Noted journalist T.R Jawahar has been very much right in pointing out the fact that post MGR none of the Dravidian parties have managed a 2nd term, establishing the incumbency jinx. But I think this particular poll is very interesting, not that the earlier ones have been damp, they have been interesting none the less. But this 2011 Tamil Nadu assembly election is interesting for various other reasons, which i believe will usher in a new era in which political parties have to indulge in politics in a whole different way, with the reality of 70 crore people of this country interacting with each other with the click of a button on their mobile phones things have to change and not just in its own pace but Quick. Daily i get at least 10 messages from my friends, mostly sarcastic about the way the parties in this election have taken this whole freebies thing seriously, Giving an impression to the voters that the parties think the voters have become so cheap that they could be bribed openly.
one message that i received " Karunanidhi to the people of Tamil Nadu before world cup Cricket match : People dont have to worry if India loses the world cup, we will "Freely" distribute the world cup to each house in Tamil Nadu.
DMK was riding high with the kept up promises of freebies to it's voters, and his highness Karunanidhis master stroke "Free television sets for all" had actually cemented the possibility of a 2nd term, this certainty of a 2nd term led His highness to proclaim that he wanted to step down to let his son take his place, and then 2G spectrum scam came into the picture and every thing changed. A Raja got arrested, Sadique batcha died. This particular scam is something of a different genre as far as our Indian polity is concerned, it has showed that shrewed old timers like karunanidhi have lost to the changes brought about by free market economy.
Since 1991 the pace at which changes have happened seems to have out paced the political minds that were so used to the predictability and the routine of the Nehruvian socialistic era, where every time the poll issue was always about the lack of development and suffering of the ordinary citizen(Aam aadmi), not that things have changed now, but the political parties now have the option of luring the voters by making promises to full fill the ordinary citizens house hold needs, thanks to the free market economy. The competition in the manufacturing sector has brought down the prices of the electronics and the electrical equipments, it has now become possible for the government to give the household appliances for "free" to its "voters" , its altogether another topic for discussion that "nothing comes for free in a free market economy".
I think the congress and the DMK have misjudged the present minds thriving in free market economy by conniving to make money out of the 2G spectrum allocation to private players, thinking that they-CONG-DMK could always fall back on the Nehruvian socialistic principles to justify that their first cum first serve policy was only to avert the huge cost the consumers might have had to bear. Their initial argument that a bidding process would have only led to the unreasonable pricing of the Spectrum, which the operators would have transfered it to the consumers dint hold any water. People have seen too much of competition in too many sectors to fall for such a dumb story, courtesy the opening up of the economy in 1991. What people now are seeing around is a far cry from the society which was inclined towards socialistic ideologies and reasoning.
If DMK loses this election it surely will be its own doing thanks to 2G scam and many other issues handled improperly, As for the ordinary Thamizhan he will have many different things to point at for his decision for a change, I am sure even if he doesn't recognize it free market is one of them.
