Even though it is just one year now of the Manmohan Singh’s Government, the Congress party finds itself in a bit of a fix. In 2009 elections the Congress came back with a larger majority and confidently formed the Government in the Centre. But unfortunately due to the coalition era the Congress depends on the Trinamool Congress, the NCP and the DMK mainly.
How well NCP Chief Sharad Pawar has performed as Agriculture Minister everyone now knows. He did not work hard enough to bring prices down, his predictions of more price rise actually got prices up in the market. The economic logic of simple supply side shortages not being able to account for the astronomical rise in prices of basic commodities is seemingly beyond him.
Trinamool Chief Mamata Banerjee is still totally based in Bengal alone. She is preparing for the 2011 Assembly elections rather than attending Cabinet meetings and looking after the Indian Railways. The amount of recurring accidents ever since she has taken over and the need for taking steps of prevention for no more accidents does not seem to matter to her. It is really low on her agenda right now.
Down South DMK’s A. Raja and MK Alagiri, are of course the limits. The loss Mr. Raja caused to the Aam Admi by allocating 2G spectrum at throwaway prices. Mr. Alagiri like Mamata spends more time in Tamil Nadu than Delhi. The most unfortunate fact is that the Prime Minister, critically dependent on his allies, can do precious little to make this errand flock of ministers fall in line. Maybe the voter should learn from this about voting for the parties with a pan-India agenda in parliamentary elections.
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The long delayed women’s reservation bill now looks poised to finally pass through parliament. Having crossed the hurdle of being cleared by the cabinet. The bill has been hanging in limbo in various versions for a decade or more. The Congress party has always insisted that it is serious and passionate about seeing the bill through. But the karma of coalition politics that has dogged Congress Government in previous avatars prevented it from moving forward. But this time it seems that its set to pass. There was of course an attempt during the cabinet meeting by some Congress men to try and suggest that it should go to the Rajya Sabha first but fortunately it was over ruled.
But both Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi are quiet clear that this is a bill whose time has come. Indeed, it has the potential of completely changing the nature and nurture of Indian political life. And women cutting across all party lines see this as a huge victory in a battle that sometimes seemed never to end.
Once passed this Act will seriously affect all parties and the very nature of governance. Whilst the Laloo’s and Mulayam’s will predictably storm out of Parliament during the final debate the real reason is that this Act could severely constrain parties like theirs with an obvious male and caste dominance. They could see seriously poll reversals since their vote banks could get eroded. But in big parties i.e. the Congress and BJP that will have to do the most work. Women in parties, other than inheritors and a few favored otherwise, have had to struggle to get tickets to fight. With this sea change the big parties will have to scramble to get new talent and make them accept the challenge of polls. This will be a whole new ball game for parties with established war horses minding most states that they have hopes of winning.
How all this will play out and who will emerge with an advantage is the new big googly of Indian politics. And this is one where only one thing is certain. Either way, women win and hopefully with that, the polity too.
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