Alas, real issues lost in poll rhetoric!

It’s a given that any election season, especially in the largest democracy like India, would witness a plethora of heated issues, hot air and rampant mudslinging. Politicians’ proclivity for raking up trivial issues, rather than real worries of the populace, gets free reins, and with gay abandon and shameless animosity for people’s pressing concerns, they indulge in empty rhetoric, innuendos and baseless charges against their rivals. It’s worse if those in power, too, seek to amp up their glamour quotient with a docile media acting at their behest. It’s a double whammy for the hapless opposition, though parity is par for the course on the social media, a silver lining amid the deepening dark clouds of polarisation and one-sided narration in the traditional media.

The situation is more or less the same around the world, and sadly, more so in the world’s youngest democracy that is India again. The concerned citizentry is aghast even a leader of long standing like Narendra Modi with many achievements during three terms as Chief Minister and two terms at Prime Minister under his best has chosen to bend the public mind with his unsetting onslaught on the opposition, often bordering on alleged communal bent of his rivals toward one particular minority. How the intelligentsia and the common man wish the PM steered the poll pitch on a non-emotional path paved with reason and fairness. Alas! It is not so.

Even if his statements are true, Modi has enough wherewithal and ammo in the form of his government’s accomplishments to win over the people. He need not risk being seen as a leader with an acerbic tongue, with the result that the opposition is seizing every opportunity to paint Modi as communal. They even accuse him of being a ‘demagogue,’ who shuns rational arguments and harps on prejudices to win public support.

Modi need not have to bear slurs on him by I.N.D.I.A bloc of latching on to empty rhetoric, jugglery of words, shy of addressing popular concerns, indulging in jumlas etc. But, he is not helping the matters. His speeches are more and more loaded with religious overtones. His allegations against Congress that it would “snatch gold and mangalsutras of women” and distribute them among Muslims, reduce SC/ST quota for the sake of Muslims, etc., have drawn wide opprobrium from intellects and commoners alike. His consuming passion to win the game is unwittingly causing real worries to be lost in the rhetoric.

It is time, even at the fag-end of election campaigning, the PM turns to his achievements and give assurances to tackle the grave issues confronting the nation, external or internal. Even through the latter did try to rake up issues like reigning inflation, especially of food items, decline in real earnings of people, spiraling employment, internal upheavals such as Manipur and farmers’ agitation etc., they are all crowded out by the NDA leaders’ reliance on their rivals purported weak spots. Add to it, the BJP manifesto does not dwell on the issue of jobs, doubling of farmers’ incomes and tackling price rise and inflation, but shifts the goalposts by talking about 2047 instead. It is not clear on how a ‘Viksit Bharat’ is possible without touching upon the severities of the situation.

The ongoing jousting to capture public mind, and thereby power, certainly does not enhance the prestige of the country and add to its political heft in the comity of nations. Mere GDP growth is not enough. Modi can win hearts easily if great ideas pour forth in his speeches. He should talk economics and about his dreams and strategies.