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Journalism of Courage
People want change. Not change for the sake of change, but change for better governance. And they will not hesitate to use their votes to ensure that this happens. This seems to have been the most obvious message that has emanated from the assembly elections in the four states of Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and in Pondicherry. If West Bengal bucked this trend, it is only because of the state CPM8217;s politically imaginative decision to jettison a geriatric leader and reinvent itself. Playwright Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee not only defeated the actress, Madhabi Mukherjee, in Jadavpur by playing to the Bhadralok sentiment, he came up with some new lines that were not in the script thus far, including the need for West Bengal to ride the information technology wave8230;
To the voter8217;s mind it appears that clean governance is not necessarily synonymous with good governance. What else can account for the Amma Wave on Mother8217;s Day? Interestingly, in both Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Kerala, marked by bipolar politics, the karma of the pendulum8217;s swing has long taken a toll on inefficient governments. Remember 1996, when the AIADMK was left grievously wounded with just four seats? Perhaps the people of the state have now decided that that was punishment enough and that it8217;s time to go back to the AIADMK, its unsavoury legacy notwithstanding. Yet this is something that will not go away. No matter how much J. Jayalalithaa talks of putting Tamil Nadu back on the rails, her troublesome history will continue to mark the politics of the state to its possible detriment. It is only to be hoped, however, that were she to become Tamil Nadu chief minister 8212; another extremely vexed issue 8212; she will conduct herself with more scruple than she has thus far. On the face of it, corruption may indeed not be a top-of-the-mind issue for the voter, as the success of characters like R. Balakrishnan Pillai and A.N. Nadar, with serious cases of misappropriation and misconduct against them, indicates in Kerala. But it should also be noted that it is the relatively clean personal image of CPM leaders in West Bengal that has helped the Left Front, just as it is the rank corruption of the AGP that was a major factor for its sharp decline.
