The neo-populist class, and its failures!

The results are in, and the country has moved on to budget season as the ruling coalition itself moves into damage control mode. This has certainly been an opportune time for the masses to exercise their vote of confidence, or the lack of it, in the policies of the Congress-led UPA II. Thrashed in Punjab, where it was expected to win, and where nobody gave the SAD-BJP alliance a shot at bucking the trend of anti-incumbency. Humiliated in Goa, where the mining scam has brought IIT Bombay-educated Manohar Parikkar back to the CM's post. It eked out a narrow victory in Uttarakhand, where it should have done far better and rode to power with single-handed majority. Finally, to put a punctuation mark on 3 years of floundering policy-making and disastrous in-house management, it came a distant fourth in Uttar Pradesh, a state where it showed signs of recovery in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. In my home constituency of Jhansi, which has elected a current member of the central cabinet convincingly in the last two parliamentary elections, the Congress finished a distant fourth!

While the Congress has been facing a lot of flak over its dismal showing in what has been termed as a semi-final to the 2014 elections, comments of Digvijay Singh & co. notwithstanding, the real dangers of its brand of politics have only just started to surface. Firstly, a rejection of Rahul Gandhi as the future leader of the party should be seen in conjunction with the so-called triumphs of the UPA government that he has been peddling for the last two years. MNREGA is a sloth that is slowly becoming ungovernable, as complaints about middlemen and lack of accountability are piling up. Claims of Aadhaar and direct cash transfers as the anathema to lower-level corruption are all hollow words, until and unless backed up by results on the ground. Of course, the less said about the Congress party's commitment to the Jan Lokpal bill, the better! Secondly, the Congress lost in states where it is not the leading member of its alliance, or does not have an alliance at all. That alone bodes ill for the future of UPA as a progressive entity, as the party becomes more susceptible to exploitation at the hands of regional parties, in order to last its five year term. Who would have thought that after winning a total of 206 seats, the Congress party would be blackmailed by the likes of Mamata Banerjee and shamed by Raja and co. Thirdly, nowhere else is the importance of a commander-in-chief more apparent than the current central government. While Dr. Manmohan Singh has settled into his pantomime routine, excited souls left and right have been chiming in with irresponsible words that harm the government's image more than they help it. Salman Khurshid's remarks about reservation for Muslims in the OBC quota is the most clear example of appeasement to the core. The drama over the hasty adjournment of the Rajya Sabha on the last day of the winter season, in order to save face in a house where the UPA is way short of majority, hasn't been erased from the memory of those who care yet, and there is already a contentious debate on the Rail budget on the anvil. 

The opposition clearly left with demonstrable gains from these assembly elections. IF midterm polls were to happen next month, it doesn't take a genius to predict that the UPA would continue to suffer the backlash of 3 years of misrule unless things are expedited to a correction course. The idea that populism can win you elections has clearly failed the Congress in these elections, because this is simply not the 1970's anymore. The voters can see right through the manifesto these days, which would explain why a vote for the Samajwadi Party in UP was more anti-BSP than pro-SP, for it is understood that the element of muscle power is blended into the core of the SP's ideology. Let's hope that the government at least gives it a shot, rather than protect its feathers till it's time to step in front of the country again in 2 years. 

PS: Sachin Tendulkar has etched his name into the record books forever, and so has Shakib Al Hasan by the virtue of being the bowler who delivered the historic ball. Here is a look back at what is most likely to be Sachin's finest overseas ODI innings. 

If we all sit idle...

Controversy is media's favorite child. Just let one erupt and they lash onto it. However, it is poignant to note that a major factor behind all the derision surrounding the fundamental nature of controversies is the idle mind. Yes, if we all sit idle, all we do is to conjure mindless chatter which ultimately blows up into a controversy. Nowhere has it been more prominently on display than the two 'stories' jostling for space on live television.

It is a well known fact that in India, nothing works better than the word of God. So people claim to have received divine intervention and suggest it as a means to justify their actions. The so called 'antaratmaa ki aawaaz'. First, a harmless directive from the honorable Supreme court constituting a special committee to prepare an inventory of the speculated wealth lying around in the holy confines of the Padmanabham temple in Thiruvananthapuram. The media didn't pick up the news when a retired IPS officer and a stout devotee of the lord filed a petition praying for the transfer of the control of the temple administration from the hands of the royal family of Travancore to that of the state. They didn't pick it up when the members of the teams were announced. They certainly wouldn't have picked it up if it weren't for countless artefacts of historic (and monetary) value that started teeming out of the underground chambers. The media went into a frenzy, and a controversy was born! The debate shifted from how to protect the wealth to how it got there in the first place and who should be the owner and protector of it. I have been to the shrine situated in the capital of Kerala. I remember it vividly because I had to buy a dhoti from a nearby stall to gain entry into the temple. Yes, the rules of entry to this shrine are as stringent as any other temple you could fathom. What wowed the attention of all present inside with me was not what lay beneath, but what lay above- the reclined statue of Lord Vishnu whose darshan could be taken from three huge doors. I would have loved for it remain that way.

The topic of frenzy shifts just as seamlessly to another god of sorts. Sachin Tendulkar is one short of his 100th international century, one that is of sentimental value to his billions of followers. Yet, the debate rages on. Is he the greatest of all time? Frankly, why should anybody care. Why not simply live in the present, when the man is playing in perhaps the best form of his life. Then came the announcement of the greatest test team of all time, to mark the occasion of the 2000th international test which begins tomorrow at Lord's. While the list is definitely not what a pundit would like it to be, it is what it is- a survey of the popularity of the players who live on in the fans' memory. The point of the matter is, the so called greatest team in no way undermines the greatness or the talent of any of the great players who happened to have plied their art in an era before the advent of facebook and twitter. Dear media, let it be!