The year of the Independent!

Looks like this is the year of the independent in India's political history. I am thrilled to see some intelligent candidates standing up and talking as independents. One is Meera Sanyal, an executive of a leading bank who has thrown her hat into the ring as an independent candidate from Mumbai. The other is a Captain Gopinath from Bangalore. I am sure these candidates have their weaknesses, but they can talk, they have acted to do something by just standing for election and they can't do worse than the corrupt jokers in power. At least they have made their money! Yes, that is how cynical I have become.

I have decided in line with what seems to be popular opinion in my circle that the only option is to split the vote. Both the main parties are full of crap. I used to be a congress voter because it seemed like a better option than communalism. Now, I see Jagdish Tytler given a ticket after managing the massacre of sikhs in Delhi - not just a ticket but a clean chit and a ticket. The congress is also the party of inaction, talking independence some 60 years later, ensuring that THEIR sons and daughters are taken care of and so on. The BJP was never my cup of anything....I love my tea, so can't use that expression here.....and even if I were to tend right, Babri Masjid, Godhra, Mangalore and now Varun Gandhi would have cured me forever of that disease.

My vote has the chance to count as never before. Independents (the right ones!) can make the difference. And I want for the major parties to see and take the feedback that it is only by listening and actually doing something about people's outrage will they get into power. So many years of coalition politics only seems to have made them all efficient wheelers and dealers. So everyone, please vote and consider my suggestion of going the independent way.