Vote to trust
Amidst all the furore and caucus, what has been described over and again as the darkest and brightest day at once of Indian politics, it was indeed exhilarating to see the nation rooting for the pro-reforms, pragmatic and progressive ruling alliance over the the ideologically starved, regressive 'Left' parties. Oh did I miss the radical 'Right' bandwagon ? Let me see ...guess they'd fit best into the anywhere-nowhere mold.
As the story unfolded over the past few weeks, I was awed by the number game + horsetrading allegations (yeah..innocent till...) and was very much keen for once to see the mixed-bag ruling coalition run down the 'Left' opposition.
Is my heart with the incumbents? Not quite..but the live-to-veto game that the 'Left' had been playing for the past years was finally beyond any logical or emotional tolerance. And when I remembered that these were the same folks who had opposed privatization of industry, foreign direct investment, private sector banking, India's entry to the global market, computerization (yes..using computers in govt offices and other public sector undertakings) it just makes a more convincing argument (than even Dr. Kalam's N-deal endorsement) that the N-deal is as much pro-India as the previously 'Left' opposed reforms were.
The vote to trust, my friends back home say was an entertainer more than a democratic exercise. But I found myself cheering for the ruling alliance for finally deciding to prove themselves to the lifelong-rebels who proclaimed vetoing as the singular democratic + political tool to take the country forward.
Entertainer for sure, but the debates running up to the trust vote were insightful and passionate. Though Omar Abdullah, Laloo Prasad Yadav and Chidambaram stole the show, and Manmohan Singh was crowned the King, Amar Singh I believe had the true crowning glory ( courtesy - cnn-ibn and Rajdeep Sardesai's blog).
The unfortunate suicide by the 'scholarly' 'Left' (Sagarika Ghose cnn-ibn) and the vote to trust the country's managers surely did drive home the point that the 'Left' is finally left with no option but to self-introspect and veto misplaced ideologies. As for the 'Right' I'm reminded of reckless passengers boarding the wrong train and forced to let themselves out at the wrong station.
