There is no end to analyzing pre poll and for that matter post polls elections in the staes or in the country. Analyses will continue, and sometimes the electorate dubbed as intelligent, sometimes populist, and sometimes anti 'communal', for want of a better word.

M.J. Akbar's lucid analysis in a weekly column surmises on this count. Why did the Congress win in Himachal Pradesh and the BJP in Gujarat? It is not a question of Rashrta he says, the electorate prefers butter to the toting gun, of course it does. Can there be any doubt on that? The common man wants proper living, health, sanitation and education. The common man, in a country, where most of the population lives under the povery line; wants peace, Mr Akbar. So there is no use surmising why Muslims voted more for the BJP than the last elections.

The common man does not go by divides: he goes by peace, and semblance of good governance. He does not want to live in the holocaust of fear. Yes, we are all guilty, whenever we talk of Gujarat; we talk of the Hindu Muslim wrath, of fears of course. Then comes Himachal Pradesh, the noted columnist suggests, that though it is a Hindu state, the Congress have been voted to power, in preference to the BJP, because of the same reason. You govern well you are in, badly, you are out! Yes the Indian electorate is not only intelligent but also shrewd and perspicacious. It is also malleable, prone to the lure of money. The reason again is simple: because it is poverty ridden.

How long will it take for commentators and journalists to realize that poverty is a vicious cycle, ensnaring and entrapping its victims into fallacies, lure and exploitation? Seasoned people, people working in the government offices, in industries have shown the way- be corrupt. So poverty percolates down under, and becomes a way of life. Tell me, will the abjectly poor have any conscience, when the so called educated class flouts it with impunity? Will stealing something or looting a shop have any effect on the pangs of conscience of such people? Yet they are always the reprobates, the guilty. Politicians also should understand this, but forget it; we do not look towards them for an iota of light, or a beacon of hope.

It is time we come down from our high horses and look at the invincible truth. Why there are Maosists, why there are parallel governments, in say some of the states of North East India. Politics, especially that of expediency, is one such matter, but what if warring groups do not consider such politics to be a part of their lives, as they do not consider themselves a part of the angst, that is India? Jammu and Kashmir, and the North East states are very good examples of such alienation from mainstream politics.

Columns and columns will be written by analysts but the fact is that the essence of all problems is poverty, hunger, want of sanitation and health conditions and even education. Elections will be held and will be completed with finesse but unless these are extirpated, the diseases and the malaise afflicting our society will continue.