The people, it would seem, have little use these days form national parties. They seem to prefer regional ones like the DMK in Tamil Nadu, the Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh, the Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana or the Shiv Sena is Maharashtra. This is an ominous development. It does not bode well for the future. In a way the blame lies heavily on the Congress which allowed itself to get bogged down by its own 'secular' rhetoric.
Secularism is a much-touted virtue which has by now run out of steam.
It has no appeal. Words like 'fundamentalism', 'fascism', 'communalism' have also lost their shine by overuse. They have become jokes which nobody takes seriously any longer for the simple reason that they have lost all meaning. People these days vote on caste lines, not so much on party lines. Whether one likes it or not tectonic changes have taken place in our political system of which Congress leaders seem sadly unaware of.