Sad state of politics...

Sad state of politics...

First let me talk about politicians in my own state of Andhra Pradesh. For the past few years, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had been supporting the cause for the united state of Andhra Pradesh. While the Congress, being an opportunistic party, went into a pre-poll alliance with a separatist party Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), promising a separate state if the State Reorganization Committee (SRC) favoured the formation of a state after they came into power. But with no consensus, the Congress couldn't do much and the TRS pulled out of the government. Then we saw people from various parties pulling out to form smaller splinter parties for the cause of statehood. Recently, the TDP did a volte-face and decided to support the creation of a separate state. I believed the TDP was a far more disciplined party than the rest of the parties, but by supporting such a decision, the TDP has lost the supporter in me. The party doesn't appeal any more. It needs democracy within it's ranks, needs more people with a vision and lot of second-rung leaders who should mostly be educated and responsible youth. So does that mean, I am going to shift loyalties to Praja Rajyam? Well, not exactly. First, I don't think you've to enter politics to serve the people, there are a lot of ways you can do that and Chiranjeevi was doing that quite successfully. The party does not have clear policy decisions on many issues or is populistic on a lot others. And also, Mr.Chiranjeevi does not seem to be in the driver seat (there seems to be some one driving him). If the party really comes up with good policies, then I might consider it...but till then there is a void of statesmen and good political parties in Andhra Pradesh. And very clearly, I am not going to support any party that wants to play divisive politics.

Next let me come to India in general, no statesmen here too... There is a slugfest in the parliament over no or a very trivial issue. No one wants to punish people who want to divide India based on region, caste or religion. A bigger diversion nowadays is the global financial crisis. Major issues like lack of infrastructure, poverty have taken a back seat and all one talks of nowadays is the SENSEX (which many people mistake for the exchange).

Now let's talk about global politicians. Never did I expect such dirty politics to be played in the US election campaign and the comparitively lukewarm action by most governments in reassuring their people about the global financial crisis.

You might wonder why I wrote such a tangential post. Read on...

Recently, I was having a discussion with my colleague about the state of politics and statesmanship in India and soon he too connected very well with the issue and started giving parallels in his country. We continued the discussion for hours but none of this was productive for us or for our countries...

PS: The next time you want to start a conversation, it's best you pick politics and lament about it's sorryful state and you will have a very lively discussion. Great conversation starter!!! (sic)