Political Analyst Dr H K Bali, Activist in Health, Education & Rural Development -Dr Piare Lal Garg, Political Activist, affiliated to CPI(ML) -Kanwaljeet Singh and Senior  Journalist, Dainik Jagran-Inderpreet Singh engage in SP Singh’s Daleel to decode the language used in Elections 2019.

As Indian politics deals with the new political terminology of Ali and Bajrangbali voters, liberals and bhakts, the silence over achhe din and the noise about anti-nationals, and as any serious political debate is marred by loosely flung references to damaad ji, surgical strike, Rafale and Mann ki baat, we see a politician working overtime to catch your attention. Abuse is the new normal, as serious contestations fail to engage us.

Why is our electioneering not sharply focussed on the issue of unemployment, on agrarian distress, on the state of our economy?  Of course, it should also centre on issue of national security, but we have turned even that into a partisan issue.

It should worry the electorate when a neta makes big promises, and it should worry them even more when the same neta does not mention these again. Chowkidar chor hai reduces the debate, just as the incessant noise about Pakistan reduces the debate. Balakot is important, indeed, and so is the promise of 2 crore jobs a year.  National Security versus farmers’ distress is a bad binary.

Problem is more serious than Rahul Gandhi telling us that Modi is a friend of Ambanis and Adanis. The role of crony capitalism in Indian politics is a serious issue, and Congress has a lot to answer.