Politically, these are depressing times

For the first time in ages, we saw the government do things right. The measures they have taken to revive the economy, the way they did not bow down to Mamta Bannerjee's dictats, the Prime Minister's speech are all things that should have been done much earlier. But then, by now we are used to the Congress doing things that are "too little, too late".

However, the series of scams with no parallel in the country's history, a trademark of Congress regimes, has left little doubt on how they are going to do in the next elections barring a dramatic change in the way this government functions.

Unfortunately, what is the alternative?

The NDA looks like it is in a terrible mess. Nitish Kumar has already given enough indication that his allegiance is up for grabs. Narendra Modi is at once the BJP's biggest asset and its biggest problem. Project him as PM and they will lose out on Nitish and many others as well. Without Modi as PM, there is no one who has the charisma and capability to win a general election. And then there is L K Advani who is still threatening to run for PM.

This leaves us with the horrible prospect of a third, fourth or what-have-you front cobbling up a majority which has no single big party calling the shots and will be about as stable as the joke of a government we had run by the likes of Deve Gowda and others during the period between the Narasimha Rao and the Vajpayee governments.

Unless the Congress shows extraordinary courage and takes some bold decisions which bring the country back on track and acts really tough on the corruption issues dogging the country today and brings to book the culprits (which looks extremely difficult given the people alleged to be involved) or the BJP gets its act together and decides on one leader and projects him or her starting immediately so that the nation respects their leader like it did Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the next general election is going to end in an unmitigated disaster.


Comments

If Modi becomes a PM, its good for INDIA else its just good for Gujarat.

NDA can deal(i say DEAL) to find other set of alliances supporting them for the magic count purpose but losing Modi and his charisma which i think is the only USP for NDA would be a foolish step.

But the tough thing within BJP is the Modi Vs Sushmaswaraj debate.