Skip to main content

NOTA on my ballot


Courtesy: Lawlex
Just ten days from the elections in Kerala, I’m left wondering who to vote for.  The UDF government that ruled the state for the last five years has almost ruined the state.  Scams and scandals haunted the government throughout its reign.  It appears that every Congressman in the state is either a money-guzzler or an accomplice of some swindler.  When the Opposition leader, nonagenarian V S Achuthanandan, alleged that there were many charges against the Chief Minister, Mr Oommen Chandy filed a defamation case for a damage of Rs 1 lakh.  Mr Chandy’s reputation cannot be very precious when the wily man had refused to file any defamation charge against Saritha Nair who went on hurling all sorts of allegations against him.  There seem to be very few Congressmen left in Kerala whose otherwise immaculately white, perfectly starched, khadi shirts are not tainted with variegated stains of corruption.  There are a few who are not corrupt in the traditional sense.  But they are guilty of breeding factionalism in the party. 

I can’t vote for the UDF.  My finger will recoil if it tries to press the UDF button on the electronic ballot box.  

The LDF is still not sure who their leader is.  Achuthanandan is 92, thinks he is 22 and behaves occasionally like a 12 year-old adolescent out of parental control.  Most prominent leaders in the Front can never see Achuthanandan eye to eye.  But when the election comes, they will project him as the supreme leader of the Front.  Achuthanandan is honest but anachronistic.  Not only his honesty but particularly his socialist idealism is out of sync with the contemporary world.  They, his honesty and idealism, are great vote-catchers.  His party knows that and is using the man effectively.  But once the elections are over, the game will change.  Honesty and idealism will be shunned. 

At any rate, it’s time for Achuthanandan to retire from active politics.

Pinarayi Vijayan is an efficient leader.  He won’t mind dumping some of the obsolete leftist policies if the party comes to power.  He won’t hesitate to call a spade a spade.  But he is not entirely untouched by corruption charges.  There is no reason to assume that he is going to a lead an efficient government which can effectively yoke socialist plough with the capitalist bulldozer.  Most party workers still labour under socialist illusions.  Even if Vijayan wants to revolutionise socialism by adapting it to the given reality, his party cadres won’t let him do it. 

If the UDF swallowed the state’s coffers, the LDF will take the state back by a few years.  My finger is likely to recoil at the sight of the LDF candidate’s name too, it seems.

There is a third front on the ascent.  About a dozen small parties have come together under the banner of the NDA.  I detest right wing politics.  My whole being rebels against the antique outlook of the right wingers.  Theirs is a vision that should be relegated to the museum as curious exhibits.  Vellapally Natesan who is a prominent leader of the NDA front in Kerala is a mere opportunist and has a reputation for swindling his own people.  There is not a single leader with any worthwhile vision in the Right front.  So my finger won’t even move in that direction.

NOTA seems to be the option left.  But is NOTA a responsible choice.  It is found that NOTA has been extensively used in reserved constituencies by upper class people to declare their opposition to the reservation of the seat.  I am against reservations.  But is the polling booth the right platform for registering my protest?  Do I want anarchy in the country?  Is a corrupt leader better than no leader?

I’m still thinking.  I have ten days more to think.



Comments

  1. Good choice, wishvI had done it last election.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's why I am against politics. As everyone. Kerala! You can't fool us. But there are some that still benefit from these political scams, that's why life doesn't get better. No peace

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's why I am against politics. As everyone. Kerala! You can't fool us. But there are some that still benefit from these political scams, that's why life doesn't get better. No peace

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kerala used to be a model for other states in the olden days! Today it is a snakepit of conspiracies and scams.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Feelings are Snowballs

Illustrations by Copilot Designer Feelings are like snowballs. They make a small start as minor emotions or subtle reactions. Unless they are brought under the control of rational thought, they are likely to intensify as we dwell on them or as new experiences amplify them. It’s just like the snowball picking up more snow on the way and growing bigger. And bigger. That big snowball gathers greater momentum as it hurtles down the hill. Soon it will acquire an unstoppable energy. Quite the same thing happens to feelings. They become powerful enough to control our thoughts and actions. It should be the other way around: our reason should control our emotions. Let us consider an example. Nationalism is a feeling. Contrast it with rational truths. A simple rational truth is 2 + 2 = 4. Indisputable. We all learnt at school that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius. That is another indisputable truth. Unless you’re living on Kilimanjaro where water boils at about 80 degrees Celsius. On the...

The Patriot

Fiction India's new Lady of Justice Raju is shocked out of his deep sleep early in the morning by the doorbell that rings rather imperiously. His mobile phone shows the time: 4.04 am. Who can come visiting at this unearthly hour? Raju looks out through the window and sees a saffron-robed man with a saffron shawl wrapped around his torso standing outside. An alarm bell rings in Raju’s heart. As soon as Raju opens the door, the saffron man hands him a sealed envelope and walks away into the darkness without uttering a single word. The letter is addressed to Mr Rajashekharan, LD Clerk, Shantigram. It is written in extremely formal language. The letter charges Raju of being antinational and orders him to prove his patriotism to concerned authorities at the earliest failing which he will have to face severe consequences under some section of the Naya Nyaya Samhita, New Penal Code. Raju sits with a tremor in his heart on the sofa in his small living room. He doesn’t want to dis...

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...

A guide to good health

Book Review Title: Weightless: Unburden Author: Dr Mickey Mehta Publisher: Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, 2023 Pages: 240 This is not a book to be read. It is a set of instructions that are to be put into practice if you wish to have long life with good health. Let me tell you at the outset that practising what the author is asking you to is going to be tough, as tough as becoming a genuine yogi. If you want to enjoy some of the simple delights of life like a weekend drink, then you’d better forget this book and go ahead with a wellness programme of your choice. This book can make you a saint. In fact, it intends to do precisely that. In one of the last pages, introducing the author to the readers, the book says that Dr Mickey Mehta’s vision is “Connecting with 8 billion hearts to make wellness the religion no. 1.” Wellness is indeed a religion in Dr Mehta’s vision. The book starts with a theoretical framework which is founded entirely on Indian philosophy, essentially Yoga a...