We love President Obama. We - read as the Incredible Indians. President Obama - read as the saviour of Kenya & the rest of the world. Infact we love anyone who is nice to us. We loved Clinton when he said "Tandoori kebabs should rule the world", we loved Bush when he carried India through the civilian nuclear deal... Heck! We even loved Danny Boyle when he won accolades for showcasing Indian slums.
But, we love Obama for much more: He cut war funding to Pakistan, he had a potrait of Mahatma Gandhi in his senate office & he proclaimed that New Delhi is Washington's natural strategic partner! .. and last time we heard there were rumours floating around that he has a Ganesh idol and has read the Ramayan! Nice Mr. Obama! You could not have done it better. The funny thing is that a lot of us do not even agree with the Gandhian ideologies and definitly none of us has ever bothered about the war in Talibstan. Yet, we followed him as he stumbled through his oath to presidency, we listened to him through the night as he took the weight of the whole world on his shoulders & we watched him dance coyly with the first lady thereafter. And everyone noticed that! Our political parties for one. Rumour has it that one of them even has a huge poster up in the city of mug-shots of their goons with Obama in the center. HA!! and you thought we could just copy-paste your films!! And your software... and your designs... your patents... toilet paper... erm.. okay fine, you knew we would get to Obama someday too!
The interesting part is that with all the Obama hoopla going around no Indian party is exploiting his "We want change" brand for the upcoming elections. Now, these elections are super-duper important for us. For me atleast. I am 26 years old. I will be voting for the first time in these elections. Yes, I did not exploit my right for the last 8 years. At 18 I was going mad preparing for IIT and could not bother much about the guys making the reservation rules, at 20 I was studying in South India (and discovering for the first time that the south of India does not comprise only of Madrasis!), at 24 I was way too much in love with my first job and slogged past mid-night for months until I realised no one gives a damn and that night-balcony-Bangalore-weather is right up there above gallons of chocolate chip ice cream. Or with it! So what has changed now? Have I been influenced by the Jago-Re campaign? Or is it because they came to our office and made us sit down like 2 year olds and fill in our forms and then submitted it also for us? I guess the latter. We like it when people do things for us. We also like them when they are nice to us. But what do I do now? Do I vote for either of the two leading parties - One who is losing ground and the Other who can't protect women against violence? Or do I vote for the third - which comprises of people from all flavours of India. People with no clear leader. And while trillions of rupees are being siphoned off for this election I wonder - What about the war in Pakistan? How long can the people of that country hold guard against Taliban? How long before they get access to nuclear power? What about the infiltration of refugees from surrounding countries? What about the recession and the people who are losing their job today? Where do our leader stand on these issues?
Recently, I have started following the 2009 election debates. Sessions where party spokesperson come and play the blame game. "Sir, can you give me assurance you will not go and join Party X again?". "In that year when you did X my party protested and we were right". "Sir, you were not with this party at that time". "Maybe not, I still supported the ideologies".
What crap! I do not care what you did in year X with party Y for reason Z. Tell me what you will do over the next 4 years. Tell me where you stand on global issues. And for heaven's sake send your leader to speak.. not some polished yappy speaker. If you care about positioning my country at an advantage in these times. If you care about providing me a good life. If you have people around you who have the competency to deliver this then showcase them to me. I will follow you as speak. I will follow you through your oath. I will follow you as you stumble across your first decisions as the leader of this country. I will follow you because you care.
But, we love Obama for much more: He cut war funding to Pakistan, he had a potrait of Mahatma Gandhi in his senate office & he proclaimed that New Delhi is Washington's natural strategic partner! .. and last time we heard there were rumours floating around that he has a Ganesh idol and has read the Ramayan! Nice Mr. Obama! You could not have done it better. The funny thing is that a lot of us do not even agree with the Gandhian ideologies and definitly none of us has ever bothered about the war in Talibstan. Yet, we followed him as he stumbled through his oath to presidency, we listened to him through the night as he took the weight of the whole world on his shoulders & we watched him dance coyly with the first lady thereafter. And everyone noticed that! Our political parties for one. Rumour has it that one of them even has a huge poster up in the city of mug-shots of their goons with Obama in the center. HA!! and you thought we could just copy-paste your films!! And your software... and your designs... your patents... toilet paper... erm.. okay fine, you knew we would get to Obama someday too!
The interesting part is that with all the Obama hoopla going around no Indian party is exploiting his "We want change" brand for the upcoming elections. Now, these elections are super-duper important for us. For me atleast. I am 26 years old. I will be voting for the first time in these elections. Yes, I did not exploit my right for the last 8 years. At 18 I was going mad preparing for IIT and could not bother much about the guys making the reservation rules, at 20 I was studying in South India (and discovering for the first time that the south of India does not comprise only of Madrasis!), at 24 I was way too much in love with my first job and slogged past mid-night for months until I realised no one gives a damn and that night-balcony-Bangalore-weather is right up there above gallons of chocolate chip ice cream. Or with it! So what has changed now? Have I been influenced by the Jago-Re campaign? Or is it because they came to our office and made us sit down like 2 year olds and fill in our forms and then submitted it also for us? I guess the latter. We like it when people do things for us. We also like them when they are nice to us. But what do I do now? Do I vote for either of the two leading parties - One who is losing ground and the Other who can't protect women against violence? Or do I vote for the third - which comprises of people from all flavours of India. People with no clear leader. And while trillions of rupees are being siphoned off for this election I wonder - What about the war in Pakistan? How long can the people of that country hold guard against Taliban? How long before they get access to nuclear power? What about the infiltration of refugees from surrounding countries? What about the recession and the people who are losing their job today? Where do our leader stand on these issues?
Recently, I have started following the 2009 election debates. Sessions where party spokesperson come and play the blame game. "Sir, can you give me assurance you will not go and join Party X again?". "In that year when you did X my party protested and we were right". "Sir, you were not with this party at that time". "Maybe not, I still supported the ideologies".
What crap! I do not care what you did in year X with party Y for reason Z. Tell me what you will do over the next 4 years. Tell me where you stand on global issues. And for heaven's sake send your leader to speak.. not some polished yappy speaker. If you care about positioning my country at an advantage in these times. If you care about providing me a good life. If you have people around you who have the competency to deliver this then showcase them to me. I will follow you as speak. I will follow you through your oath. I will follow you as you stumble across your first decisions as the leader of this country. I will follow you because you care.
