Yes, the finale turned out to be a tab bit one-sided.
After all, the BJP did try their best this time. Building on a stunning performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, they needed just a few more assembly seats to dethrone the Didi.
Didn’t happen.
For now, the Didi rules Bengal. That is, once she recovers from her own defeat in Nandigram.
For now, one has to wait five more years before Bengal can get it’s shot at some sort of development.
Not to say that the state would have started to develop as soon as BJP came to power, but frankly, it had a better chance then.
Now, It’s just more acrimony and stalemate – with the state government not co-operating with the Centre, and with Didi again nursing prime-ministerial ambitions.
But is all lost?
I don’t think so. from 3 seats to 80 is not bad growth at all, in fact, it is phenomenal. That the BJP themselves set a more fantastic yardstick is something of their own doing, which they can and will introspect on.
All that said, what is a political statement like this doing in a “Yog Daily” category?
Yog isn’t just about prānāyāma, or āsana, or meditation. Yog is a way of experiencing life. And politics is one way of taking a stand.
Not the trolling version that one sees on social media and in the ‘news’ studios, but in daily life.
On issues that matter, for causes that matter. Whether you are right or wrong is a point of perspective – I may be wrong as far as you are concerned, and vice-versa.
But if you believe in something, you should take a stand. And work on it, and fine-tune it, till it comes out as the best version of itself.
Discuss issues, deliberate with facts, and try to reach a commonality so that the society, and the country can progress ahead.
Debates are to be healthy, not screaming matches. Facts and figures matter, not conjecture.
At the end of it, society moves ahead through deliberation, not mud-slinging.
And yog, is a way of participation. We are alive to participate, not to renounce the world and be in a rush to go back again.
Equanimity in thought and action. In conviction. In deliberation. That is what makes one complete. That is what completes the circle – what Eastern philosophy calls ying-yang.
The Uttar Pradesh campaign begins in a few weeks time. Brace yourselves for more:)