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Our democracy, since its inception, has failed to evolve into a two-party
system. It has only arrived at coalition governments both at the centre
and in the states. A phenomenal rise in regional parties, political
infighting and defection politics, and the legitimisation of criminal
elements in the parliament and the state legislatures have turned our
ballot-box beliefs into a caricature. Unaccounted money greases the
wheels of electoral politics and ultimately it is the bottom third of our
population that is below the poverty line that suffers.
Populism is another growing force in India that has brought into play
pseudo-political or bogus cultural gangsters posing as senas of various
brands. Very often, they are either fronts for political parties serving as
their dirty jobs departments. Sometimes they are mercenary armies on
auction for any political party willing to pay the price.
When Mumbai votes the next time, will terror attacks be on its voters’
mind? Or will it be the development of its infrastructure, still neglected
by both the centre and the state?
---Dilip Chitre