Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Who will win in Karnataka?' that was published in Newsband


Who will win in Karnataka?
The Bharatiya Janata Party had scored historic victory in the 2008 Assembly election in Karnataka. But the Congress staged a comeback five years later at the same place. Now, the challenge for the BJP is the politically savvy Congress Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah. The single-phase election on May 12 could witness a face-off between the BJP and the Congress, with the Janata Dal (Secular) a distant third. The BJP will be banking on B.S. Yeddyurappa.
Karnataka will not be the last State to go to the polls before the Lok Sabha election of 2019. For both the Congress and the BJP, a loss for either will be a dampener, and a win a great morale booster.
Karnataka today is more divided than five years ago when Siddharamaiah assumed office. With his recent decisions he has also created pockets of influence within the electorate. With a divided and lacklusture State leadership the BJP - the main opposition - does not seem to be able to make much dent. JDS seems to be in tatters. Only a last minute shift could change the scenario.
Congress might try to pay BJP in its own coin. By using the divisive tactics, it is trying to split Hindus to gain power. The future may see BJP dividing people further to gain votes more than Congress.
In India, every 2nd person talks about politics, politics and more politics. We have plenty of elections every year, in at least one part of the demographically large nation to provide the fuel so that the 'important political' issues keep on running on the prime time slots of 'national' televisions. No one wants to talk about how life can be made simple and comfortable. What people talk about is what is happening in the power corridors of New Delhi and how politics is ruining the day everyday in the lower parliament house nowadays. Where's the development? Where's the pain of the common man who wants nothing more than food on his/her platter thrice a day, a simple home to live and proper education for his/her children? Why are these basic things not the part of discussions anywhere? Is it so hard to talk about something involving millions of lives??
Today India has become a democracy where its leaders play dirty politics of scams and mud-slinging and are active only at the time of Elections and thereafter they are busy making dividends for the next five years, fooling their subjects extensively from false promises to false emotional detachments. The people of India should now understand this dirty politics of all the political parties and vote to choose a true leader for their own constituency, who is able to tackle problems, educated enough, even if he contends the election independently sans any party support.

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