The Political Drama

The Drama has started in Bihar. Who would win and who has more political clout would be known in a few days...

Now, don't worry. This blog is not going to analyse the various opportunities and speculate on who would be the next. But it is about a similar election a few years back...but with a marked difference. It was the elections in Tamil Nadu in 2001. At the time of the elections I was in Tokyo.

Not having a very great interest in the elections and just wondering who would have put my vote, I was going through the news without much interest. It was then, that one of my colleagues (a Japanese guy) showed me a Japanese newspaper which had JJ's photo in it. I was really excited. Here, in a far off land, I see an election result of a small state in India being published and talked about. If it had been the election for the head of the country it would have been understandable and accepted. But this was the elections of a state and one whose name was not known to many in Tokyo.

Until then I didn't have a very good opinion about JJ. She had been the one who had used her office unsculpturously and who had the guts to defy everyone. I was even a bit hurt that the TN people had elected her back with a huge majority. I was wondering how people could afford to forget everything and bring her back to power. So this photo along with the article had me re-adjusting my views.

It was then that another guy came along and asked us if we knew JJ...I immediately replied that we all knew about her and that she was going to be our next chief minister. It was then that he asked me a question...he wanted to know how she was elected with such a majority when there were still cases pending against her and there were clear evidences that she had misused her office. I didn't know what to reply...Infact I didn't give a reply!!! I'm yet to understand how she had managed the come back.