Gamesmanship of Kinsmen
(A stock-taking satire on General Elections, 2014 by Sh. Pamarty Venkataramana)
The season for mergers, alliances and co-alitions has arrived. Mergers and amalgamations are not just for companies carrying out business-activities. Political outfits are a herd who have heralded this new trend of strategic-alliance partnerships ,thicker than blood . Home-coming is the name of the game !
If the 27- parties that have rallied behind one man who has been named to man the next chief operating officer‘s position in the Government are to be believed, all one-man parties and every ‘no-seat ‘ political party worth the symbol allotted by the Election Commission ought to rally round a winning horse to be part of the lime-light in the run-up to polls and declaration of results.
This certainly, is like the chief of all the corporate houses funding one bloc of parties meeting the head of all the other corporate groups financing the bunch of opposition parties and hugging each other to announce a ‘ joint – undertaking ‘ to steer the economy ‘ from darkness towards light’ !
We’ll, If that be the only way to unite this nation of plural philosophies and multiple identities of the citizens, so be it !
The general public will be the real beneficiary of such enterprising alliances . Monopolies and restrictive trade practices are rules set to govern lesser business folk , not nobler entrepreneurs like these national level and regional political parties.
Competition is synonymous with a large number of competitors . When we are faced with a public debate on the benefits of converting to a presidential form of system via a vis the existing pattern of a parliamentary democracy, it certainly has been a lesson in civics and public governance for witnessing the highs and lows of a main opposition party that named it’s candidate for office of the Prime Minister .
The greatest merit of the ongoing election process has been that candidates with lesser merit and mettle have lost their power of speech and those who are inefficient would be eliminated from their bid to step into hallowed halls of the Parliament .
Categorising mergers as lateral, horizontal or vertical is not only passé but also cataclysmic . This is because the negative impact of hobnobbing with also-rans by a winning horse vanishes as these newbies and lowly pony-tailed jockeys ride high in wake of the winning race-horse behind which their gait is measured !
Is it a phenomenon of all smaller fish rallying around the big fish or a case of merger-mania spreading across the spectrum of one-man parties to largest of parties being led by one man ( or woman !) ?
This can be assessed best by noticing the fact that the Chief Election Commissioner appears to have become the most controversial personality of all characters in this season’s parade of personalities, ideologies and manifestos. But then, aren’t General Elections-2014 a mid-summer night’s dream for All India ?
To those of you who are family and friends to the contesting candidates, I know how important this moment in history is to you.
But,to be perfectly candid, I thought the treatment meted out to all those first time voters made them think they were the honorary parliamentarians of this Nation. And, those elected are merely proxies of this segment of the electorate.
Such was the make-believe atmosphere rampant all across the length and breadth of this vast country !
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Brilliant Article..The kind of mess we are in, it is necessary to have a perfect permutations and combinations to give our country a perfect head to govern and to jump start the economy which is in complete ruins except stock market bubble…..
Like the proverbial Phoenix, India has a history of rising from the ashes of destruction wrought by ungrateful invaders, refuge-seeking hordes of barbarians and religionless brutes. Jai hind!
There are several reasons on account of which elections-2014 will remain etched in annals of history of democratic India.
Interesting to see the Government formation with the comparative angle of corporate mergers!
If it will become a “win-win” situation for the citizens of Country, then, these elections will really be historic.