The results are in, and the country has moved on to budget season as the ruling coalition itself moves into damage control mode. This has certainly been an opportune time for the masses to exercise their vote of confidence, or the lack of it, in the policies of the Congress-led UPA II. Thrashed in Punjab, where it was expected to win, and where nobody gave the SAD-BJP alliance a shot at bucking the trend of anti-incumbency. Humiliated in Goa, where the mining scam has brought IIT Bombay-educated Manohar Parikkar back to the CM's post. It eked out a narrow victory in Uttarakhand, where it should have done far better and rode to power with single-handed majority. Finally, to put a punctuation mark on 3 years of floundering policy-making and disastrous in-house management, it came a distant fourth in Uttar Pradesh, a state where it showed signs of recovery in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. In my home constituency of Jhansi, which has elected a current member of the central cabinet convincingly in the last two parliamentary elections, the Congress finished a distant fourth!
While the Congress has been facing a lot of flak over its dismal showing in what has been termed as a semi-final to the 2014 elections, comments of Digvijay Singh & co. notwithstanding, the real dangers of its brand of politics have only just started to surface. Firstly, a rejection of Rahul Gandhi as the future leader of the party should be seen in conjunction with the so-called triumphs of the UPA government that he has been peddling for the last two years. MNREGA is a sloth that is slowly becoming ungovernable, as complaints about middlemen and lack of accountability are piling up. Claims of Aadhaar and direct cash transfers as the anathema to lower-level corruption are all hollow words, until and unless backed up by results on the ground. Of course, the less said about the Congress party's commitment to the Jan Lokpal bill, the better! Secondly, the Congress lost in states where it is not the leading member of its alliance, or does not have an alliance at all. That alone bodes ill for the future of UPA as a progressive entity, as the party becomes more susceptible to exploitation at the hands of regional parties, in order to last its five year term. Who would have thought that after winning a total of 206 seats, the Congress party would be blackmailed by the likes of Mamata Banerjee and shamed by Raja and co. Thirdly, nowhere else is the importance of a commander-in-chief more apparent than the current central government. While Dr. Manmohan Singh has settled into his pantomime routine, excited souls left and right have been chiming in with irresponsible words that harm the government's image more than they help it. Salman Khurshid's remarks about reservation for Muslims in the OBC quota is the most clear example of appeasement to the core. The drama over the hasty adjournment of the Rajya Sabha on the last day of the winter season, in order to save face in a house where the UPA is way short of majority, hasn't been erased from the memory of those who care yet, and there is already a contentious debate on the Rail budget on the anvil.
The opposition clearly left with demonstrable gains from these assembly elections. IF midterm polls were to happen next month, it doesn't take a genius to predict that the UPA would continue to suffer the backlash of 3 years of misrule unless things are expedited to a correction course. The idea that populism can win you elections has clearly failed the Congress in these elections, because this is simply not the 1970's anymore. The voters can see right through the manifesto these days, which would explain why a vote for the Samajwadi Party in UP was more anti-BSP than pro-SP, for it is understood that the element of muscle power is blended into the core of the SP's ideology. Let's hope that the government at least gives it a shot, rather than protect its feathers till it's time to step in front of the country again in 2 years.
PS: Sachin Tendulkar has etched his name into the record books forever, and so has Shakib Al Hasan by the virtue of being the bowler who delivered the historic ball. Here is a look back at what is most likely to be Sachin's finest overseas ODI innings.
