It appears that the countdown to the next Lok Sabha elections has already begun although, technically, they are still a year into the future. Usually, this situation arises when there are about six months left in the life of a Government, when political parties in the fray begin chalking out their poll manifestoes and start focussing on specific issues of governance which they feel will evoke a favourable response among the electorate. That the nation has already entered that pre-poll phase a year before the next Lok Sabha elections implies that the Opposition parties perceive the Government to be in a corner, the expectation being that if elections are held earlier than scheduled, the results could be favourable to them.

Scourge of corruption

What are the specific ingredients of the current political picture which has added a fillip to the Opposition parties in their quest to put the UPA-II Government on the mat? The most important of these is, of course, the resignations of the Union Law and Railway Ministers, both of which are related to the much larger issue of corruption stalking the corridors of power in this country. The Law Minister’s resignation pertains to the issue of a CBI report on Coalgate, ordered to be drawn up by the Supreme Court, being vetted by the Government.

The Opposition has taken up the issue as indicative of the scourge of corruption having penetrated deep into the entrails of the Government, and is using it to ask the people not to vote for the UPA-II dispensation. Politically, this strategy is to be expected, but of course the electorate is well aware of the fact that the CBI is used by whichever party or group is in the seat of power to further its own interest, the inference being that the Opposition is equally responsible for besmirching the CBI’s image.

The Railway Minister’s resignation is linked to an incident where efforts were made to buy a position in the Railway Board in which the nephew of the Minister concerned was directly involved. Here too, the specific malaise of positions being on sale in the Railways, and other Government departments, is as old as the hills, and the Opposition cannot wash its hands off the form of corruption involved here. Admittedly, it is always the Government of the day which draws the flak, but the people know that there are no angels among those who are pointing a finger at it now.

Not a true picture

The third element in the overall political picture which has gone against the UPA-II regime is the Chinese action on the LoC in the Ladakh sector which, though defused now, has had the effect of giving the Government a bad Press, the overall impression being that the Chinese can do whatever they want to with the LoC, whenever they feel like it. This certainly is not a true picture of the state of affairs prevailing on the bleak northern frontier as of now, but it cannot be denied that Manmohan Singh’s generally accommodative dispensation has led to this view gaining currency, just as his entirely normal felicitation of Nawaz Sharif on the latter’s victory in the recent Pakistani elections has been criticised in some quarters.

And, yet, the Congress has blazed a trail of glory in the just-held Karnataka elections where the BJP has been mauled. Will it be too much to suggest that, possibly, the Congress could also want elections to be held earlier than scheduled if, for no other reason than the fact that the BJP’s new mascot needs more time to get his poll-image act together — which should be denied to him?

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