With General Elections in the country going on, it looks like polity is reaching its nadir. I have never seen such types of name calling; INDI alliance leaders and other opposition parties’ leaders offering freebies right, left, and centre; filing complaints to Election Commission against the opponents, etc.etc.
In this Dance of Democracy, if you go by the allegations of some of the leaders democracy is in danger if PM Modi gets re-elected again. As per them, the present government is using ED, CBI, and other central agencies to harass the opposition leaders. In my opinion, it is better than the earlier UPA government where the ruling party leaders after getting caught in scams, then these same agencies were used to dilute the charges against the tainted leaders so that they could go scot free.
Here are some stray thoughts on the recent happenings during this election campaign period:
1 I never knew that the political leaders can get interim bail for election campaigning. I am referring to Arvind Kejriwal getting interim bail after spending 50 days in jail on charges of money laundering in Delhi excise scam. To me it looks like the judges of the Supreme Court have show the politicians are above normal people, and law does not apply in same way to common people. Take the case, it took months to Naresh Goel, of Jet Airways, who is also caught for money laundering, to get interim bail on medical grounds. There are so many other accused lodged in jail who do not get interim bail on medical issues. Now so many politician who are inside the jail will start getting bail for election campaigning.
2 I am sure that before the 2nd of June 2024, the day Arvind Kejriwaal has to go back to jail to Tihar jail, he is going to fall sick with some serious ailments, and the SC will have to extend his interim bail.
3 Recently, there have been news of the Waqf Board. It seems that Congress government in May 1914 have blatantly issued order in favour of Waqf board so that they get many more properties. As per the reports, the Waqf Board has become the largest landowner of the estates in the country.
4 Few days back Congress government in Karnataka passed the law of taking over the collections of all the temples in the state. But churches and mosques are excluded.
5 It came to my notice recently that the Imams and other key people of the mosque are being paid regular salary by the government, and this law was passed during the Congress regime at the centre, and recently their salaries have been increased also. This is one more case of minority appeasement.
6 Recently a spoke person of the Congress party that there should be a live debate between chosen leader of Congress (either Rahul Gandhi or Khadge). To which BJP’s spoke person responded that we are ready for debate with your leader but fist declare your chosen leader as your Prime Ministerial candidate.
7 The political leaders of various political parties keeps on announcing that if our party wins, we will give such and such items free to the public. Why they do not realize that nothing comes as free, if someone is getting something free, then someone else is paying for the same as nothing is manufactured without spending any money, and here if these politicians are offering something free, than taxpayers are going to pay for the same. I think taxpayers of this country should demand that these politicians can not offer something free at the cost of development for which the taxes have been collected.
8 If you go by the media, it looks like INDI alliance is going to give very tough fight to NDA, but at the ground level this does not seem so. Problem with INDI alliance is that in some states they are fighting against their own alliance partners, like Congress and TMC in West Bengal, Congress and AAP not gelling well in Punjab.
9 In Maharashtra, the scene has one more issue which is confusing voters. As two years back original Shiv Sena broke, and one part which is known as Uddhav Sena is with INDI alliance, and other part known as Shiv Sena is with NDA. Same is the case with NCP, which broke last year- one faction known as NCP (Sharad Pawar) is with INDI alliance and other known as original NCP is with NDA. It so happened that area in which I live for last 40 years was always a strong bastion of Shiv Sena, the winner was always from Shiv Sena whether it is Municipal Corporation elections, Assembly elections or Lok Sabha elections. This year voters are really confused whom to give vote, till date Shiv Sena was always fighting the elections in alliance with BJP, now with the break up of Shiv Sena, there is total chaos. On top of it, the sitting MLA of area ( who is now part of Shiv Sena, after having crossed over from Uddhav Sena recently) is standing for this general election as NDA candidate.
I may write on this topic of Dance of Democracy in my future blogs also.
Waiting for your feedback on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
13th May 2024