The hot debate around the country is who is going to be the next prime minister? Is it Rahul Gandhi or Narendra Modi? This upsets me and makes me worried as a citizen of the largest democratic country in the world, India. Why?
The so-called independent and frontline media of our country has been successfully portraying ‘Rahul vs Modi debate’ in this election. But the irony is both are not contesting against each other from a Lok Sabha seat. So why so much fuss? I think the media is aware of the fact that we are not a country of a two-party system.
We have multiple national and regional parties. So by projecting Rahul vs Modi debate, the media is making the mockery of our representational democracy. Why do I say it so? The first possible reason is, BJP knows Modi is a heavyweight against Rahul. So by projecting Rahul Vs Modi debate, BJP seeks to send out a message to the voters who are not happy with the present Government or with the Congress that they have to choose, it’s either Rahul or Modi.
Another possible reason is that these two main national parties want to keep the power confined within themselves. So by projecting Rahul against Modi, they are keeping other national and regional leaders out of the frame.
Whatever the reason may be, this dichotomy system is a threat to our democracy. India is a country of 1.3 billion people. These two parties are not enough to represent the diversified population. We have parts of our country where the language is given utmost importance, again in some part religion is given importance. Somewhere a specific caste dominates, and somewhere sports. So it is not practical for these two national parties to address the diversities of the nation. So we need multinational, regional parties to be the voice of 1.3 billion people. And the media should acknowledge this.
This dichotomisation not only threatens the possibility of the third party but also polarises the masses to a great extent, which is quite visible on social media these days where we see supporters of both parties hurling abuses at each other. India’s historically been a tolerant country. That’s why we see such a diversity blossoming in the nation. We should accept and acknowledge the differences that we have and respect others’ views. We should follow the path of non-violence shown by our father of the nation, Gandhiji.
The second thing that I want to bring to attention is the tremendous economic inequality that our country has. In India, the top 1% hold 73% of the country’s wealth. Sadly the gap is increasing day by day; the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer. It is not just the economic failure that hurts the poor. But also the dignity of the poor! It is usual for me to see a rich offending a poor. Both hardly know how co-dependent their lives are in a larger scenario. They can’t survive without each other. The poor need to know this to be empowered, to know they have their dignity too. Both national parties have failed to address this issue of economic inequality. However, it does not surprise me at all considering these two parties are heavily funded by industrialists and they do not even care to bring RTI into political party fundings. Using these two political parties, industrialists are making more and more fortune. You can take Reliance as an example. Under both these Governments, Reliance has got a fair share of government deals. Be it in electricity, CNG gas, or the latest defence deal.
So I do not see a bright future for the country if any of these parties come back to power. I am not saying a third party will be able to address all these issues, what I am in fact saying is that by narrowing down the discourse to just Rahul vs Modi, we are creating a hindrance for a different or perhaps a better political ideology to prosper. In a country of such diversity, we need different political parties to address diverse issues.
Next time when you are asked: Modi or Rahul? Answer: We the people of India!