February 28th
this is my take on what happened in these assembly by-elections.
the good news is that laloo is less in command, and this election has shown the inherent contradictions in the UPA; the bad news is that he may yet land on his feet, and that in any case, another bunch coming in isn't going to work miracles, although they may be less offensive than the feudal yadav.
in a way, this might show the increasing maturity of the indian electorate: if people actually believe they have a choice and the right to assert this choice, that is the beginning of a more active re-public, rule of the people.
not that this actually means anything in real life. look at kerala: the electorate is quite aware, but they have not been able to figure out how to avoid the scylla-charybdis of congress-marxists. they have not had the wits to at least terrorize both these parties by voting en masse against them.
ps. i have decided to post more original content here, but i will continue to post interesting bits of news i come across and also things i publish at, say, rediff. my original content, unless it is already copyrighted by, say, rediff, is under a creative commons license.
4 comments:
Hats off to the people of Bihar by truly expressing their disgust on Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav by not giving his party a majority in the polls. I think it is high time politicians like Lalu Yadav who brag about being secular and pro poor should be shown the exit door.
This man has ruined the prospect of Bihar being one of the prosperous and shining state by blaming everyone and anyone during his 15 years of rule. Instead of working for the upliftment of the masses and taking the state towards prosperity, for which he and his party had full 15 years, he gave the people of Bihar the pride of being known as the most backward and poor state.
I really pray to the almighty that let the future of Bihar be bright by not letting this man Lalu again come back in power. Let Bihar also be counted in the better states in India and be known for its rela and true potential.
Rajeev:
I agree with you on the fact that there is not much of a difference between DMK and AIADMK.People are aware of the fact that electing one over the other will not bring about a dynamic change in the governance. That’s why we in Tamil Nadu do not affiliate (most of them) ourselves to one party for life unlike the US.
That’s not the issue in the US. Your conclusion that there are only miniscule differences between the democrats and the republicans is totally flawed. There are huge differences between them.
I can name issues that deeply divide this country .Democrats believe in entitlement. They are pro- choice (except for some in the south of Mason Dixie line); opposed to guns, want a bigger government and more interested in federal control over issues. The republicans on the other hand believe in “Individual responsibility”. They are mostly pro life (except for the moderates), pro gun (believe in the second amendment), want a smaller government and want more rights to the states. Now, you tell me how can two parties with such ideological differences can have only miniscule differences?
I don’t know how you got that impression? But I can tell you one thing for sure. If you had taken into accounts the issues that were dominating during the last general election in the US, it was pretty obvious that conservatives and liberals are not the same .Maybe Jayalalitha and Kalaignar have more things in common than Kerry and Bush. (Except for the fact that both went to the same school at Yale)
Then of course, there is the religion issue which I dint mention deliberately. Ask a southern republican (maybe from Georgia or North Carolina) what he thinks about religion and what role should it play in decision making. And ask the same question from a north eastern (maybe from Massachusetts) latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak guy (quote taken from one of the blogs). The answer will be to the extremes.One wants religion in politics and the other wants it out of politics. These are very huge differences Mr. Rajeev.
Naveen Deena
ps: My comments are not in anyway related to anti-incumbency issues that you have discussed in the blog.
acd and anonymous, i agree with much of what you are saying. it is high time the people of bihar were saved from their false messiahs. the media, craven as usual, has egg on their faces once again, but puts up a brave front. the indian express is particularly brazen, as it had gone all out in support of the upa.
naveen, there is a term 'de minimus' in law. the differences you point to are 'de minimus', minor issues similar to what caused war between the little-endians and big-endians in 'gulliver's travels.' good to make noise about, but meaningless in the big picture.
Rajeev,
I agree to what you said about the foreign policy part. But the point I was trying to make was that for an average American there is a lot of difference between the republicans and democrats. But for people outside the US, it doesn’t make any difference who comes to power.
Naveen
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