Have been silent and non vocal this time around. Rather I have been observing more to form a decisive opinion before I could shout out loud. Frankly I still do not have a concrete opinion though elections have started and couple of phases are already over.
There is wonderful book, bestseller for numerous year called "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie which talks about how people form their opinion, how you can influence them. There is beautiful quote which says "A Man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still."
If I just look at the facebook feed, I have enough ammunitions both FOR as well as AGAINST- majority of the prime parties in the election which include BJP led NDA, newbies AAP and loosing steam UPA led by Congress (too early to write them off).
My fanfare for Amir Khan is not just like that, the concluding episode of Satyamev Jayate showed how to choose the right candidate just before elections started. But even in that series since you have to been neutral and can't have bias as its a responsible job, nothing was preached.
The reason I quoted above was, I can see lot of Party A supporters bashing Party B and vice-versa and the supporters trying to defend it by giving illogical/non-rational excuses or instead by counter posing questions. Which means though the logic or fact stated is wrong the gut doesn't let us admit it and come out clean instead we have tendency to defend ->when pointed out wrong but, it helps us admit if we stumble across it by ourselves. Let me summarize what I have observed from my social news-feeds on Twitter+FB ->
- Interestingly even though after the debacle, interview of Rahul Gandhi on primetime I have enough people in my friend list who want congress back in power and him as PM (some just want the congress in power but not clear about PM and as usual want the core committee to decide).
- Then there is swarm of supporters for AAP, which according to me is good startup but not well organised to handle government at Center. Though they did some commendable work at Delhi but did equal amount of bad stuff to be stripped of any credit and showed they are just another political party who is there to garner votes by doling out freebies.Though there are some great personalities associated with the party but the group as a whole doesn't seem to be efficient (similar to BJP).
- Then there is Mr Modi, instead of talking about BJP, people+media seem to be focussed solely on this guy. Some extremely positive and some super critical (hastags used by them #Moditards, #Feku,#Modiyapa etc.). What people need to understand neither is this guy superman nor would India's problem disappear if he comes to power. The reason I had some positive vibes about him is because my career forced me to stay in 2 largest cities of Gujarat for 6 months in last year, and they left lasting impressions on me.
There are already hell lot of critics for the Gujarat model but after spending 6 months there, I would prefer other cities following the same model instead of sitting and criticising from the fence that it is no good. I have stayed in UP, Delhi, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Haryana in last 3 decades and from a common man perspective Gujarat does offer a safe and developing state model. Does that mean there is no crime there or other states not developing, NO but I can say under Modi and/or his predecessors included Gujarat sure makes a compelling case of good and able governance. There had been pitfalls but they have been covered well, in other words less freebies doled out and more systematic and planned development (which is visible).
AAP which came into existence for rooting out corruption and got a chance to form minority government at Delhi. They were not able to make the best out of it, apart from freebies(water, electricity etc. - cheap populist measures ) and some good initiatives(corruption helpline, effort for Jan Lokpal - commendable) it lacked the experience to run a smooth government which was evident during the 49 day stint. So as of now apart from splitting the vote share from both BJP and Congress and probably contributing to hung parliament I don't see them adding much value to the parliament.
That leaves a million dollar question what should we do as a common man and whom do we support. Should we vote for a party keeping PM candidate in mind or for local candidate and his work ? My idea is sending the cleanest and worthiest candidate from our respective cities (use NOTA is no such candidate) and changing rules at parliament which would allow MPs to choose best leader as PM (across parties) instead of current system where they are expelled from party and lose their seat if they vote against the party dictum. Another must have power is right to recall which would help common man to ensure his selected leader is doing what they want and is representing them.
Till these rules come into place happy voting and make good use of your common sense while deciding and don't sell your votes. And please do not rely on anything posted on any social media since 90% is crap and hardly 10% is fact, which is even difficult for experts to segregate.
