PK and the Chhattisgarh Municipal elections

Chhattisgarh Municipal elections are important for the reason that since Prime Minister Narendra Modi started his Lok Sabha Election Campaign and the Modi wave that ensued , this is the first time that the high riding BJP has encountered a dampener. Almost at the same time , PK is riding a wave of adulation and has crossed the 544 crore mark and is inching towards the 600 Cr elusive figure never before achieved in the history of Indian cinema.

While there are many detractors for PK, the basic theme of an alien showing through his antics to the whole country , what the crux of religion is , is a wake up call for the society at large. We fanatically follow Bapus who later turn out to be villains, but by then we have fallen prey to them.

Coming back to the Chhattisgarh Municipal Elections, the BJP with a 3^rd term in Assembly elections also required an alien figure to come and give a wake up call. All that Prime Minister Modi practices and preaches does not happen in Chhattisgarh. The state is cash rich due to minerals and power resources so development is a natural outcome whichever party is in power. But the industries that had signed MOUs are in a limbo due to inaction and find greener pastures in other states where action is faster. This fast action is what made Modi and Gujarat what it is today. So the policy paralysis much touted in the Lok Sabha elections is what ails the state today. Development is a prime term in the Modi Agenda. But in Chhattisgarh, subsidies and freebies and not development is used to win elections. But the game seems to be up. A drubbing in the elections gave a chance for the Congress to see some sunshine.

So like PK, where winnability was the name of the game and Rajkumar Hirani put up a show that touched issues like two god theory- one god that created us and the second god whom we created. Such sensitive issues were raised in good humour and raised by an alien to see that winnability of the movie is not effected by undue controversy. Modi also saw during his election that the selection of candidates was solely based on merit and winnability.

This did not happen in Chhattisgarh. The ugly face of groupism took over and winnable candidates were compromised. In the case of Raipur, while congress fielded a known face of Pramod Dubey and won half the battle , it was needed to let the game of my candidate- your candidate subside and field a candidate who could score over Pramod Dubey. There were only two candidates who could do this – either ex Mayor Sunil Soni or the current President of Raipur Municipal Corporation Sanjay Shrivastava. Just because they belonged to two warring factions , a compromise candidate Sachchidanand Upasane was fielded , who was no match for Pramod Dubey. In civic elections , local faces matter and compromise candidates do not win especially with a strong opposition. The nasha of power is so high that the current set up in Chhattisgarh seems to have become a replica of Congress where the warring Jogi and Baghel factions are out in the open. So winnability took the last seat and the result ensues.

The inference is as in PK an alien teaches us what is right and what is wrong, we need an external force to come and set things right on an urgent basis in the state and see that merit and winnability is not sidelined for sycophancy in the state. Good for the state and good for the nation.