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November 24, 2024

Archives: November 2016

November 15, 2016

Leader of the rest 69%

by viggy — Categories: social — Tags: , , , — Leave a comment

In 2014 elections, we saw BJP become the single largest party with 31% of the vote share and a total of 282 seats out of 543 seats. It was called the Modi wave which was flowing across the nation and helped BJP win in such handsome absolute majority. It is clear that more than Modi wave which definitely was a factor, a lack of any other credible leader to challenge Modi in the opposition was completely missing.

The results of US elections in which Trump with a very small margin has lot of lessons for the Indian opposition to learn. What was completely ignored by the mainstream media was the immense discontent amongst people with current environment of administration and desperate hope of some change which would better their lives. People had no complains as such against Obama but still didnt believe that Hillary would bring the change that they desperately were looking for. It is very doubtful that Trump even understands what changes he has promised but clearly his representation of change and against the established authority was enough for people to give him a chance.

Similarly, in India, there definitely was lot of despair with UPA government and people similarly were desperately looking for change. BJP, riding on the dreamy picture of ‘Gujarat Development’ by Modi in his three terms as CM, was able to sell the idea of change. Again the people did not know what this change was, how it would help them but merely representing a change gave them enough hope to vote for BJP.

The challenge for the opposition now either in India or US is to be able to present a real solution to the people rather than again create another dreamy picture slightly different from the people already bought during the previous election. In case of US, Bernie Sanders seems to have been atleast able to impress a good section of the opposition in his attempt to become the democratic presidential nominee. In India, this is a serious challenge. There does not seem to be any party which can currently present any credible solution and connect with people with its solution.

Rather the opposition in India seem to be completely focused on targeting on wrong policy decisions made by the current government. However,as we saw with Hillary campaign, people are ready to forget the finer details and forgive mistakes generously if they are convinced with the general intention of the government. So, Indians can completely forgive the government for mishandling the Pathanakot terrorist attack as misinformation spread by media. They can ignore the side effects of going to War with Pakistan on economy, on people if they are convinced that this is the only solution left as all other solutions tried ‘previously’ have ‘failed’. Similarly, they are convinced that ‘Industrialists’ need labour reforms to establish industry and generate jobs, even if it means exploiting the workers. They also seem ok with breaking all foreign policies develop over decades together if just some near time gains can be achieved. People are generous to the government as in their eyes the previous governments failed miserably and currently there is no other alternative that is being proposed by anyone credible.

The opposition is not able to use any of its imagination or ideology in countering any of the current decisions apart from attacking current policies in details which people do not seem to even consider. This seems to be a general failure of the world’s largest democracy where the opposition of 69% is not able to produce any credible solution or leader to look up to. Instead by ‘only’ attacking the government and Modi specifically, they are only cementing the views of the government amongst the people.

Unfortunately for the opposition, the task is only uphill as currently it seems the people in the democracies across the world only need quick medication rather than planned and slow changes in the system to put it in the right track. No medication can change the course of society, especially a democratic society in a jiffy and changes in society are only gradual while its destruction can be rapid as we saw during the two world wars.

November 13, 2016

USA with Trump vs India with Modi

by viggy — Categories: social — Tags: , , , — Leave a comment

If you believe that Trump and Modi are on the two different sides on their stand on racism or minority rights, then probably reading further may not actually be of any interest to you. However, if you do believe that both Modi and Trump capitalized the racist and anti-minority sentiments, fueled it to strengthen their votes during election, then you would also agree that the future of the respective country is very grave. Not only for the minority but also for the majority. Politics of division doesnt stop at one point. It grows with each point, as it is fueled to take power from one set of minority, and completely remove the minority from any power share that democracy provides. So though it may start with majority race against the minority race, or majority religion against the minority religion, it would continue finding more reasons to further subdivide the society on aspects like language, caste, gender, sexual orientation, etc. ensuring that the power continuously gets concentrated with a smaller and smaller community which represents the majoritarian view.

If we agree with this, then we need to look at what would be future of India or US now that such a power is actually in place in both the countries. We do have a good preview of how the majority’s narrative is being implemented in India with continuous ban on various aspects in the name of religion, culture, tradition, etc. Even in US, it is expected to see such ban being implemented, ban on abortion, ban affecting the LGBTQ community, ban on various minority traditions, etc.

However, the rate of implementation of such enforcement of majority view on the minority would determine the extent to which minority community would be effected. In India, due to its diversity, the major challenge with even implementing any majoritarian view is that there isnt a single version of such a view. So while majority community in Northern Cow belt considers Cow a sacred animal, even the majority community in South India and North East India, dont have such a religious attachment to cow. Even the majority community differs so starkly in their culture and tradition that members of community in different regions may not even feel the same connection with each other. The diversity in language, diversity due to the caste system and diversity amongst regions is so different that imposing a single view is not possible. Sangh Parivar in India has been working tirelessly for decades together to reach out to different sections of the majority to spread a common view of the majority community. With such a large dedicated volunteer force on the ground, they still fail to connect to a large number of people with their narrative of the Indian past. The caste system’s rigidity again does not allow for bringing in different castes together against the minority religion.

Apart from this, Sangh Parivar’s goal of a single united medieval-age India, ‘Akhand Bharat’ is still far from any reality and they continue to strive to achieve such a goal. This ensures that Sangh Parivar cannot unleash a complete violent force on the minority as it would immediately alienate a large of its support base which look at it only a cultural organization spread basic tenants of the ‘peaceful’ hindu religion. Hence for Sangh Parivar, the path to their ‘Hindu rashtra’ is a very slow, divisive path continuously poisoning the people’s mind to accept hate against the minority community. They also understand that for such a path, they need to be in power for a long time and hence they would have to continue their rhetoric around of ‘development’ and improve lifestyle of the common people to have his/her support in the long run.

However, on the contrary, in the US, Trump’s support base barely has any organized force behind it. It is a group of people who are genuinely fed up of existing system which has been depriving them of basic life style. This along with the racist and anti-minority feeling developed over time formed a core support for Trump. Now that he is in power, such a support base would definitely feel more empowered. With no direction or guidance behind such a empowered force, there is nothing to stop them from being violent. Hence such a force is definitely going to be much more disastrous for the country. What is awaited in US seems to be a very unpredictable time-bomb which is set during the election campaign when hate was spewed across the nation against particular communities. What would trigger such bombs is what we need to await and see.

I had never thought I would ever say this, but thanks to Sangh Parivar in India, the disastrous force is more like a cancer spreading slowly until it corrodes the whole body and takes over it. But it still can be checked, depending how quickly it gets detected and then treated.