A few thoughts on elections 2009
Posted on May 23rd, 2009 by Niket
I am late to the party. But still, what the heck. Here are a few stray thoughts:
- I am happy that UPA got a thumping victory in this election. I would have preferred had they gotten a dozen or so more votes; votes taken away not from NDA kitty, but from some of the jokers from the third/fourth front.
- If two parties get 206 and 116 votes respectively, out of parliamentary strength of 543 (half-way mark: 272), why isn’t anyone saying that the clear mandate from the people of India is for these two parties to forget their differences and work together?
- How can anyone with less than 1% of seats be called a party? Is there a way to dissolve that party and let the MPs be clubbed as just “independents?”
- I did not vote. I perhaps never will. If the choice is between good-for-nothing Congress and Hindutva-trumps-all BJP, I have nothing to do with elections. This is because I support stability above all; I do not find too much difference in either parties, so long as they are free of relying on unreliable “allies” for support.
- No, this is not voter apathy. As a right-of-center (economically), skeptic, atheist, socially liberal, pro-open-borders individual, I do not foresee myself agreeing enough with any party in my lifetime. This is neither cynicism nor protest.
- We spend way too much time and money on voting; too little on policy discussions.
BTW Abi, it is entirely possible for people to be highly critical of Dr. Singh and still be happy at him securing a back-to-back term as the Prime Minister. That is perhaps failure of our democracy: that I have to be actually happy that the person who got elected is someone I disagree with significantly. I therefore won’t be gloating.
Quick clarification. In his previous column, Mehta wasn’t just disagreeing with Manmohan Singh; he just branded him as an utter failure at things that he thought were important in political life. Hence the surprise when he gushed over Singh’s re-election.
Abi,
I don’t think highly of Dr. Singh’s PM-ship either. A few reasons (in that order):
(i) Failure to act on disaster that was the previous home minister.
(ii) Arjun Singh. That guy’s opportunistic actions affected my abilities to perform well as a teacher and a researcher.
(iii) Allowing running of democratic institutions as if they were Congress’s bitch.
(iv) Economic policies. (I know you don’t agree with this.)
Not killers, but still important:
(i) What better way to create job opportunities than to take up urgently needed infrastructure projects? No action on that front.
(ii) What happened to the education cess that I have been paying?
Yes, I know I sound very much like Pratap Bhanu Mehta. And still, like him, I am not really unhappy at the PMs re-election. And by that, I don’t mean it in the sense “I didn’t vote for him, but he is my PM” as the Americans say when the other guy wins presidency (presidentship?). I really mean that had I decided to vote, there was a good chance I would have voted for the failure-of-a-PM anyway.