Narendra Modi has once again become the chief minister of the state of Gujarat, making it his third victory in a row. While going through the reports and news before the election many news reports came across where people lamented about the fact that they do not have any choice. In one such report a person lamented about the indifferent attitude of the Congress, yet he said that he would vote for Congress as what the BJP did in 2002 was something horrific and unpardonable.
If one surveys before any election in any region, one would find a majority of people echoing the same thoughts and emotions. The rosy and flowery picture of choosing one’s own leader by one’s own will seems to shatter when one goes deep into the thoughts people nurture before the election. The only idea remains is to choose someone who is less corrupt and would do less harm to the public interest. The thought of transforming and doing public welfare work seems to elude these days. Choosing a leader has become synonymous with choosing lesser evil and it is an open secret.
Political parties also know the helplessness of hapless citizens and that people will anyhow vote for them depending on the situation and not on their merit. The recent scheme of distributing Rs. 600 monthly to the poor so that they could buy ration for the whole one month is ludicrous. No one is willing to do anything concrete for the welfare of the citizens and is only interested in doing the bare minimum that would fetch him/her votes.
Even when the face of the leader changes then also we hardly find real change in the mechanism. In Uttar Pradesh, there was massive squandering of wealth during Mayawati’s regime and people unanimously collectively decided to throw away Mayawati. However, the only choice they had with them was SP (Samajwadi Party). We all know the steep rise in communal riots after SP took over power and how Muslims suffered at the hands of the anti-social elements and evil-mongers of the society.
Hence choosing one’s leader has become a Hobson’s choice these days where there is actually no choice. All the political parties have failed rather miserably in winning the confidence of the citizens of the country and what they bank upon is not their achievements, but the faults of the others which they would blow out of proportion to garner support and votes for them, until the next term comes.