't exist as a homogenous class like politicians would like us to believe, so they cannot really make or break an election.

This report sums up the elections very nicely:

http://election.rediff.com/column/2009/apr/14/loksabhapoll-election-2009-seems-like-543-mini-elections.htm

Sloganeering for voters

"It is not only important to vote but informed voting is equally important." "Sache ko chune, Achche ko chune"(Vote for truthful people, Vote for good people). Jaago Re (Wake up)!

These are some of the slogans one gets to her from various interest groups trying to persuade people to come out and vote in the elections. They seem to believe that increasing the voting percentage increases the chance of good governance! Nowadays these groups compete vigourously with political parties for mind share of voters. However, it is doubtful how effective these slogans really are. A good marketing campaign can only do so much. You also need a good product. And that's something these groups have no control on.

For the young yuppie crowd, there are no candidates, really speaking, who can communicate to them. Since there is an averaging out of everything in this country, keeping in mind the vast differences across various socio-economic segments, caste and communities of people, it is really difficult to find candidates who can straddle all the segments effectively. It is difficult to even reconcile the needs of various groups.

Parties nominate candidates
who can garner votes from those communities which have the larger numbers and therefore form the dominant group of voters in a constituency. All the others are just bonus voters; the group which these "come out and vote" slogans usually target. In fact their voting or not voting doesn't really make a difference unless they are part of the dominant group of voters. That is why it is said that "democracy is rule of the brute majority."