Polarisation as an election strategy harms the nation

India’s election cycles seem to dim the nation’s intellectual capabilities.

- Shashi Shekhar

Ata time of deepening conflict among several countries, what are our leaders doing? Instead of binding the nation together in such dangerous times, they are sowing the seeds of discord.Look at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. The Thackeray cousins, who couldn't see eye to eye for many years now, came together. Raj Thackeray's speeches betrayed Shiv Sena’s six-decade-old anti-Tamil rhetoric, with vocabulary borrowed from Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray. This gives rise to a question: If non-Marathi people contribute to Mumbai's success, then why should they be denied the same rights to its resources as to the Marathis?

I am also reminded of the Pawar family while talking of stemming the disintegration tide. You may recall how Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar carried out a coup against his uncle, within his party. Itis clear that the elections to local bodies achieved a reunion, even if temporary, something that the general and assembly elections had failed to achieve.