This year has been quite poor for the standard of politics in India. Nowhere more than in Andhra Pradesh. The dissolution of coalition here has led to a free-for-all battle. New hats got thrown into the ring too. It has been a disheartening time for genuine well-wishers of the state. We started out aspiring to be eagles, and instead saw ourselves turn vultures. In April, I wrote a piece called Purposeless Fight, disillusioned with the way things were going here. Read it if you can.
Since then, we’ve gotten worse. A state constantly coming up at the top of rankings in every parameter — inspite of being funds starved and having to plod through a mine-filled field of opposition onslaught is no mean achievement. Even if one isn’t a supporter of TDP or of Mr CBN, achievements cannot be ignored. Even an opponent has to appreciate — albeit grudgingly — what he has managed to get done in Andhra Pradesh. Like I ranted in that previous post, politics is no longer about ideology. It is just about who cribs loudest and longest. Our intellect has stooped to the level of accepting noise to be knowledge. Homes have some or the other nonsense news channel playing all through the day. We’ve brainwashed ourselves.
Since the present government has managed to pull a rabbit out of its hat and stay true to the course of development in spite of all the obstacles thrown its way, by any logic, it should win with a sweeping majority in 2019. But since we no longer use the logic part of our brain, that battle is far from being won. To counter the ruling party, all opposition parties (we have several of them now 🤦🏻♂️) have decided on the philosophy that if we can’t convince them, confuse them. One man goes around promising to double every single dole being given out by the present government (which itself isn’t right!). And another runs around painting meaningless manifestos on walls, promising to make everything free. The most ridiculous, however, are ‘leaders’ of the ‘party with a difference’, which we all voted to power in 2014. At the center, in spite of not living entirely up to what we expected, they still remain the best bet for 2019, and it looks like they’ll win again comfortably — not with an absolute majority, but with a safe one (thanks in no small part to their star campaigner, who also happens to be the leader of the main opposition 😂).
In our state, however, they happen to be nincompoops who have no business being in politics. There are just two things they’ve been taught to do — scream loud and long about achievements at the center, and about failures in the state. In reality, both are in short supply! And hence they just harp on non-issues and gobble up what little sanity is left. Every single day, new leaders are thrust onto us, and those who fail to succeed in the public’s eye are quietly moved aside. There have been a lot of those examples — The Vice-President himself is the first of them. Our local MP was state president in 2014 and now has been reduced to tweeting photos from function inaugurations and new car launches. Others have been pushed elsewhere and new faces keep rolling in. Since the grass is green, there is no dearth for volunteers. Full of rhetoric and with zero substance, all they’ve been asked to do is to generate noise. So much noise that it drowns out everything else. So much noise that the average man on the street shouldn’t be able to hear anything the state government says. For them, anything is an issue. And worthy of exploiting. Backed by the gazillion fans on social media who are experts on every topic, every little claim of their gets magnified manifold in spite of having zero substance.
The latest example — For a week now, they all swooped in on our finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu’s dental bill of 2.8 lakhs for a root canal treatment he got done in Singapore. Newspapers, channels, social media, nothing else was spoken about. For a whole week! And they’re still going on about it. To be fair, it was rather silly of the finance minister to have claimed that bill from the government, not considering the optics it would generate. The amount involved isn’t worth the damage to party image. But again, it isn’t for fancy that he is said to have gone to Singapore. News reports say that his dental work began here in Andhra and he had to visit Singapore for an official state government trip, where his pain worsened and he had to get treatment completed there. It isn’t an issue worth spending 5 minutes of time over and we’ve spent a week. If Yanamala was an employee and CBN was his CEO, who had to approve a medical bill while on a foreign trip for the company’s sake, he would have done so in a jiffy! No one would have batted an eyelid then. Everyone has seen the press release, bill from the Singapore hospital, experts opinions, write ups, and discussed about it endlessly! Someone in the government should have pointed out that this will look bad in the media. The purpose of existence of our media and opposition parties is just to make the government look bad. We have stopped talking about development and the million issues plaguing the common man. Either we harp on non-issues which allow us to take potshots at the ruling party and score useless brownie points, or we demand additional doles and reservations to play to the votebanks. Who cares about what is really good for our society? We will just while away the time today and look busy, while doing nothing of substance!
Kejriwal’s samosas, CMs expenses at Kumara Swamy’s swearing in, Mamata Banerjee’s paintings, Jayalalitha’s footwear, and now Yanamala’s root canal treatment, are issues we are interested in. We have become voyeurs, and it no wonder that Bigg Boss is a raging hit in every language. While the film industry thrives on voyeurism, it is rather sad that we apply the same thing to our politicians too. Learning from film stars who have mastered the ‘Jyothilakshmi formula’ of giving out teasers and seldom showing anything of substance, politicians today are actually calling press conferences to tell us that they will announce something ‘ground breaking’ the next week!! I’m not making this up 🙄. It is like the teaser of a teaser of a first look for a movie, which gets a zillion shares, likes, and retweets. Its the same thing in politics too. The party with a thundering majority at the center does the same thing here again and again. Ever since TDP moved out of NDA, these newfound ‘leaders’ have said countless times that they have ample proof of corruption. Not an iota of it they’ve managed to show up to date. I don’t doubt that there is corruption. None of us are that naive to expect full honesty in any government. But if there is proof, please show it and then ask voters to choose your party because you’re the better alternative. Instead, we show a dental bill while on a state trip abroad 🤦🏻♂️. How is this different from Congress’s harping on Modi ji’s suit and expenses on foreign trips? It is exactly the same. The Congress spends every waking moment criticising every move made by the Prime Minister and his cabinet. Nirmala Sitharaman garu not giving a state minister the respect he deserves in a press conference becomes a prime time debate. It leads to questions about South vs North and there are economists who come to talk about how a separate country (!!) makes more sense!
When we criticise the Congress and other oppositions at the center, and then BJP does the exact same thing here at state level, how are we any different? Talk about Polavaram, talk about educational institutions, talk about infrastructure, talk about health. Talk about jobs!! Instead, when the only thing all its ‘leaders’ talk about is silly issues like a couple of lakhs spent abroad for a medical condition and spend all their time screaming about corruption which you could find no proof of (?), it is testament to the fact that our standard of politics has reached an abysmal low. Worse still would be if voters like us actually do give in to the noise. Choosing a candidate to vote for should be on the basis of performance and not on the basis of useless claims and rhetoric of the opposition. One doesn’t need to be a supporter of TDP to take that decision. Just select which candidate you think will do the best work for your constituency. Don’t think about the state, don’t think about the center. Just think about your area, your streets, your part of the country. At this particular juncture, choosing the best option based on facts and statistics is what every educated voter should be doing. If we manage to ignore the noise, that process becomes easier. It isn’t easy, but it is quite important.
