The Election Diaries 1

This is the short story of how we came out of the cocoon of our dreams, beliefs and attitudes and did something which was till then different to us. What would have changed our future had already changed our minds, and thoughts of what would be the changes to our bodies? I had completed much of the story earlier. Then decided there should be even small events and every truth here even if it hinders our stance and this is truly uncensored.

Day 1
I was called at night in the midst of my studies by one of my friends to nominate him for the upcoming college union elections. He assured he was ready to face all adverse situations. After signing only I thought of the future tense, and thought how practical this can be. From that moment I think there was no you or me, and everything we spoke was in the plurals. Ya, we and our senior batches decided to stand for the elections against our common enemy as the word is very apt.

Till now there had been a dictatorial rule in the college, whatever the union did was for its publicity and nothing for the students actually. This was what we, without any party politics or ideologies was against. And almost the whole batch came to support the candidates immediately as we had some bitter experience from them in the past. We had given complete support to the Union in most of its activities and it was the hostelites who had to work the whole night in the auditorium to arrange any events or fests. And why we were against them now was some recent incidents of assault on our batch mates.

And as a matter of fact the days of our exams were also nearing and their were just 2 days ahead of us with heaps of pharmacology and pathology to study. Returning back to the rooms we had just one thing in mind, what will be the result. Not what would be the election results, but its effect on our bodies. Actually we were all hell afraid. There was none in the near past who has stood against the SFI, and without any political or outside support (which they had in tons) how could we handle their blows and cunning notions. But what we decided and signed was done and there was no turning back. And through the hot discussions through the night we ended up sleeping in the lap of the next dawn.

We had just 2 days left for filing nominations since the notification was issued on a Friday just before 2 public holidays. And it was in this short span of time that we decided to row against the flow. And they neatly avoided the senior most batch whose results which has not yet been out and when they are still the part of our college, may be because they thought the results would be the opposite.

Warning : If you have read till here please read till the end.

Political Animal

Why it is wrong to expect Dr Manmohan Singh to try to become one SANKARSHAN THAKUR IT IS something LK Advani needed to be a shade embarrassed about, but then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh bailed him out in a rare moment of cleverness — Advaniji was too nervous about what’s going to happen in Gujarat, he’s hurried to get himself enthroned, the PM told the press in Ahmedabad. He had, of course, meant it as a barb at Advani’s insecurities on the leadership question, but in effect the PM had stung his own party hard in the heat of campaign. To mock Advani for being in an unseemly rush to get himself anointed prime ministerial candidate before the Gujarat results were out was surely also to admit fatal midcampaign concessions in Gujarat, it was to admit that Narendra Modi was riding back to power. Irrespective of whatever happens next week in Gujarat, the PM has already given the plate over to the adversary. And sure enough, Advani was quick to pounce on it and begin to preen when he should have been sheepish about the timing of his anointment. There could not have been a worse time for the PM to put his political naivete on display. But it is nothing to mock or laugh at. Manmohan Singh is not a political creature and it is foolish now to expect him to turn into one. He just does not possess that gene. And it is for the lack of that political gene that he was made PM in the first place. Sonia Gandhi would not trust anyone who can play the game. She has an embarrassment of political talent in her stables — Arjun Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Digvijay Singh, ND Tiwari to name just a few of the lead horses. But does any of them stand a chance to be picked for the top job as long as Sonia Gandhi is doing the picking? Chance would be a fine thing. And should Manmohan Singh actually spring a political gene suddenly and begin to behave like a mover-shaker, he will begin to lose trust where it matters. It could well be that the PM was trying to answer demands from within the party to turn “more political”, especially as general elections approach, but then that is an unfair demand to make on him. Here’s a man whose essential talents lie in governance. Here’s a man put there because in Sonia Gandhi’s scheme of things, there should exist a diarchy — administration with the PM, politics with the party. Whatever the merits of such a scheme, that’s where Manmohan Singh has been lodged. Can’t suddenly expect a square peg to fit into a round hole.

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 4, Issue 50, Dated Dec 29, 2007