The Issues and non-issues in this election

In these 'General' elections, unfortunately, both the 'national' parties in India have not highlighted the real issues that blight milions of people in India. One party (the BJP) has been parroting the 'terrorism threat' ad nauseam and has propped up a doddering octagenerian as India;s 'Iron Man' (लौहपुरूष ). Now, with young Mr. Varun Gandhi ( rising star of the saffron brigade and of 'यह गाँधी नहीं, आंधी है' fame) making vitriolic and unabashed communal statements, they find themselves with a lot of dust in their mouths. With push coming to shove, the communal and sectarian fangs of the BJP have been bared.

The Congress is stuck to its 'One family rule'. It would be laughable---if the joke wasn't on us, the Indian people--- that India's largest, oldest and most secular party, the 'crucible of the idea of India', cannot find or groom leaders outside the 'Nehru-Gandhi' familyin the world's largest parliamentary democracy. This fact stands testament to our feudal psyche (which has been Pakistan's undoing too). Mr Rahul Gandhi is young, earnest and fairly charismatic. But he has not said, let alone done, anything of note as yet that would mark him out as a candidate for high office, other than the fact that he was born to Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi. Moreover, the BJP and the Congress have of late been locked in an unseemly personality battle between Mr. Advani and Dr. Manmohan Singh.

The regional parties have not been able to build a credible third front, primarily because of the very poor quality of people that most of them throw up. While many of them have a relatively high representation from marginalised or 'non-elite' groups, and in that sense are a toast to India's thriving democracy, it takes a very high level of competence to run a country as large and complex as India, and I am not very confident of how well uneducated local rabble rousers would be able to do the job. In any case, most of them stand on thin foundations of local caste, communal and linguistic equations.

I think the biggest tragedy with India's polity is the fact that we are unable to generate the right kind of leaders. The reason is that in the last two post independence generations, the educated, the most competent people in India have somehow looked upon politics as something obnoxious and unfashionable. They have concentrated on studying hard to crack competition, land 'respectable jobs' (the Civil Services or in the private sector) and then retire quietly to do their gardening and reading. When I told my wife that I aspired to join politics some day, she recoiled at the idea--- "How will I say that I am married to a politician?" she asked in horror. It was almost as if I was planning a career in drug peddling. This has been the bane; the apathy of the educated middle class. My own example is a case in the point - I could not even find time to register myself for voting in Mumbai. I am still registered in Kolkata.

The Real Issues

Politicians have been raking up issues relating to language and religion that have assailed the multi-ethnic fabric of India and sometimes, torn it to shreds to create a constituency for themselves. They have polarised people and distracted them from the real issues---like hunger, poverty, education, healthcare and infrastructure - roads, power and storage facilities for agricultural products. While the BJP is giving disproportionate importance to the issue of security (it is an issue, but I think Naxalism is a greater threat); people like Mr. Narendra Modi, Mr. Raj Thackeray and Mr. Varun Gandhi have been perniciously trying to divide the populace to create constituencies for themselves. And in feudal UP, Ms. Mayawati has been playing her old caste card and using the government as a personal fiefdom and a source of illegal patronage for her cronies (all as per local tradition). The alternative---a Mulayam Singh---is even worse; not only is he corrupt, he is also avowedly anti-development.

The Return of the Jedi

It is heartening to see a resurgence of interest among the educated middle class in political affairs. Groups like AGNI and Jaago Re (launched by Tata Tea) in Mumbai and Janaagraha in Bangalore have been creating awareness and have launched voter registration dirves and 'know your candidate' campaigns. People like Capt. Gopinath, Meera Sanyal and Mallika Sarabhai have jumped into the fray. If not anything else, they keep a Syed Shahabuddin or a Varun Gandhi out of Parliament. However, the Prime Minister (Dr. Manmohan Singh's) contention that independent candidates like Ms Sanyal tend to divide up the vote and do not really make a difference is partly right. It makes sense to join a party. Just making it to Parliament is not very effective in the curent reality, where government formation and even voting in Parliament tends to be driven by party lines. It should be the same Mantra that drives the private sector: optimum utilisation of scarce resources.
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