I remembered this slogan from the American presidential elections where Obama rose to victory from near obscurity. A simple African American who gave America a much needed glimmer of hope, after the Bush administration.
As the election fervour in our very own country rises it seems like it is our very own chance of creating our own piece of Indian history. So what are our options? Let's see.
As a minority in this country the Congress has been the only choice at the voting booth. Its not about the Gandhis or the Manmohans and its not that they have done anything beneficial for the minorities of this country either. Its just that they haven't done anything detrimental. That itself is a positive for us single digit/percent communities. Yes the great secular party. Alas the last ten years have been a string of opportunities lost and scandals galore. Of purely lazy and coalition-placating policies that have pushed India back a few decades if not more. That combined with the smugness of the Gandhis and Vadras just seems like a sin to vote them back.
But with the phenomena that was Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) there was a reasonable alternative. Heck a viable alternative to vote for a clean individual. Note I say individual and not politician - this fact itself drove hundreds and thousands of new voters towards the coughing Arvind Kejriwal. Alas naivete and unplaced bravado got the better of him. While he infiltrated the system he lacked the foresight to realize that he needed to remain in it to actually make a change. That one law minister if fired that very same day, regardless of fact, would have most definitely catapulted him to a level beyond imagination. Unfortunately today AAP is just a footnote not deserving a national vote.
So we are left with Modi. Can, I, a minority in India dare say that we should vote for the saffron brigade? You know what? this time I say we do. We have tried being secular and seen where it got us. Lets go completely unsecular and paint this country saffron, if that's what it takes to get her into the 20th century (yes we need to get into the 20th before we can be in the 21st). Yeah they have the Yeddiruppas, Reddys and RSS. Who cares? Can it really get any worse if these people come back to power? Maybe he can be the real Arvind Kejriwal. Maybe he has the shrewdness to realize that he has to be in the system and hold power to really squash the termites that are eating our country hollow. If nothing else this will atleast make a great story. A man of humble beginnings taking over the reigns of this country. Atalji couldn't drive the BJP coalition with his poetry but maybe Modi can with a simple cup of tea.
Yes I honestly think its our chance of creating our own piece of history or resigning ourselves into the history books. Because if the next government does not save this country, I doubt that god herself would be able to.
