Drought, flu give UPA nightmares

The UPA didn’t face as many crises in its five-year first term as it faces within two months of its second. There’s an outbreak of the H1N1 virus, everybody’s talking about a drought and prices are rising every day. In many ways, this is the government’s worst nightmare, in timing and reach.

Four states, including Maharashtra, will go to the polls in the second week of October and the government fears all three issues will influence voters and dictate election results. Congress president Sonia Gandhi is so alarmed that she is thinking about summoning a working committee meeting for damage control.

Senior functionaries in the government, however, say some matters are beyond human control and the government can’t do  more. “It is a very difficult situation. We are doing everything we can to tackle swine flu, which is much more than what other countries have done, but there is little we can do about the drought,” said a senior minister.

The UPA is particularly concerned about the fallout of price-rise. While senior Congress members say drought is linked to rising prices, they want the government to combat it by releasing food stocks and cracking down on hoarders.” The government must go after hoarders in a big way, and also release generously from its stocks,” said AICC general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi.