Election 2014- India votes for a change

Indian voters have emphatically voted for a change . The corrupt and the inefficient have been voted out . The congress has been decimated . It is an unprecedented rout for the congress .Congress has drawn a blank in Delhi and Tamil Nadu . As expected in the combined AP (Seemandra and Telengana)it is almost a rout for the congress,securing just one seat. As expected states like TN,WB and Odisha were not much affected by the Modi wave . Regional leaders in these states were effective foils to BJP and Modi. These three local stalwarts winning 89 (37,34,18)seats between them is an impressive tally by any standards .Congress may not even get the opposition party status ,since its tally falls below the mandatory 10 % of the total seats to claim the opposition party status . It is good to see Rahul and Sonia owning up responsibility for the massive defeat of congress .This should pave way for examining their conduct in the last 10 years and take restorative measures to bring the party back to limelight .India badly needs congress as a strong and viable alternative in future elections.It is up to Congress to enumerate its deficiencies and overcome them .

For a party that ruled the nation for the last 10 years it is surely a dismal performance . Out of the 48 seats congress has managed to win, 21 seats (12 & 9) have come for 2 southern states of Kerala and Karnataka ,where congress is the ruling party. This means from the rest of the country,congress could get a meagre 27 seats . In another congress ruled state Maharashtra the BJP has almost trounced  the congress.In Maharashtra congress has managed to get just 1 seat ,a drab performance . In  J&K also Congress and Farooq Abdulla's NC have drawn a blank .It is no surprise that the DMK had to face the 'Modi and Lady' brunt .The AAP making a foray  in to the national scene too early, has also learnt the political turf at the national level is very different . In fact in one of my earlier posts when AAP made a dramatic debut in Delhi assembly elections ,I had stated this could happen if AAP enters the national scene too ealry.

Most importantlyBJP winning 73 out of the 80  seats in UP , 31 out of 40 in Bihar and 42 out of 48 in Maharashtra is impressive . In Chattisgarh, Goa, Rajasthan and Gujarat it was a clean sweep by BJP. BJP front has opened account in TN and WB securing 2 each in these states,two states mostly unaffected by the Modi wave . The only aberration for BJP could be the defeat of Arun Jaitely in Punjab . However Jaitely is a Rajya Sabha member and could be inducted in to the cabinet .

The most important fall out of this election is, after 1984 elections a national party has secured a clear majority to form the government . This is good for the nation .The clear majority will ensure there is no 'governance paralysis' .But regional parties like AIADMK,TMC,BJD,TDP and TRS have emerged stronger and can not be written off .The communists continued their downward slide .

Congress has to do lots of introspection . Turning a blind eye to all round corruption,Administrative inefficiency,not lending ear to regional leaders ,snubbing regional leaders of their own party and that of allies, disregarding regional sentiments with contempt and dynastic politics have derailed the congress government.Will congress learn a lesson ?.Every state wants their regional leader to be all powerful . It is a regional pride. whether it is a national party or a regional party,the local leader should have a say in national politics .A local leader of a regional party becomes popular when his clout becomes indispensable at national level . Similarly in the case of a national party ,there should be a strong and charismatic regional leader to combat the regional parties . Jayalalitha ,Mamta and Navin Patnaik have proved they are strong regional leaders .In the absence of such charismatic leaders in national parties in each state ,it would be difficult to sustain the party as a force to reckon with at the regional level. Congress has time and again failed to learn this lesson despite severe drubbing at the hands of strong regional parties . Even during the Nehru era ,perhaps the only period during which congress had a truly national presence ,there were strong charismatic leaders at state levels . The present day congress leadership is wary of strong state leaders and systemically stymies state leaders .This could be a fall out of the dynastic politics . In fact it should be the other way .Congress should promote strong regional leaders .At this juncture Congress needs articulate leaders at all levels through out the nation to build the party again at grass root levels . Perhaps they may have to reinvent the wheel . The classic example of a strong regional leader upstaging at the national level could be none other than Modi .

BJP should live up to the expectations of the people of India . They should ensure a corruption free ,transparent ,efficient ,matter of fact government that is development oriented fair and equitable to all sections of the people . The general public also expects the elected representatives to be humility personified and shun arrogant superiority to disdain the views of others as unworthy. I hope on 24 th May when the baton change hands, the new set of sprinters would take the nation forward .Congress along with other parties should play the role of a constructive opposition and try to rebuild its lost glory.

A level headed Railway minister gets the sack

Dinesh Trivedi presented his frist ever Railway budget on March 14 th and had to resign on the same day because his party TMC did not approve the passenger fare hikes proposed by Trivedi in his Railway budget.It must be born in mind the passenger fares were not hiked by railways for the last 10 years,and the finances of railways are not rosy .Indian railways is the largest employer in the world.Trivedi said if the passenger fares are not raised the railways would come to a grinding halt. That would be the most disastorous thing to happen to this nation.The fuel prices have been increased umpteen times in the last 10 years.But the railways never increased the passenger fares for the last 10 years.Politicians want their populist schemes to be carried out ,but never cared about sound administrative or fiscal  mangement.Knowing pretty well, the financial postion of railways is not all that good,TMC wants fare hike to be rolled back,for the sake of common man .The reaction of the common man is not that harsh over the fare hike .Because Trivedi's predecessors did not raise the fare for a decade, Trivedi had to raise it by 2 to 3 pasie per km ,for second class,suburban trains and 5 pasie per km for sleeper class ,which is just and reasonable.If Trivedi's predecessors had increased the fares by at least 1 paise per km every year this situation would not have arised. I am once again reminded about what Nani Palkiwala once said about budgets.He said budgets are exercises where economics is defeated by politics.Mamta asking Trivedi to rollback fare hike or resign is ridiculous.As Railway minister,Trivedi has done justice to his role .

For the first time  a level headed Railway minister Trivedi has suggested a Railway Tariff regulatory Authority that would recommend freight and passenger fares.This would prevent future Railway ministers from implementing their politically expedient schemes.The populist moves by politicians in not increasing the fares ,where required is widely practiced by  politicians of all hues across the nation.The result is, most public sector undertakings by the government ,no matter whether it is state government or central government are running on losses.In Tamilnadu the passenger fares of government run transport buses were not increased for many years, despite frequent fuel price hikes and finally the present incumbent government had to go in for a steep hike,yet not commensurate with expenditure.To please the electorate the politicians defer fare hikes and finally a steep raise has to be made to make the organisation viable.In the mean time , due to financial crunch the concerned department initiates austerity measures and the casualty is the quality of service by these departments.This is also applicable to many of the electricity boards of the country.The Electricity tariffs are not raised for years together and now most EB's are in red and have a power crisis across the nation.Mismanagement and continuous emphasis on subsidy,despite the organisation making losses are the sole reason for failure of public sector undertakings in our country. Added to this,our politicians are promising a freebie galore to the electorates at the time of polls .Where do we have funds to finance all these schemes?.If we continue to run our public sector undertakings this way,all of them would end up bankrupt and that would not be a good news for the projected growth.Hope our politicians become little more prudent and not impulsive in their knee jerk reactions.If the passenger fare hikes are rolled back,it would be the saddest day for Indian Railways.