Thursday, June 06, 2002
I find the political cricus in Maharashtra laughable. The twin partners are busy whisking their representatives out of the city (in chartered flights, paid by you and me of course): Congress to Bangalore, and Sharad Pawar's NCP to Indore. The reason: to keep them away from temptation.
This does tell me a few things:
The party doesn't trust its own.
Their faithful are open to coercion and corruption (do I hear a chorus of "tell me a new one"!).
That till the cattle parade before the governor, people in this state will have to do without many of their elected representatives (a lot of them would say good riddance, though).
Horse-trading is passe. It is naive for people to expect that such things don't take place. But that's precisely what is most worrying. The fact that politics is a dirty word -- and expecting anything better is naivete.
This does tell me a few things:
The party doesn't trust its own.
Their faithful are open to coercion and corruption (do I hear a chorus of "tell me a new one"!).
That till the cattle parade before the governor, people in this state will have to do without many of their elected representatives (a lot of them would say good riddance, though).
Horse-trading is passe. It is naive for people to expect that such things don't take place. But that's precisely what is most worrying. The fact that politics is a dirty word -- and expecting anything better is naivete.
# posted by Ashok @ 10:14 PM 
