The Indian Elections and Their Aftermath - Part 2

Also what does the future hold for the opposition? I got the following tidbit of information from a TV channel, maybe IBN7 - in 2004, the NDA had an ultra-positive campaign in India Shining, this time it was ultra negative in Bhay Ho, neither worked. In 2004 the NDA was a poor loser stalling Parliament proceedings. I hope they behave better this time round. It is surely going to be a sorely demoralized lot. Advani has already said he is not interested in being the leader of the opposition.

I am also curious about the next general elections, which will hopefully be held only in 2014, not before that. Who are going to be the key players? Rahul Gandhi is declining a ministerial post right now. The Congress is (in)famous for its sycophants, one among who had once declares "Indrira is India". It is not beyond the 'Gandhi family loyalists' to exhort him to stand for the PM's position the next time round (he will be 43, Rajiv Gandhi became PM at 40). Manmohan Singh will probably be as old as Advani is now but will the Congress choose him over a member of the Gandhi family then? So it would seem advisable for Rahul Gandhi to take up a ministerial post, as we are sure that he will one day become the PM of this nation. But what about the opposition? Advani will not be in the picture. Modi does not have national acceptability now, I am doubtful about his acceptability in 2014. Is there another leader today in the BJP who has a mass appeal? I don't think so. There are potential candidates like Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Shourie (a friend pointed out Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh) but I cannot say for sure that there will be anyone who can compete against Rahul Gandhi, except Modi. And we are back to square one.

And what is up with Andhra Pradesh? I cannot claim to have followed even decently what has been happening in AP over the last five years. But from what I heard there was widespread corruption everywhere, missionary activites atop Tirumala hill (for the uninitiated Tirupati is the town and Tirumala is the actual hill where Lord Venkateswara's temple is located and the CM is a converted Christian) and rampant nepotism. Rajasekhara Reddy's (the CM) son has become an MLA this time round. He is a controversial figure in his own right, owns a paper, I forget its name. It has a pro-Congress tilt (obviously) and I beleive it was started to take on Ramoji Rao's Eenadu, which was highly critical of the COngress govt and which is pro-TDP. Another thing that I am aware of is that anything and everything is being named after either Rajiv Gandhi or Indira Gandhi, whether it be Hyderabad's new international airport (a Visakhapatnam-Hyderabad flight takes about 45 minutes, it takes an hour to get into town from the airport), a housing scheme or a health scheme. Someone please tell the CM that there were other leaders in the Congress leaving out those two. There is not even a mention of P V Narasimha Rao (maybe a stretch of a Hyderabadi ring road has been named after him) and this was the person responsible for giving us Manmohan Singh, for bringing India out of the risk of sovereign default and for providing the first stable government after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.

There was Chiranjeevi with his Praja Rajyam Party. I do not say he would make a great CM but at least there was an opportunity for a change. There was the ex-civil servant Jayaprakash Narayan with his Lok Satta Party promising clean governance. There were huge turnouts at Chiranjeevi's rallies. It was the same when Balakrishna (NTR's son) and Junior NTR (Balakrishna's nephew and NTR's grandson) campaigned for the TDP. Where were these votes? The TDP and the Communists had formed an alliance. The people ignored all of these and voted for the COngress! My father quipped that people get the government they deserve.

Forget for the moment the next general elections. What do the next five years hold for us? I would describe myself as an Andhra middle class liberal Hindu right-wing citizen of this nation, and these are my anguished thoughts.