It was always Congress and there was no one else for my family. My grandparents voted only for Congress.I used to go with my grandmother to polling booths and I always see her sealing ‘The Hand’ as an affirmation of her trust and loyalty in the decades old party. She belongs to the loyal vote bank of Congress who never deserts the party no matter what!. But things change, people change, times change. That generation of blind and loyal voters is slowly coming to an end. Now it’s the ‘new generation’ wave that’s swinging over the nation. The creaky self of the Congress party, for which my father has been working for years as a loyal soldier, now barely stand a chance to withstand it.
Corruption is the only word which comes to my mind when I think about Congress. I do not think BJP has done much to achieve this Corruption-Congress association, Congress itself has done the majority handwork. Ten years is long enough to develop a strong anti-incumbency factor but then again, BJPs star performers Narendra Modi and shivraj singh chauhan has already beaten the Anti-incumbency factor with the ‘Good-Governance’ sword. So If Congress falls flat during 2014 elections, please do not put the blame on anti-incumbency factor, blame it on bad governance. Scams of astronomical levels has become a norm of the government. Scams of ten or hundres crores are not even considered under the purview of an serious investigation. I could not stop laughing hearing a BJP spokeperson venting on a malayalam channel about solar scam of kerala, ‘Sonia madam is so used to the scams of lakhs of Crores of rupees that she hardly bothers the hundred dollar solar scam of Kerala Chief minister Umman Chandi’. Every time I see the tax part of my salary, I wonder how much of it is going to the Swiss banks!. Congress needs an image make over pronto. Or else even a make-believe party like AAP can give shockers. Please do no make let MMS suffer anymore, please release him from the leash.
The much cherished anointed prince turned to be nothing but a failure. In 2004, when he was air-dropped into politics singing the ‘youth’ tune , he was hailed as a beacon of hope for Congress. Now its been almost ten years, and still his portfolio has absolutely no achievement other than few Daal-Chaval stories of poverty tourism and mosquito bites. As many critics say, the prince is far away from reality. Just spending a night at a farmers place or carrying a plastic bucket around for one day just do not give you the feel of the ground reality. In my opinion, Rahul Gandhi was given a golden opportunity (Yeah! Dynasty politics it is) to prove his mettle without much effort from his side unlike his peers who has to earn their way up. If properly used he could have channeled his party to an entirely new direction altogether. But just having a good intention is not enough to bring the oldest party in India from its debris. All he can do now is sit in the opposition, take up responsibility as opposition leader(tear away all the government bills he wants), come out from his dream land of beehives, elephants and states of minds, shed his mamma-mania image and prove himself. The charm is withering off big time.
Recently saw Mr Prince charming in FS with Arnab program. The first thing I felt is how sad my father will be after seeing this interview. He belongs to the ground-level workers of Congress and a die hard loyalist of the party. Seeing such a outlandish (I am still googling the correct adjective) interview, I am sure even he would do a face-palm. Prince Charming could have skipped the interview and saved a lakh votes at least!
Nowadays Spokespersons of a parties has become the face of it, rather than the invisible anointed ones. I simply can not take the hauteur of some of Congress’s spokespersons. Either they are dumb or really do not care much about people or their reaction while speaking on the issues. I am sure Congress’s vote share will increase marginally among urban voters if they sack certain spokespersons of Congress who spends half the time sings the praises of Madam and her son and the remaining time making faces (and please shutdown hamaracongress as well. I hardly understand what’s written there! Sigh!). A bit of humility can win you big brawny points.
With such widespread of electronic media, whatever the politicians say is news and even a slip of tongue or lapse in judgment could cause a change in vote share. Please send that Digh Vijaya Singh back to Madhya pradesh, you will save a lot of votes on that account.I really do not understand why a person who is an absolute failure in administration in his own state is given such importance in the center. Make the performance count, not experience. If the Congress is thinking of any revival of his image in the near future, it should be focusing on giving a communication-101 to its leaders who go out and spread their wings in social media. May be they can start taking lessons from Shashi Tharoor who has mend his ways ever since Cattle class smack down. Or else Chai wala debate will definitely rock the nation.
Why the hell I should vote for a party which says I have only secondary right to the natural resources of my country. Being part of the Majority deprive me of my first right as a citizen? Why should I vote for a party who try to separate the riot victims into majority and minority groups, providing props to the united vote blocks? They had almost 60 years in their disposal to reduce the difference between the majority and minority. Even now we are singing the same song every election.
The idea of United Hindus is charging up and though its sounding ominous, it has its own charm. I can not believe I am saying this, but some of Subramaniam Swamy’s tweets are really thought provoking. I know, its wrong to vote as a block guided by a tunneled vision. But then everyone around votes as a block and seems to get their way around while the scattered blocks are sidelined. Its just foolishness to just stand by and watch the drama. May be people are realizing it too. My father was saying, the SNDP (a cast based organization)annual march in my small home town normally takes up only 2 hours to finish from starting to end. But this year the turnout has been so huge that it took more than 6 hours for the rally to finish off. People are slowly getting segregated and may have realized the power of Unity. The idea is little scary for Congress who has done nothing for most of such groups.
I still believe Congress is a party which can actually bring a change in the country or the system in record time if they try. There is no other party widely and deeply rooted as Con with such loyal followers. Just that it needs a huge make over. Or else neutral votes(yeah the new generation of my ‘loyal Congress’ family has decided to stay neutral) will go along with the lotus cart and the development candy.
- Am I in his ‘To be Empowered’ list? 🙂
Hazy Dreams and Reflections 