As the UPA prepares to mark the third birthday of its government today, few seem to be in the mood to celebrate. A DNA analysis.
The UPA will celebrate the third birthday of its government today
NEW DELHI: As the UPA prepares to mark the third birthday of its government today, few seem to be in the mood to celebrate. Morale has struck rock bottom in the directionless spluttering of an experiment that is steadily running out of steam.
There is no tangible reason for the sense of gloom pervading the Congress and its partners except the fear of elections. Although the Lok Sabha polls are two years away, the countdown has started and faith in the UPA’s ability to win is fading rapidly.
The electoral map is discouraging. The DMK’s family troubles are creating havoc in the party. The RJD seems to be on the margins in Bihar, where the JD(U) under Nitish Kumar is growing stronger. The Left has its own set of problems in West Bengal and Kerala. And the Congress is floundering for a slogan that will help it to retain at least what it won in 2004.
Ironically, with the BJP in disarray after its stunning defeat in Uttar Pradesh, the challenge to the UPA does not come from the NDA but from regional parties like the BSP and the TDP, which are on the ascendant and which do not belong to either of the two established alliances. Politics, thus, seems to be moving away from the UPA-NDA bipolar framework into an undefined realm with infinite possibilities.
It is an open-ended game now and the realisation has thrown all parties into a state of flux. As the Congress gropes for a strategy to cope with the new emerging political realities, the government as well as the UPA are grinding to a halt.
Earlier, they said all decisions were on hold till the UP elections. After the astonishing verdict from this politically important state, the Congress seems to have lost the will to take bold measures on both the economic and foreign policy fronts.
Tragically, the government could have taken credit for several reforms, if the Congress had the skills to package its decisions politically.
In three years, it has ensured macro-economic stability, it ushered in the biggest social welfare scheme in the Employment Guarantee Act, it gave people an invaluable tool to make governments accountable through the Right to Information Act, and it has set in motion an ambitious rural development scheme in Bharat Nirman.
But with ministers taking pot shots at their own government for losing sight of the aam aadmi and UPA-Left partners criticising all decisions with boring regularity, Congress workers and voters have ceased to believe in the government.
It’s funny that at exactly the same point in its tenure, the Vajpayee government suddenly seemed invigorated with renewed energy and embarked on a series of path-breaking initiatives like the Indo-Pak peace process. The irony is that the NDA went on to lose the general election because of poor political management. Surely there is a message in this for the Congress and the UPA on its third birthday.
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