The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Tuesday 6 March 2012

MANDATE 2012: WILL UTTAR PRADESH BE THE NEXT ‘BIHAR’ STORY IN INDIA NOW?

Midst all the flow of wisdom and knowledge; midst all the spilling over of the statistical arsenal; midst all the bickering rants and analyses thereof; midst the singular concern of lack of people doing honest politicking; midst the burning question of who’ll take decisive steps to check corruption; midst the misery of an issueless poll plank, there came a positive news that might well be the indicator and the subsequent precursor of another long-term positive.

Counting for the assembly elections held in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur were held today and four out of these five states emerged with clear majority legislatures. In Uttarakhand, the balance hangs by the fine line with the almost tie-like situation between the Indian National Congress and the BJP.

Of all these, Uttar Pradesh was the most keenly watched one and not having a hung assembly is a clear indication of the mood of the common man of the state (and the overall results tells us of the intent of the Indian populace about the path the Indian democracy should be headed).

Will the politicians be wise enough to read it? Only time will tell.

BUT WHAT DOES IT FORETELL?

Uttar Pradesh had not seen a full five-year term CM before Mayawati since 1960. After a series of fractured mandates, hung assemblies, increasing political opportunism and rise of criminal elements and hence decreasing focus on the development based politics, Mayawati got a clear mandate to administer (not rule!) the state for five years. But things only worsened, from law and order to public administration.

And public endurance has a limit. This we saw in Bihar when people from across the caste, community and economy cauldron voted for Nitish Kumar. Such was the misery that during the reign of Lalu Yadav, ‘Bihari’ had almost become a slang term. Though, Bihar had stable governments under Lalu Yadav, the orthodox corruption that flowed from the top made this advantage an opportunity for the goons to run amok.

In Bihar, initially, the vote was not for Nitish Kumar but it was against Lalu Yadav. Once given an opportunity, Nitish showed his mettle and had people vote for ‘Nitish Kumar’ in the next sailing. Development speaks and ‘Bihari’ is no longer a term to mock any one.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BSP and Mayawati saw the mandate as to rule the state and not to administer it, the way Lalu had done in Bihar. She could not realize it was a mandate to heal and kill the misery of Uttar Pradesh; she could not see how the ordinary UP walla was being tagged more and more the way as was the case with the ‘Bihari’ in the recent past.

Instead, she had a free run of corruption, lawlessness and extravagance at the cost of depleting human indices in the state.

Like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, too, had seen enough of ill-rule and misery and the common man spoke of his intent of change by giving Mayawati a clear majority. Now as Mayawati has failed him, he has spoken again by giving a clear majority to the Samajwadi Party, in fact bigger than what Mayawati had got in 2007 in terms of the number of seats.

Is the Samajwadi Party going to learn the rules of game now unlike its tainted run in the past, when its rule was synonymous with a jungleraj where becoming a goon was in vogue?

The clear mandate with comfortable margins in Uttar Pradesh and in other three states can be a windfall for the Indian polity given it mends its ways. It will be a boon for the Indian democracy then.

The positive of the political stability and incumbency-led politics lead to the strengthening of the development based politics in future.

Stable terms for fives years to the incumbent in the office and a consistent change of the guard based on the performance is the call of the day. A mandate like that tells us the maturity of the voter; it tells us that issue and development based politics is gaining its due away from the insane rush for the caste and community based calculations.

Corruption is a huge, huge issue but it becomes endemic when the political class in office indulges in absolute debauchery and free loot the way it happened in Bihar; the way it’s happening in Uttar Pradesh.

Will Uttar Pradesh be the next ‘Bihar’ story in India now?

Samajwadi Party’s track-record stands for a clear no. (We already had reports of goons exercising their skills today while celebrating the victory and that happened at multiple places!)

The Samajwadi Party, for its own health, needs to be aware of the fact in the clear terms that this mandate is against Mayawati and not for the Samajwadi Party. Bihar, the positive corollary given above is not free of corruption, yes, but there is someone seriously trying to do some serious meaningful politicking.


But any time is the good time to begin on the journey to bring and inculcate the positive change! Will this be the chance for Uttar Pradesh and the Samajwadi Party?
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/