Thursday, March 19, 2009
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON ELECTIONEERING TOWARDS 2009 INDIAN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS - By Ghulam Muhammed
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON ELECTIONEERING TOWARDS 2009 INDIAN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
1.The two main ‘Brahminical’ political parties, Congress and BJP are in serious trouble as regional and potential Third Front partners, are increasingly going independent and are loath to give space for the two national parties to attain their high count of seats, to be able to lead any coalition; be that UPA or NDA.
2. The new attraction of electing a Prime Minister, not from the two main parties, is giving a new boost and new shine to leaders of different regional parties.
3. The old cartelization of Indian politics, monopolised by high-caste leadership, is giving way to a new set of players from the lower strata of Indian polity.
4. Muslims, once the backbone of all political parties, once committed, have started their own ‘outfits’ (term preferred by TOI, that probably refuses to legitimize their efforts by calling them political parties) and adopting Congress/Mayawati formula of inclusion of all weaker sections of voters, and giving tickets to non-Muslims and campaigning for them.
5. Muslim political activities are focused on state level efforts to put up candidates for Lok Sabha. The usual harangues and conclaves of Muslim leaders are missing, as tactical voting has gone regional and national politics are on the backburner.
6. Communal riots and communal politics has been decisively put away by both ‘Brahminical’ parties, as they have fully realised the counter productiveness and aftereffects of the bloodshed and the glare of world attention on Indian elections. The way Varun Gandhi has evoked alarmed reaction from practically all quarters of the political spectrum goes to prove that the days of ‘communal riots’ as boosting the prospect of communal voting successes, are numbered.
7. The menacing shadow of turmoil in Pakistan and the palpating danger of Taliban terror reacting to any more Gujarats in India, is weighing heavily on the two Brahminical political group’s strategies to whip up frenzies of the communal nature as a convenient short cut to garner landslide victories.
8. Left parties appear to be prepared to junk their ideological baggage and lead the Third Front, through consensus politics.
9. Indian politics is poised for a paradigm shift and change is in the air.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
www.ghulammuhammed.wordpress.com
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