Wish List for Politicos

Since the parliamentary election is going on in India, there is a lot of buzz around who will gain the power in centre. Every party has come up with their own manifestos and almost everyone has promised sky for free to voters. So here is my wish list for some of the parties or leaders:

 

·        As they are considered to be the first political family in India, the list starts from the Congress Party and Nehru-Gandhi family. Rahul Gandhi is touted to be the future prime ministerial candidate, when time is ripe for him. From outset he looks a sincere and honest leader – if you consider him one, he was made a leader by default in the very beginning of his political career because of his political lineage. With Congress Party, everything comes by default, so one day Indira Gandhi is thrown into active politics, Rajeev is drawn into it because Indira was killed by her own bodyguards, Sonia hesitantly accepted to be party leader because there was no acceptable face around after the loss of party in 1998 election under the leadership of one Sitaram Kesari. Due to feudal and dynastic way of working within the party, it is near-certainty that one day he will be prime minister of India if Congress has even a millimeter of its toe in the striking distance of that chair. Rahul has stressed on youth power and wants to change the functioning of party, he wants to include more young people in party, give them more representation in the saying of the country which is going to have the largest young population in the world in coming years. He wants to revive the party in its former heartlands – UP and Bihar. So we see him referring a poor Kalavati in parliament, or sitting in a Dalit’s home in a remote UP village with a British young politician, or frequently invoking talk about youth involvement. But in his party, we don’t see young leader coming up in the ladder without being son or daughter of a leader or having allegiance to Nehru-Gandhi family. I just wish his good-intentioned words don’t turn out to be mere tokenisms in future and he really means it when he says it.

·        Then we come to BJP. And I don’t wish that they put down Ram Mandir issue from their agenda, because they have already done it. Whatever exists of it is only in the political rhetoric during the election time. My wish is for Narendra Modi and his party. Without going in to the reasons of why Gujarat 2002 happened, I just wish Modi apologizes for the riots. Why? Because as a leader of the state, it was his duty - or in the words of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, his Rajdharma – to protect the citizens of his state, no matter what religion they belong to. And I do feel he failed somewhere on that line. Come on Mr Modi, there is nothing wrong in the apologizing. On the contrary, you may grow in your stature. Even Hinduism would have demanded such act from you. I sense support for Modi in the working youth of India who are not bogged down by history, even if it’s as recent as 2002, and they see in you a future leader of the country. We need someone as hard-working, non-corrupt and determined as you, but stripped of all the talk-and-walk-fundamentalism. A single apology will gain broader acceptance for you, and give decisive leader to the country. Don’t bother about the other politicians’ reactions – A politician would not stop using his tongue, that organ is even out of their own control. Ultimately it’s Bharat Mata for whom we all are working, isn’t it?   

·        Well, they see problems where none exists. They just sit outside the corridors of power and want to run the puppet-show. They are the Left of India. They are the Marxist people. But they are considered ideologues. As, in popular Hindi movie Lagaan, Ishar Kaka says, “Jo Aankhe Puri Khuli Ho…Unme To Sharam Bhi Nahi Aati.” So they vociferously defend all their acts of sabotaging government. In theory, it all looks good as they talk about equality and distributing public resource evenly in the masses. But short history of communism suggests that countries all over the world have failed to execute it successfully. Even their fort, the state of West Bengal, is lagging behind other fast-developing states in India. I really don’t have any wish for them. I just wish the History repeats itself again to prove that their style is not the in-style.

·        There are other innumerable parties and leaders. But if we start talking about it, we will go on and on for hours. And they really are not worthy of our precious time. Besides they are not national parties in any sense, although they may extract benefits from national parties solely bases on their number power. But I have one wish for Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav. Looking at his party manifesto and the promise to remove computers and English education, and also considering that how ridiculously he offered three seats to Congress Party in UP for election tie-up, he appears to be having a funny bone or maybe two. There are lots of TV channels in this country who run laughter shows, and I wish he just throws himself in that ring and lands a job for himself – I don’t mind even if he sends Navjot Singh Sidhu packing. Oye Guru, you may help the country more that way.