Circus.... err...... sorry, did you say politicians?

As any salaried class men/women I never thought I had an allegiance toward any political party. To go further, I never gave a damn to the ideas or vision that the parties were projecting for the welfare of people. But deep within me, I had my own preferences of who should lead our country in the global arena. I am not a BJP sympathizer but knew I was anti-congress and I don’t have many reasons why I should not be.

They have been ruling the country after our independence except for few years and most of the time it was one family that dominated the space. You could draw comparisons with the political stage in Tamil Nadu. I have always felt the congress party didn’t have the nerve to hold against the bigger players in the world arena. We were never good in negotiating with the foreign players, be it the boundaries or the free trade market.

These things made me yearn for a change in the rule. The alternative could only be BJP and I carry no notions of being represented by the communists. 2 months back, when the general elections were on, I was expecting a change at the centre as it was projected that the incumbent government would not manage to get the people's mandate in the opinion polls. The result however was in favour of congress and not to my pleasing though I was not hurt. But recently when the BJP had its general body meeting to determine the reason for their poor outing, what ensued was a pandemonium. Internal fighting is not a rare occurrence in our political parties but of this magnitude was the first of its kind (honestly, that I know of). Was it the same party that was led by a stalwart, Vajpayee?

After the 2009 debacle, Advani started distancing himself from party affairs and all the smaller players glimpsed a chance of their lifetime to admire themselves as the future leader, saviour of the party. The stage was set for the clash of egos and for sure, few were bent and many broken. What more, war of words in front of the media. They definitely would have thanked god for the electoral result. I felt a tinge of sadness for the party but there was something that hit hard on my face, thanks to the hindsight. If this party had won the elections, this scenario would have occurred but with a different reason. How would they be able to run the government when they could not find a consensus within themselves? This was one time I was not unhappy that congress (a stable government) was at power.

Congress: “Sit still and revenge will visit thine enemies”

Could this be a coincidence? Draw a parallel to England and the only difference is that the ruling party is in tatters now. Gordon Brown has to have some magic up his sleeve to turn around the tide in his favour if the labor party has to win the elections next year. The opinion polls point to an all time low for Mr. Brown and to make matters worse most of his cabinet ministers have deserted him, an ominous sign. Can they overcome the glitch and win the elections? Anything that BJP could come up with to resolve the impasse? God knows …………