There is near chaos in a number of Indian States and cities, big and small, after the wettest August in memory and the havoc the rain and floods have played; not only in India, in fact, large parts of the world: one city in Europe has reported 20 days of continuous rain, an experience horrific in its dimensions because it has not gone through such torrents of water ever in the past. It is not just glaciers melting and rapidly vanishing ice caps in the Arctic or Down Under in the Antarctica, the global warming is reaching new highs, making all life, human, animal and plant, considerably miserable.

It is in this light that a number of Indian politicians and parties are at a loss to divine the mess they find themselves in. They are not just somber or melancholy, they are, in fact, out of depth, at their wit's end. Of course, the orthodox among them, blame it on the stars and recent solar and lunar eclipses, the lunar one on the full moon night of August 16 lasting more than 24 hours cast a long shadow. The luckless politicos are feeling even sorrier than the rest because their astrologers have told them that the impact of the lunar eclipse will continue for 26 days that is until September 11. They are keeping their fingers crossed until then and hoping to survive ill omens as dark clouds of dismay hang overhead.

Suddenly, the euphoria in several Opposition parties, including the BJP, the Communist combine of leftists, their hapless Third Front allies or fair or unfair weather friends, over dethroning the ruling United Progressive Alliance in the upcoming elections to several States, due next year for the Lok Sabha, are somewhat dimmed. One does not hear any more the tall claims by men and women of substance as well as straw that they are about to ascend the throne in the Dilli Durbar or the smaller kingdoms in the States.

They talk no more that general elections could be held along with the polls to the Delhi Assembly or with the other States like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir before the end of the year. Yet, the Congress engages in all kinds of frantic political activities and meetings at higher and lower levels to try and fox their rivals that they could be preparing for snap elections as this might be the best time for them to cash in on the convincing UPA victory over the Opposition in the confidence motion presented by the Prime Minister last month. Rahul Gandhi trying to galvanize the youth brigade is cited as one more reason for electoral flurry. The cash for votes controversy and dumping of bundles of thousand-rupee notes on the table of the Lok Sabha Secretary-General below the Speaker's podium in the House has been gone into by an inquiry committee and may yield no conclusion against any particular person about trying to buy up BJP members and secure their abstention or vote for the government.

The frenzy whipped over the Amarnath Yatra in Jammu, and now sought to be taken to the rest of the country, will no doubt disrupt life and work in large parts of the country as BJP cadres and supporters or paid professional protesters for all comers will shout at the top of their voice and be duly fed and driven around by trucks or marched, but at the end of the day it will all be forgotten as meaningless nuisance, though it will give the BJP leadership readymade audiences to address rallies, but will the speeches and hot words be remembered beyond being aired by captive TV channels or limited print media? The people know that the Ice Lingam at Amarnath in Kashmir rarely remains frozen in view of the climate change. Even though tens of thousands travel to the high hills in sheer faith, are they really concerned with the politics being linked to it? The protests in Jammu in the name of Hindutva will perhaps save the BJP from one more rout this year or next year in the elections and perhaps in neighbouring Punjab and Himachal, but will it have much of an impact beyond these areas? It is very doubtful.

The all wise Prime Minister-in-waiting Mr. Lal Krishna Advani is surprisingly heard less and less on public platforms with his lucid analysis about the crises prevailing in the country and reported even less in the media. Even the concern about the poor voter, who has been hit by rising inflation and high prices of all consumer goods is no longer a serious subject or issue raised by the Opposition parties of different hues because they know well that they can do little about it even if they came to power. Even the leftists and Communists, who claim to the sole patrons of public interest, have become miserably silent as if they have lost their voices or have they been washed out by the rain and heavy floods in Bengal, Kerala, besides Bihar?

In the most populous State of Uttar Pradesh, Ms. Mayawati has been talking about imaginary conspiracy theories about her own possible elimination. She has been using these devices to talk about her decision to have sealed a cover about her nominated successor from a Dalit background. When a section of the media cracked the secret and revealed the name of her intended successor, she was on the back-foot and had no option but to denounce him and announce the name of another favorite as her party, the Bahujan Samaj's vice-president. These stunts have left the purveyors of the political scene amused and diminished the credibility of the volatile and self-designated aspirant to the office of Prime Minister of the country.

EMAIL THIS NEWS COMMENTS No comments yet