The Benefit of Hindsight

May be 'it' is human nature and therefore pervades this globe but I am sure that 'it' is present in large parts of India. This 'it' is the tendency of Indians to pass judgements with the benefit of hindsight. You may do well to remember how people were hell bent upon castigating M S Dhoni over his decision to promote Ravindra Jadeja. Now we all are admiring M S Dhoni for his captaincy in finals of Compaq cup. Virtually every bowling change he made worked (even listless R P Singh got Jayasuriya to cut one straight to Virat Kohli). Not just in cricket but look at any other walk of life. People were critical of the UPA before the elections, criticizing their failures to get partners in UP and Bihar. Rahul Gandhi was said to be too involved in Amethi and not venturing out in other areas of Uttar Pradesh. Now he is being credited with wooing voters from all sections of society. It may well be the case that Rahal was active in other areas or that the candidates won it on their own but no; we will pass our judgement because we have the benefit of hindsight.

Before the elections Advani, Modi and even Varun Gandhi were charismatic. Now, even the BJP holds them responsible for this debacle. The Indian government was a butt of ridicule for going slow on deregulation. Now we see all the virtues in this policy after India escaped the global financial crisis to a large extent. More recently a national newspaper carried an article on 'shifting political wind' in Gujarat. Now that the BJP has done very well in just conclude bypolls I want to look at their analysis.

Hindsight offers us more information to analyze situations but we should be magnanimous enough to acknowledge our shortcomings while passing judgements.