Daily Post 1498
ANTI-INCUMBENCY
Anti-incumbency is euphemistically been made into a natural phenomenon where electorate for no good reason, but for the incumbency, decides to vote against the sitting government and the party. There is no fixed period in which the electorate gets bored, governments have ruled for 5, 10, 15 years and even more. When the anti-incumbency strikes, nobody knows, is the conclusion, one is made to believe. In this whole process there, no real discussion ever happens regarding the work done. With no independent validation of anything achieved in the tenure, all political parties claim that they have delivered whatever they had promised.
The campaigning in a no holds barred verbal duel which has never meant anything for the welfare of the masses. When there is no delivery in question, then empty talks and false claims become the issues of political discussion in the run up for the elections. Once it is over, there is nobody doing anything to fulfill the lofty promises and the poorer lot is back to its own grind to battle it out for themselves. There is a total disconnect between the lives of the people and that of the political personas who decide upon their destiny and the media men who land in hordes for reasons best known to them. It ought to be covered and so is it. The jamboree moves on.
If the electorate is delivered the very basics of human existence on a regular sustainable basis, will there ever be an anti-incumbency vote? Health and education which could have been delivered in decade or two of independent India’s existence, continues to remain a permanent challenge. They have created challenged generations. Few pictures of hospitals are so horrifying, that one would find difficult to even ask for votes, given the degraded situations that have been created for them. It is fortunate that they have reconciled to 30 years of unfortunate governance, otherwise they could have declared anti-incumbency for one and all.
With education in throes, the sordid story of the tenth exam topper made known to the world, where will they fit into the employment machine anywhere. Educated unemployables and anti-incumbency should be treated as the two sides of the same coin. Jobs are again being announced as an electoral bait to be declared anti-incumbency five years down the line. Anti-incumbency in reality is the euphemistic translation for complete non-performance. The aspiration of the electorate is otherwise also is so small. Even that is not met. Indian democracy can be described as a never ending cycle of incumbency and anti-incumbency.
ANTI-INCUMBENCY IS A NON-PERFORMANCE VERDICT.