The indian Politics

For nearly a decade (at least) now, Indian Politics is known for its decision making - or the lack of it. The Government of India just can't make a decision on its own. It has to consult each and every party, and lately, each and every member of such 'parties', which extends its 'support' to the government. Here, 'support' refers to the practice of sticking with the government "only for confidence vote". Otherwise, the government has to abide by every whim of the 'supporting parties'. So with this understanding, Lalu extended support, of course in return for the Railway Ministry. The Left, however, extended support, in return for a full control over the government. As a result, the biggest decision of the government in the past 5 years was to ban 'Da Vinci Code' for a week in India.

It is now more of a trend - if you want something, you just want the govt. to, well, listen to your needs. And to do that, you just have to protest - violence always comes in handy. This was evident from the Gujjar agitation (yeah I am against it ... and any other kind of quota ... for anyone that is). The government anyway, and this is common knowledge, cannot deal with the people with an iron fist. So there you go. You want something - you protest violently. You don't want something - again you protest violently. And the govt. will not curb your agitation. Instead, it will bend again. Of course if it is something good that you want (like lifting the faculty-quota for IITs), the govt., on the advice of some of its 'supporting members/parties', will set up a committee and the usual tale follows.

But then came the 1-2-3 deal. And the Left, known it is for its anti-US propaganda, vehemently opposed it. But this time I think the govt. did a commendable job by going ahead with it, in spite of having to let the Left withdraw its support. The thing is, that it is not just this deal that is of importance. More important is the fact that the govt. has shown that, well, it can take some decisions at least. Some decisions of importance.

There was also a feeling of Déjà vu. It seems that this UPA govt. is in the habit of putting its seats of power in jeopardy - the prime minister's seat in particular. But then again, this time it was different. This time it was for the country, whereas the previous time, when Sonia withdrew from the post, she was afraid. Going by the history, it is clear that she was afraid. There was way too much opposition.

Chalo jo hota hai ache ke liye hi hota hai

Looking forward for some more of such good, strong decisions from the government. And to a slowing inflation of course :)