Bad vibes

I am getting bad vibes about the current political situation. It doesn't take long for a celebration to turn into a hellish nightmare.

For those of you somewhat uninitiated in Indian politics, I bring you this absolutely amazing comment by blogger RealityCheck:

In reality, there is no such thing as a OBC. There are individual castes that gain membership into the group called “OBC”. These politicians are nothing but representatives of narrow electoral interests that have congealed around the OBC benefits. Almost every politician can be tracked down to a particular caste affilitation.

Ever wonder why a Yadav votes for Laloo. There is no development story you can offer him that will make him vote for a Kurmi party. Under no circumstances will BJP or Congress retain its deposit in TN without aligning with a dravidian party. Why ?

Now turn it around, What is the primary responsibility of Laloo towards the Yadav caste ? or Karunanidhi towards the Vellala castes, or Ramadoss towards the Vanniers.

If data decides who is backward, then what is the relevance of Laloo/etc. People dont just vote for cute lookin rustic jokers. They vote for cute lookin jokers who can deliver concrete benefits. This is a widening of interests all these guys dread.
(emphasis mine)

In other words if you believe that Karunanidhi, Laloo, Ramadoss etc. will sulk for a few days and then go away, you are grossly mistaken. This is the aspect of Indian politics most people naively miss. This is the problem that in my opinion will cause a breakup of India in at most 50 years of time.

People do not vote because they believe the benefits will directly accrue to them. After all, this round of free seats would benefit at most 10,000 OBC students. But this makes 500 mils cheer because of two reasons. First, they feel happy that someone from their group is benefiting. Second, they feel happy that there is a Robin Hood that fights exclusively for them.

If you take away the ability to enact bogus laws, these politicians have no utility for the masses. They simply have no appeal.

This brings us to the obvious question, is there anything really that can appeal to all and sundry? The answer is a resounding no. BJP attempted this with religion, with some degree of success. Congress never had anything really. The euphoria of a new nation faded quickly and ever since Congress is straddling these special interest groups. Every year they have to try harder and harder, as the photos of Gandhi and Nehru accumulate more dust.

After all, ideology doesn't really fill the stomach.