So every 4 weeks, we are getting more and more media bytes of politicians taking pot shots at each other in a game of one-upmanship. Rahul Gandhi is on an overdrive to prove himself the complete buddhu that he is.
It initially started with 'Poverty is a state of mind' and spending time with the poor. Then he was quite garrulous in his statement that it doesn't matter what the cost is, the poor must have food security. [Well Mr. Gandhi, since poverty is a state of mind, isn't it better that you contribute from the trukloads of black money you have stashed and foot the bill?!?! Why bother the tax payers to help you bribe the poor voters]
Then came the real political drama where-in the law is first tossed in favor of convicted politicians and then Mr. Buddhu comes and says it is rubbish blah blah and all the twitterati and media rants followed. This has really compelled people to ask the question WTF is going on in Congress at the moment? Who is in charge? Who has the say because at the end of it all, it is some member from the Gandhi family who takes either the money, or the fame or both canceling all incentives from senior party leaders to even think of working for a change.
Next comes another political drama yet again of Telangana and Seemandhra. Yet another futile exercise as it will cause more harm than good for the tax payers and fuel unnecessary duels. Well, its just like the government coming and telling you - 'Sorry mate, we are the currently elected members and are doing our best to bribe the voters and what happens after that is your problem. You just have to pay and sulk as usual! And don't tell me that it happens in India alone it happens all over' Any common man who replies saying, 'Ok sir, I agree even Germany and US and UK do the same thing but then they at least ensure that the infrastructure is in place, social security is in place'. The obvious snub on this would be 'Boss - yeh India hai. 100 Crore ki aabaadi hai - sab kuch jo videsh mein hota hai, yahan nahi hota. Hum toh bas satta ke liye kuch bhi karenge'
We had 2 major calamities, one in the form of Phailin and the other was the stampede at a temple in MP. The Congress was quick to pounce upon the MP CM and said that the incident happened in his regime, etc etc etc. Well the Congress should have been the last party to take such soft pot shots; under the Congress regime, we have had 2 rueful rape cases [reported and highlighted by the press] One in Delhi and one in Mumbai [both of which are Congress territory] We had a sad Uttarakhand disaster [again a Congress foothold] and it was the armed forces that came to the rescue. Unfortunately, our leaders from both Congress and BJP are resorting to cheap politics to take jibes at each other when the core tragic issues are something else all together.
The Congress has used almost all ammunition possible to bribe voters big time as we move closer to the elections
1 - Poor class - albeit the votebank won over with Food Security Bill.
2 - Middle class - with the sudden 4 rupee reduction in petrol price [I thought the budget was made with Rupee-Dollar below 56 after which the series of increases kicked in. CAD was an issue. Oh no - with elections around the corner, all these issues are futile]
Moreover, the 7th Pay commission has been approved and passed out [There are yet so many who are yet to see the benefits of the 5th Pay commission, let alone the 6th Pay commission. Rampant loot by PSU officials and MPs in the name of LTA]
3 - Business class is being wooed with tax amnesty, banking licenses and suddenly, the defunct industries that were shut down or clamped with taxation issues are reviving. Spectrum prices are decreasing sharply in the auctions [and simultaneously the CAG is getting snubbed with calculation of 1.76Lakh Crores of lost money]
In a nut shell, the Congress government has almost used every trick in the book possible to entice voters. Whether that will really translate to votes, time will tell.
On the other hand, Modi is strengthening himself in public speeches and taking royal swipes at the Congressmen. However, there is a very real risk in this particular strategy. One must remember that with all due credit to his visionary leadership, he is now over-shadowing the local candidates. Good oratory skills can get you those quick wins of taalis and seetis amongst the crowd and overflowing tweets from all media channels wanting to report the metaphors. One man can only do so much as a leader and the strength of Narendra Modi is his fortress, Gujarat. He may have some cheer now for the party in the form of momentum but this strategy is not really going to work out in favor of Modi or BJP.
At the end of it all, there is a proper set of lieutenants to be setup and that somehow is not happening with the BJP at the moment. All that they are doing is taking jibes at Congress but those can't really swing elections moving forward.
The other cartoon Mulayam Singh Yadav has the audacity to say that a 3rd front will come into power. Both cartoon father and son have not realized that the people of this country have lost all respect for them. They may do what they want in UP - but for how long GOD alone knows.
In fact, what has surprised me the most is the level of under-estimation politicians have done in terms of awareness levels of people. Thanks to media proliferation and specifically social media proliferation, news travels at the speed of light - literally. And news is not limited to the daily newspaper or the eveninger or a particular channel. Most of our political leaders at the moment seem to have mentally retarded themselves in late 1980s and early 1990s. On one hand they talk about demographic dividend but on the other hand, they seem to have not realized how much things have changed.
There are a lot of illusions that the young have and some of those die the natural death in course of life maturity. However, most of our political leaders seemed to have completely lost track on how smart and educated the youth of new India our. Maybe due to inertia, this time they may get through. However, if our political leaders don't tune into the fact that they are simply making a fool of themselves with never ending foot in the mouth disease loose statements, they are rapidly shaking the confidence of the youth on ekected leaders.
In fact, what was most refreshing to see was the efforts made by Narendra Modi to connect with the youth of the country. True, it may very well be that he has a team of young people giving social media bytes on his behalf but what he is gesturing is something very significant. The message seems to be 'I agree that the world is changing and I would like to tune myself as much as possible to the social mood' On the other hand most leaders from all parties are still doing what they used to do 20 years ago. Even Bollywood and Television change the themes of their programs on the basis of what people like. Not so with our politicians. It has been time and again reported that the 12 crore new voters can swing the elections big time, this time. This has been covered by all leading media outlets and a strange statistic is that no single party has garnered 12 crore votes so far in the last few elections [thanks to poor voter turnout]
The only other MLA/MP I see active on social media is Derek O Brein. All the quiz elements that he posts, I enjoy [come on I grew up watching earlier BQC shows and reading all the BQC books he published] All his mouthpiece elements for TMC, I ignore [but not before I have snubbed him on DiDigiri and TMCs' rogue practices] I really don't expect anything positive from the senior leaders in terms of social media contribution.
However, the sense of responsibility of thinking through before speaking is near zero. Especially when this happens from senior people like Sheila Dikshit, Digvijay Singh, one really has to ask the compelling question 'Is the stress of doing all this for the party so stressful to you. Boss - you seem one stop away from being admitted to one of the NIMHANS centres and administered some electric shocks - you have gone senile!]
Senility has taken over common sense as far as most oldies in the world of Indian politics are concerned. In fact it is high time that we change the constitution strengthening the eligibility criteria for politicians.
1] Education: Must be at least a Graduate from a Tier1 university [Hardly any US senator gets the chair without a degree from the Ivy League Universities]
2] Age: If IAS / IPS / Judiciary are all set to retire by 60-62 years of age, why do we have senior citicns in the parliament? They are not blue blooded people; if the arterial forces of the country have a specification to hang their boots, nothing should stop politicians from staying within that age limit.
3] Qualification for Portfolio: We can't have actors like Shatrughan Sinha handling Shipping or Zero Sibbal handling Telecom.
So where does the jury stand after all the hooplah of last 5 weeks?
UPA: Still a 60% chance of making it
NDA: Still a 40% chance of making it
3rd Front: ZERO
It initially started with 'Poverty is a state of mind' and spending time with the poor. Then he was quite garrulous in his statement that it doesn't matter what the cost is, the poor must have food security. [Well Mr. Gandhi, since poverty is a state of mind, isn't it better that you contribute from the trukloads of black money you have stashed and foot the bill?!?! Why bother the tax payers to help you bribe the poor voters]
Then came the real political drama where-in the law is first tossed in favor of convicted politicians and then Mr. Buddhu comes and says it is rubbish blah blah and all the twitterati and media rants followed. This has really compelled people to ask the question WTF is going on in Congress at the moment? Who is in charge? Who has the say because at the end of it all, it is some member from the Gandhi family who takes either the money, or the fame or both canceling all incentives from senior party leaders to even think of working for a change.
Next comes another political drama yet again of Telangana and Seemandhra. Yet another futile exercise as it will cause more harm than good for the tax payers and fuel unnecessary duels. Well, its just like the government coming and telling you - 'Sorry mate, we are the currently elected members and are doing our best to bribe the voters and what happens after that is your problem. You just have to pay and sulk as usual! And don't tell me that it happens in India alone it happens all over' Any common man who replies saying, 'Ok sir, I agree even Germany and US and UK do the same thing but then they at least ensure that the infrastructure is in place, social security is in place'. The obvious snub on this would be 'Boss - yeh India hai. 100 Crore ki aabaadi hai - sab kuch jo videsh mein hota hai, yahan nahi hota. Hum toh bas satta ke liye kuch bhi karenge'
We had 2 major calamities, one in the form of Phailin and the other was the stampede at a temple in MP. The Congress was quick to pounce upon the MP CM and said that the incident happened in his regime, etc etc etc. Well the Congress should have been the last party to take such soft pot shots; under the Congress regime, we have had 2 rueful rape cases [reported and highlighted by the press] One in Delhi and one in Mumbai [both of which are Congress territory] We had a sad Uttarakhand disaster [again a Congress foothold] and it was the armed forces that came to the rescue. Unfortunately, our leaders from both Congress and BJP are resorting to cheap politics to take jibes at each other when the core tragic issues are something else all together.
The Congress has used almost all ammunition possible to bribe voters big time as we move closer to the elections
1 - Poor class - albeit the votebank won over with Food Security Bill.
2 - Middle class - with the sudden 4 rupee reduction in petrol price [I thought the budget was made with Rupee-Dollar below 56 after which the series of increases kicked in. CAD was an issue. Oh no - with elections around the corner, all these issues are futile]
Moreover, the 7th Pay commission has been approved and passed out [There are yet so many who are yet to see the benefits of the 5th Pay commission, let alone the 6th Pay commission. Rampant loot by PSU officials and MPs in the name of LTA]
3 - Business class is being wooed with tax amnesty, banking licenses and suddenly, the defunct industries that were shut down or clamped with taxation issues are reviving. Spectrum prices are decreasing sharply in the auctions [and simultaneously the CAG is getting snubbed with calculation of 1.76Lakh Crores of lost money]
In a nut shell, the Congress government has almost used every trick in the book possible to entice voters. Whether that will really translate to votes, time will tell.
On the other hand, Modi is strengthening himself in public speeches and taking royal swipes at the Congressmen. However, there is a very real risk in this particular strategy. One must remember that with all due credit to his visionary leadership, he is now over-shadowing the local candidates. Good oratory skills can get you those quick wins of taalis and seetis amongst the crowd and overflowing tweets from all media channels wanting to report the metaphors. One man can only do so much as a leader and the strength of Narendra Modi is his fortress, Gujarat. He may have some cheer now for the party in the form of momentum but this strategy is not really going to work out in favor of Modi or BJP.
At the end of it all, there is a proper set of lieutenants to be setup and that somehow is not happening with the BJP at the moment. All that they are doing is taking jibes at Congress but those can't really swing elections moving forward.
The other cartoon Mulayam Singh Yadav has the audacity to say that a 3rd front will come into power. Both cartoon father and son have not realized that the people of this country have lost all respect for them. They may do what they want in UP - but for how long GOD alone knows.
In fact, what has surprised me the most is the level of under-estimation politicians have done in terms of awareness levels of people. Thanks to media proliferation and specifically social media proliferation, news travels at the speed of light - literally. And news is not limited to the daily newspaper or the eveninger or a particular channel. Most of our political leaders at the moment seem to have mentally retarded themselves in late 1980s and early 1990s. On one hand they talk about demographic dividend but on the other hand, they seem to have not realized how much things have changed.
There are a lot of illusions that the young have and some of those die the natural death in course of life maturity. However, most of our political leaders seemed to have completely lost track on how smart and educated the youth of new India our. Maybe due to inertia, this time they may get through. However, if our political leaders don't tune into the fact that they are simply making a fool of themselves with never ending foot in the mouth disease loose statements, they are rapidly shaking the confidence of the youth on ekected leaders.
In fact, what was most refreshing to see was the efforts made by Narendra Modi to connect with the youth of the country. True, it may very well be that he has a team of young people giving social media bytes on his behalf but what he is gesturing is something very significant. The message seems to be 'I agree that the world is changing and I would like to tune myself as much as possible to the social mood' On the other hand most leaders from all parties are still doing what they used to do 20 years ago. Even Bollywood and Television change the themes of their programs on the basis of what people like. Not so with our politicians. It has been time and again reported that the 12 crore new voters can swing the elections big time, this time. This has been covered by all leading media outlets and a strange statistic is that no single party has garnered 12 crore votes so far in the last few elections [thanks to poor voter turnout]
The only other MLA/MP I see active on social media is Derek O Brein. All the quiz elements that he posts, I enjoy [come on I grew up watching earlier BQC shows and reading all the BQC books he published] All his mouthpiece elements for TMC, I ignore [but not before I have snubbed him on DiDigiri and TMCs' rogue practices] I really don't expect anything positive from the senior leaders in terms of social media contribution.
However, the sense of responsibility of thinking through before speaking is near zero. Especially when this happens from senior people like Sheila Dikshit, Digvijay Singh, one really has to ask the compelling question 'Is the stress of doing all this for the party so stressful to you. Boss - you seem one stop away from being admitted to one of the NIMHANS centres and administered some electric shocks - you have gone senile!]
Senility has taken over common sense as far as most oldies in the world of Indian politics are concerned. In fact it is high time that we change the constitution strengthening the eligibility criteria for politicians.
1] Education: Must be at least a Graduate from a Tier1 university [Hardly any US senator gets the chair without a degree from the Ivy League Universities]
2] Age: If IAS / IPS / Judiciary are all set to retire by 60-62 years of age, why do we have senior citicns in the parliament? They are not blue blooded people; if the arterial forces of the country have a specification to hang their boots, nothing should stop politicians from staying within that age limit.
3] Qualification for Portfolio: We can't have actors like Shatrughan Sinha handling Shipping or Zero Sibbal handling Telecom.
So where does the jury stand after all the hooplah of last 5 weeks?
UPA: Still a 60% chance of making it
NDA: Still a 40% chance of making it
3rd Front: ZERO
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