Words don’t convey much. Pictures do. So here is the picture:

(Source: TOI)

Finally Bengaluru is waking up to understanding what it means to vote. And specifically to vote for a absolute majority. It does not matter who won these polls. One thing is certain that people have given a party an absolute majority. So that it can silence its critics and complete its proper functioning for the rest of the term. The BJP is on a roll as far as Karnataka is concerned. And here is why:

• Yeddy – Being a farmer, he can understand farmer’s sentiments. Being a CM he admits to his shortcomings and tries to constantly improve upon them. Being a senior administrator his focus is sharp – develop the city.
• Weak opposition – RV Deshpande commented in today’s newspaper that if Bengaluru’s elite had come in plenty to vote, then Congress would have won. Bullshit. If they had actually come in plenty and voted, Congress in fact would have lost miserably. Who does not know congress ? They are known to introduce those mouth watering ‘economic reforms’ which in effect are just triggers to price rises. RVD, I think you are too old to reason it out this way.
• Dirty politics – We don’t know where DG is hiding now. But HDK was his calm self (does he have much options?) – according to him, if this is what people want, then they must be ready to face price rises, and power cuts just because they elected the BJP ? – read as an absolute majority. Damn you parties, price rise is because of us population. What can they do about it? This world just got affordable to many more people, who have joined your ranks to claim their needs -  power, water, education, transport – so why will things not get costly? Milk dearer by Rs.3, petrol by Rs.2, diesel by Rs.3, so on and so forth. And by the law of the land, since diesel got costlier, like a theorem having corollaries, everything else in India is now proportionately costly. And add to that tax, vat, surcharge, birth cess, death cess, road cess, flyover cess, metro cess, political cess, voter’s cess – and you are in a big MESS of cess.
• The next time you eat that milk laden icecream just think how you are contributing to the price rise and you will realize you are the problem, not the political parties. The amount of subsidies on fuel is so high since the past umpteen years, that we have to cough up a hell lot to offset the situation. I dont see any difference in this price rise thing whichever party comes in. Show me one instance where there has been any price decrease on anything after or before any elections?
• Bickering congress – no amount of youth oriented political angles could fight against a determined party working towards development. A chance lost is 100 more opportunities permanently lost.

But is it all then rosy for the BJP ?? – Not exactly. Here is what they need to do on an urgent priority.

• Develop Bangalore fully and permanently with sufficient thought about the future
• Understand that Karnataka does NOT mean only Bangalore. Yeddy wake up and address other lesser privileged regions before they revolt
• Tackle infighting within party and dont show the cracks to everyone
• Handle the Reddy dominance in money power in a tactical way
• Complete huge infrastructure projects without slippages. Dont keep bragging about some elevated highway that NHAI constructed and stop swallowing JNUURM funds.
• People have belief in BJP as the only party which cares for Karnataka. Dont screw up that perception.
• Show other parties that you are secular enough. Stop piggybacking Hindutva and work towards the ultimate progress
• Make karnataka fully literate like Kerala.
• Use Bengaluru’s best technologies in other districts.
• Continue citizen friendly measures

Beyond all this, increase in power, milk, water costs is perfectly justifiable. Bengaluru cannot afford giving everything free to people anymore. For good services, there is a high cost. Take the case of water supply. Slapping huge bills is one way of avoiding unnecessary water usage. You should keep the same bill thousand times more for corporates for them to inculcate a sense of belonging and savings.

Someone in BJP commented after the elections:

We had said we will make Bengaluru a Singapooru, we have achieved it now

 

For heavens sake #Yavanoobba, do you have any clue what Singapore looks like or functions like ? Did you ever realize that Bengaluru is much much bigger than Singapooru now? And did you know Singapooru is not just about ring roads and IT Firms? Have you ever thought about how they manage their garbage? Or how they excel in every other field other than IT ? Or their uniform taxation on all goods ? Or the kind of transport system that’s available there? Or that it is one of the safest city in the entire world ? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you would also agree Bengaluru is nowhere near Singapooru, and will never be for the next fifty years at the nearest of future.

SINGAPORE IS BUILT BY ITS PEOPLE OF DIVERSE CULTURES. BENGALURU IS SCREWED UP BY ITS PEOPLE OF DIVERSE CASTES AND CREEDS. FOR THEIR OWN SELFISH ENDS. EACH TIME, EVERY TIME. WHAT MATTERS IS THE HABITS, AND ATTITUDE, NOT THE LANDMARKS OF THE CITY.

So BJP, concentrate on making Bengaluru atleast 25% of Singapooru. Good luck. You have MY vote.