Are Paper ballots the answer?

The Congress has asked the Election Commission to return to paper ballots since the EVMs have chosen to be Every Vote for Modi.  While the paper ballots may exorcise the spectre thrown up by the deus ex machina, will it help the Congress?

The real tragedy of the country is that it offers no respectable alternative to the craftiness of the Modi-Shah combo.  Rahul Gandhi has grown up in the last couple of years but is still a dwarf beside the colossal images of the crafty combo.  All others of any significance are mere local patriarchs with no national appeal. 

Moreover, instead of fighting the communal card played by the BJP and its allies, the Congress is also showing communal fangs when required.  It has always been an opportunistic party from the time of Indira Gandhi when it comes to religious sentiments.  It kept on appeasing certain sections of the country’s population merely for the sake of winning votes.  The appeasements really achieved nothing more than votes for the party; the people’s living standards did not improve.  At best, a few corrupt leaders of the different communities benefitted by the Congress policies.  Corruption became the hallmark of the party in every sense of the term.  The party leaders became corrupt and it corrupted many others too. 

Hence the people of India voted for the Party with a Difference.  Unfortunately that party proved to be worse with the radical communalisation of the country into the Saffron Brigade versus antinational theme.  Worse, the party has seeped into every major national institution.  It has begun to corrode the secular fabric of the nation.  If the Party with a Difference comes to power again in 2019, which is very likely in spite of the recent setbacks in the UP-Bihar by-elections, India will cease to be India.  It will become Hindustan.  The entire history of the country from pre-historic times will be rewritten in an unbelievably short span.  Communities of people will be wiped out in mob lynching and sporadic arson. 

There is no alternative apparently.  But  despair is not a solution.  Maybe we need to take a leaf out of the Aam Aadmi Party’s experience in Delhi.  The people of Delhi chose to give their mandate to Arvind Kejriwal in spite of his initial bungling.  He is doing wonders in that state bringing free electricity and free water to the deserving.  He has made government hospitals and schools exemplary.  He brought excellent governance without making undue fuss about it, without spending crores of the taxpayer’s money on blowing his own trumpet.  Maybe, India should give a chance to Rahul Gandhi now, especially now that many of the corrupt Congressmen have already joined the BJP.  Maybe, Rahul will indeed be a much better alternative.