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Post-ballotting, it is
time to take stock
Now
that the balloting is over, sanity will hopefully return to Punjab
which has spent several weeks listening to inanities posing as
issues, falsehoods posing as claims, sheer abuse being termed
political allegations and unachievable tagged as a promise.
As
the sun set on February 13, psephologists again crawled out of the
woodwork to either give a slight edge to one party or to proclaim
the contest as a dead heat.
Punjab's assembly elections seemed to be free for all. Pollsters
behaved like family astrologers. The media behaved like
pamphleteering rags. And news columns read like party propaganda.
Politicians of course behaved like creatures Oscar Wilde called
unspeakable.
But
truly and honestly, where does that leave Punjab? And for that
matter the country?
At
a time when India is pinning its hopes on its young generation, what
example and what route to success have we set for the young? In a
state where the very definition of development and the target
beneficiary class question is hanging in the air, we have just seen
an entire electioneering talking all the time about development
without even once addressing the issue.
At
a time when the Sikh diaspora around the world is pulling out all
stops to pull back its youth from the ways of moral deprivation,
organizing community festivals, studying its traditions, arranging
Dastar Diwas, sensitizing Americans and Europeans about the Sikh
identity and symbols of Sikhism, we have seen the two main political
parties contesting for the next turn at ruling Punjab by incessantly
vowing to take care of the youth without engaging with the problems
even once.
Akali Dal felt threatened by the support of a dera to Congress and
asked BJP-RSS leadership to try and woo back the baba who is facing
murder charges in a CBI case but did not turn once to address the
issue of supremacy of Sikhs' temporal seat, the Akal Takht. Both,
the Akali Dal and the Congress, fell back upon the power of liquor
and drugs in enticing voters, leaving the candidates of third front
to proclaim that polls should be free of such a menace.
But
are we to be left only to grumble and crib? When the leaders of a
community trip, it is for the community to once again get together,
band together, hang together and pull itself out of the morass. This
is the time for the diaspora to make a very meaningful observation.
Innumerable forums of the Punjabi diaspora must now engage in and
trigger a debate that sets the tone for the next action. Gurdwara
stages must reflect bipartisanship and encourage debate on issues
which are impacting out future. Intellectuals must collectively
question the media and the pollsters.
One
can understand when the rich and the arrived can afford to neglect
the mundane, but how can a state where unemployment, poverty, basic
amenities like toilets, drinking water, power connections, sewerage,
even casteism are all burning issues afford to have elections fought
in such a metaphor in which Punjab polls have been fought this time.
Politics is too serious a business to be left to only politicians.
It is time people logged into the system, or the virus will crash
down our very future.
14 February 2007
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