Be it in the ruling or the opposition party; be it the media savvy or rustic, India Today lacks constructive leadership. All that our leaders are busy is in saving their seats, scoring brownie points against each and worrying about the next elections. Irrespective how much they pretend, nobody has an iota of national interest in their hearts. If our leaders were even 50% committed to the country, Bapuji’s dream of “Purana Swaraj” would have long been achieved.

    Let’s take petrol prices. Does the Government not know that the prices are going up and this is the time to lower duties so that the impact of increase is minimal? Are they unaware of the fact that India is one of the countries where petrol is costly? Why does not the Government raise petrol prices ahead of state elections? Are the opposition parties not aware that organizing a bandh for petrol price rise is of no use and only that the common suffers most? Don’t they know that a strike causes a lot of economic damage to the country? Don’t they know that replacing a public property damaged during a bandh means additional taxes for the common man?

    Let’s take price rise. Doesn’t the Government know that food prices are being pushed up because of futures trading in commodities? South Korea is using 2 billion dollars of its FE reserves to contain the impact on its citizens of increasing food prices, why is our Government which has overflowing foreign exchange reserves, waiting for the egg to hatch? Do the opposition parties not know that food prices are going up globally and an upward moving inflation cannot be stopped? Don’t they know that for the last 3 years, we have been experiencing unseasonal rains and consequently most of our crops have got damaged? Would they have done any better in the present situation?

    Let’s take the terrorism problem. Does the Government not know that across the globe, there is a close link between gangsters and terrorist? Why no action is taken to eliminate the gangsters, how is that some of them find their way to political leaderships? Why does not the Government treat all sections of people equally? Does the opposition not know that creating divides amongst people on basis of religion, language and caste, fosters terrorism? Why do certain opposition leaders target particular section of people?

    The list is endless. Votes are all that matter, by hook or crook, by dividing or disintegrating the country, by appeasing or appalling the people, the seat of power has to be captured. At the end of the day, there are no innovative rulers or concerned opposition leaders. They are all politicians and don’t mind swapping tags when elections compel them to do so. The poor man has to suffer at the end of the day, whilst the men in khadi are possibly saying to each other “Cheers”.

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