Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Indian voters are become mature' that was published in Newsband

Indian voters are become mature

Citizens and voters are moving ahead of politicians. Voters want their governments to govern honestly and effectively. Voters don't want their governments to placate them with entitlements. Amazing, how ordinary people are bringing about changes that their more illustrious leaders should have brought about long ago.

Our people would be more interested to see a party with strong leadership to dedicate themselves to address the common people issues, focus on development, remove corruption and provide good governance. Indian politics is destined to change as enough water had gone under the bridge. Voters want development and welfare as part of governance, than as part of electoral politics, as can be seen in Rajasthan, M.P. and Chattisgharh.

In the face of rising prices, rising atrocities against women, the Delhi's Political Class remained passive and unconcerned, resulting in citizens rejecting both Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party in different measures.

Surely the election results usher in gamechange for traditional political parties or at least send strong signals that the people no more are taken for a ride. The youth of India also wants change in politics. After seeing all these scams, Indians want to see some transparency.  

People have registered their anger, dissatisfaction, and disconnect with the Congress policies. Congress has lost ground to Aam Aadmi Party. Corruption, scams, price rise and their effect on common man demolished Congress which has to get rid of Palace type politics in which decisions are taken inside the Palace at 10 Janpath, and the Prime Minister has to implement them and face public wrath if it fails.

It is true that Delhi voters are well educated and live more comfortably than people living in other parts of India; so they can think of corruption etc while majority of people in other parts have to struggle for their day to day survival and the political parties other than AAP can sway them easily or in a way fool them easily.

The spectacular success of BJP in the North shows that the poor voters of these States have shown the way for a change in our democratic governance and leadership - just as they had opted for Janata Party after Emergency.

The Election Commission's active role in these sectors made possible a clean and fearless voting. Money could not do much this time. Indian voters have also woken up to eliminate corruption from our holy land.

The election results reflect the moods of the people in general. The Congress has become too old and outdated and hardly can keep pace with the fast changing mood of the dynamic and vibrant people. The Congress has a lot to learn from the AAP. The question is whether it, or even the BJP, can ever learn, for they are both infested with people whose sole purpose is personal aggrandizement. The challenge for the AAP on the other hand is to insulate itself from carpet-baggers and maintain its credentials as a true party of the people.

The 2014 elections will be influenced by the heightened awareness of the public about the issues and appreciation of the potential power of the democratic process and 'Can Do' energy and confidence infused into the collective consciousness of the general public by AAP. Today people of India are not fooled as easily anymore by shameless pandering and short term handouts most of which are siphoned off by party leaders. Rampant price rise reduces the buying power of middle and lower classes; people are sick, tired and fed up; they want change for the better. Don’t be surprised if the future general elections will be a contest just between AAP and BJP.