Electing Another People in Bihar

The people of Bihar defied the opinion and exit pollsters, assorted   psephologists and the 'baba-log' who pass as poll pundits. They voted the way they wanted to, ignoring the preposterous predictions of the exit polls, keeping the BJP away from comfortably capturing power, punishing the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Laloo Prasad Yadav a bit for its misdeeds and keeping the sword of Damocles hanging over the government. Much has been written about the fractured verdict. So much so that this has become a glib phrase that rolls easily off the tongues of the savants of the idiot box. The fact however is that it is not the verdict that is fractured but the so-called political class. This is something that the chatterati has to come to terms with.

There is almost a deliberated nature to the cruelty that the electorate has perpetrated on the political parties. If the millions of voters have decided as one mind, they could not have come up with a more precise verdict. The Bihar assembly that they have voted into existence is so delicately balanced that it tantalises everyone in the so-called mainstream parties and yet denies them the satisfaction of savouring the loaves and fishes of office for long. The king Tantalus, who suffered the curse of Zeus and had the term tantalised evolve from his name, could not have suffered more than the political formations suspended between the rigours of electioneering and the satiation of power-grabbing.