Vantage point

Manmohan Singh : It all started with Congress sweeping the 2009 polls, emerging as the single largest party and other regional parties queuing up to ally with them for some leftover cabinet berths. The next three years have been the most uneventful years in terms of reforms and growth. He always had the coalition card as an excuse. The focus is still not on the supply side of the economy but on the subsidies and freebies. Agriculture neglected yet again in the five year plans and the numerous budgets. Nor did he push through the neo liberal reforms of FDI. 2G and CWG and madamG news came in between but could'nt shake him or wake him. or I guess madamG put him to sleep. The greatest achievement being renaming NREGA. Then came the Coalgate and the Supreme Court's directive to auction everything; minerals, land and any other resources which can by put under the hammer. Finally came the overseas magazine starring Mr. Singh "The Underachiever". He spoke against the directionless BJP defending the Coalgate which I sincerely believe had been no different if any other government were in power. Now finally he has shown some spine and pushed a couple of reforms the fuel price hike, reduce subsidies and FDIs. But it all seems to be too little too late. All other regional parties have jumped to the occasion and started playing God by demanding a rollback. The only positive I see is Mr. Singh saying "We will not budge, these are positive reforms and non-negotiable. If we go down we go down fighting".

BJP : I could have given the viewpoint from one particular leader but hey its BJP, they have not had a spearhead since the last decade. With 1,024 different PM candidates and hardly any agenda the NDA was further reduced in size in the 2009 elections. Half the campaign time was spent defending Varun Gandhi and his insanely politically stupid remarks. It has spent the next 3 years doing pretty much nothing but just wait for the Congress to blow itself up. A strategy which seemed to be working. The 2G, CWG and what not. Congress managed to do whatever it can, to give BJP a chance to deliver the KO punch. But all the attention had been diverted to Yeddy and his poojas to avert black magic. Now thats a real progressive reform for Karnataka. In came the Coalgate and the stalling of the parliament. The pure desperation of BJP for a mid term poll and their inability to defend their stance. I might be naive, but would'nt the land allocation by Modi to TATA is a similar scam as per Supreme Court's mandate? And BJP opposing FDI is the joke of the century. Can they ring up their allies in Punjab and check whats happening with the Bharati Walmart and how it impacts the supply chain. How difficult is it to understand that cutting out middlemen who offer no value addition but only price addition benefits the producer and the consumer equally. With chances of a mid term poll BJP seems to be at the same place as it was 3 years ago. Unless, it does some serious thinking who knows we might see Mulayam Singh, Didi  or Jayalalitha as the next PM.

Third Front : 2009 Elections. What the hell..! Congress got so many seats. Lets call up SoniaG and hope that we are the first to offer support so that we can get a few cabinet berths. After 3 years the state powers have changed. But a third alliance is still in the making but not distant. With thumping victories in TN, UP, WB and Bihar. The possibility of a third front is very likely. But with so many power centers, its sustainability is an issue. The funny thingfor these regional parties is that they oppose the FDI even though they have a choice not to implement it in their state, which they have declared  they wont. But they threaten to pull down the Govt on it. If they really believe that it is going to harm their people, isnt it politically wise for them to let the Congress implement it in their states. Later they can show their denial as a massive plus for their Govt. given the failure of FDI in Congress ruled states?  Finally, all of them are pretty much clues of whether they are ready for a mid term poll or not. SP though strong in the State might be able to put up the necessary numbers for a Third front in case of a mid term polls. And Mamta.. God knows what she is doing. Half the nation is Communist according to her while she runs a Govt. which dictates that the State is power supreme.

The People : 2009 was a great year for a lot of people. They got their Election bonuses: 500-5k depending on the worth of your right to vote. But 3 years down the lane, after a lot of Govt. bashing we have finally realized that change is inevitable. But I think we should be clear about why we are demanding a change. Its not because of the 2G, CWG, Coalgate. These things have happened in the past and would happen again even if either NDA or 3rdF are in power. The country would need liberal reforms to improve the efficiency of the nation building machinery. Dont forget that BJP had proposed the idea of FDI in the first place. How many LPG does a household need, definitely not 12. And stop believing the crap on FB posts that oil companies make 80000 crores in profits. So, dont be surprised if all these concerns which have popped up like the price hikes dont go away with a change in government. These are pretty much inevitable changes. What we should expect from the new government is the revival of our agriculture sector, manufacturing sector, job creation and better efficient administration to cut down losses and leakages. Thats why we would be voting again. We want a Government which would do something and not wait for things to happen. So dont panic if the next Monsoon session is wasted when the NDA passes the FDI and Congress stalls the parliament. So vote sincerely and be informed about whom you are voting for and why.