A futile hope

Today Ashok Mallik writes in Times of India, “Expectations from Modi are not identical. He is addressing not a placidly anxious electorate but an angry and restless one, especially young voters who are more numerous than they’ve ever been and blame the Congress for killing the India growth story.” And then he sums up his article with hope, “Modi is gambling contemporary society has a hunger and a sense of hope and aspiration that conventional candidates and election machines are not addressing. If he is right, he could end up not just winning in 2014 but structurally reordering Indian politics.”

What Mr. Mallik forgets is that such ‘an angry and restless one, especially young voters’ may be from minority who seek justice by jehad, or he may be a tribal or dalit joining Maoist ranks. After all, everybody in this country have equal right to nurture his own perceptions and prejudices. Modi’s magic may spellbound those upper caste-middle class youth, who are predominantly anti-dalit, anti-muslim and anti-tribal.