From a state of not being able to make any sense of some of the predictions that I heard,
to the quality of leaders on show, to the kind of promises, bravado and
behavior put up by the Prime Ministerial candidates, to the manner in which
people responded to public meetings, I finally heaved a sigh of relief and came
to the conclusion that there is sense in this whole process of democracy.
Finally sense prevailed, and by and large it appeared that the people voted for
what seemed to be their best interests based on what they heard, saw and felt.
Despite all the negativism surrounding Narendra Modi and his past,
he was always going to emerge the strongest candidate for the job of the Prime
Minister. He came riding on the back of a successful model in Gujarat, showing
vision and thought, and ideas of how he proposes to lead the country. In his
opposition the main rival Congress put up
Rahul Gandhi who was woefully inadequate to handle the mantle of the
leader of the world's largest democracy. Caught in its own web of sycophants
who never oppose, never tell the truth, and a leadership that probably does not
have the time to listen to good counsel, the Congress put up a candidate that
compromised any hope of that party putting a fight. A true case of the
emperor's new clothes and the party could do well to address these fundamental
issues - that the people will not tolerate such follies that can be thrust upon
the party surely, but not on citizens across India. On the other hand we had
the promising Arvind Kejriwal who
for some reason decided to fight his election against Modi in Varanasi. Why would you want
to do that unless you are caught up in some childish whim? Why can't you remain
faithful to your constituency and get elected and do some good and in five
years come back with a better case? Why this huge hurry? Why this arrogance?
This childishness? Anyway both these parties hogged enough limelight and fared
badly mainly due to their own abysmal and thoughtless decision making,
arrogance and unrealistic views. Modi would
have sailed through without any effort considering the opposition he had, and
even he would not have expected to romp home with such a convincing majority.
Thankfully the people of India gave him the mandate and told the others to go
clean up their act. Very heartening indeed.
Now the time has come to deliver. All this while, parties got
stuck in coalition politics and could never decide on their own. Now is the
chance to do all that the BJP felt
was right. Such an opportunity comes rarely and the BJP must make the most of it. There
cannot be any excuses for not fulfilling its promises. How they will be able to
maneuver themselves and the political machinery against these tricky issues
needs to be seen. But they cannot wish them away surely and must address them.
A more heartening feature was the election in Andhra Pradesh. If reports were to be
believed (including the alleged report compiled by some high level experts) YSRCP was to sweep the polls. I was
aghast that this party led by a leader who is facing corruption charges of
humongous proportions and has been in jail for that, who has displayed no great
signs of administration nor political maturity and who has always been a man in
a hurry, should win. More so against a veteran like Chandrababu Naidu who has proved his
administrative capabilities before. But once again the people of Seemandhra showed great sense and
despite attending the rallies of Jaganmohan
Reddy in great numbers, voted Naidu,
his track record and political acumen into power. TRS won in Telangana which is not unexpected.
It is a fair verdict. The mandate has been given to the right
people, or shall we say the best candidate son view. Now they have no excuse
for not delivering all that they promised, all that they said they would do. It
is obviously a much smarter people they are dealing with, one that is looking
out for its bigger and collective good, going beyond narrow communal and
regional biases. It augurs well for the people. Now to see if we have the
leaders we deserve.
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