Mandate for Stability 2

Once NDA lost the elections, more due to overconfidence and internal bickering, UPA came into power and Dr.Manmohan Singh as a prime minister was a surprise package. People expected a lot from him. Despite his impeccable reform credentials, reforms once again slowed down. Reason? Left Front parties who absolutely lack economic sense and have also failed to realize that leftist ideas are no longer relevant in today's world.Little do they realize that economic reforms are very much essential to alleviate povery, increase per capita and GDP. Reforms by default bring about social engineering. Left front parties whose support was crucial for UPA's survival played the game of arm twisting Dr.Manmohan Singh and eventually paid the price for that in 2009 General Elections. But the resolve within the UPA government to move the reforms forward was also weak. Congress President, Sonia Gandhi often showed sympathy for views of the left parties and intervened on their behalf. That is when the Gentleman in Manmohan Singh came in handy for the government to last 5 years. Because of the fractured mandate, Congress was not in a commanding position to ensure reforms would go through. Internal Opposition can block or substantially slow the reform if the distribution of power is such that the position of the leadership within the coalition is not secure. This was the case of united front government in 1996 and 1998 where congress were supporting from outside, but they themselves were in the pursuit of power. With the left supporting the government from outside, whose support was crucial for the UPA to survive made manmohan singh's position insecure. Including people like T.R.Baalu as transport minister and Arjun Singh as HRD minister was a horrendous mistake. These things happened due to political compulsions. The dream project of every Indian, the golden quadrilateral came to a stand still. World Bank has threatened to withdraw funding from highway projects. 234 out of 515 Central projects are delayed. Arjun Singh, just like his thakur couterpart, V.P.Singh brought about the dreaded reservations in the country's most reputed institutes like the IIM's and IIT's to hide his incompetancy as a HRD minister. No steps were taken to bring about reforms in primary and secondary public schools. They are in shambles and needs serious attention. Reports indicate that total public expenditure from 2004-2009 on education was less than what affluent students spend abroad to access better quality education. At one point of time Dr.Manmohan Singh was so upset that he wanted to quit the post.Only occassion Dr.Manmohan Singh emerged as a strong leader was when he ensured the nuke deal went through inspite of stiff opposition from the left front who eventually withdrew support.

As the presence of regional parties increased, they became arrogant and felt that nothing was possible without them. In these 18years where regional parties have played a key role in the formation of government, Indian electorate has observed the effects it could have on them. Indian electorate is getting younger and more matured. We had the 3rd front, 4th front formations in the pursuit of power. Little did they realize that people had enough of these alternative fronts. They were neither credible nor viable. You had the left on one side saying no one can form a government without their support and they dreamt of forming a government with less than 100 seats .You had Ramvilas paswan on the otherside, part of the 4th front saying " Its Mulayam, Lalu and me who is going to decide the PM and not the Congress". Wasn't that shear arrogance from someone who hardly contributes 5 seats?Eventually he lost the elections. Its a national election where elections are fought on national issues. It did not help the 3rd front as it was an amalgamation of regional parties. The same electorate might vote in favour of regional parties in the assembly elections and they have done in the past. People witnessed Mayawati claiming day in and day out that she would become the prime minister of India and she would drive out the Congress and BJP without realizing the fact that she wasn't a major force outside UP. Only qualification she thought would be enough to be a PM was that she was a "Dalit ki beti". She fought the general election without a manifesto. Moreover people were worried about the criminialization of politics if the 3rd front and 4th front would have power. We have seen how Bihar went from riches to rags under lalu prasad yadav, UP under mulayam and mayawati. They wanted to be regressive, taking us back to 1940's with their policies. People who have not performed and have gone to the elections based on caste have been decimated. I am sure lot of Indians are happy with the way people have voted.

Who benefitted from this? Congress was the only national party other than BJP. Congress had a much bigger presence than bjp in most of the states where the 3rd and 4th front had presence. Eventually you had people voting for the congress as it was the only credible option to give a stable government which was one of the main reasons for the Congress to get such a resounding mandate. Moreover BJP did not communicate to the people of India about the failures of the Manmohan Singh Government. Wait for my next blog on the lapses from the BJP side.

In the past two centuries, the combination of democracy and market capitalism has triumphed over feudalism, monarchy, theocracy, fascism and communism. After communism’s fall, most countries have become capitalist democracies . But people, need more than shopping malls to satisfy their thymos--the human need for spirited achievement, which religion and wars fulfilled in the past.

It may seem odd to say this at a moment that capitalism has been humbled citing the example of the United States, but I still believe that secular, democratic, capitalist India will prevail in the end. Electorate has rejected socialism and central planning as the path to prosperity. Lets hope that Manmohan Singh would give us good governance through proper usage of capitalism and live upto our expectation.