Lok Paritran - A Ray of Hope?

paritrana
Originally uploaded by theiyer.

My loyalty for BJP seems to be coming in for test now. With the launch of Lok Paritran, its a litmus test for my loyalty during the forthcoming assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. Lok Paritran (www.lokparitran.org) is a new political party in the Indian political arena and is a brainchild of 5 young men which includes IITians.

On Sunday evening, it was probably their first ever public meeting ...at Mylapore's Ragasudha Hall - ideal locality considering that Chennai's intelligentisia reside here, but not the ideal location for a public rally considering that it can seat less than a hundred folks at a time.

I entered the hall with little scepticism about the number of people interested in this outfit's activities. To the utter shock of my amma, Suchitra and me, the hall was packed. Good sign. But then the people assembled seemed to be sceptical about the "new kids on the block" - whether they would stand the test of times or are they just a knee jerk reaction to "Swades" and "Rang De Basanti". Especially the "Perisus" (senior citizens in slang Tamil) who bombarded them with unnnecessary questions and suggestions. What was evdident from the questions thrown in by the audience was that everyone wants to be advisers and not volunteers.

Why can't people just allow these guys to get to down to work? They wanted to know their action plan and their stance on various political issues. Will they ever have the audacity of asking such questions to Jayalalitha.

Everyone seemed to be talking about them except media - check out the blog world and there are reams of blogs about them. Will they become like AP Venkateswarans and Subramaniam Swamys of the world..who Tamils had lot of expectations considering they were from intelligentisia..but then just merged with the crowd or have disappeared.

Too early to comment...I can just say "all the best" and believe they are a new ray of hope for India. Well they already have three primary members from my family. But whether we will vote for them...lets see...depends on the BJP candidate for Mylapore constituency.