STILL HOPEFUL

It was my first oppurtunity as a voter, I was excited that I would no longer be a mute spectator but a participant in the government making process. The whole "responsibility-towards-the-Nation" thing had seeped into me to such an extent that I personally went an applied for mine and four of my other family members' names in the electoral list early in August 2008. I wrote about exercising voting rights in my blog, in magazines, in the newspaper I work etc. My cousins mocked at my excitement and found my reasons to vote very lame.
However, somewhere post the attacks the energy of participation dwindled. I did not want to preach, i did not want to ridicule, I did not want to act...I simply did not want to do anything. I was neither an optimist nor a pessimist, I simply did not want to do anything.
Come elections, working in the news room did some good to me. The daily reports from our political reporters, editing those copies and news packages gave me a brief idea on whom to vote and not to. But since I simply did not want to do anything, i did not bother to check if my name had come in the electoral list...instead I moved on... speaking to friends on the poor state of political affairs in the state, the wannabe PMs, the daily menacing smses from PRs of political parties.
"What a sham," I thought.
To add to this, Congress MP' Milind Deora was standing from my constituency. What a sham again? My family has been a Congress supporter for decades now, but, hey, Deora's "indispensable work" as he claims in the last 5 years did nothing to magnetise me. I did not wantto vote him.
But somewhere, the feeling of parting with responsibility was making me guilt laden.
again but I wanted the Congress, less because of my family ties and more because i wanted Dr Manmohan Singh.
Unlike Advani, he may not seem to be a "desperate seeker of power" but his sombre approach to accusations from the Opposition is electrifying. I agree that during Singh's reign security has been at loose ends, but I also know that if we have the BJP worse is expected. Despite BJP's Hindutava agenda, Godhra and Babri Masji as track record big corporates still vouch for BJP... Again such a sham?
However, I was a little let down by Congress' very poor weapon to attack their OPPOSITION...that is "Kandahar". The Congress should have realised that every government has its own set of problems to tackle. If BJP had Kandahar, then the Congress had 7/11, 26/11, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi serial blasts and more. If BJP released a terrorist, Congress failed to tackle the terrorist...By digging up Kandahar to counter-attack their "failed to act on terror" flaws, Congress did not only behave prudishly but also dissapointed several of its voters....who were expecting some strong war of words...and war politics...perhaps they could have spoken of how Manmohan Singh's government tackled the Global Recession. That was a remarkable feat...
Unfortunately, India for the last decade or so has been sitting on the lap of uncertainity. And the government is not doing better any to reassert this claim.
Sometimes I strongly feel that I want Manmohan Singh more because I don't want BJP to come to power. So I voted for Milind and so I want Singh badly. But I am still hopeful that Congress realises its flaws and works on core issues that are affect the nation instead of building allies outside the country. I voted....I voted because I am STILL HOPEFUL