An election result of my choice!

Election Results, Parliamentary or Assembly have normally not been something that I was too keen on. Maybe the graying mustache (and beard too) has led me to have an opinion on this or is it the resurgent need for a strong opposition to sustain our not-so-fragile democracy? Ok, let us decide that later.

The Last ten years saw a strong change from the times prior to it - a rather strong leadership, which was required and was the demand of the nation after all the scams as a result of the coalition's so-called dharma - to keep everyone happy and to keep one's own 'kursi' intact. Undoubtedly, the present PM has an enigmatic personality and an equally charming choice of words in his speeches, the visible changes in Gujarat during his CMship,  though it had in recent times been a bit too caustic to my individual taste with all his 'Hindutva' agenda especially his not-so-required 'dog whistles' against the minorities in general and muslims in particular.

There is no reason for any citizen to be not liking the fact the economy has been on the climb, soon expected to be 3rd in the world, surpassing Japan and Germany. The thrust on the infrastructure both physical as well as digital is for everyone to see. Get your car out, drive around and you will surely find it for yourself. Welfare benefits, which I am not too much in favour, now reaches beneficiaries directly without any middlemen. Startups are a reality, and scientific organisations have scored notable successes like the Mars satellite and landing a rover on the moon’s south pole.  The GST, implemented in 2017 unified the Indian market by subsuming many state and local taxes, though an exciting achievement, but was vehemently opposed by BJP while it was in opposition. 

Coming to the cons, the undesirable demonetization, the utterly misjudged farm law implementation, and the distinctly mishandled pandemic are better to be kept mum about. The PM's charisma would make anyone believe the positives the ruling dispensation has brought in while hiding all the negatives especially with the 'godi' media in absolute solidarity with them. It was a pity to watch the exit polls on any and every TV channels. Sad, really sad.

The lack of jobs both in government as well as in private, is a concern more so amongst the middle class and lower-middle class with a growing gulf between the prosperity of the rich and the rest. Most Indians or for that matter anyone would clearly prefer to work in white-collar jobs, but there are simply not enough to go around. Just for an example, When the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh posted openings for 6,000 low-level government revenue jobs in February 2023, it received more than 1.2 million applicants which included 1,000 PhD, 85,000 Engineering graduates, 100,000 business administration graduates, and roughly 180,000 other people with postgraduate degrees. Indeed there is a need for course correction.

Now that our PM elect knows that all that he has done is not as wished by the public at large and that religion (or faith) cannot be a singular way to lead this diverse country (watch the result in Ayodhya - seems 'ram bhakts' & 'andh bhakts' aren't the same!) and there needs to be more malleability in decision making with some consensus of sorts on passing bills. Remember the farm bills? Though experts felt it not so bad for the farming community but farmers opposed it rather vehemently and had to be withdrawn by a leader of the sorts of our PM. 

I find this as an opportunity for our now elected PM to course correction and lead from the front even though it a coalition government he would lead. I consider him to be a person one who is most suitable for the post amongst the leaders presently in Indian politics who can, if he wishes to, build broken and rutted urban/village roads, facilitate unemployment to the youth sitting idle and just but making reels, give relief to women working in a brick-kiln/fields/road-works in the gruelling heat of the burining afternoon sun. Ours is a huge country but then 75 years is not a short period too! A strong leader and equally strong opposition is what we needed and we have got both. Let us now see where this takes us from here.

A lingering thought surrounds me for ever - if it is jobs that is needed and if the government has the wherewithal, why do they not give it as they decided (and extended too) to give doles to the poor and needy? When they can give free ration to the BPL, why not jobs? Inorder to be in power, these power hungry elected rulers would have been doing it at the very first instance rather than experiencing the wrath of the electorate during elections - is not it? There must be something that is not under their control or is it not?