Sunday, August 11, 2013

Indian politics, corruption, states, etc.

Corruption has spread its wings in never-heard-before things. Most of us were totally oblivious to the fact that corruption exists in a thing like sand mining. Kudos to Durga Shakti Nagpal for exposing the nexus between sand mafia and politicians. Suspending her was probably the worst decision taken by the UP government. It has only given her more power for the right cause with media, people of the country, and even the central government on her side now. People of UP had great hopes when a young Akhilesh Yadav took the reigns of the state government from look-I'm-a-rich-dalit Mayawati. People saw a fresh hope of a criminal-free, corruption-free state in their young CM. However, he seems to have completely failed the plot. In only one year, he doesn't seem to be any different from his father Mulayam Singh Yadav or any other UP politician for that matter. Hope he brings his young age to good use by bringing positive governance in the state for the rest of his tenure.

With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner, Indian politics is getting interesting. Congress has almost ruled itself out with anti-incumbency factor riding highly against them (not to forget the numerous scams and flawed economic policies during their tenure). BJP is relying highly on Modi and he is leaving no stone unturned when it comes to marketing himself. On the face of it, Modi is looking very promising to the youth. There is kind of a cult of Modi supporters in the social networking arena. But I only hope that he is much more than the claims made by the PR agency that he has hired (Washington based firm, Apco Worldwide, handles PR for Modi for 25,000 USD per month and has been known for doing the same for a few infamous people). I feel sad that most of the educated youth has gotten into thinking that Modi will solve all their problems like a magician. A similar hype was created for Obama in the US and we have seen the outcome. Excessive hype is never good. I think it is high time we understand that India's problems aren't too naive to be solved by a single person. The next Lok Sabha is inching towards an unstable coalition government with third and even fourth fronts playing kingmakers, which is probably the worst we can hope for. Hope India gets a single-party, stable government in her 16th Lok Sabha.

After a lot of hullaballoo for many years, Telangana is finally slated to become a separate state (29th state of India), leaving Hyderabad in a dangling situation for a few years. Now, demands for other separate states have gained momentum after Telangana. In my opinion, India does have a potential of having 50 states, but separate states have to make a geographical and economical sense, not just political!

No nation is perfect, it needs to be made perfect. Wishing you all a very happy Independence Day in advance!