Why did I choose this topic? A great man once told me that in India, 3 topics will always have an audience.. Cricket, Bollywood & Politics. The first two are already flooded with blogs, websites, portals etc. That leaves politics.. which is my forte'. At least I'd like to believe that. Also, by means of this blog, I want to express my views on politics as well as educate people who are more ignorant than me & I know there are many.
I, like any new blogger, started by benchmarking a few good blogs on the same topic. But, to my shock, I did not find any. Maybe I did not search it properly, but there still are very few blogs on this topic. Ironically this is the most favourite tea-time topic for all the Indians, even more than cricket & bollywood.. Yes! Its true!
What is Politics?
Simply put, Politics is the tactics of becoming the policy makers & more importantly, being there.
In hindi, Rajneeti = Raj+Neeti. This is a little more blunt & says directicly - it is one universal set that inculcates all the tactics to rule.
Talking of Indian Politics per say, I believe it is as dramatic, versatile & universal as theatre. All ministers are mere actors who have their role plays. They keep on switching roles though (changing stands), but thats a test as well as rule of theatre - only the versatile actors survive in the long run. The IAS officers play a very critical role as they are the script writers who decide what is it that the minister must do. They also are, at times, the assistant directors who ensure that the play moves in the right(or wrong) direction in the absence of the director. The director over here is the Public.. Aawaam.. Janta, which is generally very sleepy & absent. As the famous man William Shakespeare said all the world's a stage & we are mere actors; the same man who said.. "whats there in the name" & wrote his name William Shakespeare below it.
Before getting deeper into politics & my opinion on them, it is important to first tell you what I think of some of the important parties & personalities of the field, without whom the Indian Political Circle would be amorphous or shapeless.
Indian National Congress: The oldest political party of India which came back in power in 2004 after a dry spell. I believe that the only reason why the Congress has lasted all these years inspite of all the ups & downs is their positioning strategy. They have constantly revised their market positioning as per the changing economic & political environment in the country. In short, they have been dynamic enough to realize the changing mindset of people & agile enough to react accordingly. The key leaders of today are:
- Sonia Gandhi: Honest & smart
- Rahul Gandhi: Dynamic & the new face
- Manmohan Singh: Sthit Pragyah - Thats Sanskrit for Stable Mind
- Pranab Mukherjee: Stainless Steel - as effective as he was 25 years back
- P. Chidambram: Money Maker
Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP): Established in 1980, this party specializes in the role of opposition. Earlier led by Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, BJP is arguably the second biggest party of India & successfully led the NDA to form the central government. But, I believe that the party has a lot more potential than what it performs. What it lacks is 2 things. One, a spearhead & second, a brand manager.
Nitin Gadkari looks promising & has a lot of energy but lacks the experience to compete with the lights of Sonia Gandhi & Mayawati.
The other leaders like Arun Jaithley, Sushma Swaraj are very genuine but seem to be larger than life for the common man.
One man who has emerged as the only solid & consistent player in this game is Narendra Modi. He has made Gujarat his den where nobody can even dream of competing with him. He has played the dirtiest politics ever (of course less than Mayawati) but has made a beautiful fountain on it & made it look as if there was nothing there before the fountain. So everybody has forgotten about the dirt that was there.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP): Honestly, it is the fastest elephant I have seen in my life. A creation of Uttar Pradesh, the state which is the epicenter of Indian Politics, the party has seen exponential growth in the last 7 years. The entire credit (or blame) goes to our own behenji - Mayawati. Mayawati is one sister (behen) who does not require raksha.. in fact others require protection from her. A ruthless bag of corruption, extortion, manipulation & everything that has been advised against by all religions in the world is what can describe 1 ppm (part per million) of Mayawati. Shes that and much more. But, again whatever she does, she gets the votes & that is what matters (in the short run). Misuse of power is tolerable, but she is a perfect example of abuse of power which is like digging your own grave. Eg. Lalu Prasad Yadav.. who has vanished off the scene now.
There are other prominent parties too, including NCP, DMK, Left Front, SP, JD, RSS, Trinamool Congress etc which have helped shape Indian Politics, but I am not updated enough to comment on them as of now.
In this blog, I will be discussing the latest happenings in the world of politics, trying to relate them with instances in the past & expressing my opinions on the same. Lets see, I hope this will be fun!!
