Once again, the election bandwagon is rattling and moving closer.This time the voters of India have special and unprecedented responsibilities.This is no ordinary election.The world is going through the worst recession seen after 1930s and no matter what the pundits say, we cannot be totally isolated from the aftermath of this economic Holocaust.A government that we are going to elect will be playing a very decisive role in managing this turbulence and the future of this nation depends a lot on this.
So, cutting out the rhetoric, what do we aspire for as the desirable outcome of this election. As a minimum non-negotiable precondition, we need a dedicated team of men of integrity and that automatically translates to a complete bar on any candidate with any kind of criminal background.We need to elect honest, level headed and hardworking men and women as our representatives.
What about their politics?Any extreme hues of opinion should be avoided.You hear passionate arguments that capitalism is dead, based on the meltdown orchestrated by some greedy bankers in America.Others on the extreme fringe says that only communism and unadulterated socialism can work for us.No one seems to think that wealth has to be first created in factories and fields before wealth can be distributed.Otherwise we will be distributing poverty mixed with verbose meaningless ideology.So, let us not look toward USA for unadulterated capitalism or towards Latin America or other pockets that eulogise communist socialist utopia.We have to have a capitalistic wealth creating outlook till we become prosperous enough to distribute this well being by socialistic institutions and tools.So, look for a party that stand by this formula and show signs of rational pragmatic governance.
Do not be carried away by outfits that want to promote any kind of exclusive identities in the name of religion, caste, communal ism or regionalism.India is a diverse civilisation of unimaginable variety and only for this reason, any party that negate this diversity, must not be allowed to come in power.What we need is a party that will stand by the nuances of a mixed economy and secular polity.
33% of global poor are still in India and 75% of Indians even today live below 2 dollars a day.So no communist utopia can distribute anything except abject poverty.At the same time, No propagandists of a "shining India" can hide our slumdogs who struggle for an identity.Considering this, a centrist party that believes in concepts of nationalism, secularism, inclusiveness, business friendly productivity orientation and social responsibility is the answer.We need an economist of competence with impeccable personal integrity to lead the nation in the times of crisis.
We can avoid looking at temple builders, Religious fanatics who do not dare to condemn terrorism of any hue, megalomaniacs who guard their treasure chests, apologist politicians who who do padaseva for the rich and well connected, Leaders who change parties at the drop of a hat(or turban), leaders who want to erect statues of their mentors all over the country, the entire spectrum of small and marginal men who put on their garish make ups like streetwalkers before every election...
Indian democracy has many imperfections like the caste system and grossly insufficient education.We need to correct them.What encourage us is that this democracy has sustained for 50 years in a country of over 1 billion people with innumerable problems.
Let there be no scope for division, polarisation and exclusiveness here.Let there be pragmatic economic thinking with the right dose of well meaning regulation and inclusiveness as the objectives of this election.This is a historic responsibility on the voter.
A.P.Jayanthram