The recent Parliament and bypolls have brought out one thing conclusively, which is the impatience of people.
People wait long to form an opinion and once formed they act on it quickly. They do not care much for reputations, caste- calculations, dynasty factor etc. Their aspirations and fears are paramount and they will not hesitate to take drastic actions to make themselves heard. Their patience is wearing out to thin and fast, and when push comes to shove, age-old practices of political parties are shown the dustbin.
In the Parliament Elections, Narendra Modi was depicted as a dictator of sorts and opposition parties spared no efforts to prove that he had a hand in the riots; this despite Court rulings and findings to the contrary. Instead of concentrating on what they could offer UPA chose to run down the challenger. This did not cut much ice with the electorate. UPA's own performance in the last decade was riddled with corruption and Prime Minister's perceived or real indifference to corruption amongst his Ministers did not help matters much. People had become sick of corruption-levels in coal block allocations and 2G and their collective ire brought UPA to its knees with only 44 seats. The heavy reliance to dynastic rule with Rahul Gandhi having practically not shouldered any responsibility in the Government made only matters worse. That he was a reluctant aspirant with no experience whatsoever to take the responsibility even after a shocking endorsement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was quite evident to everybody.
The Electorate saw in Narendra Modi an achiever, even if it is only in a State of Gujarat. While Modi mocked at the dynastic rule but made sure his campaign ran on development platform. In all his meetings he talked of unemployment facing either the urban poor or rural populace who had to go to the other end of the country to make a living. His power of establishing instant rapport with the masses turned his meetings into kind of Question and Answer Sessions came to the fore with enthusiastic crowd cheering him wildly. The trickle became a massive hysterical crowd and he swept everything before him establishing new electoral records.
The electorate dealt a stunning blow to the ruling UPA Government.
Such mammoth mandate raised its own expectations among the electorate.
Although it would take a long time to correct the massive failure of the previous Government in economic sector people expected quick results from the new Government. Clean Governance is what people expect but it takes time to set up systems in place. The Modi government has rightly gone about its task taking various steps even such elementary things such as making sure there is better work culture in Government offices.
But then came a blip on the screen.
Even as new economic relations were fostered with Japan and Australia, fringe elements within ruling Party inexplicably were allowed to take on the Centre stage. When a triumphant Prime Minister came back with a massive investment of 35 billion dollar from Japan over the next five years, pseudo-religious matters like Love Jihad looked to upstage everything else. In UP where bypolls were held, the topic of Muslims boys marrying Hindu girls became the main issue of BJP. It was rather strange that the Government's Development Plans were toppled by diehard Yogi Adityanath raising communal passions.
No matter how serious issues these are, they are best left to the Parents and Law-enforcing Agencies than Political Parties taking it up as a major issue.
Faced with a dichotomy, the public was quick to deliver its punch. Instead of Roti, Kapda aur Makaan and digital India, some other agenda had taken its place.
Infosys has started a scheme with Karnataka Government turning unemployable engineers into good engineers by imparting necessary management skills to handle future jobs. Already 35000 graduates have enrolled into the 3 month course. The Prime Minister has talked of imparting skills for school-level dropouts to make them proficient in some selected tasks. These are the programmes public is waiting to see and participate. Instead, negative forces seemed to have pushed themselves in to the main frame fomenting religious fundamentalism.
The Congress too seemed to have learnt a lesson. New faces seemed to have shouldered the challenge of bypolls much better than the established ones.
The Public is quick in gauging what's going on. And anything they don't like they punish immediately. That's what they did in the bye-elections to show their resentment.
Deliver what you promised or perish, seems to be the mantra now. Sooner it is learnt the better for any Party, Ruling or the ones that forfeited power in the Parliament elections.
Whether you are there for 100 days or 300 days, it is better to put a finger regularly out of the boat to check whether you are going forward or some eddy is dragging you back.
( E R Ramachandran is a well known sport writer and commentator on current affairs)
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