This is election year in India.
When we as citizens of this great country of ours, exercise our constitutional rights and elect our parliamentarians, to govern the country for another fresh term. And like the rest of the country, the northeast, has also exercised her rights, barring a few districts of lower Assam, which go to polls on the 24th of April.
It was rather funny reading about and watching TV coverage of the campaigning efforts of the two major political parties of India. It was like, you know, "monkey see - monkey do" syndrome! No sooner a star campaigner of one party leaves a place, after belittling and degrading the other on all fronts; up surfaces the other star campaigner of another political party, in yet another place, to get back at his adversary with his brand of verbal tirade of all the wrongs, misdeeds, vices, and what nots, just to score a few political points. And this pattern went on throughout the campaigning phase, till the polling dates. With the last phase of polling slated later this week in the districts of lower Assam, the stronghold of vote bank politics, as well as the capital city of the state, all these jokers and their troupes are congregated there, biding their time, sharpening their 'tongues', plotting and planning and devising strategies to woo the voters with their tall manifestos and hollow promises!
But this is of little consequence to the general populace of the region. What with only 24 MPs returning from the north east to the hallowed corridors of parliament, we are, for all practical purposes, clearly outnumbered. In the house of 545 vociferous, loud mouthed, desk thumping, obnoxious narrators, our poor reps are reduced to mere spectators, reclining in the back rows, to witness the ever changing drama that unfolds in parliament.
This region needs good, strong, assertive representation, but that is not forthcoming from the lot that we elect. So it is of no use crying foul at our state of affairs. It reminds me of a line
from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar - 'the fault dear Brutus is not in our stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings...'
So, when all is said and done, the government formed, and the members take to parliament with renewed gusto, including the two dozen from the north east, what transpires in the days and years to come is anybody's guess.
All we can do as underlings, is hope for the best, for our country, and in particular the north eastern region as a whole!
When we as citizens of this great country of ours, exercise our constitutional rights and elect our parliamentarians, to govern the country for another fresh term. And like the rest of the country, the northeast, has also exercised her rights, barring a few districts of lower Assam, which go to polls on the 24th of April.
It was rather funny reading about and watching TV coverage of the campaigning efforts of the two major political parties of India. It was like, you know, "monkey see - monkey do" syndrome! No sooner a star campaigner of one party leaves a place, after belittling and degrading the other on all fronts; up surfaces the other star campaigner of another political party, in yet another place, to get back at his adversary with his brand of verbal tirade of all the wrongs, misdeeds, vices, and what nots, just to score a few political points. And this pattern went on throughout the campaigning phase, till the polling dates. With the last phase of polling slated later this week in the districts of lower Assam, the stronghold of vote bank politics, as well as the capital city of the state, all these jokers and their troupes are congregated there, biding their time, sharpening their 'tongues', plotting and planning and devising strategies to woo the voters with their tall manifestos and hollow promises!
But this is of little consequence to the general populace of the region. What with only 24 MPs returning from the north east to the hallowed corridors of parliament, we are, for all practical purposes, clearly outnumbered. In the house of 545 vociferous, loud mouthed, desk thumping, obnoxious narrators, our poor reps are reduced to mere spectators, reclining in the back rows, to witness the ever changing drama that unfolds in parliament.
This region needs good, strong, assertive representation, but that is not forthcoming from the lot that we elect. So it is of no use crying foul at our state of affairs. It reminds me of a line
from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar - 'the fault dear Brutus is not in our stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings...'
So, when all is said and done, the government formed, and the members take to parliament with renewed gusto, including the two dozen from the north east, what transpires in the days and years to come is anybody's guess.
All we can do as underlings, is hope for the best, for our country, and in particular the north eastern region as a whole!
