For the first time in the history of India, the people look at their vote-casting finger and see and feel the muscle
ROBERT CLEMENTS
And as fireworks lit the sky last New Year night, church and temple bells rang and calls for prayer went out from masjids, there was a feeling of hope in the country. Not so because a bearded communal chief minister spoke about progress; one suspects the kind of progress he talks about, more like a Hitlerian kind!
Not because a young Rahul Gandhi went round with A shredding machine, tearing up all the corruption policies of his government, albeit a little late. Not even because a Kejriwal has come to power in Delhi.
But because the same Delhi spoke and its voice was heard.
For years we have been good armchair critics, criticizing the government, authorities, and policies.
For years we have had hunger strikes and fasts.
For years we have voted, then stopped voting as elections were decided by caste, creed, and maybe color.
But, finally even as 2013 tottered to a hopeless end, a rocket of hope shot into the sky, blazing a trail.
The people spoke with ink on finger, the finger wagged and their voice was heard.
There’s hope for India.
Even if Modi comes to power, it will be a different Modi from the venom-spitting designer clothes-clad man we’ve been hearing. Every now and again he will from his platform, look into the distance:
“What are you looking for sir?”
“Can you see them?”
“Who sir?”
“The people!”
“Yes we can sir!”
“What do their fingers say?”
“Does it matter sir?”
And Modi will nod, because for the first time in the history of the second largest democracy in the world, the people are thinking. For the first time in the history of India, the people look at their vote-casting finger and see and feel the muscle.
“Mr Modi, you have to talk to the people, not to their fingers!”
“Their fingers have become powerful!” whispers the man who might be the next prime minister and suddenly communal forces who have split the country with their so-called religious divisions are scared.
“What do we do? Nobody is interested in a temple or mosque at the disputed site!”
“Why?”
“Because the people of the country, the voters, have started thinking! Disputes don’t feed stomachs!”
“This is frightening!”
It is, Mr Politician. So change quickly or be left behind. Because the vote bank has broken its vault walls. There’s hope for India, after all.
