Vocabulary of a typical politician – in particular, the Desi variety - is limited; words like always, never, forever, accountability, continuity, responsibility and many more are not part of their vocabulary. Their vocabulary may be anemic, but they compensate with their 2-tongued approach.
Similarly friends today are foes tomorrow and friends again day after tomorrow.
One word that no politician can feign ignorance of is, without a doubt, flip-flop. Now that electioneering is in full swing and alliances and fronts and backs are being formed, we can all understand the truth in all of the above. There is a First front or is it First family, there is a Second front, forever behind in the race and a Third Front, I mean First Rear.
As if all this is not enough there is NDA, there is DPA, there is UPA and God knows a few more; to muddy the waters there are any number of parties not part of any front or rear plus Independent candidates.
In Tamilnadu, everytime a new party is born, it is always christened something, something (mostly Anna or Dravida or both will be part of the name) M K (Munnetra Kazhagam, Munnetra(m) is progress).
Of course the so called established political outfits are the inspiration – DMK and AIADMK.
No marks for guessing whose progress these party founders push for.
From confusion to perplexity to downright unpredictable is how one may describe the formation of alliances for the current Lok Sabha elections.
While Lalu, Mulayam, Paswan, in the North, continue to support the UPA Government and have Ministerial berths, they are fielding candidates against the Congress, which to all of us, is the major constituent in the UPA. The PMK, the eternal trapeze artists, have ditched, to no one’s surprise, the Congress & DMK to hitch their fortunes with Amma.
The father & son duo have no qualms in saying that all alliances/partnerships are ‘politics of convenience’. There is no knowing how ‘the dynamics’ will change after the election results are out.
In plain speak they will jump on to whichever bandwagon suits them. The PMK believes it is almost de rigueur to jump ships. To be or not to be is no dilemma.
Being and not being is the flavor of this Elections or rather the new idiom.
Who will be and who will not be? We will get the answer in a few weeks.
Jai Hind!
L.Ravichandran
ravi@chennaionline.com