London: (Rahul Joglekar is a London-based journalist.)
Imagine if Vikram Chandra was hosting an episode of The Big Fight and the seven politicians taking part were: Sonia Gandhi, Narendra Modi, Mulayam Singh, Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee, Jayalalitha and Uddhav Thackeray? Now imagine, this is beamed LIVE to a national audience as they debated policy, personality and ultimately the possibility of each of them getting into government.
Roughly, that's what is going to unfold on live television in the UK today. The two main prime ministerial candidates - David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party and Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour party will be joined by leaders of five other smaller parties to debate with each other.
In many ways, this is an odd debate. How can you make sense of SEVEN politicians shouting at each other (I for one, can usually not even make sense of a single politician. Can't imagine how I'll handle listening to seven of them squabbling with each other).
But who are the candidates? In this first blog about the UK elections, lets take a look -
1. David Cameron, Conservative party (currently have 302 seats out of 650): He's the guy in-charge of the country right now. A Prime Minister who is propped up by another party. His is only the second coalition the UK since the second world war. He's known to be media savvy, but has missed many targets like those on immigration that he set out at the start of his time as Prime Minister. His one legacy will have to be his determination to build a strong relationship with India. Though his tough stand on non-EU immigrants makes people wonder if all the visits to India and speeches about the Indian community are only lip service. He can dodge questions in the most skillful of ways, when this correspondent asked him for his view on China versus India (and who he would put his money on) during an interview - he laughed and asserted that "Prime Ministers are allowed to be diplomatic."
2. Ed Miliband, Labour Party (currently have 256 seats out of 650): He's the challenger. He took on his brother David Miliband who wanted to be the leader of the Labour party and won. But will he succeed to take the crown from the other David - David Cameron? His media image is a bit problematic - lots of people call him an awkward TV performer, but he's recently been performing very well. Labour was in power for three terms before David Cameron under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The Labour party is always keen to build a strong relationship with India and most Indian immigrants have traditionally voted Labour. When this correspondent asked him about his media image during an interview he simply replied, "I don't care".
3. Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrats (currently have 56 seats out of 650): Polls are predicting that the Liberal Democrats, the so-called "other party" will do badly in the 2015 election. One of Clegg's main promises was that he won't raise tuition fees. But after getting into government, he couldn't deliver on that promise and that has created a credibility gap. Also, in India, coalition partners are usually much more aggressive and demanding -- the Liberal Democrats, many believe have been subservient to the Conservative party - making them look weak.
The others (and their Indian twins):
4. Nigel Farage, UK Independence Party (currently have 2 seats out of 650): The joker in the pack. He is a bit like marmalade. Either you believe him and love what he's saying or you hate him with much passion. He's talking about cracking down on immigration and if that means leaving the European Union (something he has campaigned for for many years) so be it. Some accuse him of being racist, a charge he denies. Whatever may be the outcome in the elections, one thing is certain - for many English people, who have suffered years of austerity, this man talks their language. Very loosely, he reminds me of Balasahed Thackeray, a tough talking right-wing politician who knows the pulse of the people.
5. Nicola Strugen, SNP (currently have 6 seats out of 650): She belongs to a party that has spent most of its life fighting for Scotland. So in many ways she's almost like an unknown entity to the rest of the country. But she's a also a very good talker. NDTV extensively covered the Scottish referendum - and she and her party are very popular in Scotland. Her party came very close to breaking up the UK, a few months ago. She will play it differently claiming that is about fairer representation for Scotland. Very loosely, she remind me of Jayalalitha -- a vote winner in the South of the country with very little resonance elsewhere.
6. Natalie Bennett, Green Party (currently have 1 seat out of 650): It is a party that aims to put people first. Well, so do most other parties. But these guys seem to care a bit more about the environment. Her biggest drawback is - she recently had a so called brain freeze during a radio interview. She and her supporters will be hoping she doesn't forget her speech. She doesn't have a parallel in Indian politics because no political party makes the environment its central political issue. Hopefully that should change.
7. Leanne wood, Plaid Cymru (currently have 3 seats out of 650): A small regional party from Wales that critics argue has no relevance to the rest of the UK.
In many ways, it is great to see smaller parties take on the big daddies of British politics on a level playing field. But then again, many would have liked to see a three-way debate like last time between David, Ed and Nick.
But remember, the UK hasn't had TV debates for many years. In fact in 2010, the last election heralded the era of the TV debate. The argument seemed to be - that parliamentary form of democracy isn't about the top leader, like it is in presidential style politics. But increasingly, in so many parliamentary democracies, it IS about the top guy and to be honest, a debate makes politics slightly more interesting and watchable for people who otherwise don't really care about it.
Lessons for India? Well, the world's largest democracy can take away a some inspiration from an open LIVE debate like this one. But will be get our own version of a TV debate in 2019? I know a few TV programmes who may be hoping we do.
(Lots more about how each of them performed in the debate soon).
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