The season for stale rhetorics

With about two months left for elections, politicians will be at their rhetorical best. The Congressmen are the unparalleled masters at it. Sonia had this to say at a rally in Silvassa (Dadra & Nagar Haveli) -

"India's identity is that all religions and communities co-exist in harmony. Our
neighbour wants to weaken this strength of ours but they do not know that we can
give a befitting reply to their every design,"

So what is Sonia waiting for? A clearance from the Ulema council of India? When will the befitting reply come? If indeed the Congress was serious about defeating terror and protecting India's interests, why hasn't it done something already? In the five years since it regained power at the centre its primary focus seems to be on weakening our democracy and treating India as Sonia's own personal fiefdom. Terrorism is not a recent problem that India faces, decades of attacks on our soil have seen thousands of lives being lost and displacement of even more from their homes, the Kashmiri Pandits are perhaps the most affected. But it hasn't dawned on Sonia that decisive action is long overdue, not empty rally talk.

Yet it is lip service that is meted out to a hapless nation. Manmohan Singh is another master of this. His entire tenure as PM has been nothing but that. Not too long ago, on 23rd September 2008, Singh talked of a 100 day roadmap to fight terror. And much like every other promise of his, this too turned out a non-starter. There never was any will. The fact that the thought came so late in his tenure should be proof conclusive of it being mere talk. It was an unconvincing exercise in sounding tough on terror.

And the rhetorics themselves lack novelty. Every rally by Sonia is an exercise in regurgitation. Promises that are decades old continue to be mouthed. There has hardly been any introspection on this. Hardly has Sonia or the Congress ever stopped to wonder how is it that they find themselves talking about the same issues election after election when the party has ruled India for over 5 decades since our independence. It is their arrogance that allows them to do so, knowing very well that the talking heads, in a cahoot media, would spin this away.

So this election season too will see much of the same charade continue. Sonia and the Congress will sell their scams (NREGA, loan waivers, job guarantees, free power etc.) as their achievements. While it is the thousands of crores of taxpayer's money that is being doled out, it won't stop the sycophants in Congress claiming it Sonia's gifts to the nation. And while the conniving media will not ask the right questions (the various Padma' titles are at stake), it is left to the bloggers to do the auditing. And they will.