The campaigning has ended and the battle royal between the UPA, CPI-M, CPI Nominee and former Rajasthan Governor Pratibha Patil and the NDA Nominee and Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat is all set for 19th July 2007. Offstumped marks the culmination of this bitter battle for the Indian Presidency with some verse.
On this momentous Occasion
here goes an appeal to all electoral Collegians
as you mark that ballot with your considered Opinion
reflect you must on what sets apart this Election
Carry you must positive Identification
but you can leave behind that anachronism of a Conviction
the outcome, presumed, a foregone Conclusion
the contest, reduced, to a deferred Coronation
the sideshow, stagemanaged, to coerce Abstentions
but persist we must with this farcical Election
for it is important to preserve that Enumeration
to reassure if there still were a few, burdened of Convictions
to that odd elector who indulges in conscientious Flirtations
forget not how Pratibha Patil was thrust on you, by Elimination
to arrive at the Lowest Common Moral De-nomination,
Lest you end up looking yourself in the mirror, day after the Election
the ache hanging over your head, with that dreaded Question
“What was it I bargained, trading my Convictions ? “
“That Raisina Hill would see a long overdue Gender Correction”
Allow Offstumped to disabuse you of that flawed Notion
for Pratibha Patil in her Gubernatorial Habitation
while patronizing activism against Patriarchal Discrimination
avoided Taslima Nasreen, shying away from a Formal Introduction
So much so for Women’s Rights and Strength of Conviction
“That Maratha Pride would be served with her Elevation”
Dont delude yourself with the Tiger’s Geriatric Fiction
Pratibha Tai aint no Muktabai, despite the sugar sweet Invocation
45 years of Public Service peddling a politically correct Identification
can someone explain this incredible Electoral Roll infraction
So much so for Maratha Pride and Strength of Conviction
“How sorry I am Kalam is not up for Re-Election“
Mr. President one last service to your beloved Nation
The Partisan Politics of the Country desperately need Rejuvenation
May we request you leave behind a little something at your Valediction
your Spirit, may just be the one for your gifted Successor to be in Communion
Lest history judge this election as one that heralded the Death of Conviction
Filed under: Poetry, Pratibha Patil, Uncategorized
Yossarin,my salute to u.
Whenever the history will be written,this day July 25 (as we all know She will be RashtraPatil – no spell mistakes these are,since she is not my president this is how I will refer to her) this day will be marked as the beginning of the end of democracy.
Sad!It will be.
PI
How can you respect such a woman. What if she meets Lenin’s ghost in Russia and Churchill’s ghost in UK and Saddam Hussian’s ghost in USA?God save the nation in such terrible times that Sonia Gandhi is imposing on it. The Congressmen are orthopedic wonder – they can walk without spines!
What if Pratibha find Fakruddin Ali Ahemed’s ghost in her bed?
Type your comment here.What has my country come to?
I await the verdict
What shall win tomorrow?
The power of a pratibha with sonia mandate
Or the Pratibha (merit) of the candidate?
Will corruption rise on the congress cake?
Or cognizant service claims its stake?
Will banking scams takeover vote banks
Or we can bank on good sense to say thanks?
Will the protector of crime ‘protect ‘ us too?
Or will good sense see us through?
I wait with bated breath
A pratibhas win is not an individual sin
Tis a battle as old as the world
Battle between the good and bad
The difference between sad and glad
Let honesty win not sin
Let integrity stay , not corruption hold sway
Let good man win and not not political whip
Oh , holy grail !
on my shoulders frail,
lie without fail,
the duty to get them out of jail
the case of afzal makes me pale,
and now have to contend with these 3 tales..
Abdul Gani , Pervez Shaikh and Mohammed Tarani are innocent males..
madame thee i hail..
after all, i am your tail..
and manmohan’s sleep, i ensure, will not be blown in this gale..
thou 3 i pardon you , you are victims on the terror scale…
and with this i start my prez trail !
I share your sentiments. I regard her as a joke and always will. Even Sharma and Narayanan were respectable in some ways (the latter more biased), but the outcome speaks a lot for the isolation of the BJP as just about every other political party is busy “courting” Muslim votes and will not even back Shekhawat, who is just short of Vajpayee as far as acceptability went outside the party. With the Left ready to back the Congress again, this may be just a preview of 2009. Tragic, really. Makes you really wonder whats coming.
Janpar – I am not putting too much currency into this Muslim vote logic, 2 years is a long time in Indian Politics, wait and watch what happens. Key is the outcome in Gujarat, if Modi romps home with anything of a semblance of a landslide bucking anti-incumbency it will set in motion a chain of events with interesting consequences. On the other hand if the BJP gets a shocker in Gujarat then 2009 will not be year to look forward to. I wouldnt worry much about the regional parties, end of the day for them to survive they have to fight the congress, they cant have it both ways.
PI – RashtraPatil it will be, her entourage is expected to take up 11 rooms we are told. Well it takes only 1/4th MPs to bring an impeachment motion so expect more fireworks in the run up to 2009. PP can duck all the questions she wants but once the impeachment proceedings begin she will have to make her case.
KK, ImpudentOne – thanks for the verse keep it coming
Pinks Lala – Orthopedic wonders indeed
Sita Ram – she will force sterilization
Yossarin, you may be right, I think ultimately it is the Left Front which has wreaked the most havoc. There was an interesting editorial talking about how the Left’s lifeline to the Congress has meant that the two national parties can not communicate anymore as a pre-condition. (http://www.indianexpress.com/story/204960-2.html), and it makes a completely true point. Pratibha Patil would have never happened if not for their blackmail. What I do find most disturbing is the UNPA, a medley of right-of-centre regional parties, warming up to the Left. I mean, seriously, Jayalalitha being associated with the Commies? Who would think it? The Communists are becoming a rallying point for the Congress, the UNPA as well as UPA constituents. In Parliament, the Communists have ensured the BJP is totally isolated as they refuse to recognize them as legitimate. No way for a Parliamentary Democracy to function.
Janpar – temporary phenomenon, look at the left embattled in its 2 bastions on singur/nandigram and on corruption in kerala. will only get worse with time. The BJP needs to sharpen its message and reinvent its leadership, its ascendancy in the 90s was purely on account of this and less to do with the pre-poll alliances, if you win they will come.
Janpar – You are right however on the Left’s stranglehold and trust Offstumped’s energies will be focused on unraveling this axis of evil between the UPA and the Left in the days to come.
We have Kavi Sammelana here!
By injecting tons of needless filth into the Presidential campaign, the BJP may have harmed its prospects more than any of its blessed followers would have imagined. Not only has it lost (which was a foregone conclusion) but it stands badly isolated !
A serious problem for the party could be one of credibility and trying to outlive the charge that the BJP is the party that has made half-truths the axis of its propaganda and cannot make any point without drawing from its vast reservoir of dirty tricks and slander.
Words like ‘morality’, ‘conscience’ and ‘dignity’ flow easily from the BJP, probably because its members find these two qualities lacking in their own leadership.
Desperate to regain power in the next General Elections, some of their key party leaders seem to have lost all sense of balance. There is a need for serious introspection by all “right-of-centre” minded people – to ensure survival of BJP going forward….
Right or Wrong, the party in power having a ‘magnetic’ appeal is nothing new in Indian polity. When the BJP was in power, it not only had its allies, but a set of ‘back-up’s’. There was a third front too, and the Congress only really had a couple of allies (the RJD being one). So isolation for the main opposition is nothing new. As for your point about mudslinging, well…thats democracy. If India was a fascist or Communist state, you could expect such a coronation to off with no criticism, but hey…in a Democracy, if you put someone who is not clean up, you can not expect a clean election, either…It in fact means that people are getting issues out in the open during an election instead of simply basing votes off of caste-religion-ethnicity. Mud-slinging is a term used by cynics who like to write off the whole political process.
The harping on conscience voting by Mr Advani and other leaders did work !…. Not to Mr Shekhawat’s advantage, but to the advantage of Mrs Patil. In every State, Mrs Patil got more votes than expected.
Tell me, is this not a direct result of the “mud slinging” campaign ? In the name of democracy, when parties and their leaders exercise reckless behaviour, it always boomerangs ! After the poll results were announced, Mrs. Sushma Swaraj said that Mr. Shekhawat did not do that badly. He only lost by 3.1 lakh votes. In the earier election, Mr. Kalam won by a margin 8 lakhs.
Next time, BJP plays these divisive policies, they will indeed lose by a record margin. There is a need to replace this bunch of leaders – who are hell bent on creating new records of electoral defeat. May be they will manage that in the 2009 General Elections – if they continue on this path…
Right or Wrong,
I had predicted what u wrote before the presidential elections in this blog and some readers of this blog had a hard time believing that.
Shekawat lost 3+ lakh votes exactly because of BJP’s vitriolic campagin against a woman. These idiots will never learn.
Hope they target Mayawati like this in 2009. Then BSP will sweep North India for sure. lol!