If you think that India’s Election 2024 is a T20 cricket match played out in true gentlemanly fashion you are far removed from reality. Here, there are straight players and cryptic players, just as there are very few straight bats and many crooked ones!
Just like Russia was active very much in the last US Elections, this time in India I would not be blind to China being a silent but scheming player attempting to vitiate and influence the election playbook.
I regularly read the digital editions of newspapers in the US, UK, Pakistan and some other neighbouring countries. All newspapers everywhere are controlled by the twin engines of business and politics and fairness, objectivity and impartiality are not been expected in the larger canvas of the media, both the print and the visual.
I am surprised by the similarity in the political narratives in Pakistan newspapers and the utterances of India’s ‘liberal’ intelligentsia. As for the US and the UK, the grand old papers there have a visible disdain for Indian assertiveness or for that matter the articulation of the ascendant South in general.
Of course, to be fair, the belligerence, hopelessness and tangentiality of Indian intelligentsia are to a great extent a natural reaction to the authoritarian and majoritarian posturing by the saffron brigade that has come to replace the Congress as the party of natural governance in India.
There are two different ‘India’s fighting the elections. They are not apparently on a level playing ground. Extreme nationalism and contrived patriotism are both anathema to true democracy. When different perceptions and interests are articulated in a fair and open platform, democracy is sharpened.
The distortions and contaminations on democratic equity and accommodation on both sides of the great divide are quite visible and disturbing even as India moves to the elections in seven stages of ballotting.
Hitting below the belt, false and genuine apprehensions. rumour-mongering and unfair practices are all part of our elections.
I would urge voters to keep their eyes and ears open and be mindful of the many players who would be keen to fish in the troubled waters of our balloting.
Neither the power-play addicted ruling party nor the disgruntled and self-doubting opposition are doing any good to strengthening, preserving and supporting democratic resilience and equity in our nation.
Whoever wins, and BJP is more likely to be the one, the outcome would be for the continuance or worsening of the divided polity.
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