Saturday, May 25, 2019

Pulse of the People

Vasu Reddy From Chicago

In the last couple of weeks I did predict that Modi will come back to be the prime minister for the next 5 years.  In reality the man doesn't need any money and he doesn't have hangers on to protect, and no one from his family chasing scams.  If he does nothing else no scams would always keep him as the prime candidate for continuing as the prime minister. We don't have to rehash that he has no personal baggage to worry about, and that continues to be his political power.  I am sure the man will continue to work long hours for the agenda of  greater India.

I read a lot of columns in the American media about his choices of politics and BJP as a nationalist party, and how minorities might (MIGHT) be undermined in India, and how his rock star image as India's leader impacts the elections, and a whole lot of gibberish about the fifty shades of gray attributed to the man, all in the same space of a few words about the massive mandate for a politician with almost 700 million people exercising their right to vote with little difficulty all across India.  Just the scale of the election is daunting and complex. and the country wide mandate for one man's vision for the second time, is not really appreciated.  It is really not material as no Indian living in India really cares about what anyone else is writing about their leader.  But for Indians living outside of the nation, reading the commentary is sad.  It depicts the senseless perspective of scribes who really don't appreciate a secular nation with such vast geographical and ideological diversity, in which people easily live together and while appreciating the differences in life while bound by one massive Hindustan.

Democracies are delicate but strong, and they survive the differences of opinion, with simply following the majority. Although modern India has been independent only since 1947, its people are bold and dynamic while exercising of their right to choose a leader with every election.  There is little room for making large scale promises and participating in scams and survive the next election.  India has time and again shown its true ideology of freedom in its elections, and 2019 is no different.

It is also wonderful to see the normalcy of the nation return immediately after the election, and absolutely free and clear of partisanship that was displayed by political parties thru the electoral process. Transfer of power or a party coming back to power, happens without friction, and politicians who lost now look forward to 5 years later and the ones who won have to perform for the next five years.  That's all there is to either retaining power or getting elected.

Modi should focus on his second election manifest.  His ides for fair taxation, low inflation, more employment, better infrastructure and curbing black money all of these along with a clean and green India all have a very high value to India.  All the gentleman needs to do is reinforce with his cabinet to work on them every day.  My favorites are clean India and clean Ganga.  No better way to look at the country other than a clean and beautiful nation.  And Modi can keep working towards a clean India.  He has nothing to loose even f his pushes his popular agenda, as his party or any party's politicians wont elect him, the people of the nation will reelect him again; all he has to do is drive his policies of development and cleanliness.  And I believe he will continue to push his agenda.   

In covering my state of Andhra Pradesh, Jagan getting elected with such massive majority is not a surprise.  An infant State with a old and seasoned politician could not give his people the comfort of experience they needed for a brand new state.  Now we have a very young man with an unprecedented mandate, and legacy of his father (who accidentally passed away almost ten years ago) who is still fresh in people's hearts.  Before and after his election, he has only raised his voice in support of people and maintained independence from any national alliance, while only committing to supporting any party that aligns for a special status for his state.  Even after his election he has kept his polite mannerisms and has assured that he will deliver the best state government in the nation.  I hope he will simply try to work on his political manifesto, and keep smiling like his late father did.  Make our state shine and make our state smile.  Our people want a big brother, and not just election handouts.  I hope just as I wish Modi will stick to his agenda, Jagan too will continue to be focused on people's agenda as he did for the last 10 years, and hoping that both of them will make all of us NRI feel proud.

Jai Hind.

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