Heigh-ho, get up and go! The polls are here—shed all fear. There's no honour, there's no shame, winning is the name of the game. Old abuses and new hellos make the strangest bedfellows.
And how strange will be some bedfellows in this election! Remember how the Congress described DMK leaders as Rajiv Gandhi's assassins? The Congress' opposition to the DMK was not based just on the Special Investigation Team's preliminary report, which had accused the DMK of complicity in Rajiv's murder. It's most likely that Congress pressure produced the preliminary report. Even before Rajiv died, the Congress opposition to the DMK had surfaced when alliance partner Chandra Shekhar, as PM, dismissed the dmk government for being a threat to national security. Today, Karunanidhi and Sonia Gandhi sing a duet about the BJP threatening national democracy.
Not to be outdone, the BJP is wooing Jayalalitha—the same treacherous, undependable, ungrateful Jayalalitha who teamed up with Sonia and H.S. Surjeet to topple Vajpayee's government. It is the same Jayalalitha who subsequently joined the NDA to later betray it when court cases against her were not withdrawn. But now the poet of Race Course Road believes in forgive-and-forget because the polls are set. Tsk-tsk! Feelgood isn't feelsafe. By a happy coincidence, Jayalalitha has just been acquitted in yet another court case.
And there is of course Kalyan Singh, the greatest trapeze artist of them all. The destroyer of the Babri Masjid had teamed up with its defender, Mulayam Singh. Between them, the destroyer and the defender accounted for scores of innocent Hindus and Muslims being killed. Kalyan Singh roundly abused Vajpayee before teaming up with Mulayam. He now effusively praises Vajpayee as he abandons Mulayam. Meanwhile, the BJP prepares a feast for the prodigal son.
Sniffing the wind, Mulayam sent Amar Singh to confer with the same Sonia whom he blocked from becoming PM. Sonia will doubtless overlook that, knowing all is fair in love, war and politics.
Meanwhile, Mayawati sits on the fence. She must know how the wind blows before she jumps down. She too faces court cases. Only when she is sure will she jump. She might even wait till after the polls. After all, the fight for social justice includes personal justice too!
As for the Left.... But enough! You get the picture? Politicians divide people. Elections unite politicians. Won't united politicians eventually unite divided people? Ah, if only there was a world government. We could have global elections. Then George Bush and Osama bin Laden could become alliance partners.
