Political currency

Media analysts in India feel that Vajpayee and some of his strong co-leaders depended on the images they had built up lately in their political careers. In Pakistan it was one strong personality after another (civil or military). In Dhaka. both the major political parties still depend too much on past performances by their leaders. The references have to be updated!

Money rolls as currency. How political currency is defined? It differs from nation to nation, depending on cultural, historical, economic, military, and idealism factors. The current value is changing every decade. and it is not possible for lay voters to keep track of the analytical hair-soiling. There is many a slip between the cup and the lip.

In India the voters switched on to a new personality in Sonia Gandhi (necessity is the mother of invention). Past heroes sneak from books to the new and young penetrations: hence the current leaders have to be very careful while continuing to project past images in over-doses. The mood of the times count. The political leaders attach too much importance on political approaches to marginalised voters. There are many hidden traps. The human touch in politics has to be strengthened vis-a-vis the personality retouching' exercises.

In India this time during the upset elections, the media analysts went wrong all the way from the beginning to the end. It is due to polarized thought-processes and over self-confidence (due to lack of competition and disparity paps in the successive slabs). The reactions on the US treatment of prisoners in Iraq exploded globally (the control of the media by the industrialized countries). Here in Dhaka the opposition can safely boycott the parliament and survive! The electorate apparently has no face value! Hence toying with other groups is a pastime, sometimes fetching good dividends. Liberty is not licence!

A society gets the political culture it deserves! The misuse of power and influence at the vertical and horizontal levels of governance is colossal. In fact, the whole package or family of corrupt practices have been institutionalized. The reformers are the hidden culprits, hence cleansing and reforms are not as easy as it sounds on paper and speeches.