Karnataka Elections - Some afterthoughts (for no particular reason!)

I love the “concept” of Democracy. One of the things that had caught my attention from the childhood itself was the famous line from Abraham Lincoln, “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. In my growing years, I always found that democracy is a better than any other political concept that is required in any country.

Writing a thesis on democracy is definitely not the reason to think about democracy now. It’s simply the Karnataka Assembly Elections that was completed in three phases on the 10^th, 16^th and 22^nd of this month. No. I’m definitely not going to discuss about the winners or the losers. I believe in and discuss about politics with only a line of thought that “Whichever party comes to power, they should do good and only good to the people”, that happens to be a common man’s wish too, which unfortunately remains a dream until now.

Let me just go to some background of the much celebrated Election process. On May 10^th, some of the people didn’t understand why it was a holiday. Everyone who went to bank, post office etc didn’t know that it was a holiday and they were citing the reason that it was a second Saturday. They didn't know that it’s not because of second Saturday but because of the elections! But I found some people who were so religious that they went to vote (I didn’t vote as mine is in Kerala!). The second and the third phases of the election made headlines only in media.

Another interesting facet was the assets declared by the candidates. The sums, which were officially declared, started from 1-2 crores through 40-50 crores 300-400 crores were stunningly unbelievable and read from a report that in central Karnataka, 2000 crores of rupees was pumped in by Mining Mafia. One TV report showed that some 75-80 % of the projects are meant for Bangalore and related areas and nothing was left for the rest 70-80% of the population. The inputs are different forms of media; mostly newspapers. To speak about a famous leader; he contested in SP ticket, one of his two sons contested in Congress ticket and other one again in SP ticket, shows how crazy are politicians about power. Unfortunate for them and fortunate for people, all the three lost. Also one good thing happened in this election is that HD Devegowda is not in a position to become a king maker.

And after the elections, what is there to look forward to the future? Now the government is at least going to be constituted by different people. And I don’t know what to expect. I feel like a true Bangalorean (although I’m an outsider here and won’t call myself a Bangalorean!) who wish to see Bangalore better than the current situation with some more infrastructure developments without wiping out its greenery and the salubrious climate. Also I sincerely wish to see that the prosperity of Bangalore spreads to the other regions of Karnataka without confining to only the Garden city.

The apprehension is only this. As I read in a letter from a reader to the editor of TOI where he summed up elections in India of late as “The process of help done by the have-nots to the haves to become have-mores”. From the examples, of past and even until now, in our country, he is cent percent right. I can only wish to see something different!