By Ruma Dubey

When you go to the voting booth and cast your vote (this is assuming that you actually go to vote), what is the thought which goes through your mind? When you make your political choice, are you voting for the future or are you voting for the past?

When we vote, the choice is made on hopes that the future with your chosen political party will be better. You have discarded the others for either their dismal performances or for ideologies which do not match yours.  So when the entire thought process of voting is about the future, one wonders why the UPA has even bothered to ‘celebrate’ and present its report card.

A report card shows your past performance and we all are very well aware of UPA’s unbeatable track record on scams, corruption and yes, some bit of performance too. We are as such watching the Bharat Nirman ads and left wondering whether this is the same UPA we are talking about?  

When Obama was campaigning for his first Presidential elections, the entire campaign was essentially about change and it was this hope for a change which people voted for. Today, there is a sense of hopelessness when it comes to UPA. Even staunch Congress supporters feel that this party has hit a new low and these ads and report card is pushing it down further into an abyss.  Where there is no hope, there is no future; so why this trouble at all of presenting a report card?

The TV channel CNN-IBN has done a survey and majority of the people in urban India want Modi as the next Prime Minister and shockingly, in second place came Rahul Gandhi.  We say shocking because Rahul has not done anything which shows him as even half an able leader. He suffers from acute foot-o-mouthopia and being a youth leader, was never seen at the forefront of any major happenings in the country. And this is the kind of candidate the Congress is fielding for heading the country. Lineage has gained prominence over performance and that in itself bodes disaster.

Why is the Congress not able to promote any other leader? Do they have a leadership crisis which is because they have fixated on Rahul Gandhi alone?  Why is Chidambaram never fielded as the Prime Ministerial candidate? His performance as Defence Minister and now as Finance Minister has been very good. More importantly, he seems to understand what the country wants. He has his share of skeletons in the cupboard but is there any politician today who does not? 

Instead of the report card being presented today, it would be more apt to see what it aims for the future. It has banked all its hopes on the Food Security Bill to win the votes from Bharat and the Land Acquisition Bill to win India. But is that alone enough? Beyond that, what is the future which we Indians can look forward to?  The Govt could have marked this celebration by probably chalking out a roadmap for the future; whats the point in recounting milestones which have gone by when we have come so much ahead?

If majority of the people have voted for Modi in the CNN-IBN survey, it means they think Modi alone today can bring about a change. That is the hope; that is the future they are looking at. So how can people looking ahead be interested in history?

Yes, the report card will mean heated and animated debates on TV which will ultimately serve no purpose. That’s about it – the report card will be a fodder for the TV channels till they get some more ‘breaking news’ on IPL scandal.

Frankly, when students themselves self-appraise and present a stunning report card, is there really any point?

A child’s report card will decide its future course of action but UPA’s report card is merely a bunch of papers, with no bearing on the future –neither UPA’s nor ours.