First Past The Post (FPTP),and all that !

downwash of Modi's chopper leaves behind, heat,dust, dried and flying leaves,blinded eyes and cowering voters

While Modi is all set to welcome the SAARC leaders surprising many by his display of diplomatic panache and sagacity and the whole political world is busy playing games selecting the likely Ministers the Congress party is once again anointing its fools as kings and queen .The Middle Left, if you know what I mean are still not convinced that it is time for the current leadership to step aside and let fresh winds blow. AAP is for once realising the pristine benefits of or the lack of having a Party, leadership and organisation.Being clever one fools sometimes the sincere other.Being twice clever is your nemesis which is what the nightmares of Kejriwal are all about presently in the jailed confines of Tihar.The regional parties have won in Tamil Nadu, Orissa,West Bengal,Telengana, Andhra Pradesh and are intelligent enough to realise that their worth is only so far as the next Rajya Sabha elections.Oxygen for life support is fast running out for these prickly political denizens.

Against this landscape of defeat and despondency there is a weak but resilient voice of analysis from a committed few that paws at our easily excitable natures and love of political porn.I see these though, as claws of doubt and inquiry that dig deep into our drugged bloodstream and threaten to bleed it dry unless a serious re-hab is not initiated.
Nirmalangshu Mukherjee questions the present verdict as not a total sweep for Modi,opines that UP and Bihar were the key as orchestrated by Amit Shah,the core Dalit/Muslim votes were not transferred as trumpeted.No major shift of the voters' constituency had also happened is how he puts across with his tweaked mind.
To quote :

Let us first get clear about what this 31% means for democratic representation. As Shuddhbrata Sengupta (Kafila, May 18) and others have pointed out, the current population of India is 1.27 billion or 1270 million. The total electorate is 810 million. Since 66.3% of this electorate voted in the elections, the actual number who voted is 541 million. At 31%, BJP won roughly 165 million votes. In other words, in the general population, over 1000 million or 1 billion people or 86% did not vote for BJP. Even among the registered electorate, nearly 650 million or 80% did not vote for BJP.
The BJP government just elected is the most unpopular and unrepresentative in the history of the republic of India. To emphasize, these abysmal numbers have little to do with the limitations of FPTP; so they can only be the result of deliberate manipulation.'Read on for the real sensation from the link below...

http://kafila.org/2014/05/23/a-stolen-verdict-nirmalangshu-mukherji/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kafila%2Ffeed2+%28Kafila%29

Cul de Sac : A politics of no alternatives

You are either for or against Modi. And if the media of all kinds are to be believed a larger part of the voting janata that is 30% of the 60% who have voted in 2014 would prefer Modi. Mostly the intellectuals who are generally seen in mock debates,seminars,soul-thumping magazines, candle-light night marches, on English speaking foreign networks and  surprisingly part of the fashionista are up in arms against this near certain rise of the Indian Nazis :BJP and RSS. To foretell this they have peered and analysed various musty Marxist or neo -liberal tracts out of context, novels, movies and what-have -you to deconstruct history and draw connects and threads with similar trends in the past.

Sumanta Banerjee this time round picks two books from the yesteryear's by Brecht and another by Sinclair Lewis to confirm this thesis.
My position whatever be the truth in time is that the people are flummoxed.Fed up. They continue to remain poor is the reality despite elections and democracy for the last 60 odd years.My questions are:

Why this tirade against Modi ?(I notice the author forgets to mention the economic policy to be pursued by him in the lundry list of supposed dangers in the immediate future or is it because  the previous regime of Congress  pursued similar neo-liberal policies as is being anticipated now?The talk of deteriorating institutions through nepotism and utter disregard and arrogance of power was given a convenient miss.What was the role of the intellectuals then and why did we not witness similar clamour,organised agitation, interpretations and taking to the streets earlier?What is the nature of difference between Congress and the BJP or the other parties especially AAP?The left may be given a pass as they exist only on discussion panels and so-called serious research magazines such as this one.Which is the party today which could lead and represent the people, then?The writer for obvious reasons cannot admit that such a one today does not exist and if one were to operate outside of the parliamentary or constitutional argument it would be against the dictates of limits of freedom imposed.Democracy and electoral politics is the panacea.Nothing before or after.

Or if I were to twist the rainbow like thoughts of Prof Amartya Sen:China is doing well but is some kind of a benevolent despot not wedded to democracy.So viewed against American Democracy a far cry.Not preferred, therefore.Just like Modi. Can deliver but not very democratic when compared to the secular,non-communal, all inclusive Congress.Whatever that means ?

The damned be damned !Are the people then to be blamed ?I am never able to reconcile how the ordinary peasant,unemployed worker,disenfranchised labour and the half-fed 50% be held accountable against this unclear, rarified, distracting and confusing quibbling of the twice-born intellectuals.History shall not be learnt from in India and the lack of courage and vision to tread an alternative path is its curse .Will then the people rise on their own ? All that happens but spontaneously is doomed to burnt out as an un-managed chaos will.

In the late thirties of the previous century popular support in Germany was for the left .Despite that the Nazis took over.Resistance there was and the left were massacred.Fascism strode in.Does history tell us that we are in similar times ?Much water seems to have flown since then.Our belief in the parliamentary road for so long has not only perpetuated a lie but has weakened the ability to act otherwise.

Read on..
http://www.epw.in/commentary/resistible-rise-narendra-modi.html

and the best that should stand the test of time....http://www.straight.com/life/616401/arundhati-roy-explains-how-corporations-run-india-and-why-they-want-narendra-modi-prime-minister?fb_action_ids=10152303970193624&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B757192757654931%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map