Now it's election time in Tamil Nadu. DMK and ADMK fighting like Republicans and Democrats.
DMK asks where the (ADMK) government was when the floods came in November and December 2015. And accuses the present government of rising prices and rampant poverty. That ADMK promised the people a whole lot during the pre-election days in 2011 and that none of the promises was kept.
ADMK says that the during DMK government there was rampant corruption by DMK. That Jayalalitha gave the people all she had promised and more. (Loosely copied the dialog from Rowdy Rathore: "Mein jo kehta hoon wo karta hoon. Jo nahi kehta hoon wo definitely karta hoon". That there was 15 hours of power cut (electricity outage daily during DMK's rule while Tamil Nadu has become power surplus now.
Each party has promised the people various things were it to come to power. So many grams of gold for girls to get married. Essential commodities will be given to people at throw away prices. And so on.
The joker in the pack (read BJP, the smallest of the local parties) quotes people saying that they are sick of the successive governments [DMK and ADMK] and they need a change. That roads in the state are in awful condition while the national highways created by the central government are in great shape.
While various celebrities (SPB, Gowthami, Krishnamachari Srikanth exhort people to exercise their right of franchise and to not sell their honor by voting for any party based on money given to them. All nice and dandy.
I wonder. Is it really wrong to vote for that party that pays you Rs 500 (about $6) per family. At least you get the money in hand. Isn't it better than two in the bush - all the promises being made by each party?
Frankly I do wonder. Where was the state government (ADMK) during the floods? Nobody had any clue when the water from the overflowing Chembarakkam dam was opened at night. Public wasn't informed. State Government was completely missing. The rescue effort was largely handled by NGO's and heroics by isolated individuals and National Disaster Response Force.
As to the behavior of the DMK team when it was in power, one is sick and tired of all the multi-thousand rupee crore scams that DMK was involved in.
Why are we getting caught in the quagmire of rhetoric of each party? Why are words allowed to be spoken louder than action? Why are we, the people, not looking at what was done by each government in the past? Why are we focusing on promises being made? Is voting based on bigger promises any more honorable than voting for the party that gave you more money?
Where is an independent honest appraisal of what each government did in the past? Who is doing that?
