Satyameva Jayathe ?

Come 16^th May09, world’s largest democracy, hopefully, will have a new government. Although, the 5^th phase of the polling is due on Wednesday, the result of 15^th Lok Sabha election in India looks to be a chaotic mix of numbers. I regret that I lost a chance to vote this time, and I wish people away from India could vote remotely, which would have been a very satisfying thing. However, having keenly followed the campaigns and manifesto of all the parties via internet, it seems to me that no crook is better than the other. The social, political and economical issues of the nation are the fundamental basis on which the elections should have been fought, but seeing the way each party is pitted against the other, I feel that the rubber has never met the road. One of the really disgusting stances I came across while studying these parties’ manifestoes was that none of them have revealed their post-poll coalition strategies or alliances. I beg to ask the following question – are they taking Indian public for a toss? With what confidence do these parties seek trust and vote of the people whom they are willing to represent? Most debates or interviews I came across during this time never gave me a clear picture about the parties’ agenda to solve the current problems. None of them seems to be interested in discussing major issues which hampers the condition of laymen.

                One of the interesting comparisons I like to make is the hype around the prime ministerial candidate just like the American presidential candidature. If at all the Indian media is trying to play the capitalist game of their American counterpart, they don’t realize that there's many a slip twixt cup and lip. India is vast and has humongous variety, which makes it a special democracy; it’s better that media does not give too much emphasis to a single candidature, as coalition government is what seems to be a foreseeable, albeit undesirable result. Another interesting comparison between election campaign in India and USA is the emphasis thrust upon universities. Most of the US presidential debates were held in universities, where as in India we hardly saw any of the candidates visiting colleges, leave aside universities. It is high time that our Indian politicians realize that catering to the needs of youth will fetch them more votes, than providing liquor and notes to the already bribed artificial audience.

In retrospect, it is important to remember that it’s not the size of the dog in fight, but the size of the fight in dog which fetches the glory; and lets hope that the fight is for the right cause…let SATYAMEVA  JAYATHE !