GUWAHATI, April 17 - Noted social worker and former MLA Ajay Dutta is very much upset with the prevailing trends in the country�s politics. Respective ideologies of the political parties have now been relegated to the stupor and this has been replaced by personality cults of their leaders, he rued.
A veteran of over five decades in politics, Dutta said while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its alliance partners are chanting the name of Narendra Modi, the Congress is chanting the names of Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi to attract the common voters during the Lok Sabha elections this time.
The BJP supporters are now singing a theme song which says �Once again, Narendra Modi� (not the BJP or its alliance), he said.
Democracy does not stand for personality or family cults. But here in India, to encourage personality or family cults, wings of many talented people in both the parties have been clipped, Dutta said, adding that this model has been aped by many other political parties of the country too.
In case of Guwahati and Mangaldoi Lok Sabha seats this time, both the parties have not explained to the common voters about what criteria have been followed by the BJP in selecting their candidates and why Pradyut Bardoloi, a rejected politician from Margherita Legislative Assembly Constituency, has been fielded by the Congress for Nagaon Lok Sabha seat, he said.
Again, why the political parties are fielding their sitting MLAs as candidates in the Lok Sabha elections also remains unexplained. This is an insult to the voters and also affects the democratic system, asserted Dutta.
The political parties are also suffering from the dearth of campaigners because of the above malpractices encouraged by their top leaders. �As a result, we have seen these days that the BJP is left with only two main campaigners � Narendra Modi and Amit Shah � in the all India level and in the State level, the saffron party has only Himanta Biswa Sarma in this stature,� he said.
Congress also has two main campaigners � Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi � in the all India level and in Assam, it has Tarun Gogoi, a virtual Vanaprasthi (retired person), as its main campaigner, he added.
Moreover, Dutta said personal attacks and quality of the candidates are having adverse impacts on our electoral procedure.
