Shashi Tharoor and Electoral battle as backdoor entry in the Mainstream Governance

Shashi Tharoor, sometimes writes eloquently, i enjoyed reading his book 'The Great Indian Novel', that seemed to understand the Freedom struggle in the light of the epic story of Mahabharat.

After 29 years in the United Nations, and a lost bid for post for Secretary General of United Nations, Mr. Shashi Tharoor has come back to India and is contesting an election to seek what he termed as 'Rebooting of Self'.

Loosing a high-pitched battle, which seemed almost won-over at one point, is not easy to get over with and that to one for such a high-profile post like secretary general of United Nations. even though at many times it is made obsolete by dictates coming from Washington-London and Moscow, add to it Beijing now.

Initially i could not fathom a reason why mr. Shashi Tharoor has decided to contest a Loksabha Elections in India. The elections in India generally become murkier, high-pitched, demanding a series of compromises, voicing of opinions 'one may not really believe' and harnessing the divide within society for sake of democratic victory.

Looking through the prism of reasoning, i presume, that Mr. Shashi Tharoor is not really bothering about the electoral victory. The election for Loksabha, for Mr. Tharoor looks more like a stepping stone which will pave his way into the power corridors in New-Delhi, if the Congress (I) emerges as the single largest party after the polls.

Battling the contest for the Loksabha will help install Mr. Tharoor in the middle of political spectrum. This will also help prepare a ground for the congress, if tomorrow Congress I wants to induct him into the Government. Mr. Tharoor then can become a Rajyasabha candidate from any part of India, and blissfully get absorbed in the central-government.

Imagine, that After few months, if Congress would have suddenly invited Mr. Tharoor to hold a prestigious post in ministry, there would have been huge hue-and-cry. But now the sailing would be lot smoother.

'Mahabharata' and Great Indian battle for Electoral supremacy

'Mahabharata', An Epic that probably has few parallels in the literature, ancient or modern, in its enormity, complexity and spread (over geography, cultures, civilizations and emotions).

The central or the constant undercurrent throughout the journey called Mahabharat lies the omni-present human life-force of 'Play by Power'. In most parts the story is about everything that happens in the process of gaining-loosing power, a constant struggle to achieve power or to maintain power. The struggles within myriad tales of Mahabharata are about struggles between 'Dharma-Adharma', the 'righteousness and selfishness', the 'greater common good', the search for consciousness within the confines of daily life, so on and so forth.

A cursory look at the electoral democratic system in India over last few decades and the whole political-process appears nothing but the constant struggle for 'Power', unlike Mahabharata, this power struggle has become too crass in its content as well in the means.

The large proportion of Political leadership in India, appears to have abysmally low clarity in understanding the social, environmental, ecological, economical, technological, financial, cultural or any other dimension of the society. The comprehension of the issues and national threats, opportunities or projected social-scenario's is always within the framework of 'self-appropriation'.

Political party's, individual partymen or election-contestants, news-media managers, and all the stake-holders in this 'power-play' invariably innovate, sometimes knowingly, sometimes by-chance, sometimes unknowingly. i wondered why not try and track the whole electoral process and look for sparks of innovation within the process.

Mahabharata will provide us a backdrop to contextualize and understand some of the 'innovations' that could prop-up as we go along. Innovations within electoral contests, might as well provide us the clues for the vibrancy in the political framework within our society.

Innovation and Civil Resistance Campaign - A Case study

It indeed was very humorous and probably a fitting reply to the outrageous incident of Mangalore induced by 'Shri Ram sene'.

Civil social resistance is slowly taking on new hue and colour. A lot of it inspired by some bollywood flicks like 'Lage Raho Munna Bhai' etc. Civil resistance to what happened in the pub in Mangalore and what followed later in various parts of country, had different scales and methods. But what got to the imagination of people, media glare was the 'Pink Chaddi' program.

At one level it did have the 'vent' for anger which all of us felt, at the complete intolerance on the behalf of the self styled outfits like Shri-Ram Sena.

In one of the key observations i read where the author rightly pointed out 'It would be wrong to name these outfits 'moral police', because it gives them a self-legitimacy.

Moral-policing does happen across the cross section of our social system, from our families to the community scale, but most of it is subconscious on part of both the party's, the 'perpetrator' and the 'perpetrated'. The Moral-policing in India is rampant, and it has gotten under our skin to such a extent that even while we are practicing it right-left and center, we are completely unaware that we are actually doing it.

Pink Chaddi campaign is not a very ideal start for an innovative social resistance campaign against self-styled outfits like Shri-Ram Sena, or for that matter all too conservative 'Muslim Law board'.

Innovation in the methods, processes and programs that will stand against all that is 'Unjust', Unfair and exploitative-in-nature is the need of the day. I will not consider Pink-Chaddi campaign as an 'Innovation', but a 'reaction' to the outrage felt, but it can certainly prove to be a precursor to the innovations in the civil resistance programs that would and should take place in the urban segments, lead appropriately by the young brigade.