Watching the early elections trends on my laptop on a slow connection on the beach near Alibag, this one thought:
A man wanted to be Prime Minister on the back of riding a Toyota around the country and calling it a chariot. On the back of fueling resentments, nurturing victimhood and selling weakness. On the back of no vision for this country of any kind.
LK Advani has lost probably his last chance to be Prime Minister of India. Thank you, voters.
I hope he and his party and their various supporters will now learn the lessons that they clearly haven't since 2004. Abusing those who disagree with you, feeling constant resentment and claiming perpetual victimhood -- these things only go so far. They take you to that mark of about 25-30% of the popular vote. They don't take you further. You don't get people to vote for you, or those you favour, by calling them names.
I'll have more later. For now, I am simply relieved and grateful that I live in a country whose government will not be headed by LK Advani.
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8 comments:
I'm positively jubilant that the man who with his opportunistic rath yatra's created such deep rifts in this country has been rejected! I hope BJP learns that the Advani and Varun Gandhi rhetoric hurts not only the country but them too.
Same feeling here Dilip. Am glad Left and BJP both are out - atleast for now. May there be unrestrained development and yes, a couple of cases opened for Modi please... :)
Well, as things are at the moment, it appears that the BJP's next prime ministerial candidate is going to be Narendra Modi, the man who let 2000 innocent people be butchered to death or burnt alive, if he wasn't actively involved in getting them killed.
While it is heartening to note that the BJP failed to benefit electorally from the anti-Christian violence in Orissa, the trend of those preaching hatred and violence against minorities being elected has been carried forward by Varun Gandhi's win in Pilibhit.
Yeah, a couple of cases opened for Modi, and the Bofors investigated thoroughly without pressure from *you know who*
Pity that one of the most crucial elections was fought amongst coalitions, none of whom had a "proper" leader. The electorate were left to make the best of a bad case, and they did a good job.
SidhuS, you may be right about Modi being the next PM candidate, but one's got to count blessings in the here and now! And Varun G's win shows that hatred still has its place, at least in Pilibhit.
But for now, I'll just breathe deep over a few things: that Advani won't be PM (despite his blogger for Advani e-badges), that the BJP actually lost seats from 2004, that the Shiv Sena lost every seat it contested in its homebase ... stuff like that. There are lessons in all this if the BJP and its fans are inclined to learn; somehow I suspect they won't.
In Orissa, BJP did not just fail to capitalize, it has been decimated.
In 2009 BJP has less assembly seats (6) from Orissa than it had parliament seats (7) in 2004 and it has ZERO parliament seats from Orissa in 2009. Good riddance!
While it is heartening to note that the BJP failed to benefit electorally from the anti-Christian violence in Orissa, the trend of those preaching hatred and violence against minorities being elected has been carried forward by Varun Gandhi's win in Pilibhit.
Taking Sidhusahebs point further, this may be a turning point for BJP and to a lesser extent the Shiv Sena. With all right centrist positions failing to bring in electoral successes, the hardcore hindutva group may gain clout. Even if it may not bring in electoral gains, it has the possibility of creating enough mayhem. We may see a repetition of this in Bombay where the Shiv Sena will want to wrest the MArathi Manoos platform from Raj and resort to all sorts of activities.
Sidhusaaheb,
Just like Rajiv Gandhi became the PM after 4000 innocent sikhs were butchered by his mother's followers and he said "When a big tree falls ... "
NaMo is in the same league as Rajiv, being a Nero when the country burned
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