Election Fever

As the D-day approaches fast, election campaigning is becoming noisier and more feverish. Expectedly, bitterness around each other is unprecedented and while certain acts are tolerable, a few absolutely not. We had Modi calling Mamta speed breaker and Mamta, in turn, calling him Expiry Babu (tenure of his Govt is over) could be treated as tolerable. However, the Prime Minister, who throughout his 5 years of premiership has shown remarkable restrain in use words, probably got carried away by election fever. In fact, he made two gaffes. First, addressing an election rally, he said that there were no Hindu terrorists and the term “Hindu Terrorism” was coined by Congress. Hinduism could be a peace loving religion ( so are others- in fact all religions preach peace and brotherhood), but associating religion with terrorism is not appropriate. In the same rally, he then went out saying that Rahul had run away to Waynad, where minority was in majority. This statement was also not in good taste as each constituency should be construed to be comprising only voters and not Hindu, Muslim or any other religion. In fact, I just saw a FB post as per which Hindus constitute 50% of Waynad’s population, with Muslims and Christians constituting the balance 29% and 21% respectively.

BJP may not be counting on the minority support but in the interest of longevity and universality, it should look for a more moderated approach that is all inclusive rather than an approach that alienates it further from minority and weaker sections of the Society. It should not worry about it’s committed voter base, which shall remain protected irrespective of its election pitch.

Elections are one time affairs coming every 5 years; governance is forever! A visionary should look at long term rather than immediate prospects. Hopefully, electioneering becomes reasonably decent during the remaining part of elections 2019 or we shall have more acrimony and bitterness that could be divisive!