By Allabaksh New Delhi (Syndicate Features): Publicity has become an essential survival mechanism of political parties and so they always look for ways to draw attention to themselves especially when they celebrate any ‘anniversary’. It was therefore only to be expected that the fourth anniversary of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government rule provided it an opportunity to blow its own trumpet, all the more necessary as it is almost certain that the next Lok Sabha poll will be held before the next anniversary of the alliance.
The UPA anniversary bash had two important parts from the publicity point of view; one was the release of a ‘report card’ on UPA’s governance and the other was a dinner hosted by the prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, which was more of a political rather than gourmet event as one of the invitees was the Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, a hitherto bitter critic of the Congress, especially its president, Sonia Gandhi.
As was to be expected, the UPA patted itself on the back for doing a good job. The country’s economy has continued its leap despite some odds and lately the disconcerting rise of inflation. Internally, the country has been at peace with no report of any major communal clash. Externally, a mark was made with improved ties with neighbours, particularly Pakistan, and laying the foundations of a strong relationship with the US that has been de-linked with Washington’s older ties with Islamabad. Self-congratulatory notes were more pronounced in hailing the implementation of the ‘aam admi’-oriented CMP, the pride of place being given to the rural employment scheme, hailed as a major milestone of the UPA rule.
There is no need to go into the details of all the claims made by the government. Politicians, whether in power or outside, tend to forget that despite the high decibel levels reached by drum beating, the targeted audience of ‘aam admi’ generally remains sceptical about all the praise that politicians habitually heap on themselves. As far as the man on the street is concerned—the ‘aam admi’—for him the best way to assess a government’s performance is to measure it against the travails in his daily life.
Many ‘experts’ go further and denounce the self-praise of the government in ‘rational’ terms---with facts and figures that sound more impressive to those who have no way of questioning them. The less knowledgeable conclude from the criticism they hear that the publicity drive by the government has been nothing but another instance of wasteful expenditure for which the governments are notorious.
The criticism assumes a somewhat ‘extreme’ form when it comes from the opposition camp, who invariably declare something to the effect that without them at the helm of affairs the country is ‘going to the dogs.’ The opposition parties are, of course, there to flay the government at every available opportunity. There cannot be a democracy without an opposition party. Right now, price rise would appear to be the most ‘tantalising’ topic for any opposition party to beat the government with.
In its eagerness to damn the government, the Bharatiya Janata Party appears to lack clear focus. It does talk about inflation and a host of other issues, hoping that an ever-lengthening charge sheet would be telling in its effect. It could be, but the problem is that much of what the BJP says is liable to be viewed as double talk in the light of its own record in office. Such an unfavourable view can undermine BJP’s heightened hopes at the next round of Lok Sabha polls.
If the BJP attack on the UPA fails to bring the expected results in a year’s time the divinely blessed party has to blame nobody but itself. Despite an uninterrupted series of electoral wins and the boost from Karnataka, few political pundits are predicting a BJP sweep in the next Lok Sabha polls, whenever they are held. At best it can hope to emerge as the single largest party but will find itself quite short of a majority without the support of a bigger NDA. This is a picture that is not fundamentally different from the one that emerged after the 2004 parliamentary polls.
As the lead party in the National Democratic Alliance, the BJP should think why is it that the ‘incompetent’ UPA has looked the more firm of the two national-level alliances. During its six-year rule the NDA had lost more partners than the UPA in the last four years. With the BJP returning to its Hindutva roots, the NDA again faces the prospects of desertions---at a time when it should actually be able to expand itself. On the other hand, after the parting of ways by two of its original allies, TRS and MDMK, the UPA does not expect any major departures .. After ridiculing and vilifying Manmohan Singh, to their heart’s content everyone in the NDA, from the self-styled ‘prime minister in waiting’ L.K. Advani downwards, now ‘dares’ the Congress to name its prime ministerial candidate before the Lok Sabha polls. This strategy looks seriously flawed because Manmohan Singh seems to enjoy a much higher respect among the ordinary Indians than most of his predecessors in the last 20 or 25 years.
The BJP has wrongly assumed that its posers aimed at the prime minister interest the majority of ordinary voters. It is for sure that not everyone who thinks highly of the prime minister will actually vote for him or his party. But then that also does not translate itself into a surge for the BJP.
The BJP is desperate to show that the UPA government has been ‘soft’ on terrorism and seems to suggest that people are demoralised and live in a constant fear of being attacked by terrorists. The BJP is under the illusion that its shrill cries against the government’s ‘soft’ approach on terrorism will erase memories of its own ‘softness’ in tackling terror when it was in power at the Centre.
For most Indians the worst terror attack was the one on parliament—when the ‘Iron Man’ of the BJP was in charge of the country’s internal security. The BJP-led NDA government had also proved to be a ‘sissy’ when it transferred nearly half the armed forces to march towards the Pakistani border but lacked the courage to order them to launch an offensive. The result was an unprecedented status quo at the borders with troops forced into their bunkers for almost a year.
The UPA ‘report card’ is no talisman for riding to power. And it is not sure if the BJP has found the right charm for victory when its campaign often misses the targeted audience or actually boomerangs on itself. (Syndicate Features)
