By Ananya S Guha
There is no end to analyzing pre poll and for that matter post polls elections in the staes or in the country. Analyses will continue, and sometimes the electorate dubbed as intelligent, sometimes populist, and sometimes anti ‘communal’, for want of a better word.
M.J. Akbar’s lucid analysis in a weekly column surmises on this count. Why did the Congress win in Himachal Pradesh and the BJP in Gujarat? It is not a question of Rashrta he says, the electorate prefers butter to the toting gun, of course it does. Can there be any doubt on that? The common man wants proper living, health, sanitation and education. The common man, in a country, where most of the population lives under the povery line; wants peace, Mr Akbar. So there is no use surmising why Muslims voted more for the BJP than the last elections.
The common man does not go by divides: he goes by peace, and semblance of good governance. He does not want to live in the holocaust of fear. Yes, we are all guilty, whenever we talk of Gujarat; we talk of the Hindu Muslim wrath, of fears of course. Then comes Himachal Pradesh, the noted columnist suggests, that though it is a Hindu state, the Congress have been voted to power, in preference to the BJP, because of the same reason. You govern well you are in, badly, you are out! Yes the Indian electorate is not only intelligent but also shrewd and perspicacious. It is also malleable, prone to the lure of money. The reason again is simple: because it is poverty ridden.
How long will it take for commentators and journalists to realize that poverty is a vicious cycle, ensnaring and entrapping its victims into fallacies, lure and exploitation? Seasoned people, people working in the government offices, in industries have shown the way- be corrupt. So poverty percolates down under, and becomes a way of life. Tell me, will the abjectly poor have any conscience, when the so called educated class flouts it with impunity? Will stealing something or looting a shop have any effect on the pangs of conscience of such people? Yet they are always the reprobates, the guilty. Politicians also should understand this, but forget it; we do not look towards them for an iota of light, or a beacon of hope.
It is time we come down from our high horses and look at the invincible truth. Why there are Maosists, why there are parallel governments, in say some of the states of North East India. Politics, especially that of expediency, is one such matter, but what if warring groups do not consider such politics to be a part of their lives, as they do not consider themselves a part of the angst, that is India? Jammu and Kashmir, and the North East states are very good examples of such alienation from mainstream politics.
Columns and columns will be written by analysts but the fact is that the essence of all problems is poverty, hunger, want of sanitation and health conditions and even education. Elections will be held and will be completed with finesse but unless these are extirpated, the diseases and the malaise afflicting our society will continue.
An article in The Telegraph, Kolkata in the edit page on 26.12.012 sums up India’s travails very clearly. While the outrageous rape of a young paramedic student has left the country seething with anger Modi, the author says has come back to power with vengeance. People seem to have forgotten post Godhra 2002.
The point is that people in every state want peace and a better quality of life. Modi’s success has been attributed to progress or development. Out of the chaos the people yearn for some semblance of security, Hindu, Muslim or Christian.
The fact is that the Indian elite, the so called educated class is a sham. It is the poorer section which knows respectability better. It is they who want to co-exist in peace, co-exist with the mosque, the temple and the church which they have been seeing for years. Yes, it is true the country is in shambles, rape in Delhi, around the same time in Meghalaya, TV Reports are churning out more happenings with glee and masochism. The Manipur molestation case of a film actress is threatening to rip societies apart. True the situation is not only grave, it is cataclysmic. Sexual assaults seem to be the order of the day. Politics is meaningless, anyway the leaders responded not only lackadaisically, but late, and now one constable has been killed, through no fault of his own. Why were we lying inert?
The author of the piece mentioned above is right. India is no longer a conundrum, a conundrum is soluble, the country is at cross roads of vacuous amorality or immorality. Whom do we look upto? Where and who are the leaders? Even now politicians are playing the blame game with depravity. Obviously the blame for the incident cannot be apportioned to the government alone. Perhaps it was at its wits’ end when this took place. In Gujarat if it is a people’s mandate then be it so. We cannot speculate as to what will happen in future. Unfortunately this future is only seen in terms of a Hindu Muslim divide, why not a Hindu Muslim unity? It is unity of the country we must look for at every nook and corner. Examples of brotherhood and good neighbourliness must be highlighted by our ever so shrieking media. Only this will save the country, why look only for differences, when there are so many similarities. Simply blaming the Government for every wart is also not the solution. Those who are crying hoarse, with raucous voices, crackling like a livid fire, must also suggest possibilities. It is in these arcane possibilities that India’s future rests, otherwise the truth is a bitter pill to hard to swallow!
The recent protests in Delhi regarding the gang rape of a young paramedical student are more than a symbolic protest. It is a protest where the young are not only demanding certain rights but are fighting for their security against abject lawlessness. There is no one spearheading such a movement, all and sundry are passionately involved. It is tragic that it took a violent turn where one innocent police constable was killed. But the administration dithered and when people assembled infront of Raisina Hill the powers that be should have immediately taken cognisance of such a protest and given assurance to the protesters. Instead the delay led to pandemonium and disaster. The youth of the country are one face of it. When we in our public speeches speaks so much about the youth comprising over 40-50 per cent of the population, it should not be platitudinous but we should what we say. Now, when they are in a dilema and shouting at the top of their voice because they feel threatened this not only becomes a serious issue but is a threat to national security. The entire protests in Delhi by the youth show how regenerated they are and how, what and why they feel for each other irrespective of which region they belong to. We must remember that the Delhi student or youth consists of the youth from different parts of the country. The Raisina Hill protest demonstrates very sharply a public grievance represented by a very alert and conscious youth. Those who are in the higher echelons of the society must not only take note of it but also of the fact that public security and law and order is a must in all places of the country. This event of protest is an example which may be followed in other parts of the country. We have equally alert, responsible and educated youth there.
The possibilities that the country must offer in terms of resilient governance, unity of the country, education, law and order and internal security can be seen from the perspectives of the youth who can shape destinies and mould public opinion. There is no point of extolling and lauding the youth in public speeches, saying what futuristic role they can play if we don’t underlie their significance, potentiality and possibilities.