State Elections 2013

BJP has just won 3 states and are hand-shaking distance from Power in Delhi. Full marks to Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh in carrying their state for third consequitive time. Also all the praises to Rajmata in able to wrest power from Congress. Before I dive into Delhi, let me provide my analysis of the BJP wining MP, Rajasthan and Chattisgargh.

In both MP and Chattisgarh, BJP retained power. In both states, they did mix populist measures along with hard policy decisions. So, when BJP opposes these populist measures at center, they better remember that the same policies are wining them these states. In Chattisgargh, BJP had to face a little music in failing to stand upto Naxalities strongly… mainly in Baster area. Thus even with popularity of Raman Singh, the vote percentage between Congress and BJP was almost same. The challenge before these two CMs is how to take development programs forward and yet keep voters on BJP’s side for next 6 months.

In Rajasthan, Congress lost due to corruption. Ashok Gehlot is a good man.. but what can he do when his party-men are corrupt. Moreover there are talks of tickets being given to some candidates due to their lineage rather than popularity. Congress tried hard in last 6 months to capture voter attention by launching various populist schemes. However it was too late and voter saw through their game plan. In all, Rajmata was able to point these holes to voters and promised a clean & development oriented government. Modi was a considerable factor as the state BJP played up the good goverance as demonstrated by Modi in Gujrat.

Now the results in Capital. First, upper middle class and middle middle class folks exercised their rights in a big way this time. And AAP was able to capture their idealist imagination of corruption free society. And as Delhi is not a state which really has to care about industrial growth etc, the populist slogans of AAP had more effect. Moreover, people of Delhi have moved to AAP as they want to recognize Anna’s effort in bringing out Jan Lokpal. They are also angry about Rape incidents in Delhi and did not find other parties to be serious about these issues. Now the challenge before AAP is whether they will join BJP in government or sit in opposition. If they sit in opposition, any other government will be lame duck government which will not be able to deliver anything. So, AAP runs a risk of being seen as a spoiler rather than an effective party. Though one might feel that Congress is decimated in the state, I do beg to differ. Except corruption, team B (AAP) is no different from team A (Congress). Thus as people start to forget about CWG etc, Congress will inch back into Delhi.

In all the election results are good. Now it’s a waiting game to see what more there in Congress’s arsenal to be unleashed before the national elections 2014.

What should 2014 elections be about

What the next election should be about? Will it be about dynasty or will it be about M? Will it be about BJP being secular or JDU being communal? I hope not. Instead what should we discuss?

I will like the election to be about economy. In 2004-5, folks worldwide were so confident of India’s growth story that they remarked that even a drunk pilot cannot crash the plane. What happened after that. We did not get a drunk pilot, instead we got a spineless pilot who was working on orders of a malevolent team aka NAC whose prime job was to take India into dark ages. And they almost succeeded.

I will like the election to be about ease of doing business. Starting from 1991, license raj started disappearing. And due to the same, slowly things started to be happen without chai-paani. Those who think that current state is too much, should go back to 1970s and 80s. At that time, you cannot even do anything without the support of “Haath”. You needed to grease every palm and even after that you could not have a viable business if you are honestly paying taxes. So crony capitalism started to grow. But common man was unaware, he was told that government needs to reign in on these monster businessmen. Thus when instead of framing good banking rules, Banks were nationalized, people cheered without realizing the damage it was doing to the economy. We added “Socialist” to the preamble and screwed our country’s future. I want this election to be over throwing this term into history’s dustbin.

I will like the election to be about Poverty and malnutrition. I will like parties to show the voters their blue-print of poverty eradication and how they are going to fund it. Its easy to say that we will bring Food Security Bill or increase contribution to NREGA. I will like to see how those will be funded. We would be glossing over the matter if we allow parties to talk about the programs only. Let them come up concrete plan on the same.

I want this election to be over smaller government. I want my government to focus on matters of national security and social security. And let its citizens be free to pursue what they want to do. I want a government which will interfere less and also strive to reduce its size. Get rid of ministries which does not make sense. For example coal ministry. Government needs formulate a coal policy and let private players in. Why do we need a ministry in there. A quick look at their website suggests that it’s another Permit agency which feeds bunch of babus & ministers.

I want this election to be about empowering people. Its about individual freedom and local decision making. Sitting at Delhi, we cannot expect good decisions for people in Mizoram. Mizos need to have the decision making power on what’s good for their state. And while doing so, Panchayats, State governments etc need to ensure that individual freedom is not trampled upon.

I want this election to be about corruption. We have tolerated 2G, CWG, Bellary, Recruitment scams for too long. Its time to elect folks who are "relatively" clean and will also promote cleanliness in the government. Its only clean politicians who can clean the massive corrupt bureaucracy by promoting lokpal and ending license raj.

Unfortunately there is too much talk about secularism, Modi, Rahul etc in the media. As we have seen with previous elections that these do not matter. What matters is which party can convince the voters on providing for them. My wish is that voters will also start to look at the long run rather than a kilogram of rice.