Indian Politics and FreakOnomics

General elections for Indian parliament is just round the corner. All major political parties are struggling hard to come up with an election strategy to get the blessings of the voter. Every party focuses on wooing the common man. I have a number of points in my mind at this point of time, may be an effect due to the book ‘Freakonomics’ which I am reading currently. Let me write about all those points one by one, I don’t think I will be able to cover all of them in one post. Don’t be surprised if it rolls over to a series of posts. Today I pick the so called ‘Aam Aadmi’ for my thoughts.

The most common target of any election is always around the ‘Aam Aadmi’. All the promises in every political party manifesto is to woo this soft target. Whether the governing party implements all those promises or not, the same old statements continue to appear term after term. For example, a major party which ruled our country for over 50 years since independence still goes by the campaign of ‘Roti, Kapda aur Makaan’ (English: Food, clothing, and shelter). I am not sure how many more decades or centuries they need to change their campaign slogan! So our hero – Aam aadmi continues to look out for the basic needs of their life through generations together. Do they ever get salvation from this state? Probably not! It would be tough to think of a new slogan next time if they get to fulfill the promises.

It wouldn’t be fair if I don’t mention about another predominant party which exists in our great country. Whether they *think* of building a small and comfortable home for a common man to live or not, they surely want to build a world class temple for sure! This party never fails to make that issue an election charm every time. For this party, building a temple is a national agenda, no matter whether countrymen carve in hunger or die in the river of blood. Apart from these two, there are countless number of other parties which have their own agenda. To quote few examples, here on this soil lives a great leader who should celebrate elephant sized birthday bashes every year at the cost of Aam Aadmi’s extortion. Party men belonging to this leader are known for killing civil servants too if they don’t co-operate in celebrating birthdays. Nobody questions how this great leader became the highest tax payer in a matter of a decade though hails from an economically backward class.

Certainly, it is not the fault of these leaders. They have mastered the art of deceiving the so called ‘Aam Aadmi’. Yes, this stupid voter elects a leader who promises to give away color television sets if he is voted to power. No matter whether that leader is healthy enough to sit in the hot seat for a term of 5 years or not, doesn’t even matter if he/she is able to work for at least 8 hrs per day. Another similar Aam Aadmi elects another leader who proposes to give *free* electricity, of course without knowing the fact that all these free offers come with a disclaimer of conditions apply! At times the same ‘Aam Aadmi’ thinks of a new blood to change their lives in the hope of achieving his longing need of Roti, Kapda aur Makaan. Accordingly, we get to see some new leaders jumping in to the bandwagon from cinema industry to bring in the change factor. However, this change halts when the new party includes many established leaders who hopped from other parties and the family members of the key person take up major roles in the party. This system goes back to the same old dynasty rulers and other hoppers make me recall a bunch of rotten tomatoes being sold in a new package (party in this context). Considering a very few samples mentioned here, we know what kind of leaders are ruling our country. This is the reason why it doesn’t surprise me at all when our predominant parties come with the same old repeating statements in every election manifesto.

Ok, enough of it. I really feel humiliated to write further. Do we need these kind of leaders? Don’t we have alternatives to change our lives? What does it take to bring in the ‘CHANGE’ factor? Any thoughts from readers on some of the questions I have raised here before starting to think from a different angle in my upcoming posts?