And Just How Dumb Is That...

Lok Sabha elections are coming up. Exiting times. I, like most of the readers of this post, have made my mind up as to who I would like to see lead the current. I am a semi-informed electorate, thanks to the media and am easily swayed by the populist propaganda of the various political entities and their allies in the media.

I personally like the loud ones, the ones with trigger happy tongues, the ones for whom I can genuinely feel sorry for. I really don’t care how the next five years for the nation are going to be or how will our standings be in 2019 in the various world indices, for I only care about how close my predictions get so that I can boast about it. I wonder if bookies are interested in elections as well, because if they are, many of us can be rich men.

What I love about our elections is that the parties contesting elections, like to keep their manifestos closed to their chest. They never tell us what they intend to do once they are in power, how, and what groundwork they have done to achieve that. Plus the mathematics, the probability, the uncertainty, the permutation and combination to reach a number, I must say, it is kinda’ hot. Elections are just the appetizer, the mouth-watering main-course is the post result ceremonial formation of the most unlikely alliances and coalitions. I as a spectator jump on my seat spilling the popcorn tub all over the next guy’s back and scream to myself, ”Oh boy, not him.”  The dessert doesn’t come until before the next general elections when the ruling party is desperate and starts giving away sops. YippeeJ right?

I admire it when the contenders shy away eloquently from stating their stand on higher education, taxation policies, debt ceiling and other such subtle but critical concepts. The media doesn’t care and the responsible ones are far too less watched to care. Print media is on its way to dumps and the digital media too is not entirely fair. The social media is dynamic but leaves out room for too many vague conspiracy theorists.

Honestly, it doesn’t really bother me. Politics serves me as a sports interest, thoroughly entertaining, has the x-factor and at the end of the day, I go to my bed unperturbed by the form, or the performance of my favourite team or who the signed players are for the current season or the next one. It doesn’t bother me because I know and have seen things and learnt to keep my expectations in check. I am a middle class person and realize that inflation is inevitable, it would be unfair of me to demand gas at a price that I used to pay the previous year. Since I am a middle class man, I won’t pay taxes, for I know they only go for the oversized fish. Change too is inevitable. So many countries had cool stuff like missiles, liberalization policies, metro trains, naval carriers, etc. it was only a matter of time that we had them too, it’s only coincidental that we know a Kalam or a Manmohan Singh and their legacies. Good things more than bad, are going to happen, the market won’t let us deviate. Someone or other will be the face of the change and enjoy the stardom of his legacy.The leader of this nation only needs to do one thing, not to screw up. He needs to follow the trend and make sure he isn’t too behind four or five countries. For better, we need to have a Sachin Tendulkar in Politics too.