There has been a lot of enthusiasm among the public over the recent elections in India–the state assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, and the Municipal Corporation elections in Delhi. The Indian media has covered it widely, both on TV and in print ( in fact, it has been covering little else).
There is now a great deal of fanfare and hoopla by BJP supporters over their party’s record breaking win in Gujarat, by Congress supporters over their party’s upset win in Himachal Pradesh (which dethrones the ruling BJP govt ), and by Aam Admi Party supporters over their party’s securing a majority in the MCD for the first time. The Indian media, particularly TV channels, has only been discussing these events for the last 2 days, as if nothing else matters in India.
However, to my mind, all this fanfare, hullabaloo and merry making is silly, and reveals the inanity of the Indian public, as well as the deliberate policy of our largely sold out media to side line the real, massive, socio-economic issues in India, and divert public attention to trivialities, irrelevance and frivolity. Let me explain.
The test of every political system or activity is one, and only one : does it raise the standard of living of the people ? does it give them better lives ?
From that viewpoint, do the BJP victory in Gujarat, the Congress victory in Himachal Pradesh, and the AAP victory in Delhi in the recent elections, matter for the public ? Not at all. They are irrelevant for the masses.
Their real issues are widespread poverty, hunger, (India has slipped from position number 101 to number 107 out of 121 countries surveyed by Global Hunger Index), massive unemployment, skyrocketing price rise, almost total lack of proper healthcare and good education for the masses, widespread corruption, etc, and this is likely to continue unabated. The results of the recent elections will make no difference for the masses.
There is a saying in Hindi ”Koi nrip hoye, hamein ka haani” i.e. ”How does it matter to me who will be the king?”
And yet our media is discussing nothing else but this, day in and day out. This shows that our media is just a tool to divert attention of the people from real issues, which are socio-economic, to non issues and trivialities, such as elections in India.
Well said. Since this malady is age old, can’t perhaps be rectified immediately. It needs proper education that no political party is ready to provide. More so because they thrive on illiteracy only.
Remember some old stories that our grandmother’s would often tell us as children. In many of these folk lores, like the one titled “Roop Basant” the new king, after its predecessor’s death, would be enthroned who would happen to be the first person to enter the kingdom in the morning by chance! Even now we, the majority people of a so-called democracratc India, accept our kings in the same manner as during those ancient days of monarchy!
Right. We live in horay past and chose kings as in ancient folk lores when after the death of the king the first person who would enter the kingdom next morning be crowned as the new king. Our politicians of the day would never allow our people to be educated to let them out of that slave mentality. Mass illiteracy is their staple food and means to acquire political power.
“Their real issues are widespread poverty, hunger, (India has slipped from position number 101 to number 107 out of 121 countries surveyed by Global Hunger Index), massive unemployment.”
The questioning of EC is groundwork prep for creating controversy on 2024 election results. Lot of forces within India would love to see the country in turmoil, and forces outside are salivating at the prospect of a regime change.
VDem, Freedom index etc are not happening in a vacuum. A large proportion of Indian Diaspora in the west – educated, skilled, highly productive, rich, obedient and can be influential, is clearly pro-Govt, pro-India. These dubious reports and rankings are designed to shake the Diaspora’s pride and allegiance, thus depriving India of critical leverage which can only grow more powerful in the future.
India is once again the big prize. We propped up Britain for 2 centuries, the US would love to have India at its heel to dominate Asia and take on the Chinese like it has Germany in Europe to take on Russia. Sama, Daam, Bheda, Danda will all be attempted. Melinda wooing Yogi is another sign.
Slander India’s image, dilute diaspora’s loyalty, pit the three pillars Legislature, Executive, Judiciary against each other, subvert the media, pin a huge ? on election results, force regime change or at the very least create internal turmoil and exploit fault lines – this is what the Govt is faced with.
The Govt seems to have realised this perfect storm is getting brewed, hence the newly discovered vigour to take on the pillar and actually save it. Never too late.
The Break India Forces hand was clearly visible during the dilli riots and the “farmers agitation” as also during the bangalore riots and, furthermore, it was more than visible during the koodankulam, sterlite, the dravidian secessionism + majority bashing and now in the vizhinjam fiasco, all of which have the grubby fingerprints of offshore entities who no no longer care if they have been exposed because in all these cases, they believe that they have reached a self sustaining critical mass.
Sameer Wankhede who caught Sharukh Khan’s son in drugs peddling and was digging grave of Urduwood/Bhaiwood because of its connection to ISI and its drug trade is not sitting in TN because the center has deputed him there to cut vegetables. The recent major drug haul on the rameshwaram coast has his fingerprints all over it, especially the use of the Indian coast guard to arrest the ruling party jehadis, very pointedly bypassing both the state intelligence depts and the state polis