Bites in the soundbites

Wave a microphone before a politician these days, and what emanates is a seamless wave of innuendo and diatribe, diatribe and innuendo. Given the bipartisan nature of the polity, voters are left with the BJP slugging it out with the Congress 8212; the smaller political formations have, by and large, been marginalised in most assembly constituencies. So as four states going to the hustings in five days8217; time, the country is treated to this unedifying spectacle of one party calling the other Goebbelsian, and the other returning the compliment with gusto. While Prime Minister Vajpayee is roundly castigated for presiding over a 8220;communal government8221; which doesn8217;t know its onions, the Congress is being made to atone for its 8220;sins8221; committed over 45 long years and its party chief, Sonia Gandhi, is constantly being hauled over coals for being born an Italian. While the Congress is being painted as a glutton for power, the BJP is attacked for running a 8220;jungle rag8221;. And so it goes, on and on,interminably.

Granted, this is the silly season when rationality and common sense is generally thrown to the winds, but surely voters deserve better than the continuous mud-slinging that they have been treated to thus far? The fact is that life for the ordinary citizen has become inordinately difficult. The economy is in bad shape, with agricultural production in crisis and industry in recession. Foreign policy is going nowhere, administration continues to be entangled in bureaucratic excesses and educational institutions are threatening to self-destruct. This could be the legacy of 45 years of Congress misgovernance. It could also be the result of bungling over the last six months of BJP rule. Frankly, voters are not interested in involved political analyses of what went wrong in the past. They are, however, deeply worried about whether it will ever go right in the future. And it8217;s not just the price of onions. They want to know whether and how their politicians plan to address the current crises ingovernance. They want to know if they will get affordable vegetables and uninterrupted electricity. They want potable water in their taps and their sick to recuperate in functioning hospitals. Yes, and they also want to be assured that they don8217;t have criminals as leaders and that their leaders don8217;t get criminalised.

Unfortunately, the arrogance of power tends to blind politicians to their all-too-obvious fallibility. It needs only gumption to wag fingers at political opponents, but it requires a rare courage to own up mistakes and demonstrate a genuine desire to correct them. So far, neither of the two 8220;giants8221; in the fray has demonstrated even the slightest inclination to do some badly needed stock-taking and that8217;s the most unfortunate aspect of electioneering thus far. There are precisely five days before E-Day in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mizoram. Can the voter expect a more informed debate and, possibly, a viable blueprint of governance? Or will that be asking for the impossible?