These 2014 elections could be a turning point for Indian history, from an era of socialistic Nehruvism to Capitalistic era of Modism.
The primary reason for the anger of the people of India on Congress was the apathy of the party to the steep price rise, insensitivity of their leaders. Shifting of Jaipal Reddy as Oil minister was the starting of sinking of the government. Increase in Oil prices led to massive increase in other prices. Then the social welfare programmes got struck up, the connectivity between the NAC led by Sonia and the government got disconnected, the masses left enmasse. Then intellectuals, Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal,Salman Khurshid , Anand Sharma, Montek Singh Ahuluwalia showed up their disconnect with people with their policies and communications,sort of intellectual arrogance. Then policy making from PMO came to a abrupt stop 2-3 years which stopped the generation of employment, youngsters moved away from congress. Then came the division of AP, throwing away Jagan Mohan Reddy to prison, hurt the congress faithful Telugu people and turned to hate feeling for the party. The so called Congress Srilankan policy turned away Tamils, took away the congress vote base in TN, brought the youth congress movement to naught. In UP no congress leader was groomed to take forward the work of Rahul, a single Amit Shah with the help of the RSS volunteers could revive BJP in one year ! This showed that congress leaders have turned into arm chair leaders. It would be hugely difficult for the party to resurrect itself in the coming years. The party has to move away from the Gandhi family and nurture leaders from the districts to national leaders, say people like Ajay Maken,Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, Scindia, Jairam Ramesh, Shashi Tharoor (but most of them are from dynastic descent rather than from the grassroots !). Congress has lost leaders from south India like Moopanar,YSR, SM Krishna, and havent got one during these years or they were not groomed. Congress have to discover or re-invent themselves, which would be a painful process. This isnt going to be easy as the whole of India is going to be saffron painted in the coming days.
The rise of AAP is a sensation in this election. But how are they going to keep themselves alive is the question in the mind of people. They last their base Delhi, the core of their revolutionary rise but it looks like they have retained their vote bank. The biggest take away from this election is the insider dealing of leaders not having strong candidates against them nor campaigning against them was thrawted and secondly, Modi, Gandhi family and many stalwarts were given a run for their money and most importantly they have broken the caste barriers in many states, thats thumbs up for AAP. Their decision for Pan India presence was also the right one. But only now their work has started. They seem to have caught the imagination of the dalits, minorities and forward thinking youngsters. How are they going to sustain themselves interms of financial resources and human resources in a question mark. The Delhi and the Varanasi model of campigning and building the volunteer base has to be replicated Pan India. They need to move away from the congress and BJP of a Nationally governed party to a party that is controlled from the bottom to top. The state AAP should have the identity, they may have policies that are in complete difference to the national AAP, why not ?? TN AAP could have a policy on Srilanka, the national AAP have to agree to disagree with them !The Kanyakumari AAP may think that KNPP is not safe for them, in which case TN AAP may have to agree to disagree ! National AAP could be a sort of coalition of state AAPs !! With state AAPs have their own identity and policy making..This could bring Unity in Diversity, the crux of India. There needs to be Kejriwals in each state. The courage and boldness to standup for the man on the street in their trademark, which has to go on. But the model of financial sustenance, AAP in the national and state have to comeup with some innovation. They will not have the luxury of industry funding and the black markets which the regular parties have.All national parties will take them seriously now, will also be scared of them. They have a bright future ahead of them. With many talented people with them, they need to find how to channelise and use them effectively in the coming days.
The BJP's Modi ride may not be smooth. They are bound to change the contours of Indian history for next few decades. The MGREGM, scholorships/loans for dalits and minorities may not be the priority, would go the backburner. Will the price rise be controlled? Definitely its going to be difficult under a BJP capitalistic administration. The equitable and inclusive development may not be seen for next few years. The braminical mindset era is making a comeback, but no one knows will this work in these years of enlighted people. But we could expect streamlining of many systems in the field of S&T, Telecom, Education etc. Modi did make quite a lot of efforts to change his image in the last five years in Gujarat as an inclusive person but will he continue that work at the national level resisting all pulls and pressures among his party and RSS, only time will tell.
But the question in my mind is, why is there no transparency and accountablity in the spending of parties. For instance how much did Modi, Rahul and Jayalalitha spend for the long campaigning? It looks like election commission is spinless with such huge unaccountability. Who all funded Modi campign for more than a year now? Will someone spill the beans? If equality and transparency in funding is in place, the true feedback from people can be realised. Election reforms are a necessity. But who will bring it!
We Indians have to sympatheise with ourselves, so many years after freedom, still we are far away from social and economic equality. Indian electorate is hard to decipher. The first thing for an average Indian would be leave him alone, let us first live for that day. This was disturbed & distracted in the past 3-4 years. The rural urban divide in terms of development has increased considerably. Will there be a pan india, pan people development, we have to wait and watch, keep our fingers crossed. For now the industrialists and businessmen are celebrating but how this will work for the man on the street, no one knows. Let us wait and see !
