Let me try answering some very important questions raised here :) but before that let me assure you that I am not a Congress supporter nor do I have any love for the Left (Well, isn't it obvious from the fact that I am a member of this group :) )
"Media is biased" True, even I was annoyed with the way the Indian media was wetting their pants out of excitement but i don't think it was because of personal loyalties. The media was happy because the market was happy and the market was happy because it saw a stable government lead by the economist who single-handedly reformed Indian economy in 1992 and was instrumental in abolishing the License-Permit Raj that was stifling the Indian economy and filling the coffers of ruling party loyalists (read Congressmen). Well, lets face it, without the economic liberalization started by Manmohan Singh, India wouldn't have been the second largest growing economy in the world. I do concede that the distribution of wealth has been pathetic, economic/social inequality is just too huge to be ignored but that's a different matter altogether. However, if the Indian economy grows as per prediction, successive governments may be able to ensure social justice, at the moment there is no magic wand that could get rid of all these problems. Under these circumstances,the market saw Dr. Singh as the best option and the soaring sensex vindicates this stand. "Aam Aadmi" Well, I too think that the Congress government has not really helped the common people but from a different perspective. But the fact that i dicovered from direct contact is that the Aam Aadmi feels that the Congress has worked for them!If the mandate doesn't convince you, go to the people themselves. As someone has already raised the question, is there an alternative that the people can vote for? The BJP (minus Vajpayee), we have seen is simply incapable of even realizing where the common people are. Its electoral planks never had any appeal for the common man/woman. Lets take the instance of the issue black money in Swiss banks that someone has already raised in this forum. Do you think the starving farmer would find recovery of black money from foreign haven more alluring than rice at a hugely subsidized rate ? As for tax-payers like us, has the BJP ever revealed how it is going to do this difficult task? Swiss banks are notorious for their secrecy policy.They may have now diluted their secrecy policy but they have not abandoned it nor is there a blanket permission. They still require evidence for each and every account whose details are sought. In fact, Swiss banks authorities have very categorically said that they cannot act as "India's tax inspectors".An Indian government is as likely to furnish evidences in each particular case as it is likely to seek out the hidden treasures of the Knight Templars! Yet, in his every election meeting L.K. Advani proposed to bring back this hidden money instead of outlining his plan of action to revive economy. Thus, the BJP has still not been able to connect with the ommon man, so for the latter the only options were the Congress or any of the regional parties. Finally, the use of nearly hackneyed terms such as pseudo-secularism, anti-Hindu, minorities etc indicates that this group is becoming another mouth-piece for the Sangh Parivar. There is nothing wrong with it as such except that when an organization seeks to represents a single segment of population (even if it constitutes 90% of population)and not all constituents of the nation, such an orgnization can be said to be following a sub-nationalistic agenda! And I have no desire to support any form of sub-nationalistic movement, be it Muslim Fundamentalism, MNS, Naxalites or the RSS. i had joined this group way back and have not been very active till now but im very sure that the tone in discussions here is very contradictory to the organization's core values. Just wondering if the original founder of the group, Gopal, is still associated with the BM ? Regards, Aryan
