An ode to Indian democracy

As the elections dawn upon the vibrant democracy of India and as the battle for votes reaches its feverish pitch, I found myself thinking, where are the people worth being given chair of the Highest post of our country? As parties attack each other over each other records by pulling out petty stats, I found myself thinking where are the ideologies to vote for? As the world's largest democracy goes to vote, i found myself thinking where are the leaders worth voting for?

For far too long, elections in India have been characterized by throwing out incumbents rather than voting fro concrete manifestoes, ideologies, or sheer vision. NDA was famously ousted by the UPA on the basis of high onion prices and if the NDA had their house in order, it would have been very likely that UPA too could have been thrown out on the basis oh high food prices (CPI still stands at 9% as against the WPI which is a measly 0.44% for the week ended), this is a different issue that it would have given rise to a scary prospect of a communalist like L K Advani becoming the PM. Agenda's are commonly attacked rather than the vision of each of the party. The UPA and the NDA haven’t even bothered to release their manifestoes till date and the Third Front the touted 'alternate secular front which released one of its own, has things like scrapping the nuclear deal with the U.S.A.

The elite class has often been condemned for behaving in a chauvinist manner by not even turning up to vote during the elections and often treating elections dates as an extended weekend and thus due to this reason they have not turned into an effective votebank for political parties to pursue. But this behaviours needs to be inspected before dismissing the elitist sections of the society as snobs.

During the American elections this time around, people genuinely wanted a change, a change, which would blow across the battered, sails of America and undo the wrongs done and lead it towards reclaiming their former glory. Barack Husein Obama provided that change, here was a person who was of African origin, was into drugs at one point of time but had the courage to pursue his dream to reach the most important post in the world with dogged determination. Students came out to vote, the rich and affluent turned out too, no wonder that at his induction ceremony a record 2 million people were present.

India too faces a crisis today, the numbing and chilling terrorist attacks have not only jeopardized the security of the nation but also its image. Isn't is shameful that a mega event like the IPL which would have been a great source of revenue for our service sector such as hotel industry, airline industry, tourism in such recession fuelled times had to be shifted because of dangers of security? Apart from this the naxal menace goes on unchecked, the Salwa Judum has only resulted in increased human rights violations, J & K continues to witness excesses by the Indian army, the sporting infrastructure has been a mess forever and the work for the Commonwealth nations 2010 is progressing at a snail's pace hence posing a serious threat to the credibility of India as a rising soft power along with China, there are increasing regional interests dominating the national scene and the rise of these hooligan regional factions seriously undermine the validity of the concept of India, the vision itself for which India was created.

In face of such crisis I found myself thinking that is their absolutely any leader in this country who inspires an iota of hope in our minds? Is there even a single leader who can be trusted by the Indian electorate to guide India towards Kalam's vision 2020?
An unfortunate answer, which stared back at me, was a deafening NO. A look at our prime ministerial candidates proves this point.
The main opposition front NDA has nominated LK Advani for the top post, a communalist who blatantly supported the demolition of Babri Masjid, the pain of which still resonated in the heart of every Indian Muslim and creating a rift not only between Hindu's and Muslims but also leading to disastrous consequences for the nation as a whole (think 1992 blasts, 93 riots, 2002 riots). Can we ever trust a non-secular terrorist like him to be a Prime Minister of our country? The Hindutva forces for long now have pursued a fundamentalist agenda buoyed by the blessings of the NDA forces present in the Government be it in the case of Orissa, or Gujrat or Karnataka. Thus as a force which has to lead India through this tumultuous and yet crucial stage the NDA definitely is a very unattractive option.

Mayawati has thrown her hat in the ring too and it is common knowledge that she has her eyes well set on the high post at Delhi. As a leader, she has been praised to her social engineering gambit and the way she has got the support of the lower as well as the upper castes. But rank corruption and a complete authoritarian style of governance has marred her image in the eyes of the intellectuals and the general perception of people educated and with a keen sense of politics has been negative. Instances of her rather grand birthday celebrations where she is literally worshipped by her followers, her collectors who in the past have actually murdered some people in UP for failing to pay up for her birthday celebrations and her rather disproportionate assets which she has attributed to gifts from her followers have evoked distrust from the intelligentsia which might be against the perception held by the common man.

And finally the role of Dr. Manmohan Singh too needs to be discussed. The affable and the highly astute man has often been called a politician by accident. His squeaky-clean image and gentle demeanour have led to these claims. What no one doubts though is the credibility of this economist. Highly learned and respected, Dr. Singh evoked through respect but sadly only as a person and not as a PM. Unfortunately he just doesn’t possess the firmness and charisma needed for a job of this stature and complexity. Though best among all the bets his party just doesn’t seem to have any sort of an ideology or a political alignment. That does go against Dr. Singh claims at leading India for the second term.

And there lies the malaise gripping the politics in India today. Dynastic successions in undemocratic parties has given rise to a generation of young politicians like, Rahul Gandhi, Milind Deora, Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Vasundra Raje, Omar Abdullah whose sole qualifications are being a part of political lineage. One might argue that it’s a common practise for sons following their father’s footsteps and continue the family practise or business. But the problem is that politics in principle not a business, it impacts billions across the lengths and breadths of the country, define the image which a country has among the world; shape the future of the living as well as the unborn. Thus I run scared to see absolutely no change at sight in the horizon. Politics will continue to be a family ‘business’, people who had the spark in them to prove effective administrators like Meena Sayal, Shashi Tharoor, Kapil Sibal will lose out in the long run to the pseudo youth representatives such as Rahul, Omar and the likes. Political manifestoes will continue to be recycled and then thrown away simply because nobody reads them and nobody cares. Votebank politics will dominate the national scene, the intellectuals will be disillusioned still not being able to come together as a votebank and the power of youth will be spoken about pseudos. For all practical purposes Indian democracy is dead; long live India!!