Of Waves, Wrath and Blunders: Election 2014

Waves of Promise, Belief and Sentiments:

India:

To put this win into statistical perspective, since 1984 General Elections, Bharatiya Janata Party is the only party to win the majority number of Lok Sabha seats on its own i.e obtaining the “magic number” without taking any alliance into picture.

This election result is as satisfying and as comprehensive as it can get for a National Party in a country which is spread across varied languages, beliefs, cultures and sentiments. To sweep away so many with the sheer promise of a model state previously developed, speaks volumes about what we, as a nation, are expecting from today’s leaders: Development. It is also a lesson, for few self-proclaimed leaders (You-Know-Who), that actions do speak louder than any number of sound systems installed at election rallies.

It is the wave of promise that has now, officially, got our undivided attention, and it is up to this BJP led NDA to deliver and show its critics that past discrepancies of a bygone age belonged to a different older version of its party.

Andhra Pradesh:

Time to work together

To put the result here in simple terms, CBN is for Andhra, what NaMo is for India. But the win for TDP has not been as comprehensive as one would have hoped for, as YSRCP have notched up, disturbingly and surprisingly, high number of assembly seats. And yet, by the sanity of the larger section, gladly, TDP sails enough to get over the majority mark.

Andhra Pradesh is truly fortunate enough to find itself at the hands of one of the most pro-development and sensible leaders of our time, CBN, at this critical time. More than anything, the state needs a stable government and a capable leader to pull it through post-division blues and the Modi-Naidu factor is a blessing indeed.  

Telangana:

The first government in youngest state of the largest democracy would be formed by a party which is riding on the wave of sentiment of people, and it deserves so. It has given itself to the cause of the state from the time of its inception, and it would be interesting to see how much of an impact it can create, now that their cause, after a long struggle, has been finally met. TRS party now bears the expectations and demands of a young state on its shoulders, and we can only wish and hope that the State and Centre work in tandem, and walk the state through it first few steps.  All the very best, TRS!

Wrath of the Indians

Now, now, now, ‘defeat’ never tasted so sweet. To a party which has

We had it coming!

concentrated more on political moves and less on administration pre and post General Election 2009, this result is nothing but a slap on its face for showing indifference towards larger sections of people by not addressing bulk of the critical issues. It has inadvertently put the nation back at least by a good half a decade in terms of economical growth. From appointing a ‘robotic’ Prime Minister to handling sensitive issues, it has done everything wrong in the last five years, and it deserved a complete route out from the country. And any hopes of forming a government in the new state of Telangana too were completely shattered by the men in Pink. It would be interesting to watch them uncomfortably hop around in the opponent’s seat for the next five (well even ten if NDA does well) years.

Blunders

Even a 10-year-old following IPL caught onto the “Ab ki baar Modi sarkar” line,

Fall from grace

except of course Arvind Kejriwal, not that he had to catch onto it, but a wise acknowledgment of its presence, would certainly have done a world of good for Kejriwal, for he defied sense and logic and took on NaMo in Varnasi, ignorantly hoping to repeat his battle glory against Sheila Dikshit. Rather than concentrating on a few MP seats, AAP has flapped its wings far and wide, without scrutinizing the merits of his party members contesting in over 400 seats, and the result must certainly have ruffled him. It has somewhere, in the last six months, lost its basic ideology of a common man contesting and has paved way for its own embarrassing defeat. Even with the consideration of ‘first-time’ tag associated to it, AAP would most probably have done a touch better had there been a better leader with strategy at its helm. From the highs of January to the lows of May, AK might find this to be a bitter pill to swallow. The best that AAP supporters and members can hope for is that, this general election has served as enough of a lesson for its party chief to plan and prioritize his future course of actions better.

All in all, for a common man sitting in Hyderabad, this election result is nothing out of the blue, and has fallen in line with the ‘obvious’. All that is left is congratulating the parties that have won, and wishing the best for them and their supporters, voters and members.

Now, it’s over to the Assembly and Parliament, where our real expectations and hopes ought to take a shape. For a better India! #JaiHindi

The None Of the Above anomaly

For now, not this one

In October last year, when the Election Commission first introduced the concept of ‘None of the above’ option for the general elections, I was so excited that, for a moment, I considered  endorsing a plain white flag in support of that option and start an election campaign of my own in constituencies stricken with “bad” candidates/options. Democracy never ceases to spread out and flex its muscles parading its presence from time to time, does it?

But the initial excitement was slowly replaced with rational, pragmatic outlook on the NOTA because as democracy does, and always will, it did not provide us with a satisfying complete meal here, but rather a humdrum Yeah-I-am-here-folks plate meal initially, which has to be subjected to thoughtful revisions before it can be considered to be thoroughly consumed by those seeking it.

The problem with None of the Above option too is simple, it is rendered pointless because of its clear gaping flaw: None of the above option cannot enforce a re-election in the case of it obtaining the majority of votes, i.e, the one who has obtained second highest majority, second to NOTA option, is the winner.

An argument can be made that NOTA option was never meant to be what-we-all-so-obviously-want-it to be but was only a means to culminate stats who were dissatisfied with those contesting.

But imagine this, how many of us (those like me), who, even though are dissatisfied, end up choosing from the lot rather than going for NOTA just to make sure that the vote does not go down the drain? So NOTA option does not even reflect that stat properly. In a way, NOTA’s presence this year round could do nothing but dilute the number of votes for particular candidates, and therein creating another problem for those few better-of-the-lot candidates contesting in elections. Hence, it serves practically no purpose for the 2014 General Elections just because it was introduced haphazardly without thoroughly examining the chinks in its armor.

But NOTA, if properly reviewed and implemented accordingly, in the coming years, can be the most powerful democratic tool handed to the common man in general elections, because it would then have the power to reject unworthy candidates, demanding and forcing political parties to field better leaders.

Till then, it is necessary that we ignore this option completely so as not to let our once-in-five-years democratic exercise to be a number in a pile of counter-productive statistical data. And as always, the best that can be done is to go through the list of candidates closely, scrutinize pros and cons of their promises and hope the best candidate represents you in the assembly and parliament.