We are in the last leg of the Congress-led government’s five years at the center and all signs point toward this lame-duck coalition failing to return to power. And I say so because this government has managed to do more damage to the country than all previous Congress governments have collectively done in the past.
Five years in power and all the government has to show are schemes, many of them. The only problem being most of these schemes have failed at the ground level. Implementation has been laughable, and rife with corruption.
The Congress through out its tenure has been more worried about not rubbing the juvenile Left the wrong way than ensuring correct and productive implementation of plans that would help the people that need government help the most—the poor of the country. And for all its pro-poor shenanigans the Left has repeatedly displayed that it is no better than its opponents whom it likes to accuse of wrongdoing at the slightest of opportunity.
Farmers are committing suicide, prices of essentials are continuously hitting new highs, corruption is rampant, government projects like the highways project are running way behind schedule, the nuclear deal with the US appears to be going no where, and acts of terrorism are on the rise…the list is endless.
I think the Congress and its allies got it all wrong. Their sole reason for coming together was to fight communal forces (read BJP). And when any coalition is formed solely to keep one opponent out of power and progress of the nation is just one of the things in its long list of populist agenda, then that government cannot harbor hopes of getting reelected.
As shown by Narendra Modi in Gujarat, people will vote for progress. I am no fan of Mr. Modi and I condemn the 2002 riots. But one cannot deny that Mr. Modi has also done much for the progress of Gujarat as a state. And his personal image as a clean politician (read near zero corruption) is a huge plus. How many in the Congress can claim to be even 50% clean?
Gujarat has one of the best road networks in the country. The environment for business is very fertile and friendly, and the government has by and large acted as a facilitator of growth and not the guardian and guarantor of growth. The government has to realize that its job is to facilitate growth and not rig growth.
Another problem is the servile image that senior Congress politicians have portrayed in front of the public by falling at Sonia Gandhi’s feet and showing lack of decision making capacity without sanction from the High Command (read Ms. Sonia Gandhi). Forget what anyone else has to say, for me, personally, the capability of any party that can’t find a president from over 1 billion Indians by birth to take this country forward is debatable. That for me also shows the level of decadence in the thought process of the party and its leaders.
Did our freedom fighters sacrifice everything to drive out the British, only to give power back to a foreigner? And to make matters worse, hand over control to a person with no political experience other than being the daughter-in-law of the Nehru-Gandhi family? That to me shows the capability, or the lack of it, of the party leadership.
And now we have senior politicians singing praises of Rahul Gandhi, a political non-entity who has done nothing worthwhile in life that warrants the party to project him as a future prime minister. I have just one question—what is Rahul Gandhi’s qualification other than his surname to lead the Congress and at some point of time, the nation?
Looking at the larger perspective, are our political parties so intellectually bankrupt that they can’t find about 545 qualified, well educated, clean candidates from a population of over 1 billion to send to the Lok Sabha and take this country forward?
I guess the answer is no. There is no political will to upset the corrupt, money making ways, be it the Congress or the BJP or any other party. And we people also are to blame for the current situation that we find the country in.
If memory serves me right, veteran journalist Abhay Mokashi had contested either a Lok Sabha or Assembly election as an independent from the Mumbai North-West constituency on the plank of good governance and willingness to fight corruption. He lost his deposit.
That to me shows how our people fail those who want to work for the country’s progress and not the self. So I guess we deserve to be ruled either by a Congress led or a BJP led coalition that will continue to milk the country dry of its last drop of humanity and we individually will continue to remain happy in our 600-square-feet islands of tranquility that we like to call home, while our real home, the nation, bleeds to death.
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