As elections have gone costlier in India since Independence and as for most of the Indian politicians and their respective parties, it’s all that ‘money matters’. The forthcoming general elections are obviously going to be ‘money, money, money, sweeter than honey’.
Meanwhile, the skyrocketing price hikes of essential commodities have hit hard on the backbone and daily budget of the aam admi (common man) who slogs his or her sweat from the brows for sustenance amid the mad rat race of survival.
For Namita Mohanty (46), a working mother in Odisha, the zeros in her pay cheque are inadequate as they are not in sync with the spiralling price hikes and don’t cater to her domestic daily budget. Soaring and roaring price rise, especially of food items, have played havoc on her monthly household budget.
“Why there is only hue and cry over expensive kitchen staple onion nowIJ Almost everything for daily needs of a common man’s family has gone up the roof and we’re feeling the piquant pinch. Vegetables, groceries, non-veg items, fuel, list is endless, has gone beyond one’s reach. We are bound to curtail our consumptions and go in for austerity measures,” fume a few women. Needless to say, these women have been suffering from untold miseries of Indian middleclass and lower middleclass housewives solely dependent on their husbands’ hard-earned (paltry) monthly salary due to the price hike.
The Congress-led UPA-II may face the impact of inflationary pressure on common man in the coming elections. Scores of mega scams like the 2G, Coalgate and Commonwealth Games to the tune of lakhs of crores of rupees may also affect the poll prospect of the incumbent coalition.
No more ‘third term at the Centre’ appears to be a foregone conclusion for Sonia Gandhi’s grand old party and its loyal allies. For Sikan Sahu, a 19-year-old domestic help from Sundargarh district but working in the national capital Delhi, the big headache is the high price of lPG cylinders.
“It costs my master around Rs 1,400-1,500 now for which we’ve restricted our cooking and just skip re-heating food before meals just to save gas,” he said. It is pertinent to note here that the Sheila Dikshit-led Congress Government in Delhi won’t be the first or the last to suffer owing to rise in food prices.
As per recent country-wide surveys conducted by several noted agencies, ‘inflation and corruption’ are going to be the prime issues at the top of Indian voter’s mind. According to one such survey, while 48 per cent across India wants inflation to be addressed immediately, the figure was much higher -two-thirds- in Tier-2 cities. And, worryingly for Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, the majority of respondents think the BJP is the party that may have the answers to India’s problems, because they have waited too long, but all in vain, to see the Congress party deliver.
Same seems the case with Naveen Patnaik-headed Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha. Despite the launch of several social measures, (tagging its own brand allegedly ‘hijacking’ UPA-II-sponsored schemes and policies), the unprecedented mega mining scam, corruption, mindless industrialisation spree, deteriorating law and order and above all the ‘dominant Babudom’ (sole rule of bureaucracy at the cost of democratically-elected people’s representatives) are the itching issues that may add fuel to the simmering ‘anti-incumbency fire’ of the ruling BJD.
If the apparently divided house of Opposition, mainly the Congress and the BJP, could consolidate themselves respectively, they can give Naveen Patnaik’s BJD a run for its money. It needs to be mentioned here that ‘high inflation’ is leading to changes in State Governments and threatening the stability of the Government at the Centre was a recurring feature through the 1970s and 1980s. And this is not for the first time that the country has had to cope with high inflation for a long period.
Inflation stayed high through 2007 and 2008, but it didn’t trigger the kind of disenchantment that it has done this time. That’s because, this time around, jobs have shrunk and the economy is at its sagging mode. The glaring instance is the Indian rupee unabatedly hitting record low against dollar in spite of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s concerted corrective measures.
The afterglow of the boom times that marked the first term of UPA in power is all but gone. And all of this has happened under the watch of an economist Prime Minister like Dr Manmohan Singh in whom the common man has twice relied upon, but no more in a mood to repose faith for the third tenure as inflation hits the poor the hardest. For the urban poor, the arch issue for the Government is to address promptly inflation.
As per a recent survey, the urban folks amazingly worry less about corruption than their rural counterparts. While 24 per cent of urban respondents said corruption is an issue, the figure was higher (32 per cent) among the rural voters. Across issues and demographics, the people have spoken about which party would address anything from the fight against terror to better job creations. And the majority finds an answer in an alternative of Congress.
“This UPA Government has done no good for the country since it came to power,” said Banamali Baliarsingh, a Management student in Bhubaneswar. He reflects an opinion held by thousands of Indian students.
But for this 22-year-old Management student: “The BJD has done enough good work in Odisha and will do so if back in power after the next election”.
Since ‘anti-incumbency factor’ seems to rule the roost this time in the next general polls and ‘a wave of change’ lurks in the face, the current surveys seem all set to reflect in the poll results.
Nevertheless, like the royal game of cricket, politics too is a game of uncertainties. Given the maturity of the electorate in this era of information and technology, a majority of ignorant rural voters even today falling easy prey to fast buck and enticements and often a fractured mandate, soothsaying and pshephology may go haywire at the eleventh moment in the world’s largest democracy here.
(Dr Rout is a management expert
and a freelance writer)