By T.J.S. George
Democracy in India is entertaining, except that its disruptive side makes the entertainment not enjoyable. In mature democracies, parties fight it out at election time, then settle down to governance. Even when an unpopular leader gets elected, the system allows him to run his course. In our country the system never gets a chance because political plotters never stop plotting. The moment one party wins, other parties begin manipulations to bring it down. The result is that we are for ever in a combative electioneering mindset. We keep moving from fight to fight. No respite ever. No governance ever.
America is a good case to study because in recent years it has had some really bad Presidents, and yet the system held on. People started showing their disapproval of the leadership openly during the Vietnam war. It was the most obnoxious war America ever fought and the American people rose against the unacceptable levels of American casualties and the equally unacceptable use of fire bombs and chemicals to destroy Vietnam’s flora and fauna. People’s protests began with the Kennedy-Johnson years and reached a climax during Richard Nixon’s Presidency. One of the most disliked Presidents in US history, Nixon was too drunk and too megalomaniacal to pay heed to public opinion. Nonetheless he would have completed his term but for an illegality in a different arena: The Watergate spying. He quit on his own to escape impeachment.
George Bush was just as disliked as Nixon — no mean achievement. He led America into a war on the basis of a lie. Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction as Bush claimed. And he knew that. Yet he unleashed a war of mass destruction that led to catastrophes like the birth of the Islamic State; a nation was felled and a civilisation knocked off balance. Saddam Hussein was tried for war crimes. Bigger crimes against humanity were committed by Bush, but he went on to joyful retirement in his ranch where he held self-proclaimed conversations with Jesus Christ. Miraculously Jesus Christ survived.
The improvident George Bush completed his term, as will the insufferable Donald Trump because American democracy is disciplined. British democracy showed its class when David Cameron resigned in mid 2016; six years in office, he was still going strong. He had wanted Britain to stay in the European Union. Rather than take decisions unilaterally, he decided to go for people’s approval. In the referendum that followed, people voted for Britain’s exit from EU, Brexit. The Prime Minister resigned. And resignation meant resignation. He was only 50, but has made no attempt to manoeuvre his way back or influence events.
In India no politician ever gives up, whatever his age. If you are defeated in an election, you never accept you are defeated. Either you join hands with other groups and grab power (as the Congress did in Karnataka and the BJP did in Goa, Meghalaya and Manipur), or you go into permanent sabotage mode. BJP leader Sriramulu warned the Kumaraswamy Government: “BJP won’t let you sleep.” This is the same leader who was identified with the Bellary Mafia. The party has threatened State-wide bundhs.
Party boss Amit Shah is full of righteous indignation. According to him the BJP had won “people’s mandate” by emerging the largest single party. He is morally outraged that the people’s mandate was sabotaged by the Congress and the JD-S. He didn’t say a word about the other States where the people’s mandate was successfully undermined by the BJP. Nor did he say that his idea of people’s mandate was based on the wrong arithmetic. The BJP’s vote share was 36.2 percent while the Congress (38 percent) and JD-S (18.3 percent) together had the backing of more than 56 percent of the State’s voters. Selective arithmetic, like selective morality, is the badge of Indian politics.
Horse-trading is set to start in full swing after Cabinet appointments are completed when, hopefully for the BJP, there will be some Congress-JDS MLAs unhappy about not getting Ministership. The extent to which the Vokkaliga Chief Minister can satisfy the Lingayat hopefuls is another angle the horse-traders will be exploring. The JD-S being a family party, internal squabbles may not give much scope for disrupters. But who knows. The patriarch is looking forward to becoming Prime Minister. Two grandsons, with neither maturity nor any official position whatever, have been giving interviews on policy matters.
The field is open, horses like galloping, money is aplenty — and the worst have every chance to win.
We will get the Government we deserve!
With all alliances moving out of the NDA, will it be possible for the BJP to come back to power in 2019?
– *Kunal V Manusmare*
– I don’t know if BJP will come back in power or not! I am not sure!
Since Dalits are being convinced that Modi is against them,
Jats are being convinced that Modi is against them,
Marathas are being convinced that Modi is against them,
Farmers are being convinced that Modi is against them and
Muslims are being convinced that Modi was always against them!
Massive propaganda of Hate spreading through print, electronic and social media!
All this will surely have some effect.
– Many out of 1.4 billion of us are not well informed; some informed are idealistic; some informed are selfish; some informed are 18 year old and *haven’t really experienced old governments; some informed are too busy to get into quarrel; some informed don’t want to get labelled as Bhakt!
MODI MAY FALL! *But, it will not be Modi who will actually fall* 😒 *India will then FALL* 😡
Final tally will decide the PM candidate! There will be a dirty fight within the coalition for the chair of PM and important portfolios! There will be hard negotiations and dirty bargains for railway, coal, telecom and infra ministries, *not to make it better but to reap benefits out of it!* All the good work done by People like Piyush Goel, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj, Manohar Parrikar, Nirmala Sitharaman under able leadership of Modi will get directional deflection or break!
There will still be communal tensions, *(It is the upbringing of this society for last 70 years; everyone has been painted and labelled and it’s bound to happen!)*. But they will not be ‘news’ anymore!
*Dalits and Muslims will still remain backward* and a vote bank (It’s for both the communities to introspect, *why they are backward even after 70 years in spite of being a vote bank!)*, farmers may be gifted with loan waiver to make them bankrupt in another five years! People like Mr. Ravish Kumar will do another episode with black screen to appear intellectual of intellectuals! Critics will keep criticizing governments. *There will not be discipline, there will not be targets, there will not be follow up!* Ministers of different parties will behave like independent kings and will not be answerable to any authority! *Corruption will increase to crazy levels!* Meanwhile China is getting stronger everyday, it will snatch the title of super power from US very soon! Hence massive geopolitical challenges ahead! There might be a war over water in near future! We need to earn more money, strengthen ourselves, that’s the way to avoide the war! Trade wars! Russia’s empty pockets and China’s deep pockets!
*Who is good enough to handle this situation for the good of 1.4 billion people!?* The great Rahul Gandhi? Psycho Arvind Kejriwal (Whom, I have worshiped like a god for a good three years!)? Fool Kanhaiyya or Prejudice Ravish Kumar?
Dirty coalition will give ugly break to the present growth momentum. What will Dalit achieve out of this and what will Muslims get!? Will Maratha’s and jat’s get reservation!? Will farmers’ suicides be stopped? what is the reason farmers started committing suicide in first place? That day people will say, Modi was Good”. That will not repair the situation!
Modi has been working on long term and concrete solutions for collective good! Everyone will be at benefit in long term, not realizing it and not keeping patience will take us further away from the dream ‘Antyoday’!
Modi is a human and can not yield answer to chronic problems created over past 70 years in 4 years! Have practical expectation, understand the constraints and limitations of largest democracy and then pass the judgement on Modi! The job is not as easy as Kunal Kamra to make people laugh by saying “Hamere jawan seema pe lad rahein hain..” I have been following Defence Ministry since last 10 years very closely and this government has done phenomenal work, which normal public is not aware of! And *when cheap people like Kunal Kamra makes fun of the work done and send wrong message across, my blood boils….*
All this will not lead to fall of Modi but fall of Republic of India! We will loose a leader who is strong, progressive, hard and smart working and doesn’t fear to take the right decision by worrying about vote banks! The same vicious cycle will continue which held us back from being great for so many years, inspite of having all the resources to become greatest of all!
It’s the duty of every informed Dalit, Maratha, Jat and Muslim to inform people with the truth and explain the situation and consequences, else fall is sure!
I am a Maratha by cast and I keep receiving msgs in family and community Whats App groups that Modi and his party is against our community and uninformed people fall for it! And I feel pity on the people who are doing this propaganda and people falling for it. As Voltaire said, *I would rather obey a fine lion, much stronger than myself, than 200 rats of my own species*
Modi will be engraved in history as a glorified soldier who did everything he could do for good of his land! Alas! His own people couldn’t understand it!
As Marcus Cicero said,
“I have always been of the opinion, that *unpopularity, earned by doing what is right, is not unpopularity at all, but glory*”*
We live in a quick fix society! Everyone is yelling where is the growth!? Where are the benefits of Demonetization, all the currency is back!? Where are the benefits of Swacch Bharat, my colony is still dirty!? Where are the benefits of Make In India, we still buy Chinese manufactured phone! Where are the 15 lakhs!?
Poor souls! I hope they will come across the story of the Chinese Bamboo Tree someday!
I followed UPA1 & UPA2 very closely, read and educated myself a lot about India and it’s problems and what kind of mess India is, I learned about limitations and constraints created over past 70 years and when I saw Modiji handling this mess so well in the backdrop of a prejudice, hatred & criticism, *my respect for him has grown in multiple folds*!
Modi has done amazing hard and smart work on so many fronts and I am so grateful to him for what he has done and achieved in past 4 years! Of course there are few mistakes, but can anything in this world ever be perfectly flawless!? For example, I never understood the ‘COW’ issue, but do we know what kind of pressure must be there on him from within the party!
In a family or any small or big organisation, there will always be some people who we know are wrong and culprit for some mess, but we can’t help but to tolerate them at the cost of the unity of the family or at the cost of some bigger advantage in the case of organisation!
One thing for sure, even critics will praise Modi someday, but it will be of no use then 😠
🙄 *I only hope that better sense prevails amongst Indian people & they Vote Modi back to power in 2019* 😕
What dies George think about the opposition and press did to Modi for the last 4 years, since he was an elected PM for 4 years! Not a day goes by without hurling false accusations and abusing midi on even his most progressive moves! Thank god he doesn’t care for you street dogs! Otherwise he would be really upset ! One thing certain! He has stopped Christian Foriegn funds for destroying Hindus and Hinduism and create unrest by propaganda and false rumors! So George is upset! Congress upset because they can’t loot until they get back power !
Mr. George is doing the same thing what Pratap Simha used to write in Kannada Prabha, but in a nicer way. He is against BJP and RSS while PS was against Congress, Muslims, and others..