In Lok Sabha elections campaign, we have seen an abundance of everything except debates on policies | The Indian Express

In Lok Sabha elections campaign, we have seen an abundance of everything except debates on policies | The Indian Express

Written by P Chidambaram |Updated: May 19, 2019 10:09:36 am

P Chidambaram is former Finance minister of India.

In Lok Sabha elections campaign, we have seen an abundance of everything except debates on policies

There is no denying that abuses and epithets were hurled across the net but, in the melee, even sarcasm and allusion were labelled unparliamentary!

The Economy was forgotten. There were tremors when credible reports and official data surfaced and punched huge holes in the false narrative of the government.

It has been a long, tiresome and sometimes depressing 10 weeks from the date of the notification to the last date of polling — which is today. We have seen an abundance of everything except debates on policies. There has been an abundance of political parties, candidates, rallies and roadshows, money spent, abuses hurled, violence, failure of the vaunted EVMs and VVPATs, and clean chits by the Election Commission (EC). Yet, at the end of the day, a democratic exercise of an enormous scale has been completed.