Election 2014 - Is the change there?
by Jitesh Sinha
15 May 2014
Last day before results, the election Euphoria is slowly dying down now. Though the political parties might accept or deny the result depending upon whether the numbers favour them or not But by and large people are convinced about the trends what exit polls have predicted. Those who wanted this must be joyful and those who were against this kind of verdict shall also peaceful thinking what is inevitable can't be avoided.
One can't find too many onslaughts against each other by political parties any more now; race for hurling innovative abuse and making headlines have also subsided. No matter which side the people were few weeks back and casted vote to whom; saw their identity through their leader's masks on their faces; but at the end these are the common man struggling with everyday requirements somehow trying to make the life better and hoping tomorrow will be a better day.Who will take the chair in center has now become secondary as day-to-day issues of power, food price rise and corruption must have claimed its primary position back.
What a election season this was, marked with many first time significant developments. Record number of voters turn out in some of the states; millions joining mainstream political scene as part of Anna's movement against corruption; sudden rise and fall of AAP party; unprecedented coverage by electronic media reaching out to remotest of places; high usage of internet based social media to voice opinion and discussion, the list is long. It was not only evident that there is growing percentage of people having opinion but also they want their views to be heard. Indeed a positive sign for any healthy democracy in the world.
If I can draw a similar analogy from Dr Wayne W. Dyer' book Manifest Your Destiny, where a man is said to pass through different stages in his lifetime including athelete stage, warrior stage, statesperson stage and sprit stage, India still struggling in athelete stage. Every election brings us hope that state of affairs would become better and no one would have ever to suicide because of hunger and poverty but much has left desired.
Result what may be, the awaking of such large number of people and involvement would ensure that the scrutiny of the party in power would be much more.
I believe it's going to be difficult for both- the party in power to retain mass support if they do not perform well and for the opposition to build the
credibility again. It would be interesting to watch coming state elections as that might give indication whether Indian political scenario and voter's
mindset has changes from the age old issues like cast and religion and indeed they have moved to development issues.
Though the silver linings are there but looking at the mandate history in India it would be too early to say anything as someone rightly pointed out that you never know in India for voter's when Kabir takes precedence over Karl Marx or vice-versa.
