I was only a by-stander during the recently-held LokSabha elections and had only two predictions. I expected that the ManMohan-led UPA would just about scrape through and if that did not happen regional parties and bosses would hold the trump cards; consequently, the PM would not be from the north.
But, like most previous elections, this poll also had its own surprises and the UPA did well enough to find itself dazed by success. Good. Here is how I look at the outcome.
The people want a learned, decent, efficient and clean PM.
It is excellent that the economist-PM will not have to run a three-legged race with frigid partners (left parties) and will be able to expedite economic policy making.
All the self-appointed king-makers and self-proclaimed candidates to the PM's office have been shown their place-at the bottom.
Maharashtra is getting freed of the cloak and dagger politics of Pawar and the West Bengal political milieu might be liberated from the double-talk of the Left.
I see only one negative signal at the moment--behind Dr. Manmohan Singh the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty is looming very assertively. But that is in the future.
The aftermath was expected to be dull and has not proved me wrong; the PM has gone Shakespearian--forget and forgive, and got together most of the old-gang in the same roles. So the agenda is going to be old-wine in new bottle and we must pull up our socks.
Also , let us not be carried away by the popular interpretation that the age of coalitions is over and the national parties are coming back. Both major national parties have fared well or badly mainly due to strong regional factors and splits or alliances--The MNS in Maharashtra, Praja Rajyam in AP, TMC in WB, the grand(so-called) Yadav-Paswan alliance in UP and Bihar to name the most prominent.
So our job on this blog calls us in a slightly different scenario. Let us start by making an attempt to draft a fresh agenda for the new PM.
