Change In The Tide, End Of Wave?
Will the wave return, or just a pichkari
“Where the hell is my 15 lakhs!!!” screamed the cab driver back at me. I would be amiss if I didn’t mention that I had neither initiated this conversation nor was I a part of it. It seemed like he was shouting at himself or that he had a telepathic connection with Modi. He turns back to look at me and asks me if my blood also doesn’t boil at the fact that we have not got our 15 lakhs.
I travel by cabs a lot and I generally have these conversations with the drivers these days. The change in the minds of the cabbies is pretty clear. About a few years ago, cabbies would tell me about how Modi is the answer to all of India’s problems. That Modi will be the one to save them from the trenches of poverty. “He will make sure that my son gets a good job.” Little did he know that Amit Shah was going to make the historic pakoda speech the very next day.
“It’s not his fault, it’s the people around him that are doing this!” That is the age-old reply. I think the time when I saw the change in their attitude was when pictures of Modi proudly standing near the Sardar Vallabhai Patel statue surfaced all across the internet. The ads in theatres proudly claiming that if you don’t support the making of this statue then you are not an Indian! I have been in India ever since I was born, never had my identity or my patriotism come into question as much as it did in the last 4 years. “Mehengai bad rahi hai, aur yeh statue pe statue bana rahe hai chutiye log”, said another cab driver, again, I had not initiated this conversation.
The political dialogue has opened up now. People want to talk about politics and the future of our country more than ever before. All the usual conversations I would have with the cab drivers about how North Indians have ruined the city, women should not stay out too late at night and how no one is learning Kannada are all out the window (pun unintended). Now, most of my conversations whether I initiate it or not are all about politics.
“It’s not like Congress is doing a better job”
“Fuck all of them, they are all cut from the same cloth
“JDS is best but the alliance with Congress fucked them up”
“If not Modi then who?”
I have learned more about politics or at least what people think about politics more in the past few weeks than the entire year. I know the election is around the corner and generally people talk about these things when it gets this close.
“Screw the Rafale deal, first make good roads then we’ll forgive you for it” a cabbie screamed at the radio that was talking about the Rafale scam.
“You should not talk badly about Modi, did you know he works 18 hours a day?” Said a dude sitting next to me in my Uberpool.
“If he wants to work 18 hours a day then let him, I don’t wanna work that long I would much rather have a life” retorted the cabbie.
The odds of having another government coming to power is pretty slim. I know it’s mostly going to be Modi all over again but this time it’s not going to be a wave, it’s probably going to be like a Modi pichkari blast. Alliances will be formed, coalitions will be made but the BJP will feel their waists tightening. They can’t run around the country doing and saying whatever the fuck they please anymore. They can’t just say that we “rule” this country anymore. They’ll have to pull up their socks or dhotis or trousers, whichever they please. Otherwise, the cabbies will revolt and none of us want that.
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