- In India, two topics that invoke passionate debate and expert opinions from even seemingly uninterested people over the mundane matters occurring in the country make for an interesting observation. No conversation is complete when two or more Indians are congregating without discussing these topics. What are they? Politics and cricket. The moment you mention these seminal topics as far as Indians are concerned, rest assured, the following conversation is bound to evoke impassioned debate from all concerned. Such is the criticality of politics and cricket in the context of the country that drives the people to remain invested in what’s happening around the same. We all know these two most important aspects are at play right now.
PC: The Hindu
- The ongoing general elections have already witnessed four phases concluded out of the seven phases. Likewise, the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 event is getting into the business end of the tournament with eight out of the ten franchise teams vying for a place in the playoffs. However, let us restrict today’s debate to the ongoing general elections and the prospects of which of the two major political parties and allies will eventually emerge victorious on 04th June 2024. Prepoll predictions and punditry on the political churning amply demonstrated how the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance is forging ahead from the Congress-led INDI alliance, respectively. Are the predictions proving to be right? Let’s delve into this.
- Despite all stakeholders aggressively pushing the eligible voters to exercise their rights to cast votes in large numbers, the first three phases hardly showed any palpable improvements from the previous percentages recorded. What does this indicate? Is it that voters are fatigued with the same old political narrative getting bandied out time and again? Are the voters turned more cynical since nothing remotely nearer to the novelty factor is visible during the electioneering? Or is it construed that the ruling dispensation at the Centre would be blessed for the successive third time as predicted by the poll pundits and hence lower voter turnout? Is it the absence of strong opposition taking on the ruling dispensation with issue-based cornering? Questions galore.
PC: Jagran
- Remember, the previous two Lok Sabha polls had emotive issues in the form of corruption and national security, respectively. This time around there are no such emotive issues to whip up a collective frenzy among the citizens. The BJP-led government is confident about its prospects on the back of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ten-year regime pushing the country’s heft, traction, and positioning in the global world order. Likewise, the Congress and INDI alliance are equally confident about besting the ruling dispensation by cornering with statistics on unemployment, lack of job opportunities, inflation, polarization, and of course, offerings of freebies in the manifestos. Yes, the BJP-led alliance has its nose ahead for sure. As of now, that is.
