Bitter Sweet Memories!

@prashanthamine

Mumbai: With just four days left for what has been a bitter, unforgettable 2020, but even as it is about to pass-by, it has sown seeds for the future in 2021. Not many would look back at 2020 with some consolation. The year has been somewhat of a mix-bag for almost all the political parties and their alliance partners. The only silver lining has been that our governments have weathered the Covid-19 storm minimizing the damage compared to the response globally.

Although we may have been slow to react to the pandemic, given the kind of weak health and civic infrastructure that we have and yet our response and handling of the crisis has been much better. World over some countries have gone in for a second phase of lockdown. It is because of our unique way of dealing with such crisis in our own way by relying on our traditional medicines, ancient practices like Yoga and resilience in the face of adversity is what has seen us through. The fact that Zero cases were recorded in a day in the week that went by in Dharavi speaks volumes of how we have overcome the situation.

Same could not be said true of our politicians and political parties. None have fared any better than the other. If the electoral successes in civic polls in the newly carved out Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Hyderabad, Kerala, Assam and elsewhere were the high-point for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it barely managed to retain power in Bihar and Karnataka.

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As for the opposition to the BJP is concerned, the efforts to cobble up an alliance to take on the BJP appear to be floundering. The Congress is yet to decide on who should lead the party and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ambivalent to the trial balloon as it were, of its president Sharad Pawar taking over the mantle of the UPA chairperson from Congress working president Sonia Gandhi.

The NCP may have scoffed at the prospects of heading the alliance as it is well aware of its long-term political implications. Ever since it broke-off from the Congress in 1999, two decades ago, merger talks have always been rumored. Reason being that until the 1999 Assembly elections, the Congress used to be a single largest party and with the help of some Independents somehow managed to retain hold on the power in Maharashtra.

For the Congress the loss of their master political strategist Ahmed Patel has been a body blow. The void left behind by Ahmed Patel is too big to be filled for the Congress. Even if Sharad Pawar were to take on the mantle of the UPA, keeping the UPA flock together is a difficult task.  And his task is not being made any easier by senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut with his comments that has unnerved the Congress.

The Congress has joined hands with the Left in taking on the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is West Bengal and at the same time is in direct opposition to the Left in Kerala. Although the Congress and the NCP may be sharing power or propping up the Shiv Sena and their Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, 2021 will be the countdown year for the early 2022 elections to big ticket civic bodies in Mumbai and in rest of Maharashtra.

The country heads into 2021 with unresolved problems like the farmer’s agitation over the contentious farm laws, muddled infrastructure projects and increasing conflicts that are causing more strain on the Center-State relations. Notwithstanding the pandemic, the economy needs a booster dose for its revival. Hope that the Covid-19 vaccine being developed in India is just the kind of booster dose that the country is looking forward to.