No talks on food bill or floods, it's only Modi controversy

Bangalore, July 15: Even 15 years ago, national issues used to be the mother of all concern. Whether it's an economic downturn, policy paralysis or external threats, the focus would have always remained on key areas.

Yes, political differences were always there but there was also a degree of consensus. Even we had a time in the past 17 years when one prime minister advised his successor, who belonged to the rival party, to take forward a national agenda like nuclear programme.

See the situation today. National politics has been reduced to a hopeless fight between one versus the rest. Even as the rupee goes alarmingly downhill and hostile neighbours continue to provoke us, there is no effort to address these crucial issues and everybody is busy finding the opponents' fault.

At a time when the nation needs to sit together and discuss the crucial food security bill and try to find out an even better alternative, all talks are centred on who is communal and who is secular. Instead of asking questions on the food bill ordinance or how the nation can fight its perennial floods, we see a 'secular' leader justifying his party's decision to withdraw from an allegedly communal alliance.

Rajdharma, is it? Or the year 2002 is the only benchmark to judge the standard of Rajdharma? It is amazing to see that some of the top ministers in the current government are so obsessed with a controversy concerning a puppy and going on speaking on it without a pause. The nation will see no big loss if we get rid of this controversy and try to handle some more substantial controversies that have rocked us.

India, one feels, is slowly becoming a federation ruled from the regions with the Centre turning increasingly weak. This pattern is making national issues look less important while strengthening regional voices. This process might hint at a mature process of democratic deepening but at what cost? Do the leaders have a spare time to think about the approaching danger?

OneIndia News