Some years ago, maybe before the heads of PepsiCo and The Coca Cola company sat down and had a really fizzy after better sense prevailed chat,India was subjected to the Cola wars.
Most of it, it must be said, came from the challenger, Pepsi who insisted that there was nothing official about it. Many millions of rupees were spent in attacking each other.
Bemused consumers , initially pleased at the ruckus much like passerbys at a traffic accident, watched on till it all became a bit too much and a bit too little to be of any difference to him or her. They drank any soft drink that suited their palate, regardless of all the exhortation of the manufacturers.
Nowadays we have the Cola Wars in Parliament.
As usual, the dispossessed opposition bereft of elected position raised the questions and suggested that there was everything official about it. They fought about many issues seemingly of deep import to them. They even invaded the waterless well of the House, much to the consternation of the Speaker who looks on in powerless horror like a sheriff in a Wild West town.
Of course once again to the initial delight of the citizenry, this was replayed often on television, aided and abetted by anchors with high voices and low morals
And then we all the common people of India said what has this to do with us?
What has this to do with the important matters of life and livelihood, of macro and micro economics, of creating jobs and bringing in investment, of farmers and their struggling lands, of urban renewal and small industry and of pollution and environment, of drinking water and irrigation, of sanitation and disease control,of education and medical facilities, of the girl child and women empowerment and of so many many things that are more important than cabbages and kings!
We are being held hostage by our own democracy..
Sadly unlike the Cola Wars, we cannot go about drinking sugared, aerated water to appease ourselves. We are thirsty and we need our thirst quenched.
And there is everything official about it!
So It Got Me Thinking 