Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Politics in India - Where are we going?


5 states' election results have come through. I do not know whether to look at the glass as half empty or half full.

On the one hand Congress has survived BJP's targeting of the Mumbai terrorist incident (which, personally I found deplorable). On the other hand, regional parties (read: parties with caste/community based agendas) are still making a dent in the vote share.

Even today, the majority of voters do not come from Metro cities. They come from the villages and towns. What do they want? If this is not clear, it is not because the voters do not know what they want, but they simply do not have enough options.

A heartening result was that Uma Bharti's party failed to make an impact. Otherwise, who knows?

I cannot speak on behalf of all the voters in India, but the following is what I would really like to start seeing in election manifestos rather than ideological rhetoric:

1. The party coming to power will have an array of ministries to look after
1.1 what is their agenda for each ministry?
1.2 who are the people who they will choose for which ministry? What are their
              qualifications?
2. What work has the local candidate done in the constituency he / she is standing from?
3. How will they target reduction in corruption (yes, it will not go away instantly)? This still 
    remains the largest root cause for almost all the problems this country has

Incidently, the parties / candidates funding should be transparent. We should be able to know which corporates are supporting them, besides there should be an easy way for the parties to receive "donations" from the public.

Until then, the voters will continue to have a difficult time in voting for a candidate who is qualified and will work to make this country better.