The Biggest Battle that India is fighting today !

Like many countries of similar socio economic profile, our India is also plagued by the problems like poverty, unemployment, lack of hygiene, corruption, social injustice, economic disparity and so on and so forth. Without doubt India’s biggest battle should be against these.

Unfortunately not ! Today, most Indians are not indulges in battles against these. The only fight that I see people indulge in is the fight of politics. It is the the eternal fight of Modi Vs Congress Vs AAP (Vs all other parties).

Like in any fight, there are two sides – the Sympathizers and the Haters. So, there are Modi Sympathizers, who are fondly referred to as Bhakts, and there there are AAP Sympathizers, who are referred to as AAPtards or AAPsters or something similar ! Yes, I missed Congress sympathizers. But hey, do they exist? Lets assume they do. Should we even talk about other parties? Lets also assume they do exist !

It is almost as if India’s national pass time is to fight this battle. Assemble a group of 3 or more people and you have a battle. You do not really need a time, a place or a context for such battles. Sample these:

1) It takes less than 10 mins for any face to face conversation to digress into this battle. Modi Praise countered by Modi Bashing and like wise for AAP.

2) All the WhatsApp groups that I am part of are nothing short of a battlefields. Not a day goes without atleast one such fight. The current favorite seems to be jokes on Rahul Gandhi. Some people gets so flustered by the attack on their side that they show dissent by quitting the group. Wow !

3) Social media is also not spared. Half of the FB posts from my intellectual friends are about this. AAPsters sharing good work done by Kejriwal in a post with nice pictures only to see Bhatks flooding the comments detailing loop holes. I must confess, though, that these conversations are very entertaining. Twitter gives less space to fight but still people are not discouraged. I get supremely impressed by the creativity on Twitter.

4) TV is like the mother of all battles. Tune into any news show and you have anywhere between 3 to 9 men/women slinging mud at each other to defend their side or to fling attack on the other side. I wonder why do they call these ‘debate’ as it is nothing close to that.

I can just go on and on with this list. But, I am sure you get the drift.

Honestly, think about all the conversations that you are part of – verbal or digital, don’t you witness this battle all the time. I would be happy to be proven wrong here.

I am a silent observer here and I have only 3 questions:

1) What is the point of this battle? Don’t we have better battles to fight?

2) Why do fights always materialize as one ideology v/s the other? Can’t the Bhatks see and appreciate some good by AAPsters and vice versa. Why do you have to be a Modi hater to be prove that you support Kejriwal?

3) Am I missing something significant that I feel this way?