Sharrayu Aroskar

While apparently majority of the nation celebrates the coming of a stable government at the center, a sizeable fraction is also disappointed with the results. Though it is always true that the voting population is the one that selects the government we have seen an unexpected wipe out of the BJP from larger states in India. The election this time was fought on grounds of good governance, development and security by the BJP. There was a new hope and “Hindutva”  was tried to be placed in the right perspective of “su-rajya” and equality. In spite this and many more efforts, there was a short fall at all levels. From top brass of the party to an average BJP supporter all of us have something to learn from this. Keeping that retrospection discussion aside, it’s really important to understand what the majority of the population that went to the ballot box really voted for or for that matter did they understand what and whom they have voted for?

No doubt that people have understood the importance of getting a stable government at the center and have trusted the capability of the Congress to do so. The smaller regional parties have been largely shown a red card in national politics.

People have also accepted dynasty politics over meritorious selection. This election has proved that Congress as a party belongs largely to the Gandhi’s and there is very little that can be achieved without a Gandhi family in high office.

Sonia Gandhi’s pro-poor and social tending policies and declaration of them at the right time has as an answer to the Indian population’s short memory proved to be a boon. People saw Congress as an “aam aadmi” savior once again. People have chosen to see the political leader taking trips to the poor, spending nights in a hut whether or not even a city like Mumbai is facing power outages and the economy is making even a middle class lifestyle difficult to sustain.

People have given a loud and clear “OK” to a foreign origin leadership over five decades of committed service to the nation.

People have given in to advertising and media hype about the Congress.

People have ignored the Congressionalisation of the independent positions and organizations in this country. Right from the Indian President to Navin Chawla of the election commission all are pro-Congress entities. CBI’s misuse to either cool or heat up cases against Mayawati, declaration of Jagdish Tytler’s  clean chit by the C.B.I just before the elections or for that matter nullifying the red corner notice against Quatarochi right during election campaigns has been ignored by the people over their daily woes of water, food shelter and a respectable leaving.

People have accepted building of more IIT’s without right infrastructure, people have accepted the reservation in premier institutions and people have accepted to ignore the woes of the defense personal. People have accepted the caste based reservation policies and welcomes the inauguration of religion based policies for the Muslims in the Congress manifesto. People have accepted that Muslims are the only minority in India that need special treatment and rest of the country can fall under a single umbrella.

People have accepted the vote bank politics over visionary agenda.

People have accepted that terrorism is not the responsibility of the running government. People have believed that “Kandahar” was a mistake but have accepted innumerable terror attacks on this land during the Congress reign. People have allowed Congress to sensationalize Godhra and Kandahar to cover the inefficiencies of the running government.

People have accepted that elections can be won without a strong agenda and analysis. People have proved that elections can be won if things spoken in speeches are things that they like to hear.

People have accepted the Congress politics to stay in power with criminals like Shibu Soren and  ideologically disparate partners like LEFT.

Last but not the least, people have accepted their state as it is and have lost hope.

This is according me a verdict of confused Indian citizens who still think that BJP and Ram Sene are the same. Citizens who do not understand the meaning of “Hindutva” and citizens who neither could trust Congress enough but had no option as they could not embrace BJP and they didn’t exactly understand what the party stood for.

Will future change this is something we all need to see. While NDA was in power BJP had a sweeping victory in the Vidhan Sabha elections but the following Lok Sabha elections had a different story to tell. Congress has gotten an opportunity for a image lift and BJP has given it enough pointer as a feedback to do so during the election campaign. It is hard to believe that people largely ignored the fallacies of the last UPA government or did they not feel them? Or may be an alternative option to the Congress never reached that deep. Something we all need to retrospect over.