I was talking to an uncle of mine who is a journalist by profession. A very unassuming and gentle person, I have never seen him rattled or angry. I guess there’s a first time for everything. I happened to ask him what he thought of the Karnataka elections and the performance of the two major parties.That may have the straw that broke the camel’s back. He went on a tirade about various things which I don’t want to talk about but the gist of what he said was that he talked to quite a few common people and all of them claim to have voted for the BJP. His question, and I guess he asked them this, was an angry one: if all of you voted for the BJP how is it that they didn’t get any seats in the Bangalore area(apart from Jayanagar which goes to vote soon).
People have to honest to themselves; screw others but be honest to yourself. Too many times, we have witnessed elections which go the way pollsters claim; and then, there are a few where the results leave people befuddled, only because it makes no sense(akin to the AAP being voted to power the second time). When we vote, are we looking at ideology or are we looking at instant gratification? Most of us seem to fall in the latter category - the candidate is the same caste as I am, he promised to take care of my father’s pension which is stuck for the last 2 years and many such reasons! We have never gotten past the “same caste” feeling so I have a suggestion; going forward let’s have more political parties like Brahmin Samuday, Vokkaligara Sangha, Gowdara Baliga, Eedigara party and so on. The Muslims already have their parties! This will satisfy our ego (that’s all this is) and we can let the state go to hell. Who cares? After all, my caste is doing well, Karnataka jaye bhad me! We have politically motivated politicians who will abuse this thought process and we have willingly helped them, to satisfy our collective egos.
Until we realize that we have to start thinking beyond our restricted castes, we will always be in the same rut that we are now. Not even god can help us if we are so narrow minded.
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