Keep calm & vive la resistance!

I think people interested in politics seem to forget, or ignore, that none of these political maneuvers our leaders employ, affect the average person. The end game is to be in the news. And being in the news is important. It helps in spreading your message, and it helps in drowning the dissenting voices.

When all is said and done, people receive the same pay they got last month. Still stay in the same house. Still go to the same work place. Basically nothing much changes, in regard their style or standard of living. We can arrange as many protests and whatnots as possible. That would get you some space in the news. Not much beyond that.

People won’t vote to avoid disaster, they wait for a disaster and then hope to undo it. Look at the current BJP government. Very reasonable people predicted or hoped that Modi would be the great reformer we have been waiting for. Out with the scams, the corruption, the government lethargy and in with everything nice — whatever it is. Not to forget, a dash of Hindutva politics too. Things were supposed to get better.

Nobody cares until it materially affects them or until we get bored or disgusted with the government’s apathy. People will not try to stop the ruling party & it’s affiliates until it really, really hurts.

I wish it didn’t have to be that way, but that’s the way people want it. People will vote for the right thing the very next election after they lose everything they have that makes them feel comfortable, and not before.

The Sangh Parivaar can enjoy the moment. For the rest, and that includes all of us of the TINA-brigade (There Is No Alternative), we need to remember that democracy is a series of battles in a war that’s never quite over, but always worth fighting.